Rating: 
Summary: Worth Re-Reading
Review: Let me just say: This is the BEST Fantasy Series ever. After re-reading the entire Trilogy over 3 times now.....It just gets better. My suggestion to those that read it and loved it. Read it again. You find more to love the second time around. Nuff said.
Rating: 
Summary: A refreshing departure from "formula" fantasy fiction.
Review: I must say that my experience with this series was much like that of other s that I have previously read. The reason that I bought the book in the first place was because it was reasonably thick (at the time, I had a $250 a month literature habit.) I've read a variety of other fantasy material and was expecting more of the same. At best, a couple believable characters in a fantastic setting (as opposed to an historically accurate one,) with cardboard cut-out minor characters and predictable plot. This series surprised me. The detail in which the author depicts inter-personal relationships, escepially in the first-person, was very good. Likewise, he manages to create a background for the story which is not only believable, but is able to support magic and "demi-human" races without damaging that same believability. I definately appreciated the fact that the reader doesn't see every major character walking around with several magic items, talking to deities, or other nonsense that can be found in other unmentionable novels of this genre. The core character of the story is, of course, Simon. I liked the fact that, although Simon encountered a host of life-changing events, he always remains the same old mooncalf, for all the responsibility he gains by the end of the series. I'm sure the author entended this exact thing, but there is nothing wrong with that. The author is not detailing real life, as some more critical readers would like the novels to read like, but he is taking the reader on a guided tour of his own imagination. I can appreciate how difficult this can be, especially for 3,000 paperback pages. All in all, I can't say that this is the best work that I have read in this genre (Tolkien comes to mind,) but it is well done, & I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a more mature fantasy story, so long as they can make it past the first one hundred fifty pages.
Rating:
Summary: It made me rename my parrot !
Review: Within a few hours of reading I became addicted to the story. The life of Simon who helps in the kitchen of former Asu'a gets more interesting as he has to leave the castle to help find three swords that could save his world from the dark.
Tad Williams adds more and more different characters (and not all of them are nice !) and tells the story from their prospectives.
After this first book I really got to know and love the characters and different species (although some are really, really gross especially to someone who hates SPIDERS !). After getting so involved in the storyline I gave my pet the name of the hero Seoman and even started to dream about it.
But the best thing of all is that your new "friends" don't leave you with an empty and sad feeling after one book but you can look forward to three! more mind-whirrling awesome issues and see them again
Rating:
Summary: I did it! I finished The Dragonbone Chair!
Review: I first came into contact with Tad Williams through his first work, Tailchaser's Song. This book rocked, and I was eager to get my hands on some more. After losing a friend's copy of TDC, I bought a new one, and, after finding and returning my friend's old one, I started reading. In the first few chapters I was somewhat repulsed. I had had little experience with fantasy, apart from Tolkien, Brian Jacques (Redwall series), and C.S. Lewis, and I was apprehensive. This book proved to me that modern gantasy is not all Dungeons and Dragons hack work. This is the beginning of something big. William's brilliant interweaving of plots and subplots tend to make this book REALLY SLOW! at the beginning (I put it down after about 200 pages, and didn't start again for two months), but they all even out in the end, and leave the reader waiting, breathless, for more. Thankfully, TW has already completed this epic. Those who say that this compares to Tolkien are right. This is sort of a modern, more 90's style Tolkien. In my opinion, no one can match the Master Tolkien, but Tad Williams is now VERY high on my list of preferred authors. This book, for all its frustrating flashbacks, quick plot jumps and inordinate length, is still an excellent story, the type that grabs you and does not let go. There are few to none of the expected fantasy cliches here: it is very much like reading about midieval history. The characters are great, too. As the book goes on, you really start to feel for them, and experience what they're going through. Also, the suggestive stuff between Simon and Miriamele is another reason you are going to want to continue the series after reading this. Eh? Eh? It is interesting how TW departs from the standard Human/Elf/Dwarf quest for gold that so many books have based their plots on. He has created entirely new races, drawing from existing Earth races: the Hernystiri remind me of the Welsh, the Rimmersmen, the Scandinavian, the Erkynlanders, the English, and the Sithi... of the Sithi. These similarites carry into the languages of the races, as well. I still can't track down the Nabbanai, though. Sure, I was irritated at the few piddling rip-offs of Norse gods for the Rimmersmen, and stuff like that, but, looking back, I say What the Hell? This book is still great. If you have not treated yourself to Tad Williams, you are missing out on something extraordinary. And even though TW looks like Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers in his photo in Otherland, you can trust him to keep you reading. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Cool.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This book takes you to a world you've never known. The main charecter is so real you can't help but love him. He has much to learn, and with the help of his friends and through his own mistakes, he will.
The writting is so vivid you feel like your lost under the Hayholt.
Ending only makes you wonder.......
WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm...
Review: Now, critics would say: "Hey, look here, it is
another one of those
castle-kitchen-scullion-turns-into-magnificent-
dragon-slayer-and-solves-all-the-riddles-while-
saving-his-friends-from-certain-doom-in-the-hands-
of-the-bad-bloke-who-gets-defeated-in-the-end"
Now, my responce to them would be:
"So, what is your point?"
In truth, the Dragonbone chair is nothing else that a prelude for the events to come in the next
two (three actually) books, The Stone of Farewell
and the two books of To Green Angel tower.
Sometimes you might find it frustrating if you are
not a fan of long details . As the plot thickens
however, you will find yourself being immersed in
the small and big problems each fictional character faces in Tad Williams's world.
Eventually you will end up reading Siege
and Storm in two days as it happened with me.
The simplicity of Dragonbone chair is just the
beggining of a quest that you will definitely
enjoy. Tad Williams can compete with the real
masters of fantasy and his style and imagination
is a very good excuse for reading this trilogy.
For people who enjoy the sylvan nature
descriptions of Tolkien, the complexity of Steven
Donaldson's characters and the proper mystical
approach to magic as seen in Janny Wurts's books, then this trilogy should become a part of your
collection.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad story overall
Review: This book was interesting in that it strayed from the usual fantasy story line of bucolic youths swept away on a big adventure against previously unknown evils. The beginning was brutally slow, but obviously the author researched medieval castle life very thoroughly. It took me a week just to finish the first 200 pages. Eventually things get going, and the plot line becomes very riveting by the end. Williams is not nearly as long winded as Tolkien, Donaldson or Jordan. I had a hard time liking the hero, he's such a stupid teenager, and his lack of weapons training make him kind of dull. Eventually he becomes more interesting. His relationship with Miriamele has potential. Like most fantasy authors, Williams strays from talking about sex like we fantasy readers can't handle adult themes??
There is also a total dearth of fantastic species for most of the book. The Binabik character is a nice change-a true scandanavian troll!! So much of the book reads like medieval historical fiction rather than fantasy. The battle scenes are refreshingly realistic, like the sets of Braveheart. I am looking forward to the next book, it has much potential. I'd say overall this was just very good, not the best I've read, but better than the average drivel.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Tolkein...
Review: Defiantely the best Fantasy series I have read... and the last two books stand on their own. Readers who found The Lord of the Rings series ponderous will really enjoy this series... Williams keeps it light and down-to-earth, yet still manages to take our breath away. I read the first book, then raced out to get the second and ended up buying the whole series on the spot because I didn't want to have to wait to find out what happens
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy at it's best. . .
Review: Though this book takes a little while to get interesting, once it does you won't be able to put the thing down. Both the character's and the land are vividly drawn so that you feel as if you are actually there experiencing what they are experiencing. And that's not all. This book is just the beginning of a trilogy. It ends with a great conclusion that helps lead the reader into book two, but it doesn't leave you completely hanging. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially fans of THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and the works of Robert Jordan. Get this book, you won't regret it
Rating:
Summary: Where has the time gone...?
Review: Tad Williams breathes new life into the old
"good vs evil" genere, but adds so many
twists and turns that you might think *you*
have been trapped in the endless tunnels
beneath the Hayholt.
The reason that I called this review "Where
has the time gone...?" is that I, without
realizing it due to Williams exceptional
storytelling, read this book for over
*four hours straight*! It was late at night
and I read to put myself to sleep. It
didn't work, and now I can be classified as
an insomniac.
I have read and re-read the entire series
over and over and still can't follow Mr.
Williams twisted plots.
This book far surpasses anything I have ever
read before.
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