Rating: 
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: I just finished Book 1 (Otherland: City of Golden Shadow), and very much enjoyed it. Williams has a way of sharing his characters' inner thoughts without cluttering the story with tedious and repetitive descriptions of their angst - the story is always moving, and yet you always understand why a character is worried, at least as well as the character does. I hope the author can maintain the continuity the story through three more volumes, presumably as thick as volume one (770 pages!) I'll look forward to volume 2, which I hope will be out soon
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This is far from the ordinary science fiction junk that often comes off the presses. While some people who are used to reading the simpliest form of fiction possible (such as the reviewer below me) might not understand some of the deep social issues brought for in this totally enjoyable book. It is a MUST buy for any SF fan
Rating: 
Summary: I found this book to be utter drivel.
Review: OTHERLAND is the first book by Tad Willaims that I have had the misfortune to read. On the other hand, if it is his best, then I shall count myself lucky to have been saved from reading any of his other works. I found the book both boring and disjointed. To give the author his due, howvever, one must marvel at how he was able to fabricate 770 pages of meaningless claptrap
Rating: 
Summary: It just left me hanging...
Review: I HATE IT when individual novels in a series can not stand alone. This book ends right in the middle of what is clearly a larger book -- no thumbs up from me. But I admit, it had me completely involved and I will read the next book, but only after reviews convince me that it actually has an ending
Rating:
Summary: Just amazing
Review: Tad Williams writes the most beautiful stories anywhere. Otherland is just one of his incredible books...they all suck you in, and you wake up a week later staring at the last page, wishing it could keep going forever
Rating:
Summary: One of Williams' best
Review: Truly a superb effort by Tad Williams. A bit slow at the begining as the plot begins to develop, but it kicks itself into a higher gear after 100 pages or so. Can hardly wait for the remainder of the series
Rating:
Summary: the best book ive ever read
Review: this is so good that when i got close to finishing it I started reading slower and less frequently just because i didnt want it to end. the story and the characters became an obsession occupying my thoughts entirely.
read this book you wont regret it
Rating:
Summary: A promising start to a great epic
Review:
I love Tad Williams, I must admit. He is unlike so many fantasy authors these days who tend to get caught up in
traditional Tolkienish yarns that say so very little and one wonders after reading some if there was even a point. I
commend Tad Williams in that he defies the stereotype and
fights back by blending several sub-genres into a monumental
epic work that redefines the line between fantasy, cyberpunk, and historical fiction. In some ways it is too early to gage
how great Otherland will be, but looking at Tad's track
record with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, one can only wait in
gleeful anticipation.
Otherland, City of Golden Shadow is, for me, a combination of
Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, though much more engaging than Snow Crash ever was when it comes to mixing early religious symbolism into a VR cyberworld, Robert A. Heinlien's Number
of the Beast (at least the first part of when they are hopping
merrily between parallel worlds) and Terry Gilliam's film
Brazil in which cloud fantasies compete against an ever so
paranoid if not neurotic, tube scruching, pay for your own
inquistion and let's pretend this is not happening society.
By the way, DAW books (the publisher above) aren't kidding when
they say they are launching a multimedia campaign. Check
out there web site for Tad: http:\\www.tadwilliams.com
Too bad there aren't more publisher's that take the time
to set up such a cool web site for their authors.
Another really cool thing about Tad Williams is that if you
e-mail him about his books, he actually takes the time to
write back. He usually responds in less than a day! To me
any writer that cares enough to hear what his readers have
to say is almost way too cool to be for real, but Tad is.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating!
Review: Honestly, I haven't yet read the whole book (actually only about the first two hundred pages). But so far, so good. The characters are realistic and wonderful, especially Paul and Renie. !Xabbu (I still don't know how to pronounce that, could someone please tell me?) is a great person, kind, compassionate, and a fast learner. New to the ways to of the city, he has much to learn, and it is the privledge of the reader to be there as he does. The author builds the suspense carefully by masterfully splitting the text's chapters from one character to another. The cast is large and numerous. They are spread out all over the globe (and in different time periods). The reading could be hard and daunting, but instead, it is easy and fun, each page telling something important, but never letting on to what the next page might hold, yet dropping enough hints to what it might contain that your mind itches to find out.
If the entire book is as good as the beginning, I and numerous other readers out there are in for some good reading.
I eagerly await book two in the series and the conclusion of this one.
Rating:
Summary: Otherland: Internet gone virtual=>real
Review: Tad Williams has once again created a great story, populated by many interesting and well-thought characters. One of the best part about Otherland, is Tad's ability to show the characters humanity, whether they are good or evil, in peril or relaxing. The book might be a bit confusing at first, since Tad always uses a lot of characters (these take time to introduce). But slowly they become entangled in the same web, even though they are from different parts of the world. I don't know what genre this book is, because it has some science fiction elements but also fantasy elements. A sort of Science fantasy. In "Otherworld" the internet has become a kind of virtual reality, where you walk through arcades, join roleplaying sessions, or whatever you want to do. Without spoiling too much, I can reveal that Otherland is a place in this internet, where this world has become a reality, and you can't just plug out. Some are stuck there. This is also what makes the book so great. There is not just 1 world to describe. Theres a roleplaying world, Alice in Wonderland, France during the 1st World War, and so forth. This is also what makes this a pageturning experince. You do not know what might happen next
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