River of Blue Fire

The book is just as much of a mess as its predecessor, City of Golden Shadow, but just as much fun as well. Trapped within a sinister virtual-reality universe, the frazzled protagonists bounce between pulpy scenarios: Neanderthal hunting parties, giant insects, totalitarian regimes in The Wizard of Oz, living logos and trademarks, the alternate bad ending to H.G. Well's War of the Worlds, Xanadu, Renaissance Venice, and cast-off gods in Ancient Egypt. It's all too much, but the book's very excesses are what make it so great.

This book, volume two of the Otherland series, is set almost exclusively in the Otherland network. It would probably be a great book for someone who likes to read descriptions about different worlds where characters have interesting, but largely non-plot-moving or character-developing adventures, and I did enjoy it. However, I eventually started to get a little tired of it (the book is 675 pages). If you divide fiction into the four rough categories of character developing, plot developing, idea developing, and place developing I tend to prefer them in that order. That said, the end of the book started getting good; there was character development and plot!

In the second volume, a minor threat is dealt with, but the misery of the whole world is revealed. There is a very ugly version of the land of Oz, and our WWI vet is gradually beginning to grow back into himself. The whole thing is handled with great skill.

Almost 5 stars, but went with 4.
This series is building nicely. Bit of a "who is the spy?" that only gets revealed in the last few of the 800 pages.
Little pieces slowly being revealed but still no real idea about how its all going to look moving forward.

Methinks the author consumed way too many drugs many years ago and they still hadn't worn off by this trip, er, book. A good tale, but meandering, confusing, overpopulated and long. I'll finish the series, though - it's good enough. But an better editor would have made a better book.

Otherland, a massive virtual reality network, is composed of an unknown number of worlds. It's funded by a mysterious group of the wealthy and powerful who call themselves Grail Brotherhood; and, though nothing is clear, the primary purpose of the Brotherhood seems to be the maintenance of their own long lives... even at the expense of countless other. Across the globe children are going into medically inexplicable comas, including Renie Sulaweyo's little brother Stephen. Renie suspects that Stephen's strange illness is somehow connected to Otherland. Renie and her friend, a South African bushman named !Xabbu, sneak into the Otherland network in hopes of saving Stephen. Once in they find they are not alone in their search, nor is the show more Otherland network all that it appears to be.

Tad Williams has created an elaborate virtual reality landscape in this, his second installment of the Otherland series. I'm enjoying these stories as a delightful mix of fantasy and science fiction, two of my favorite genres. Most of the story occurs on a virtual reality network, yet each of the "worlds" (or VR servers) are as whimsical and imaginative as any fantasy novel.

Warning: This book is not for the easily distracted. At one point I counted as many as nine (yes, NINE) separate storylines. I enjoy an overly complex plot as much as the next sci-fi/fantasy nerd, but even I found myself unsettled by all the jumping around.

Still, with that caveat, I'm really looking forward to book three. show less

I could say that this is the sequel to City of Golden Shadows but as Tad states he considers Otherland and all its parts to be one huge novel. It's a testament to his writing skill that despite the number of characters and plot strands, I elected to skip over the synopsis and jump right back into the story, despite the eight months or so that passed for me between the two books. All the characters were still fresh to me and I had no trouble picking up were it had left off. I identify most with Orlando, his disability being not dissimilar from my own SMA Type III, albeit with in my case a much longer life expectancy. For some this is a virtual odyssey that they might not want to end - myself included.