Rating: 
Summary: great book once i got going
Review: it took me a long time to start this book.
Now I have I cannot put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, is all I can say.
Review: I first saw this book sitting on the shelf several years ago. The city on the cover beckoned me to read the book. Though, I never got around to reading it until this past summer.
I blew right through this book as if it wasn't even 780 pages. It really does not seem that long at all.
The pacing is amazing. I love the transition as Renie & Co. go from living their normal lives to unraveling a global conspiracy.
And Paul Jonas' cryptic journey is also very intriguing, but my favorite character is Orlando. I can relate so well with him. The characters are all great, but he stands out.
Dread is a very scary person. Though his motives are not quite clear, there does seem to be something more to this psychotic person (besides the "twist") I hope he's developed more in the later volumes.
My biggest gripe is that a certain plot twist involving Orlando's friend was just a sudden surprise. It's not alluded to or foreshadowed like other twists in the book, at least I didn't notice if it was. It's just kind of annoying to have a fast one pulled over us like that.
But that is a very minor gripe that does not hurt the overall score. I don't mind the cliffhanger, but perhaps that's due to how I don't have to wait years for the next book to be released like some had to. And even after almost 800 pages, this book is almost entirely introduction.
Rating:
Summary: Sheer Brilliance
Review: I have never read a better science fiction novel...and I've read a lot of them.
Rating:
Summary: If Considering This Series, Here's What You Need To Know
Review: In many ways, this is an unconventional work. It is not a series of four books. It is one big honking book published in four chunks. In pacing and plotting, it reminds me of a 100-issue run of a comic book. There's a continuously unfolding series of events, building out from the center, but not necessarily toward ever increasingly dramatic climaxes. What Williams has done here is ingenious. He really hasn't created any new plot devices or directions; you'll see few things here that you've never ever seen before. What he has done is to combine them all. Sure, we saw (for just one example) human minds wired into vast virtual reality in the Matrix, but we have no idea how they got there. Plenty of government conspiracies, plenty of power-mad scary guys. But ordinarily these works get fuzzy around the edges, and the writer asks us to accept that some things just ARE so he can get on with the main story. What Williams does is shuffle these several different novels together and set them up to lean on each other. And where other authors follow a narrative thread only so far and then say, "Well, yeah, there's another story over there, but we don't have time for it, so come on back here," Williams shows us all of everything, and shows us some combinations of plot elements that we might never have imagined. If you like reading these multivolume works for the enormous drama and a payoff whose operatic grandeur is proportional to the page count, you may nod off around book three here. And the characters are moving and effective, few stick in your head weeks after you've finished the work. But what Williams gives us instead is a vast, far-ranging, multi-character, multi-multi-themed tapestry that is enormous in scope and which has to be walked over a section at a time.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed Fan
Review: I'm a huge fan of Tad Williams. I loved his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Series. But this book is a long boring thing.
Please Mr. Williams, go back to writing fantasy novels rather than this drab science fiction with characters that mean nothing to me.
Rating:
Summary: plodding & boring, full of irrelevant details
Review: I gave up at page 284. A decent writer could have set the scene, introduced the characters and told everything important that happened so far in about ummm... say four pages. Life is too short for such waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! What a series!
Review: Before you jump into this almost 800-page book, know that you are in for a long ride. City of Golden Shadow is not a stand-alone book; you must read all four to have any closure whatsoever.
With that said, this is one of the best series' I've read. Just like the characters in the book, it was the picture of the "golden city" that caught my eye and propelled me to read the book (I know what they say about judging a book by it's cover, but you've got to admit - the city is amazing!)
However, it was the story that kept me going. I was expecting something totally different than what I got. The story is actually so close to today's society that it's scary and fascinating. This is not your typical fantasy or science fiction story. It is a mixture of both, interwoven with characters and technology and a story that could happen to us within a matter of a few years.
On the surface, this story is about the internet and the problems we may encounter when the technology gets too advanced for our own good. It also shows how wonderful the experience can be.
On a deeper lever, the series shows our inner desires and wishes, from our fear of death to our dreams of immersing ourselves in other worlds and cultures that we may not have ever imagined - of being someone else and doing things we would never have the courage to do in real life. All from our own living rooms and at any time we wish.
This first book in the series, City of Golden Shadow, is just the beginning. It is essentially a mystery novel in which many characters become involved. The latter books go more into the other worlds, but the first book is intriguing, leaving you constantly wondering what is going on, perhaps causing you to jump back many pages to see if you read correctly the first time. It is confusing yet engaging, and the only advice I have is to read each episode and take it as it is; don't try to figure it out just yet. Just know that it will all become clear later on.
The criticisms I've read about the series are, in part, true. There is much detail, description, and some slow parts. However, I enjoyed every last word. This is not a quick read. Expect to spend much time with the characters. Expect to read 100 pages at a time and then another day just read 5 or 10. What's great about this series is that however long you choose to spend, you'll know that Renie, !Xabbu, Fredricks, Orlando, Paul, etc. are waiting for you to join them anytime on their exciting adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Start
Review: My sister works for the company that publishes this book, and she was kind enough to send me a copy of it before it hit the stands... This is good and bad. It was great because I read it before most everyone else, but bad because I had to wait even longer for the next one :(
On with it. Williams has taken a concept and explored it to a huge degree in this book, the use of virtual reality. We currently have some VR abilities in the real world, and they show great promise, here in this book the promise is realised to a degree that most of us hadn't even considered. Keyboard??? that is so archaic.
The promise of VR is that it will make our lives so much better in so many ways, but as the old mantra goes.. 'Too much of a good thing....'
The reality of most people is the world around them that they actually interact with, and that has an impact on them. Tad Williams has created a virtual world, or rather a large number of virtual worlds, all with their own unique laws and traps to overcome. The series becomes more and more speculative and intense with each book, and the danger becomes far from virtual. Altogether an impressive journey through one mans vision of a future world in which technology is <almost> magic.
Rating:
Summary: Super good start but....
Review: I have loved Tad William's fantasy trilogy which is one of the best I ever read. So when the Otherland series was completed I bought book 1 as a start. Once again I was gripped and book 1 is just excellent. Now, in book 2, the story goes splitting more and more in many different ways. Too many in fact. And progressively, the adventure starts to be cut in so many pieces that you feel like being dragged from one place to another. Moreover, splitting the story again and again breaks the whole atmosphere or suspense which he tries to build up. So I liked half of the book hoping for a more action packed book 3. I started it (book 3) and after half of it discovered that the story was going on and on in the same direction, splitting even more what was already too much. So, unfortunately I must admit I gave up and did not finish it. Sorry for Mr Williams, the idea of the book is great but way too long. 3 books was the maximum. Too many details, too many little parts and finally I completely did not care about what was happening. Too bad. Please come back to fantasy !
Rating:
Summary: This is a wonderful read! But be prepared...
Review: I have read and enjoyed the entire book now... That is to say, all four books of this one immense volume. That is why I say to be prepared! The first three books do not have clean 'everything gets resolved' endings. They are simply somewhat random stopping points for this character rich tale. But as you finish the final volume, Mr. Williams brings everything together masterfully, with a suspence that rivals the most twisting of mystery novels. It is also believable sci-fi, without the need for 'galaxy far-away' civilizations and incomprehensible alien technologies to make it work. Otherland is a testament to the sci-fi genre.
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