Patricia Hamill's Blog: I read too much! - Posts Tagged "virtual-reality"

City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Surprising, complex, and insane...but I like it.

The City of Golden Shadow has been sitting on my bookshelf for over ten years, unread. In times past, I've picked it up and tried to read it, only to give up after twenty pages or so. That being said, I'm glad that I decided to stick it out this time, because this is an astonishingly complex, intricately woven masterpiece.

Now, to get it out of the way, let me begin with why I never got far in previous attempts. The book starts off on a battlefield with Paul Jonas, a lone soldier stuck in a ditch listening to a man screaming insanely in the background. The imagery is fantastically realistic and more than a little disturbing. In short, it gives every impression of being a war book, which isn't a genre I particularly enjoy. Alas, until this time, I never made it far enough in to realize that nothing is as it seems at first glance.

Keeping in mind the realistic kick off, it doesn't take long for the story to take its first turn for the weird. Like some kind of odd Jack in the Beanstalk, Paul gets hit by a missile and dies, only to awaken at the bottom of an enormous tree that reaches into the clouds. At the same time, everything as far as he can see in any direction is wiped clear, a desert wasteland, leaving him nowhere to go but up. So, he goes up, where he finds a cloudscape overlooked by a castle. Taking a chance, he follows a road of clouds to the distant building and in doing so meets a mysterious, winged woman kept in a cage like a songbird, but her master, megalithic clockwork giant, returns and a terrifying chase ensues as Paul desperately tries to escape. Then, he wakes up on the battlefield. Could this dream be the result of a head injury? He's not so sure...

After this, we fast forward into modern (future) South Africa to follow Rennie, a university teacher who specializes in Virtual Reality. After a bomb threat turns real, she meets up with a student and they decide to meet as planned. !Xabbu, a bushman, is brand new to VR, and Rennie worries that it might be too late to teach him. This side plot goes on for some time, until the first glimmer of trouble in Rennie's world appears when her little brother and his friends stumble into a simulation they can't handle. She comes to their rescue, but only finds two of them, the third having fallen through a hole in the "world". And, the complexity builds as more players are introduced: one, a barbarian in middle country, another, a twelve year old with a secret friend in the U.S., and of course, the bad guys.

At first, the various characters and scenarios are cycled through almost at random, but later it becomes obvious that nothing that happens in the story is insignificant. The truth is hard to pin down; the story jumps between virtual life and real life, and each chapter begins with a news-feed that gives a sense of the "now" in the real world: politics, pop-culture, interactive story casting calls, to name a few.

The story is a roller-coaster ride, dizzying at times, but exhilarating and rewarding as a whole. I devoured this book, despite its 700+ pages, and eagerly purchased the next in line before I finished the first.

In short, I loved this book and am it's earned a prominent place among my all time favorites, alongside The Lord of the Rings, Battlefield Earth, and The Death's Gate Cycle to name a few.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves epic fantasy or sci-fi, to gamers, and to those who enjoy a good puzzle. On the other hand, I don't recommend it to those who like a story to get to the point in short order. This story takes it's time, and the journey is well worth the effort.



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Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An exciting conclusion, I loved it.

Everything falls apart at the close of Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland #3), and now the unlikely heroes of the Otherland system are scattered far and wide in the heart of the dying operating system and beyond. Renie, !Xabbu, and Fredericks are stuck with unlikely allies in the evil Felix Jongleur and the brain damaged Ricardo Klement. But even this tenuous partnership is shattered when the virtual world shatters, and Renie finds herself stranded in an amorphous landscape with the doddering Klement her only companion.

Martine, Paul Jonas, T4b, and Florimel find themselves back in the already terrifying bug world, made even worse with horrifically human-bug mutations on the loose, mutations whose sole desire is to rip them limb from limb. Not even the benevolent Kunohara seems to be able to hold off the writhing masses for long.

In the real world, things are becoming truly scary for little Christabel. Her daddy learns of Mr. Sellers and now the entire family, plus Sellers, the boy Cho Cho and the lawyer Catur Ramsey, end up on the run together. But they can't run forever...

Meanwhile Dulcie Anwin awakens from her fledgling crush on Johnny Dread into growing unease and fear, even as he begins to show her the romantic attention she has long desired. Dread himself revels in both the virtual destruction of the Otherland realms and the terrorization of the Other itself, the effects of which are felt keenly by those still trapped within the system.

Finally, Long Joseph, Jeremiah, and Del Rey find themselves under siege, the military stronghold under the mountain no longer the sanctuary they'd thought it to be. It's only a matter of time before Dread's mercenaries break through the base's defenses, and all the three have to defend themselves are a single gun with three bullets and none among them skilled enough to make them count.

This is perhaps the most edgy installment of the Otherland series. Everything seems to be falling apart and danger stalks the heroes and the villains at every turn. No one is safe, and still the children lie comatose in their hospital beds. Will the destruction of the Otherland network spell their doom?

I love this book and the series that spawned it. You'll find no plot holes in this series, everything, even those things that seemed insignificant in the other books, finds a purpose in Otherland #4. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves sci fi and has the time and patience to tackle such a massive work.



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Missed my reviews for Otherland 1-3?  Check them out here:

City of Golden Shadow (Otherland #1) by Tad Williams

River of Blue Fire (Otherland #2) by Tad Williams

Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland #3) by Tad Williams



Have you read this series? Let me know what you thought in the comments.