Williams Tad W Books : Otherland: River of Blue Fire Bk.2

Otherland: River of Blue Fire Bk.2

£2.24


Tad Williams made his name in fantasy with the immense Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy (1988-93). His Otherland quartet, opening with City of Golden Shadow (1996), is mid-21st-century SF set in an ultra-sophisticated software universe containing countless worlds. This episode features a deadly nature reserve of giant insects, a poisoned Oz, a madcap cartoon reality, London as in The War of the Worlds, 16th-century Venice, Xanadu, ancient Egypt, the Odyssey s Ithaca and the Drones Club. Otherland is the playground of the monstrously rich and unscrupulous Grail Brotherhood, who hope for on-line immortality and are abducting children s souls into their VR system. Opposing them is the enigmatic Circle, plus a handful of ordinary folk who ve penetrated Otherland and are trapped there, floating from world to world on the digital river of the title. There s a spy in this group, though, Otherland s operating system is becoming unstable, the Nemesis program that hunts down software anomalies seems murderously out of control... Williams writes fluently and evocatively, conjuring up a vivid succession of virtual realities as he manipulates numerous storylines inside and outside Otherland, climaxing with multiple cliffhangers. It s slightly frustrating, though, that halfway through the series we ve learned little more--especially about the tantalizing suggestion that Otherland is a metaphysical threat to real reality--than emerged in book 1. Next volume: Mountain of Black Glass. --David Langford

Exceptional SciFi/Fantasy hybrid - Modern Fantasy, and I do classify this as Fantasy more than Science Fiction, is mostly, with some notable exceptions, truly appalling: derivative, badly plotted, dreadfully under-realised and under-developed characters. The list of such writers who should never have been allowed near a pen/typewriter/computer is huge and I will not elaborate here. However every so often Constant readers such as myself come across genuine gems among the dross. These modern Fantasy writers (let s not worry about Tolkein who invented the modern genre and is possibly more stolen from than any author in history by the afore-mentioned hacks) include George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Lois MacMaster Bujold, Neil Gaiman and our current focus, Tad Williams.Tad Williams first major outing (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn) was well written and had some good ideas but was a bit sub-Tolkein for my taste. But this story (as the four books are a single story not a tetrology), constitutes one of the most original, ambitious and extraordinary pieces of storytelling it has been my pleasure to delight in over the past few years. I shall not try to summarize the plot or characters but I guarantee that there are characters here that you will not have met before and plot structures abound that will have you reeling and wondering how it was done. Astoundingly for a story this long, and for me this only applies to Lord of the Rings, The Gormenghast Books and The Song of Ice and Fire (so far) from the Fantasy genre, this cycle is also eminently re-readable and rewards repeated forays into its multiplicity of worlds. If you enjoy quality Fantasy writing, this is definitely one to try - oh, and the little news clips at the start of each chapter had me laughing out loud.

Excellent! - I started reading this book after it being recommended by my Dad, he s not one for reading, but couldn t put this book down. I found the book hard to get into initially, but when the Mister Jingle s funhouse was introduced, it really began to pick up. The plot is very well thought out and superbly written, there are several different storylines running at the same time with numerous characters, and not once did I get confused or forget what was happening to any of the characters, although I would have liked to have read more about Paul initially, however there is plenty more of him in the later chapters. Tad Williams is a very talented storyteller and was consistently so throughout the Otherland series. It is a four-part story however, so the books do end with no wrap-up, which only made me all the more eager to begin the next volume. You don t necessarily need to be a lover of science-fiction/fantasy, as none of the volumes are absolutely saturated with either. If you re stuck for a present to buy a book-lover (or yourself), then buy this one.

Otherland: Volume I - City of Golden Shadow - City of Golden Shadow, the first volume of Otherland, is a masterpiece - assuming that you can easily handle the fact that you ll need to buy the other three books and aren t phased about having to read large novels. Tad Williams takes a good, well used plot idea (a small Good vs a large Evil), adds in several seemingly unconnected and capaviting sub-plots, twists the idea on its head, and somehow weaves them together into a massive behemoth of a storyline.This book was recommended to me by a good friend, and as a science fiction / fantasy fan I didn t hesitate in buying it. I read through the first few hundred pages without too much bother, but something snagged at me - while all the storylines were interesting and all happening at the same time, they were unconnected. It was like Die Hard and Rush Hour happening at the same time, both good films yet neither of them affected each other. They I hit a plot where two of the storylines interacted with each other, and although the encounter was brief, it made me rush through the rest of the novel. In the following chapter, another two of the storylines collided. I regret reading the book so fast now, with no other books in reserve.If you aren t discouraged by having to read five hundred pages before the main trigger of the storyline begins then this is for you, and you will find the rewards bountiful. If you like modern day, sci-fi, or fantasy novels, then the Otherland series will satisfy any and all of these urges.

Interesting, but desperately in need of editing - I have slogged through the series and can t really recommend it unless you speed-read, otherwise you ll get bogged down.Good ideas, some good characters, but so awfully, terribly, excessively long!

Nearly there.... - The concluding part of the Otherland story is great. My only reservation is that as a series I feel like it moved a bit slowly and could really have covered the same ground in a bit less space. Perhaps 3 books. Apart from that, the depth of imagination that goes into this story is incredible, I definitly reccommend anyone to this book (after reading the other 3 first of course) as long as you have a little patience to get you through the slow bits.



Otherland: River of Blue Fire Bk.2