The first volume in this story takes readers to the near-future, when a global conspiracy threatens to sacrifice the Earth for the promise of a far...
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Aug 26, 2011
Derrick
rated it: 
Having read this series as it came out back in the 90's, I wanted to go back and re-read to see how this held up, because I remember being blown away the first time through.
I was not blown away this time. However, that isn't a bad thing. This time I was able to consider smaller things than the "coolness" factor of an online world, which was about to be the rage when this was written.
The characters were real. Enough so that I felt like slapping Renie multiple tim More...
I was not blown away this time. However, that isn't a bad thing. This time I was able to consider smaller things than the "coolness" factor of an online world, which was about to be the rage when this was written.
The characters were real. Enough so that I felt like slapping Renie multiple tim More...
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Mar 12, 2008
Chris
rated it: 
Let me just start by saying this: the first time I finished this series, I immediately went back and started reading it again. I can't think of any other series that I've done that with.
This is one of Tad Williams' "economy-sized manuscripts," similar to his fantasy classic Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Similar in size and scope, anyway - four giant tomes chock full of all things awesome. It's a series of grand scope, amazing scale and great imagination, well worthy of your tim More...
This is one of Tad Williams' "economy-sized manuscripts," similar to his fantasy classic Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Similar in size and scope, anyway - four giant tomes chock full of all things awesome. It's a series of grand scope, amazing scale and great imagination, well worthy of your tim More...
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Jun 07, 2007
Meg
rated it: 
I've read lots of Williams before and thought he was excellent, though I remember specifically avoiding this one because it's sci-fi, not fantasy. I was quite disappointed when it came out, actually, that he switched genres like that when I'd eagerly awaited new installments of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn before this came out.
It's good that I waited. It came out in 1996, in the very early days of the WWW and, I belive, very few MMORPGs beyond MUDDs. (Heh...lots of acronyms there) More...
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Feb 04, 2012
AnEyeSpy
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I got to p76. "Otherland" by Tad Williams starts with assorted quilt squares I didn't have the patience to wait for assembly. WW1 mud-soaked Paul explodes, climbs a cloud high tree-stem to a trapped bird-woman, chased by a Giant to awaken back in the trenches. South African college tutor Renie guides bushman !Xabbu through basic virtual reality scenarios, rescues her 11-year old brother from a dangerous sim club, then loses him to a coma, three weeks after her drunk father kicks the bo
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Mar 13, 2009
Amanda
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Tad Williams is really known as a fantasy writer, but this sci-fi series was quite interesting. There are four books in this series and they're pretty mammoth in size, but definitely an interesting read. Lots of virtual reality/parallel world kind of stuff, with some Egyptian mythology thrown in the mix.
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Jan 25, 2009
Karen
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I don't know what to think of this book. I liked it, but I was confused, so I looked up some reviews on Amazon, and then decided that I didn't like it based on what people said, but then I kept reading, and then I liked it a lot and made my peace with it being just the first part of a four-book series, and then I was totally into it, and then they spent too much time on the villains and their complicated pseudo-Egyptian mythology simulation, and I am sick of completely evil antagonists who are c
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Jan 12, 2012
Tanner
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Before there was the Matrix, there was Tad Williams' "Otherland: City of Golden Shadow." Written in 1996, Otherland is a mixture of cyberpunk, fantasy, cultural discovery, and mythic lore. While the Wachowski brothers fell into more of a religious/spiritual individualistic awakening type plot line, Williams picked a straightforward group adventure and rescue the world/coma kids. The story is filled with many characters in a variety of settings and its amazing how Williams is able to ma
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Jan 05, 2012
Ricky
rated it:
This book, and indeed, this series, is huge. There are a lot of words in Tad Williams’ series, and most of them are pretty interesting. It took a while—a long while—for me to get interested in this novel, and if it were not for the repeated encouragement and assurances about the series’ quality, I wouldn’t have made it past the first part break. I don’t have a favorite character yet, but I do really like !Xabbu and Fredricks, because they’re the only real dynamic characters in the story so fa
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Apr 03, 2011
Jeff
rated it:
I picked this book up on a whim, not realizing that it was just the beginning of four very long books with a myriad of characters and challenges. Fortunately, the book and the series are both amazing.
The Otherland series takes place in the near future where the Internet has become fully interactive with rich people literally able to plug themselves into the net and others using less effective virtual reality equipment. In this world, a varied group of people stumble upon a secret plo More...
The Otherland series takes place in the near future where the Internet has become fully interactive with rich people literally able to plug themselves into the net and others using less effective virtual reality equipment. In this world, a varied group of people stumble upon a secret plo More...
Feb 27, 2011
Aleah
rated it:
In the first installment of Tad Williams "Otherworld" series the reader is introduced to a future where the net and virtual reality are readily available to anyone with enough credits. A virtual reality professor at a South African University, Renie Sulaweyo, becomes good friends with her student, !Xabbu, one of the last remaining African Bushmen. Renie and !Xabbu become entangled in a conspiracy involving the most powerful and dangerous men in the world. The scope of what needs to be
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Sep 06, 2010
Paul
rated it:
(Whole story - All four volumes)This is, without a doubt, the best series novel I have ever read. Multiple plot lines in a fantastic world that slowly twist and turn until they eventually merge. A simple beginning, children falling into comas for no apparent reason, leads to an epic quest typical of fantasy but applied to science fiction, the historical novel, Victorian children's literature, detective fiction, myth and much, much more. A large cast of unforgettable characters, written beautiful
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Jul 15, 2010
Sarah
rated it:
I just finished the second book in this series and thusfar it seems well put-together in many aspects, carefully written, and creative in ways that adult books don't usually strive to be.
After reading the first volume, I was a bit put off. 800 pages, and not a single story arc is anywhere near completion? Really? The author actually apologized for this in an introduction to the second volume, saying that the story was just too long to avoid leaving cliffhangers between books. I don' More...
After reading the first volume, I was a bit put off. 800 pages, and not a single story arc is anywhere near completion? Really? The author actually apologized for this in an introduction to the second volume, saying that the story was just too long to avoid leaving cliffhangers between books. I don' More...
Jul 11, 2010
Chris
rated it:
Let me just start by saying this: the first time I finished this series, I immediately went back and started reading it again. I can't think of any other series that I've done that with.
This is one of Tad Williams' "economy-sized manuscripts," similar to his fantasy classic Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Similar in size and scope, anyway - four giant tomes chock full of all things awesome. It's a series of grand scope, amazing scale and great imagination, well worthy of your More...
This is one of Tad Williams' "economy-sized manuscripts," similar to his fantasy classic Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Similar in size and scope, anyway - four giant tomes chock full of all things awesome. It's a series of grand scope, amazing scale and great imagination, well worthy of your More...
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Feb 01, 2010
Stacey
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This review is for book 1 of the Otherland series.
If possible I would have given this book 4.5 stars. My only reason for not giving it 5 stars was because of its length. I do not want this to be a deterrent, because I highly recommend this book. However, when you know you have 3 other books to read in order to complete the series, it gets to be a bit overwhelming.
Tad Williams is incredibly talented at description among other skills he utilized to create this story. For so More...
If possible I would have given this book 4.5 stars. My only reason for not giving it 5 stars was because of its length. I do not want this to be a deterrent, because I highly recommend this book. However, when you know you have 3 other books to read in order to complete the series, it gets to be a bit overwhelming.
Tad Williams is incredibly talented at description among other skills he utilized to create this story. For so More...
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Jul 06, 2009
Nick
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 30, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
This series was really good, but like all Tad Williams books it took a little too long to get to the meat of the story. He is a master of detail, and especially in a series where every other chapter is a whole new world that can take a while.
Still, it is a fantastic series, great plot, great detail, I would say "visually stunning" but of course it's a book. But it felt that way, so clear were his descriptions. I gave it 3 stars because for me it was a bit too long, and alt More...
Still, it is a fantastic series, great plot, great detail, I would say "visually stunning" but of course it's a book. But it felt that way, so clear were his descriptions. I gave it 3 stars because for me it was a bit too long, and alt More...
Aug 20, 2010
Made
rated it:
Otherland, is the story of several key players based in different parts of the world, who race to understand the virtual reality system--and the people who rule it--that has incorporated itself into the world at large, including the third-world: a woman consumed in finding a cure for her brother within the VR, a man trapped within a separate version of the realm seeking a way out, an aboriginal man on a quest, a wheel-chair confined man under house arrest, and others. The VR world is a vast, unl
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Jan 29, 2012
January 30th
The book starts off with a detailed foreword that goes in-depth, and in real-time, about the experience of a disenchanted and abandoned soldier in the middle of a muddy warzone. Not only does the detailed scenery and imagery grab your attention immediately: “The torn earth, the skeletal trees, and Paul himself had all been abundantly splattered by the slow-falling mist that followed hundreds of pounds of red-hot metal exploding in a crowd of human beings” and “Red fog, gray ea More...
The book starts off with a detailed foreword that goes in-depth, and in real-time, about the experience of a disenchanted and abandoned soldier in the middle of a muddy warzone. Not only does the detailed scenery and imagery grab your attention immediately: “The torn earth, the skeletal trees, and Paul himself had all been abundantly splattered by the slow-falling mist that followed hundreds of pounds of red-hot metal exploding in a crowd of human beings” and “Red fog, gray ea More...
Jan 07, 2010
Andres
rated it:
Reading this on the recommendation of my brother, I dove into this knowing it was epic in scope and heavy in weight. This first of four volumes is interesting and exciting if sometimes a little protracted. It takes its time introducing characters and slowly peels back layers of the plot. I was in the mood for a long haul adventure so I didn't mind it one bit, but it does hit bumps here and there that are mostly due to this being written just before games like EverQuest and Second Life came into
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Apr 10, 2011
Ala
rated it:
This story, or the part contained within this first book, is long.
Really, really long.
Nuclear Winter long.
It's not as though it's the longest book I've ever read, either. I've read far weightier tomes in my time, but this is the first one in this size range that I've come across in a long while where I've actually felt the length of each sentence, paragraph, page and chapter.
And it's not because it's actually all that long, really. It comes in at l More...
Really, really long.
Nuclear Winter long.
It's not as though it's the longest book I've ever read, either. I've read far weightier tomes in my time, but this is the first one in this size range that I've come across in a long while where I've actually felt the length of each sentence, paragraph, page and chapter.
And it's not because it's actually all that long, really. It comes in at l More...
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Jan 12, 2011
Breanne
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Paul is a soldier in WWI who keeps leaving the battlefield to enter a world of dreams, where children's stories come to life and he is not quite sure what is part of the dream and what is real.
Renie inhabits a future earth where it's more common to live in virtual reality than real life. Renie's little brother is constantly on the Net, visiting people and places that Renie isn't sure she entirely approves of. But when her brother mysteriously falls into a coma Renie suspects it has t More...
Renie inhabits a future earth where it's more common to live in virtual reality than real life. Renie's little brother is constantly on the Net, visiting people and places that Renie isn't sure she entirely approves of. But when her brother mysteriously falls into a coma Renie suspects it has t More...
Aug 29, 2007
Peter
rated it:
This is one of the best Sci-Fi Series ever. Basically there's LOTR, then The Baroque Cycle, then Otherland. The concept enables you to have everything, magic and hard science and multiple worlds that make a logical sense.
It delivers on everything The Matrix could not live up to.
It delivers on everything The Matrix could not live up to.
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Jun 09, 2011
Dmdutcher
rated it:
Tad Williams writes dense, multi-layered fantasy. Here he turns to science fiction. Very good, with memorble characters and a worldwide focus. However he writes long novels, and you might wish he had dumped a few characters and focused a bit more clearly on the two leads.
The plot is hard to summarize since so many characters are introduced. Paul is a WW 1 infantry man who sees a vision of a golden city. Renie has lost young Stephen to a coma brought on by a mysterious cyberspace hang More...
The plot is hard to summarize since so many characters are introduced. Paul is a WW 1 infantry man who sees a vision of a golden city. Renie has lost young Stephen to a coma brought on by a mysterious cyberspace hang More...
Jan 28, 2010
Mike
rated it:
Tad Williams has obviously read Tolkien, Snow Crash, and Dan Simmons' Hyperion books. He also is clearly in no hurry. City of Golden Shadow languidly details the travails of a group of people who are investigating a secret and powerful place - a collection of virtual reality worlds that are so processor-rich that they seem real. The people inside can see and hear - and to some degree, touch - the virtual world.
The details of the protagonists personal goals in seeking out this wor More...
The details of the protagonists personal goals in seeking out this wor More...
Jul 26, 2009
sophie
rated it:
I re-read this series every couple of years. I don't like any of Tad William's other books too much (well. they're probably just fine but I only tried reading them after my high-fantasy phase had mostly passed, so it's not really fair for me to judge) but I think that this series is really fantastic. These books fall under the category of books I like so much that I will totally flip out and be a big whiny asshole nerd-on-the-internet if they ever try to make a movie of them. So embarrassing. Wh
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Jun 04, 2009
Scott
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This was an interesting series that an acquaintance had recommended to me. The series starts very slow and is really hard to get into while jumping from character to character who all seem to be unrelated, but once it gets rolling, it gets very interesting.
It has the concept of the Matrix, that of other worlds that can be accessed through a virtual environment. It seems a little cliche now, but these books were originally written in the early 90's.
A good read, once you More...
It has the concept of the Matrix, that of other worlds that can be accessed through a virtual environment. It seems a little cliche now, but these books were originally written in the early 90's.
A good read, once you More...
Jan 10, 2011
Tommy
rated it:
Tad Williams is my new favorite fantasy/sci-fi author. This was the first in a series about a highly-developed virtual reality world which takes on a reality of its own. It's so real-seeming that people can be trapped there, and lose all memory of their "real" lives. The designers behind the "Otherland" project are for some unknown reason luring children into this virtual world and trapping them there, so that the children end up in comas in real life. It's like the Matrix, o
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Feb 23, 2011
Xander
rated it:
This book came highly recommended, and I could see why! I thouroughly enjoyed all 700-something pages. I'm not normally into Sci-Fi books (the more technobabble words, the less I want to read it), but I was very pleased with the balance Williams struck between Sci-fi, fantasy, and cyberpunk.
One of the most shocking things for me about this book was the accuracy of William's technological predictions. Published in 1996, the characters in the story use the equivalents of iPhones, iPads More...
One of the most shocking things for me about this book was the accuracy of William's technological predictions. Published in 1996, the characters in the story use the equivalents of iPhones, iPads More...
May 28, 2011
Nancy
rated it:
another epic story from Tad Williams, without the minor constraint of a sticking to a consistent world. Fascinating, dense with ideas. A valiant foray into concepts of digital reality, community, identity, and government. I loved the main characters, but a lot of the side characters don't get developed as much as in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. He perhaps gets a bit carried away with the various digitally created worlds, and the plot twists and false leads. but the philosophy and over-arching plot
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Aug 12, 2010
Benjamin
rated it:
One of my fave science-fiction novels, or should I better say science-fantasy-fiction? Tad Williams creates his own world between cyberpunk and fairy tales.
His description of the cyber-world is very detailed, the characters are believable, and the story is suspenseful.
The first book migt be a little confusing, because Williams tells parallel the stories of many different characters, which seem to have no connection to each other. One can see the first book as kind of an intr More...
His description of the cyber-world is very detailed, the characters are believable, and the story is suspenseful.
The first book migt be a little confusing, because Williams tells parallel the stories of many different characters, which seem to have no connection to each other. One can see the first book as kind of an intr More...
