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A review by billymac1962
City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams
4.0
A long, long time ago, I received The Dragonbone Chair as a gift. I loved it.
Tad Williams painted a landscape so rich I was hopelessly absorbed in his world. Book 2 came along, and I enjoyed that almost as much, and once I was finished, was looking forward to the final installment in the trilogy.
Well, the next book released was part one of the two-part final volume. I felt duped and resentful, and refused to continue.
It was like when I was a little kid, and was learning to swim under water, and the frigging instructor kept backing away from me just when I thought I was caught up to him and sweet air. Man, that pissed me off.
Now, years later, I see the whole Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series is very highly rated, and I do feel a pang of regret that I never finished it. And, no, I'm not going to go back and read it all over again.
Instead, I waited until I was ready for a big commitment, and decided to
give Williams another go with Otherland.
HooWee. 780 pages later and I feel like I've been reading this forever.
But what's really nice is that Tad Williams can sure tell a story. Like
Dragonbone Chair, I was quite immersed in the story for the most part.
There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but with the story switching from one set to another so frequently, it wasn't tough to manage at all.
The story revolves around a virtual world. The central character, Renie,
is on a mission to save her young brother, who has been left comatose after venturing into a restricted area of the Net. This is a mystery that is ever-present throughout the story, and there are hints that this may have something to do with Otherland, a supposed secret and magnificent subworld that is controlled by powerful real-world world-beaters.
Williams draws out the anticipation of seeing Otherland throughout most of this volume. That, and what the heck has debilitated young Stephen and several other children around the world, is what kept me gripped to the story.
But, geez. 780 pages of small print is one massive prologue. I've been reading this for over a month, and I'm now visualizing this massive book with my bookmark only a quarter way through.
I'm not a fast reader here, folks. I said I decided I was ready for a big commitment, but only if this is a story that I can't wait to pick up again. I finished it last night, and promptly picked up another
novel to start, and today I don't miss Otherland that much.
Well, okay, I do, kind of, but am I going to let this series hijack four months of my reading time? I can't. This is just way too much time invested for something that I am giving four stars for the story thus far.
This was very good. Williams is great, but I can only (highly) recommend him to fast readers or those with a short to-read list.
Never say never, though. Who knows, I just may get a pining for this world and pick up volume 2 months from now...I sure did like Orlando.
Tad Williams painted a landscape so rich I was hopelessly absorbed in his world. Book 2 came along, and I enjoyed that almost as much, and once I was finished, was looking forward to the final installment in the trilogy.
Well, the next book released was part one of the two-part final volume. I felt duped and resentful, and refused to continue.
It was like when I was a little kid, and was learning to swim under water, and the frigging instructor kept backing away from me just when I thought I was caught up to him and sweet air. Man, that pissed me off.
Now, years later, I see the whole Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series is very highly rated, and I do feel a pang of regret that I never finished it. And, no, I'm not going to go back and read it all over again.
Instead, I waited until I was ready for a big commitment, and decided to
give Williams another go with Otherland.
HooWee. 780 pages later and I feel like I've been reading this forever.
But what's really nice is that Tad Williams can sure tell a story. Like
Dragonbone Chair, I was quite immersed in the story for the most part.
There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but with the story switching from one set to another so frequently, it wasn't tough to manage at all.
The story revolves around a virtual world. The central character, Renie,
is on a mission to save her young brother, who has been left comatose after venturing into a restricted area of the Net. This is a mystery that is ever-present throughout the story, and there are hints that this may have something to do with Otherland, a supposed secret and magnificent subworld that is controlled by powerful real-world world-beaters.
Williams draws out the anticipation of seeing Otherland throughout most of this volume. That, and what the heck has debilitated young Stephen and several other children around the world, is what kept me gripped to the story.
But, geez. 780 pages of small print is one massive prologue. I've been reading this for over a month, and I'm now visualizing this massive book with my bookmark only a quarter way through.
I'm not a fast reader here, folks. I said I decided I was ready for a big commitment, but only if this is a story that I can't wait to pick up again. I finished it last night, and promptly picked up another
novel to start, and today I don't miss Otherland that much.
Well, okay, I do, kind of, but am I going to let this series hijack four months of my reading time? I can't. This is just way too much time invested for something that I am giving four stars for the story thus far.
This was very good. Williams is great, but I can only (highly) recommend him to fast readers or those with a short to-read list.
Never say never, though. Who knows, I just may get a pining for this world and pick up volume 2 months from now...I sure did like Orlando.