# Can anyone identify this book?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 5, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762 "2005-04-05T01:54:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762/1 "2005-04-05T01:54:37Z")
Vague recollection of a book I glanced at in a used bookstore, and have regretted not buying:
Science and magic are at war. Science is losing. As a last ditch effort, the scientists manage to smuggle a bug into a wizard’s conclave and eavesdrop as the wizards discuss their magic. Using this information, the scientists repeat the magicians spells, codify their findings, and are able to organize magic into a rational system, verifiable by expirement. Magic therefore becomes scientific, and science wins by default.
Ring any bells?
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762/2 "2005-04-05T03:07:15Z")
Interesting! Was it a full novel, or like a short story in an anthology?
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### Author:  [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762/3 "2005-04-05T03:25:32Z")
Sounds like something Larry Niven might have written.
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762/4 "2005-04-05T03:35:02Z")
Your description reminds me of Randall Garrett’s “Lord Darcy” stories, set in an alternate universe in which magic has become a science. There’s some info and a list of the stories [here](http://www.answers.com/topic/lord-darcy).
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### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762/5 "2005-04-05T04:31:50Z")
No, it is definitely not anything from the Lord Darcy series. Those are all mysteries set in a universe where the laws of magic are codified. No war with science involved at all.
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### Author:  [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762/6 "2005-04-05T15:35:09Z")
Might the ‘bug’ have been hidden in the eye of a unicorn?
If so, that would be _Siege of Wonder_ by **Mark S. Geston** , published by DAW in 1977…
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-book/297762/7 "2005-04-05T23:30:13Z")
That’s It! Amazing. Thanks!
Wow. Never thought anyone would know that…