Prophetic This book completely surprised me. I'm amazed it was written back in 1998, because even 10 years later it remains incredibly prescient and contemporary.
Brilliance smothered in too much padding My title sums it up. When this thing's plot actually bothers to tick over, it is sensational. Unfortunately that's only half (at most) of the nearly 800 pages. The rest of it is re-iterating things already stated, for instance explaining yet AGAIN that Renie is motivated by finding her brother, that her old man is a frustrating person to know, etc etc etc. If you cut out the discussion of Renie's feelings, there's 200 excess pages trimmed right there.
Then there's 'Paul', as wooden and empty a character as I've yet seen in fiction. He's like the parody of an 'everyman'. Far too much space is given to this non-entity as he stumbles blind through the world asking questions. Cut out the question marks after Paul's dialogue tags, and there's another 30 pages trimmed.
Then there are good, readable characters like !Xabbu, who is regretfully saddled to Renie's never-ending chapters (the author for some reason clung to that format of Renie Chapter/other/Renie Chapter/other till the bitter end. Why?? Mix it up, man. No one cares about synchronicity of your structure, it's the CONTENT that matters.) Or there's the kid who plays Thargor (forget his name) -- there's a good character, but I bet you if there were a thousand pages about his feelings, he'd be otherwise.
I really wish the great ideas and setup of this book had a chance to steer the story all the way through. There's a difference between 'epic' and 'padding', and this book has discovered it.
Great Writing filled with Mystery, Suspense, and Wonder City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, Volume 1) is an extremely well written book written for the indulgent, imaginative reader. This book is not for the impatient or action-addicted. Though this book is not devoid of fast paces and action, it mostly goes at its own pace. The book is written to mystify and use imagination as a tool of entertainment.
Tad Williams is a great writer. He uses vivid, powerful descriptions and he never over explains anything. Skeptical readers or impatient readers will not enjoy this book. It is excellent world building, excellent description, and well made, distinct characters. I would recommend this to any reader who is looking for what I previously mentioned.
Loved it! Tad Williams is at his best creating fantasy out of modern reality. Here he creates a virtual world, an internet run amok, that draws the reader in. It seems a very long story at first glance, but it is really a series of tales linked into a common thread. Each story can almost stand on it's on -- this would make a great TV series. As in The War of the Flowers, Williams seems to have a dark view of the future, and he writes well enough to put you in that mood if you forget that it's just a story. This is not a quick read, but it is worth your time.
Chapters slow to a crawl... The book has enough "a-ha!" moments throughout its chapters to keep you trudging through. Unfortunately, this was literally the only book I've ever seen where reading 400 pages yielded about a paragraph of information. The titular "Otherland" isn't even mentioned until after the halfway point of the book.
The book as a whole is just a dense block of text - all mass and no volume.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
