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This series introduced me to Tad Williams. This was a surprise to me. Back then Goodreads was not on my radar and so not exposed to book reviews. How I buy books was just go to the bookstore and then look at the cover art, read the back cover, then open the first page where the blurbs where. I was distrustful of online book reviews back then as I feel it too marketing-y so I just really depend on the comments on the book itself and see if some other famous authors gave a comment (or not).
One day I went to a bookstore as I just finished a book, I think it was a Malazan book while waiting for my other Malazan books to arrive. I just headed to the local bookstore and see if something interesting is on display.
I am kind of a picky reader, if I may tell you. If I don't get interested in the first few chapters I'd get bored. But I always finish a book though. There's only one book I didn't get to finish because I literally fall asleep every time I read it. Ask me in the comments what it is and I'll tell you the title. For the benefit of the doubt I would finish a Book 1 of any series but then will decide to continue on if I think a book have potential based from Book 1.
While browsing about on the bookstore nothing really interested me, and so I went to a used books store. Aside from poring over tons of books, which you won't see on the big bookstores, I get to kill time while waiting for my date. On the used books shop I saw this Tad Williams book with a black cover and a drawing of a landscape overlaid in gold shading. It said Otherland, Volume One, City of Golden Shadow.
The word "Otherland" caught my attention but the words "City of Golden Shadow" did not really. I thought it was lame. Otherland for me connotes like a different world, but then the City of Golden Shadow doesn't just go well with my thought process at that time.
I picked it up and looked at the cover, which was nice enough for me. I read the back cover and saw the blurbs there which I thought were not bad. Then I flipped the cover page to see more. I saw the other books in the series. The book I had was an edition where the last book haven't been published yet. By the way, City of Golden Shadow is a thick book, so that was already a good signal for me. Thin books are boring for me.
I just realized later as I read more books, I find thicker books have more substance as it give authors more room to flesh out their characters and more words to describe the movies in their mind. Thin books always leave me hanging. It's like a movie with a rushed ending, so I stay away from thin books.
I bought the book and immediately after going home I read it. After finishing Book 1, I was hooked. Maybe the two-thirds of the first book was boring a bit, as always because of character introductions and tone and pace setting. As the book was nearing the end things picked up and suddenly everything was interesting. This is the book that told me not to judge a book by not finishing it. By the end of Book 1 I was hooked and bought all the other books of the series.
The story is about... Of course, I will not spoil it, but just to give you an idea, the story is set on the future where technology was developed enough to allow full immersion on virtual reality. So it's like "The Matrix" kind of thing except those entering the virtual world don't get special abilities. More specifically the story is about a group of people who got sucked into a virtual world intended only for a chosen few.
I'm appreciating this more now because Tad Williams has this prophetic appeal to me now. I would say this work probably inspired the metaverse. The book has a similar concept to Sandbox's metaverse. Sandbox game sells virtual lands and then the owners of the land can do anything with it like host games, virtual parties and whatever event they'd like. In the book, the protagonists were teleported to different places inside the VR world. I truly was astounded by the imagination, especially for an urban fantasy book. Tad Williams can really write.
The book also has references to African folklores through the character of Xabbu. I enjoyed those parts immensely. It truly made the book deeper.
Tad have a good grasp of character development and fluid story-telling. Actually one of the best villains I've ever seen is here in the story. There is this villain named Dread. I was really scared every time Dread has screen time on the book. It's like something sinister is going to happen every time he appears.
The theme of the story really is about--wait, wait. I cannot spoil. Sorry. Let's just say there is an underlying theme that will surprise readers at the end of the story. Imagine governments and private institutions spending billions of dollars to create a secret virtual world for what reason? That's what's gonna keep you as a reader interested.
This is a book series that will keep you in awe as they jump from one part of the virtual world to another. This is a total adventure from the moment they got sucked in. Could be a good movie material in my opinion. The Otherland series as a whole truly have a lot of surprises.
It's a 9 out of 10 for me only because I found the start a bit boring.
Till the next book review. Enjoy reading ❤️
