City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, Volume 1)

Rating:
Summary: A virtual reality adventure in an authentic near-future
Review: Reminescent of the hallucinatory brilliance of William Gibson's cyberspace or Neal Stephenson's computer world, this latest by Tad Williams has an authenticity that rings true throughout the book. The language has the right feel to it and captures the mood well. The book itself is a sometimes nightmarish exploration of the borderland between reality and dreams in a world of virtual reality. Renie and !Xabbu are South Africans, one of Xhosa/Zulu descent, the other a Bushman, and together are some of the more interesting protagonists I've come across in a long time, avoiding the two-dimensional cliches so prevalent in most near-future and cyberpunk fiction today. Their experiences, as they are drawn into a world-spanning conspiracy, have the feeling of being right on our doorstep or merely awaiting hte next technological advance. If you're looking for an excellent book that combines accurate technology, an believable setting, intelligent characters and an exciting plot, you'd be hard-pressed to find a book better than this one.

Rating:
Summary: A bunch of lazies, you!
Review: Having just come off reading Atlas Shrugged, I was due for a short read, but my friend basically forced me to read this. He had just finished book four, and I couldn't go a day without him talking about it. So, hesitantly, I borrowed book one.

Given, I have a lot of free time, and spend most of that free time reading, I can see how your "casual" reader may feel a bit overwhelmed, but after reading the first few chapters I didn't mind. It's nothing hard to read or understand and is a pretty compelling story. It's not hard to breeze through over a hundred pages in one sitting.

Williams has put together not one, but hundreds of worlds each with interesting characters, be they real, or puppets. Many people have said, "I couldn't even make it through the first half of the book!" and that is their downfall. Once you get through the background story, which I didn't find boring, but others have, it would seem, the book just gets better and better, each little twist bringing up another mystery.

Now coming to the end of the last book, which I haven't quite finished yet, I feel privalaged that so much time was spent creating this series. Someone said, that if an auther can't tell the whole story in 800 pages it means he's a bad author, and yet look at some of the best loved fantasy authors. How many pages has Salvatore written about Drizzt Do'Urden? He's on what, book 19 now? Rounding down to 200 pages, which is a pretty low estimate, that's still nearly 4000 pages.

Don't judge a book by it's cover. If you're too lazy to read a book of this size, don't blame the author, blame yourself for your short attention span. Overall, the thought that went into this book shines through, regardless of the thick lining.

Rating:
Summary: Think of all those trees....
Review: Picking up this book should have been the first hint when I decdied to buy it. The binding is two freakin' inches. But no, I decided I didn't care about length, after finishing a few Terry Goodkind books, an 800-page book just doesn't matter.

Boy, was I wrong. I tried, I really tried to read it. I gave it a valient effort, but I just died in the process and trying to read this book nearly killed my interest in fantasy epics (my only saving grace was the prospect of reading Song of Fire and Ice). I only got 350pgs into it. NOTH-ING HAPPENS. Nothing, end of story. Yes I know it had great description and the characters are deep and blah, blah. But honestly don't waste your precious life trying to read something that needs 500 pgs or so to get into the real plot line.

I recommend Robin Hobb's works, but that's just me :)

Rating:
Summary: A rare book that improves after you've read it
Review: I read this book and aside from finding bits interesting that it was set in Africa which is quite foreign to my knowledge having not traveled outside the US I found it quite mediocre.
Then a week later I found I continued thinking back about the ways the net was represented in this book and have since continued finding similarities and wondering what it all meant. The Otherland seems to be drawing me back more now that I have finished it than it did at the time I was reading it.
Because this book is obviously more thought provoking than I realized at the time I must give it 4 stars and I'm now looking forward to reading the next book in the series even though while I was reading the first I put it for sale (lucky for me it didn't sale).
I hope this book has the same thought provoking result once you finish reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Obesity Problem
Review: I just finished reading this book and it was painful. I am not sure if I will continue reading the series or not.

Pros:

1. I love that the heroine is from South Africa. Many of the more famous cyberpunk novels embrace the international flava, and I like it.

2. His writing is fine, even decent for a sci-fi/fantasy book.

3. Some of the characters, like Orlando and Dread, are cool and are probably the only meaningful hooks in the book. The plot sure isn't.

Cons:

1. 600 pages too long. The length is nothing short of pompous.

2. Awful pacing. Related to Con #1, the pacing of this book is simply painful. Just when one chapter gets interesting, Williams ends it and the reader has to read the chapters of 2-3 other characters before that chapter picks up again. Ugh.

All in all, this book epitomizes what I hate about most generic sci-fi/fantasy. I _love_ sci-fi and fantasy but aside from George R.R. Martin and a nostalgic love for the old Dragonlance books, I no longer feel I can trust any author who can't tell a story with one book.

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: As of this writing I just finished "City of GOlden Shadow" and have not moved on to the other books in the series (although I have volume to sitting next to me waiting for a chance!)...

In one of my writing classes in highschool we would write things, then have in class critiques. To start off the critique we would have to come up with good, positive things to say about the piece in question. Only after positives were mentioned could we move on to the negative aspects and the things about the writing that should be worked on.

For "City of Golden Shadow" there are numberous positive aspects. The writing does a good job of offering the reader a mental picture of the enviroments the characters are in. Which is great because there are a great variety of different settings, both real and simulated.

The characters are believable and feel genuine. Williams paints each one so that their actions reflect them without feeling like they are doing anything a real person like them wouldn't. There is an aspect of "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, insofar as we have kids put in adult situations in simulations (though in a different context, so the relational dynamics are decidedly different).

There are negatives. The one that stands out above the others is how long the book is compared to how far the plot advances. It seems the only thing keeping the book moving is the interesting characters and the novelty of the delemas. This is definately not a book for the plot-driven reader. People who enjoy books that focus more on the characters (ala Martha Grimes) will not care about this factor as much.

My biggest complaint with the book is that Williams chose the wrong character to be the driving force behind the plot. Orlando (Thargor) is the most sympathetic and interesting character and would have made a much more facinating study than Renie and her friend, !Xabbu. While Renie's struggles with her brother in a coma and her father who's given up on life have their emotional pull, it's also very cliche and we've read hundreds of books with the exact same delema (though, a decidedly different ways of solving it!). Orlando, on the other hand, has crafted his own identity online where he can be the strong hero he wants to be... instead of the sick kid isolated in a rich neighborhood. Williams paints Orlando's character much better than he does Renie, despite making her the lead.

One suggestion for possible future printings would be to place under each chapter heading the character that chapter focuses on. Too often the chapter starts out and it takes a page or two until you can latch onto which character is being focused on. It was especially difficult with the Dread sections.

Overall, though, the negatives I outlined are outweighted by the strength of Williams' writing and vision. It'll be interesting to see if the following books in the series can keep things interesting and if they start being more plot driven since all of the characters have been introduced and defined already.

Rating:
Summary: Help! Is there an editor in the house?
Review: 800 pages. The first of four volumes. Imagine four books that are 800 pages each. That is 3200 pages. This is longer than the Bible. This is longer than the Koran. For the love of God, what story do you need to tell that cannot be told in under 3200 pages?

First things first, the positives. I very much appreciated the book's African center. Very clever, very interesting. Had the main story been placed in the United Stated, I probably would have lost interest much sooner. Do not get me wrong, I still lost interest, but not as soon as may have happened. The main characters are strong. I enjoyed the Rene and Xabbu characters. They are very well written. I enjoyed the cyber barbarian. Very good. Another positive is the techno aspects. Great imagineering of where the internet could be. I loved the concept of a virtual reality being molded by our class distinctions. Quite cool. I liked the plot. Mysterious. What is happening to the children? What is this strange club? Many more little questions that I foung intriguing and wondered what would happen.

Characters are well done. Plot is well done. "World building" (setting) is well done. What is the problem? Simple. After 800 PAGES I would expect that the central story of this novel had been solved and that the elements for the following volumes would be in place. Wrong. After 800 pages, not much has really happened. Not much of the plot has been moved forward. It is like a bad soap opera where things keep happening but nothing is really moving. This is not the first volume of a series. This is the first fourth of a 3200 page novel. There is a major difference and I just do not want to read through another 2400 pages to see how this ends up.

Edit this down to two volumes and you could have had a winner. As it is, I started it, I just do not want to finish it.

Rating:
Summary: Slow Start with *Excellent* Finish
Review: I started reading this book on three separate occasions before finally getting past page 200. Afterwards, I was hooked. I immediately bought the remaining series and read them back-to-back. Without a doubt, this is one of the best series that I've read in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Not short...but sweet
Review: I started out by buying the 3rd book in the series without realizing that it was a series (oops) -so I had to buy the first one to justify that mistake. Glad I did. Tad Williams style of writing is very fluid, I was comfortable reading his books. My only complaint was with the length, probably could have gotten by with 2 or 3 books at the max. Too many details that didn't add to the plot but just filled paper. You must have alot of free time to read these series of books. I don't and it took me around a year (off and on reading) to finish it. Other than that, it was a good story with a little bit science fiction and a little bit fantasy that synthesized nicely.

Rating:
Summary: A little slow, but picks up to be INCREDIBLE....
Review: I was first introduced to this series by a friend back around the time the book surfaced. I read a few chapters and put the book down for about a year. I saw it lying around and decided to pick it up again. Man, was I depriving myself! After the first few chapters the intrigue, suspense, action...is just grand. If you're into any kind of cyberspace/VR, mystery, twisting plot stories, this series is for you! A delight in itself. I just wish I could find similar books to continue this wonderous ride!