The War of the Flowers

Rating:
Summary: Wasted potential
Review: I feel really sorry about this book. Mr. Williams took an incredibly rich subject of Irish folk-myth and made a second-class Stephen King imitation out of it. The main culprit is the story's protagonist, Theo, who goes through major personal catastrophies (miscarriage of his child, death of his mother) through the first quarter of the book and manages to emerge unchanged, as shallow and immature as ever. Even when he arrives in the fairyland, his reactions to the strange wonderland can be basically summed up as "I don't believe it," "whoa, cool," and, mostly, "I wanna go home." Even the stunnig revealation about his true identity does nothing to change his personality. ("Luke, I'm your father!" "Yeah? So what?") In short, Theo is not a well-developed character. He cluelessly stumbles through the entire book, dazed.
What's next? A story of a pizza-delivery dude vs. Cthulhu? ("A star vampire? Far out, man.")

Rating:
Summary: Very Enjoyable Read
Review: Fantasy has long been one of my favorite genres, ever since I stumbled across Madeline L'Engle as a young child. Over the years, I've leaned more towards the Lynn Flewelling and Mercedes Lackey style of fantasy as opposed to the dungeons and dragons sort. I picked up THE WAR OF THE FLOWERS by Tad Williams recently because his books have been catching my attention for some time, but I'd never taken the time to read one. I'm very glad now that I did.

THE WAR OF THE FLOWERS tells the story of Theo, a thirty year old musician and part-time flower deliveryman. When we meet Theo, his life seems to have come to a dead end. Despite lots of potential, his music career is going nowhere fast, his long time girlfriend Cat has just broken up with him after a tragic miscarriage, and he just found out his mother, with whom he has never been close, is dying of cancer. He moves in with his mother to care for her and after she passes away, he finds a strange letter from a long-lost great uncle among her belongings. The letter leads him to a safety deposit box that contains only a battered copy of what seems to be a fantasy novel begun by his eccentric relative. The book tells of a land called Faerie that doesn't exist on earth, but rather in a sort of alternate magical universe that is linked to the world as Theo knows it.

Little does Theo know that Faerie was not just a figment of his great uncle's imagination, and that he is connected to this strange world in ways he can not even begin to imagine. The rulers of Faerie are the Flower Lords, fairies of the highest class. For the most part, they are a corrupt lot, using and abusing the other "lower" forms of fairies. They are divided into three political factions: The Symbiotes, the most liberal party--they believe that fairies and mortals can coexist; the Excisors, the most conservative party--they believe that mortals must be destroyed into order for Faerie to prosper; and the Coextensives, a kind of middle-of-the-road party. When one of the powerful Excisors sends an evil spirit after Theo, one of the Symbiotes decides to counter their move.

Enter Applecore, a sassy six-inch sprite with attitude to spare. She pops into Theo's kitchen just in time to rescue him from the evil Irrha sent by the Excisors. As Theo tumbles through the gate into Faerie, he finds a land that was nothing like he'd ever imagined, and a land very different from the one his great uncle had described in his book. Much has changed in the intervening years as Faerie has intentionally mirrored mortal society. They live in a strangely modern world powered by magic, which they call science. Theo quickly discovers that everyone seems to think he has an important role to play in the inevitable Flower War, but he just can't understand what it could be.

Williams has created a richly detailed world that I found very original and creative. The plot was somewhat predictable at times, and not quite as original as the world he created, but it was still a very enjoyable read. His characters are especially deep and complicated. You can't help liking Theo, even as you wish he would just grow up. There were some elements of the story that I wished Williams had expanded on, especially the domination and enslavement of the Goblins, but considering his story was already running near 700 pages I can understand why he didn't. Still, maybe he should have broken it into two volumes and explored these potentially interesting stories more fully. I found the ending very satisfying, but he left enough loose ends to justify a sequel, which I for one, would love to see.

Rating:
Summary: Unworthy of Williams
Review: I bought this book because it was Williams .
The Dragonbone Chair belongs to the best fantasy along with Martin and Donaldson .
His last , more SF kind story with an interaction between the real and the virtual world is not bad even though weaker that the Dragonbone Chair .

But what to say about this one "Faeria" ?

A kind of looser guy hops in a parallel fantasy world .
OK , I have seen that with Donaldson and infinitely better .

There is a vilain plotting to take over .
Well there mostly is .

He can't reach his target without capturing the looser guy .
Well nobody's perfect .

The looser guy doesn't want to be captured and runs .
Wouldn't you ?

And then he runs and runs and runs and runs untill he runs in the vilain .
While running it gives the author the opportunity to describe a world that is actually more boring than original .
Let's forget the characters - not much depth there either .

Finally the vilain makes several really stupid mistakes and fails seconds before reaching the target .
And the reader drops disgusted the book because Williams has failed too .

Rating:
Summary: Response to Objections
Review: I thought this was the best novel I'd read in years, significantly better than the author's previous major work(Otherland). Thus, I was surprised to see a number of quite negative reviews here, and I'd like to respond to them.

I suspect that most people disappointed by this book were those who bought it expecting a lighthearted and magical, or heroic and adventurous tale about someone in a modern fantasy world, eg, Harry Potter.

What you have to understand is that Tad Williams does not go for cheap excitement in his books (at least not in his better ones). His characters aren't fantasy style heroes who boldly beat up the bad guys to save the day, they come across as real people with real hopes, fears, and flaws. If you can picture yourself in the situations the main character faces in the book, chances are, you'd be experiencing a very similar range of emotions, and the author does an incredible job of drawing you into them. Don't expect happy-go-lucky action or cheesy magical wonders.

The other thing about this book is that it is quite dark in places - at least for a tale about a magical alternate reality. Also, the really fascinating part of the book for me was the intricate stuff going on in the background in the plot. The overall plot itself, as others have pointed out, isn't wildly creative, it's what's going on behind the scenes and how events are executed that makes this book great, in my mind.

Anyway, it really depends on what you're looking for. This isn't a light read, and you don't get cheap thrills. But it is thought provoking, the characters are beautifully done, and it's a lot of fun if you get into it.

Rating:
Summary: Rich idea, thin execution
Review: Tad, I love your work... but not this one.

Perhaps hampered by the one-volume format, Williams does not come through as well in this novel as he has in other books (although _Tailchaser's Song_ was tighter than this was). The characters are just not as rich, and the plot seemed somehow rushed, especially as we near the end. Theo's "state-the-obvious" inner monologue throughout the book was a tedious condescension to thinking readers who already know that such stories hinge on the education and development of the naive main character, and don't need to be led through it by the hand. I would have preferred more show, less tell.

That said, I loved Williams' conception of Faerie, and gave him a bonus star just for that. He has a talent for creating interesting world-concepts that build on a strong sense of internal logic (the "news bulletin" chapter headings in _Otherland_ are, for me, the most evocative parts of the series). If we could have spent more time with Theo discovering Faerie and developing his relationship with it (and less time having others knock a perceptually-challenged Theo over the head with important details) we might have required less straight exposition that made for more expedient but definitely lacklustre storytelling.

Much less absorbing or convincing than the _Memory, Sorry and Thorn_ series.

Rating:
Summary: A Multi-Layerd Tour de Force
Review: Like it's unwilling anti-hero, Theo Vilmos (ah, yes, I do believe that is Tad Williams!)I entered this version of faery very reluctantly. Known for his detailing in world-building in his work, this time I was uneasy with it... I like my Faeryland vague, and this was at first like being taken on a tour of Faery where your guide is a Virgo and man, you get ALL the details! However, having now finished the whole book in a great slurp like Dolly the ogre might eat five gallons of ice cream, I now feel I was being taken on a similar ride with Theo. The too-much-strange-here feeling is what he was experiencing too, and Williams gives us that experience.
As the story goes on, Williams really surprised me with a couple of one-two punches in plot development that made me read the last half of the book in a state of real anticipation. Characters are ones (however strange their outer forms) that will stay with you for a long time.
I personally did not find his concept of faery sterotypical at all, and some of the social and political upheavals there were unsettling in that they mirrored some of the worst of mortal culture. I felt the ending was very satisfying to me, not without loss, but certainly leaving the reader with a sense of joy and hope for the future for the denizens of the Realm. And maybe... dare we think, maybe another book about the rebuilding of that culture and healing of that place? Either way, this is a great read, and a unique look at Faery.

Rating:
Summary: Epic!
Review: This being the first Tad Williams novel I've ever read, I was very excited to delve in! "War of the Flowers" is epic fantasy, spanning multi-dimensional worlds. Intricately plotted and exceptionally well-written, the only quibble (which is NOT one of those furry things from "Star Trek"...) I have with this book is that the plot was predictable. In spite of that, the story was adventuresome, exciting, and held my interest throughout the nearly 700 pages. I have heartily recommended this to my friends and co-workers...and now you!

Rating:
Summary: Not original and not as entertaining as I'd hoped...
Review: I picked this book up along with Watt-Evans's _Dragon Weather_ for a recent vacation. The other book was captivating, this one wasn't.

For starters, this book felt a lot like a retread of other, better, novels. Another reviewer mentioned _War for the Oaks_, which is the one I immediately thought of as well. That's a much better book. But the parallels aren't that exact. Williams has done a couple of semi-original things here and I did end up reading the whole thing after reaching a point early on where I didn't want to read it. The sense of wonder about traveling to a sort of modernized fairyland is sorely missing, but the story does move right along. The ending is terrible--Williams gets his hero out of a difficult jam while he (and we the readers) are unconcious. Arg!

One last note: the hero in this book is a numbskull, which I find rather tedious.

This is an okay read, but not Williams's best work.

Rating:
Summary: Once Again...Fantastic!
Review: A friend of mine introduced me to Tad Williams a few years ago by giving me book one of the "Otherland" series. I was instantly hooked. I devoured that series, and the "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn" trilogy as well. I was, and still am, amazed at the amount of detail Tad puts into his writing. He doesn't just paint a picture for you, he immerses you in the world he has created.

This book holds true to Tad's discriptive and colorful writing style, though not nearly to the extent of most of his previous works, largely, I'm sure, due to the fact that it is just one book, as opposed to 3-4. The main character, Theo Vilmos, is fleshed out fairly well, though some of the other key and secondary characters aren't developed quite to the extent they were in other of Tad's books.

I was mildly disappointed in the ending. As usual with Tad, the climax of the book involved wide sweeping, chatostrophic changes to the world he's created. The ending of this book didn't satisfy my curiosity about what happened to the world and the characters in the aftermath. It seemed too quick and vague, though this alone does little to detract from the quality of the book.

Many people complain that Tad Williams is too long winded, his books too wordy. Granted, it would probably be possibly to tell the stories alone in half the number of pages. But the amount of detail he puts in, the way that you can envision EXACTLY what he is writing about, is what makes Tad so very entertaining to read. I recommend this, and all of his books. Don't let their size scare you, it is SO well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Goodbye nobody
Review: How the mighty has fallen! After Otherland we have this lukewarm
Tad Williams whit a whiny, self-pitying loser who's also one of the most unlucky charachter in literature. He's called in Fairyland, where all he does is stumble and whine and make an utter fool of himself when a pixie comments on his obtuseness and slowness in ubderstanding situations. The Fairyland is a stereotype whit nothing that hasn't been seen a thousand times, and the only seemingly original idea (the Goblin Revolt) seems borrowed from Harry Potter's series. An utter disappointment. Goodnight nobody,indeed!