Pretty good opening, leaves you wanting to read the whole series. But who has the time? ( )

This book was recommended to me by Dr. Richard Bartle, as evidenced by the opening line, "It started in mud, as many things do."

Basically the interwebs if Second Life took the place of Google. Not bad prognostication for 1996. ( )

I have a feeling that bad reviews need to be longer than good ones... why did I not like this one...?
For starters, there are about 20 stories in this book, which probably have something to do with each other, but as it's the first in a series of 4, they don't really cross paths. It gets even more confusing, because each story with the characters plays in a different "dimension" with different rules, sort of like Through the looking glass on crack.
You don't get to spend enough time with the characters to start to care or to understand why they do what they do and then the book is over.
I had to wait years for the next one and by then I had forgotten what it was about. Honestly, I like complicated stories and I have enjoyed works of Tad Williams, but this one aimed to high. It didn't draw me in and I stopped reading the series in the middle of Book 3 (of 4). ( )

This book is the hardest of the series too get into, as Williams spends a lot of time introducing the characters and setting the stage for this epic story (as he puts, its one huge novel split artificially into 4 parts simply because it can't be bound any larger)

The first time through this book I could barely get through it. However, I do remember that I found the payoff at the end of the 4th book to be quite satisfying, so in re-reading it again, I was able to enjoy the time spent getting to know the characters and their situation much better than the first time around. If you can get through the first book, you will likely find this series to be a wonderful mix of sci-fi & fantasy (with the emphasis on sci-fi in the first volume), and a diverse host of interesting characters who have all become part of a vast conspiracy called "Otherland". ( )