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Olivia's Reviews > City of Golden Shadow
City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, #1)
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I bought this one about a decade ago, tried reading it, enjoyed it, but then stopped somewhere halfway through, and when I got back to it, I knew I had to start from the beginning, because it had been too long, and then I just never did.
I'm so happy I finally sat down with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Yes, it's slow, there's a lot of set-up and Tad Williams could probably cut a few hundred pages from (all?) his books and not lose much plot, but I loved every page.
This came more than a decade before Ready Player One, and it is even older than The Matrix films. Today, some of the tech and science is outdated, but the concept of virtual reality and what Tad Williams did with it, is amazing.
The Otherland series mixes science fiction, South African folklore, fairy tales, and fantasy into a wild tale and that mix is what I loved most about it. I can't wait to see where this series takes me!
I'm so happy I finally sat down with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Yes, it's slow, there's a lot of set-up and Tad Williams could probably cut a few hundred pages from (all?) his books and not lose much plot, but I loved every page.
This came more than a decade before Ready Player One, and it is even older than The Matrix films. Today, some of the tech and science is outdated, but the concept of virtual reality and what Tad Williams did with it, is amazing.
The Otherland series mixes science fiction, South African folklore, fairy tales, and fantasy into a wild tale and that mix is what I loved most about it. I can't wait to see where this series takes me!
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jess
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Mar 05, 2018 08:22AM
I remember trying to read this, I think when I was in hogh school, and just couldnt get into it. Abandoned. But id probably enjoy it nowadays.
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You have to like both sci-fi and fantasy and you have to not mind endless world building and endless set-up. I find it hard to recommend since I know many have struggled with it but I really really enjoyed it and am excited about the sequels. I’ll have a better idea of whether or not to recommend the series once I’m done.
"This came more than a decade before Ready Player One" - YES! Exactly what I've been feeling. I read this 20 years ago but was just a kid and really didn't understand enough about VR (hadn't even read Ender's Game yet at that point). I am rereading it now, and am seeing lots of parallels that were in Ready Player One. Especially Fredricks and Orlando... Ready Player One seems to have almost directly stolen those characters for that book... best friends in VR... boy doesn't realize his partner-in-crime is a girl in a male sim... I mean, no shade, I did love RPO and its main draw was the nostalgia angle, which it accomplishes better than anything I've EVER read or seen. But yeah, Otherland certainly came first! And it ages well for sure.
