I wish VR would be already that advanced nowadays.
Finally, everything comes together and the many plotlines that were established over the series culI wish VR would be already that advanced nowadays.
Finally, everything comes together and the many plotlines that were established over the series culminate in a science fantasy overkill. Now, much makes more sense, and many open questions are answered and I am overemphasizing this aspect because everything is so freaking big in this series.
It would really interest me how many ideas were originals and how many interpretations and adaptions of known fantasy and sci-fi novels and series, because there was hardly ever a crossover series that blew me away like that. It´s so immersive, the writing so good that even the extreme detail and, in many other cases average and annoying, info dumping and sprawling expositions, feel great and I haven´t had a moment of boredom in this whole thing.
Maybe it´s the mix of genres, the philosophical insights, the manifold worldbuilding, but this series had something just Game of Thrones, and some of my favorite sci-fi series could really activate, a sense of wonder so deep that reality is completely getting lost. Normally, one would assume that these experiments can´t be as good as a purely bred genre novel, because each switching comes with the danger of losing touch and flow, but the opposite is the case. No matter if VR, reality, or in character´s introspections, this thing rocks on each page.
I wish Williams would have written more hybrids or had begun writing pure sci-fi, just as Sanderson, because he is such an ingenious and unique talent that it would be a loss if he didn´t continue fusing genres. Yes, his fantasy writing is great too, but there are such vast loads of great fantasy and close to no genre border crossing experimentations that unite the strength of both worlds, not to speak of far too few sci-fi series.
What if the Matrix isn´t run by evil machines, but by the corpocracy?
This business model with certainly be a hard nut to crack for the public relatioWhat if the Matrix isn´t run by evil machines, but by the corpocracy?
This business model with certainly be a hard nut to crack for the public relation, corporate responsibility, and code of conduct departments, but maybe they could let it more seem like a great opportunity for everyone from kids to grandparents to have loads of immersive, forever fun.
The options, by switching between a corpocracy controlled, neoliberal nightmare world, and the fantastic VR, open so many plot possibilities that couldn´t be enabled with other worldbuilding combinations, it could even add sci-fi to the mix. I wonder why Williams didn´t consider doing this, adding an extra sci-fi world animation layer next to the mainly fantastic, historic, and horror ones, because this would have given the work even more suspense.
The epic range of Williams´ fantasy and imagination, whose high fantasy series Memory Sorrow and Thorn is an amazing journey, is mixed with the more dystopic cyberpunk wasted future elements of soon to be real sci-fi, making it an extraordinary science fantasy read. It´s as if one would change tone, genre, and even the author a bit, when the wonderful fantasy chapters are over and the desperate terror of a very possible future sets in again.
By the way, did anyone notice that, not just because utopias would be boring to tell, close to every sci-fi author draws a terrifying, horrible picture of the future and that many of these futures are already reality or will not take more than years to become real? I know I am redundant and already mentioned it before, but just how this might play out very differently in technologically extremely high developed Japanese and South Korean cultures, in different socioeconomic layers of society in the democratic West and especially in dictatorships and very poor countries, is both terrifying and fascinating.
Back to the show, the reader gets deeper and deeper into the degenerated rabbit hole, the plot accelerates, the unbelievable and ingenious conclusion of the fourth and final part of the series is prepared, and the sense of wonder overkill astonishes the reader with new revelations around each next dog ear corner. If one treats and uses books as bad as I do.
Want some amazing, unique, not stereotypical characters of different ethnicities added to the mix, making it even more complex, adding mythologies and mentalities to the already overboiling mix of ideas? This breaking of genre borders, in combination with unconventional protagonists, and the sheer length are the reasons why this series doesn´t get the fame and success it would deserve, why Williams isn´t named in a row with Sanderson, Erikson, Martin, Rothfuss, and others. He is just too big for our small world.
The journey continues, just comparable with Simmons and very few other works, in its epic crossover hybrid science fantasy nature.
The irony lies in thThe journey continues, just comparable with Simmons and very few other works, in its epic crossover hybrid science fantasy nature.
The irony lies in the fact that both of these authors, daring to crossbreed science fiction and, more or less epic, fantasy, don´t get the honor and especially present mainstream success they would deserve for inventing new settings and mechanisms of the best and second best genre of all time. Although, there is satire too, hm, maybe I shouldn´t make elitist lists about best genres because it´s a highly subjective matter altogether... No, sci fi, go, you´re unmatched!
However, Williams´ tour de force, as many series, gets better with each part, one dives deeper into the immersive fascination of a cyberpunk dystopia, a parallel fantastic virtual reality, and a mixture of different time travel, reality change, good oldfashioned fantasy settings, and very well developed characters.
There´s only one problem, the sheer mass of information in this huge series, which even made the author himself say about this one, or his series Memory, sorrow, and thorn, or about his writing in general, that he should have considered making it easier to understand, not that complex, or at least not that extremely long. I go with that in some parts, but length has never really been that big of a problem in fantasy, the real dilemma is that it´s exhausting and complicated to read, similar to Erikson´s Malazan book of the fallen, I am thinking about restarting reading or rereading after I´ve read the first 3 or 4 books and couldn´t stand the stress of continuing reading, but I am not sure about it because it takes so much time and effort and I am lazy as heck.
The other problem is, as said, the complexity, especially regarding reading time management, one can´t just read for fun, or even just read from time to time, except one has a photographic memory, because the many complex interwoven plotlines are continued from part 1 to 4, including revelations that suddenly change the seemingly logical premise and characters motivations, which makes it even more complicated to grasp.
If one can handle this and wants both a challenge and one of the most addictive genre chimera reads ever, please enter the VR.
A very complex, unique series, mixing up different genres, never boring because of Williams´ talent and feeling for language, it describes one of the A very complex, unique series, mixing up different genres, never boring because of Williams´ talent and feeling for language, it describes one of the possible, awaiting futures, making dystopian cyberpunk seem empty in contrast to this rich, colorful, postcyberpunk worldbuilding. I have the suspicion that the inventors of the cyber and post cyber genre names just wanted to pimp, because there is not so much difference.
William's style reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman, just expanded to the ultimate maximum possible. He is one of the possibly most unknown and underrated master fantasy authors, having created 2 series, this one and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn that made him a living legend. He puts so many details, extra plotlines, secondary characters, and worldbuilding into his creations that he can be named in one line with Sanderson, Martin, Erikson, etc. and especially the ones who gave the fantasy sci-fi crossover genre a new hype such as Mievielle, Hamilton, etc.
Science Fantasy isn´t everyone´s favorite, this might be, besides the length and complexity of many plotlines, one of the reasons why this series hasn´t the same status as works of similar quality by Simmons, Martin, Erikson, and others. It would interest me if it would have been a bigger hit in a pure middle age fantasy setting, if conventions are really so mighty that they reduce the chance of success for experimentations.
And it has everything, predicting some already real and coming technological inventions, although other authors did the same before, a lack of net neutrality with corporations and rich tycoons controlling everything and fewer chances for normal people to participate at the same level, a teeny plotline, a digital second world, time travel, and many small stories executed in subplots like sidequests, make it a pearl for the ones who are a bit overeaten of and fed up with conventional, pure fantasy or sci-fi. And it stays so vivid, I´ve read it years ago and just by looking at the beautiful covers, I remember so many details, so many proofs of how ingenious he is at transporting lasting imaginations into the reader´s minds.
Although some might find it too big, wordy, and excessive, it´s also everything else than easy to enter, one has to invest the time it takes to read a shorter novel to get into the story because there is much exposition needed, but it´s so worth it and gets better with each part of the series. One should not forget that Williams is one of the before internet hype era bestselling authors, with 17 million copies sold, who seems to have been a bit forgotten, but this and Memory, sorrow, and thorn, also getting better with each part, should be on one's radar because it frees from searching new brain food for several weeks.
Mario the lone bookwolf
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