Tad Williams

I've read too many prior failed attempts by fantasy authors to return to a prior world from their personal golden age. Time and again they can't recapture the magic, so it would not have surprised me to encounter another failure. Tad Williams is having none of that. He not only recaptures the characters and world we've known, he also takes into account how the genre has evolved around him and brings out a new plot that goes beyond the tropes of what came before. Not that Memory, Sorrow and show more Thorn didn't push boundaries, but it came out right on the border of when we turned the page from Tolkien mimics to exploring new directions, and it hadn't entirely shaken off its precedents.

It's both a wonderful thing to return to Osten Ard, and a hard thing to know that doing so means necessarily disturbing the waters of what we could have imagined as happily-ever-after. There can't be new adventures without new conflict to torment the characters I loved in my high school days. But I'm intrigued by how they've aged right along with me. I was a mooncalf then, just like Simon. Now I've faced some weight of years and maturity, and the passing of youth, just as Simon has. I can feel what's been lost and will never be regained. I can feel his innermost wish for everyone to just get along and leave the kingdom in peace. And I can well imagine his inner turmoil, the frustration and exhaustion when people and circumstances refuse to behave themselves and start getting out of hand again. I can imagine his fear that he has not been the person his kingdom needs, that some measure of what's now come about is due to his personal unworthiness in the role that was thrust upon him.

The way he and Miriamele complement one another is wonderful, and I'm very glad the author didn't spoil either character by miring them in marital dispute or personal crises. They still demonstrate a capacity to be the heroes, and can focus on the challenge of being viewed as among the wisest people in the room however much they might feel otherwise. So many of the people they relied on prior have passed on, and those who remain aren't the healthy strong youths they used to be. They must learn how to put a measure of their faith in those younger, green and reckless though they are, when a new wave of menace threatens the kingdom. Their grandchild Morgan represents the core of the new mooncalf generation, burdened by weakness stemming from privilege, overprotection, and the ducking of responsibility. He's an object of frustration, both for his grandparents and for the reader, and it soon becomes clear he'll have to learn the hard way.

Other old faces are back, and there's some interesting new ones in the mix. As happened in "The Heart of What Was Lost", Williams adds Norn perspectives that steal from them a measure of their mystery while making them more relatable. This is part of the shift he's acknowledging has taken place in the genre over the last three decades, the growing distaste for assumed evil hordes of faceless others who can be mercilessly killed and defeated by our heroes with no qualms for the ethics involved or understanding of what they are destroying. We want our fantasy worlds to be more reflective of the complexities of our real lives, where imperialism and racism are (ever so) slowly giving way to mutual respect. Well, mostly. Sort of. It isn't going to be an easy transition for Osten Ard, either. show less

The Dirty Streets of Heaven Bobby Dollar is an angel who isn't particularly angelic. He's cynical, swears a lot, gets into epic bar fights, tells the occasional untruth, pines after demonic women and questions the existence of god and Heaven. Usually, writing a book in first person can get dull - only having one perspective can make you want to rip your eyes out if the character has less personality than trigonometric functions. Luckily Tad Williams' character Bobby is a pretty cool guy. show more He's funny, quite charming in a "I can't believe you have the audacity to say that" way and too curious for his own sake. It's Bobby's curiosity that gets him into trouble really. His angelic duty is to act as a heavenly lawyer and defend dead souls when they are judged to go to Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. Unfortunately, Bobby's life becomes violently chaotic when a dead soul magically disappears and he decides to investigate; it doesn't help that Hell thinks that he's stolen the soul! Despite the whole Heaven and Hell thing, the story is not at all preachy. There's no preference towards a particular religious order (thereby neatly avoiding offending anyone). Through Bobby's eyes we see that Heaven isn't quite as perfect as it is made out to be and not all of Satan's servants are crazy evil. It's impressive that Williams managed to pull off moral ambiguity despite the black and white nature of the stage his story plays out in. I really can't wait for the next book, especially as (part of) the story will be set in Hell. As an aside I actually, quite embarrassingly, thought that the city Bobby lived in (San Judas) was a real city. The descriptions were vivid, but the main reason for believing in the existence of the fake city was the historical excursions the character made every so often. I guess my exceptionally poor knowledge of American geography is also a big factor.... show less

It has been way too many years since I picked up a Tad Williams fantasy. I read the books surrounding the Dragonbone Chair back when they came out and I was extremely impressed by the writing quality and character, the slow burn and devoted character building, the inexorable finality of the grand explosion or magical release or bloodshed to come.

He builds slowly, carefully, and with enormous attention to detail.

Therefore, I knew very well what I was getting into here. These are long books show more and there are a lot of them, and true to modern epic fantasy form, we have a firmly established place and time. We get to know all our main characters, their little squabbles, their personalities, their little strivings.

It requires patience. Even to me, it required a lot of patience. I grew bored with long stretches, but nothing is permanent. Battles and magic and the Shadow come to those who wait, as well as long stretches underground, fae creatures, goblins, and a truly wicked scene being set.

Darkness and all the creatures in it will come to reclaim the land. And I mean literal darkness, neverending night, and this is no hyperbole. Tad Williams is setting the stage for an end-all epic scene of destruction and mayhem and horror.

I trust him as I trust few writers. His Otherland SF series was a brilliant romp of the imagination and his fantasy reaches high-brow status while never skimping on the gritty detail.

But again, it requires otherworldly patience. :) The taste of things to come at the end of this huge tome is well worth the wait. I feel like I've grown up with these folks now. I feel like I'm living here, that I love this place. The anticipation of its destruction is truly wicked.

Suffice to say, I can't let this end here. I'm in it for the long haul, and that's sometimes the only thing you can do. :) show less

It was surprisingly hard for me to read this book. It’s very good ofc, Tad Williams is a master of his art - but being a prequel, I knew how it would end, and my heart ached the entire time. Damn Ineluki, the proud, stubborn, immature fool. I could feel my resentment building with every page.

Not a fun book for me, but definitely a good one!