Product Description

In our own near future, a global conspiracy at the highest levels threatens to sacrifice our Earth for the promise of a far more exclusive place - Otherland, a universe where any fantasy can be made real, but which is ruled by Earth's wealthiest and most ruthless power brokers, the Grail Brotherhood. Otherland, surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have laboured to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource - its children. Only a few have become aware of the danger. Fewer still are willing or able to take up the challenge of this perilous and seductive realm. But every age has its heroes; unusual times call for unusual champions and destiny awaits them in Otherland.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82968 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 954 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Review
'True speculative grandeur' - TIME OUT 'The ultimate virtual-reality saga, borrowing motifs from cyberpunk, mythology and world history' - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 'On an epic scale . . . a big colourful new novel full of real-world conspiracy and virtual reality wonders, with characters worth caring about' - LOCUS 'One of the best works of science fiction I've ever read' - KATHARINE KERR

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
`The ultimate virtualreality saga, borrowing motifs from cyberpunk, mythology and world history'

Customer Reviews

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!