Jeffery Moulton's Reviews > City of Golden Shadow

I picked this book up on a whim, not realizing that it was just the beginning of four very long books with a myriad of characters and challenges. Fortunately, the book and the series are both amazing.

The Otherland series takes place in the near future where the Internet has become fully interactive with rich people literally able to plug themselves into the net and others using less effective virtual reality equipment. In this world, a varied group of people stumble upon a secret plot put in motion by a cadre of the richest men in the world. At the center of the plot is Otherland, an intense, virtual reality beyond anything anyone has ever imagined before.

The series is global in scope and filled with a plethora of fascinating characters and locations. The worlds featured in the book, both Otherland and the real world, are rich with detail and fascinating in their variety and complexity. The characters are well fleshed out and their motivations are well detailed. The short news feeds at the beginning of each chapter create a frighteningly realistic future and the plot is satisfactorily complex and detailed.

I loved this book and the entire series. The one caveat is that the series is long and takes time to get through. Each book is over 800 pages and none of them end until the finale.

Still, this is a great series that should not be missed by epic fantasy or science fiction fans.