Rick Cook

Rick Cook, born James Richard Cook in 1944, was an American science fiction and fantasy author who died in January 2022. Active primarily from the late 1980s through the 1990s and published largely by Baen Books, he was best known for the Wizardry series (Wizard's Bane, The Wizardry Compiled, The Wizardry Cursed, The Wizardry Consulted, The Wizardry Quested), a comic fantasy following a computer programmer transported into a world where magic works like code, who begins 'programming' spells to solve problems—an early and influential entry in the science-fantasy hybrid subgenre. He also wrote the standalone novels Limbo System and Mall Purchase Night. A member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Cook combined a programmer's sensibility with old-school fantasy adventure across his work.