Rating: 
Summary: Warning- This book is very, very BAD!
Review: I loved Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (I am currently reading it for the third time), which made me very excited to see that Tad Williams had wrote another series. Unfortunately, City of Golden Shadows was awful. It was one of the most boring books I have every read and I will definitely not be reading the sequels. I felt no connection to the characters and even started to hope for their demise just so the book would end. Which is a shame because I think the development of characters was Williams' strength in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. I cannot understand how so many people wrote such good reviews of this book, do they not know what a good book is? Although it is definitely, more science and computer oriented then I like, which may account for why I hated the book and others really loved it. I would recommend not reading this book, actually I would recommend reading my statistics textbook before reading Otherland.
Rating: 
Summary: What?
Review: 770 pages? Yeah right. See, for unliterary types like me, any book more than 200 pages is a nightmare. I've been forced lately to read these blasted Wheel of Time novels. Still struggling (i.e. sleeping) thru the boring Shadow Rising. My friend assured me Shadow Rising was the greatest book ever written. But I couldn't make it past the halfway point it was so stupid. I was about to give up reading these nonsense fantasyfiction books. My friend had also mentioned Otherland was a good book, and since I thought "What the hell, I'll blow some cash on it and give reading fiction one last chance", I bought this book. Well, within 4 days I read it. INCREDIBLE, let me tell you. It's not perfect, but any book that holds my attention that well deserves 5 stars! Well written and imaginative, unlike Jordans im-the-best-writer-in-the-world-so-im-allowed-to-be-boring-bla-bla-bla books, and still leaving me in suspense even after the book is done. I desperately want the second book but all the local bookstores are sold out (?) so, amazon.com to the rescue! ;) One thing you may want to be warned about: this book is so good, you *must* have the second one on hand after you're finished the first. The ending isn't really an ending... it's more like: "oops we ran out of space, stay tuned for the next book"
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Books Ever!
Review: This has been the first Tad Williams book I've read and I thought it was delicosly wonderful!It made me cry when the charecters cried, happy when they were happy, and it was a very well interwined plot, with bountiful descriptions and wonderful imagery. You can ENVISION his cities, the fantasy worlds in the computers you can SEE it and SMELL and FEEL it and it takes you out of reality when you read it and it sucks you in and urges you to read more and more. This is one of the absoulte best books I've read!
Rating:
Summary: Oh. My. GOD.
Review: So you watched the Matrix and loved it. Thought it was a great statement about reality and our place (or no place) in it. Loved how it made reference to many other works (of fiction, film, theory) and proud that you were even able to pick them out. Well hold on to your leather boots, spanky, 'cause you're about to blow your own mind. Tad William's Otherlands series, of which The City Of Golden Shadow is the first installment, is everything The Matrix pretends to be. Without the mindless violence. With a great deal more subtlety and poeticism. To say anything more would be useless because it has to be reveled in to be appreciated. Now move along, you've got a book to read.
Rating:
Summary: This is a FAT book!
Review: When I first bought the book, I didn't have the slightest idea of what it was about. It was the first time I judged a book by it's cover. When I started to read the foward I was intrigued, for one thing book's back cover said it was a Si-Fi novel, but the foward described a fantasy like castle. When I reached the middle of the book I finnaly got some answers. All in all it is a well writen book, and makes you think twice about the internet it's power. One thing I would recomend to do is to by both the first and second volumes of this seires, because the end leaves the reader in a little suspence.
Rating:
Summary: Sci-Fi Fantasy hybrid masterpiece
Review: With Otherland, Williams has truly created an amazing world. Set sometime in the next century where the internet has merged with virtual reality, people have formed true virtual communities and worlds. But for some reason children are slipping into comas all over the world, and it's being caused by something on the net. This is where our heroes come into play, trying to figure out what the cause of all this is. This first book, as with Williams' other series starter The Dragonbone Chair, is a bit of a slow starter. But once it gets going you are sucked into this world where anything can happen. In just this one book, Williams takes you on a journey through World War I, Alice's Through the Looking Glass land, a castle in the clouds reminiscent of Jack and the Beanstalk, a 19th century Mars, a Medieval land of wizards and warriors, ancient Egypt, and even a demonic night club. The plot is classic Williams, with an endless list of seemingly unrelated threads coming together. Despite this, you never feel lost. The characters in the book are especially refreshing. These are not your standard heroes, and they are not from the standard hero producing real world settings. There is Renie Sulaweyo, a black woman from South Africa, !Xabbu, a small Bushman, Orlando Gardiner, a crippled and chronically ill American teenager, and Paul Jonas, who is in the fantasy land and doesn't remember how he got there. Whether you like Fantasy, Science Fiction, or really any genre, this is definitely a must read. And the next one is even better!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Interesting
Review: I'm not quite sure why I picked this book up as I usually don't read futuristic scifi type novels, but I found the story to be intriguing. Although the book does follow the stereotypical good vs. evil plotline, I found the characters to be well developed and likable. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the virtual reality net of the future. The way in which Williams includes a news excerpt at the beginning of each chapter is also a nice touch. It conveniently allows the reader to get a feel for the world in which his story takes place without him having to work such descriptions into the storyline. Overall, a very interesting book.
Rating: 
Summary: What is this book about?
Review: It would have been better if Tad Williams had written three books instead of one. The beginning is very confusing and the only thing you understand is that there might come some criticism of possible developemnts of the internet. Perhaps this was the intention. But there is no depth, there is no sincere discussion of the dangers of the net. Then there are too many people and too many motivations and there is no ending. Even when there is a sequel, there should be a kind of solution, or at least a first relaxation after such a quest. But there is not. Then there are too many genres mixed in this novel. There is a bit of Slaughterhouse 5, there is a bit of science fiction (the novel is definitely not sf!), there is a bit of a mainstream novel (with some thin social criticism), and yes, there is Frodo looking round the corner, and among other ingredients there is a pinch of Conan, too. Oh, and there is also the noble savage with the old mirror that is supposed to reflect our wicked civilization. I admit, in the process of reading this story (these stories) I got a little more interested and I did not lay the book down. I have bought the second book as well, but it will take a long time before I can make me read it.
Rating:
Summary: SHEER PERFECTION!
Review: Otherland is easily one of the most complex, entertaining, intruiging, and brilliant books that I've ever read! Tad Williams has created a true masterpiece! Otherland is about people in the future (date not mentioned) that each use the net, which is a virtual reality version of the internet, only with much more sophistication; and that means that it is quite similair to our world. There are malls, clubs, and other programs that are built off of nodes. When when something happens to Renie's brother after a net experience that she can't figure out, she takes matters into her own hands. What she finds brings herself and everyone around into danger, and with this trouble, somebody sends her a picture of a giant and stunning mysterious golden city... Now that is just of the main storyline, there are other people who see this city, or are even involved with it. If this very bad synopsis makes you think twice about the book, don't! That would be a HUGE mistake! This book is SO good that a synopsis is a definite CRIME! Many people have been saying in their reviews that the book is too long...hosh-posh, I read it in under a week! After the first 50-75 pages, you'll be brought into the story and won't want to leave... Tad Williams has a precious talent, and this book proves it very much! This is now one of my absolute favorites...but if you're not ready to read about four large books to finish the story...don't start, because you won't be able to stop! This is the best science fiction book on the shelves; it's fast-paced, intruiging and interesting, and no matter what people say, you'll never be able to guess what's going to happen next! You'll be inquiring throughout it! An absolute masterpiece! For anyone who loves any awesome, wonderful, extraordinary, marvelous, astonishing, amazing, remarkable, astounding and complex science fiction story! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Good ideas but very very overstreched threads - unfinished
Review: I wouldn't read the book again. The base idea is very promising but then the story won't go on. There are so much insertions that have hardly (very hardly) to do with the story. The caracters are plain; do not evole at all. The fact that people could be easely protected when going to cyberspace (use a filter or other technic-stuff) weakened the story. After the disappointing middle of the book I decided to read it to the end to see what it is all about. But from the begin to the end there are uncatchable, dark, mysterious, frightening things, repeated again and again and only revealed a little. But the book has no end. You have to buy the second if you want to know what it's all about. The book-series that I know solve and end the story and spin a new thread based on the one before, but not THAT book. THE STORY IS NOT FINISHED. Last but not least there is a reviewers note on the paper-back from one that worked on the book, very neutral. I recognize all the positive reviews, nevertheless, I do not agree.
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