Claudia's Reviews > City of Golden Shadow

” The world was all mud and wire. The war in the heavens was only a faint imitation of the horror men had learned to make.”

Tad Williams is one of the few who can write fantasy and science fiction with the same amazing skills. He’s a born storyteller, too bad he’s underrated. But it’s the readers’ loss.

I think City of Golden Shadow is the most complex story I have read so far. It’s a post-cyberpunk at the base, with the most intricate VR I have ever encountered in a book. It's not an easy read, but hell, it was all worth it!

Totally different worlds and genres are mingled together in a VR like no other: WWI meets Jack and the beanstalk, ancient Egypt with its Gods, chess pieces are brought to life, Mars is present too, there is even a snuff club, many other more locations and characters, and above them all an (presumably) AI at which we barely have a glimpse here. Steampunk, fantasy, historical fiction, horror - all have a part in it.

The journey starts from a little boy who enters in a coma after being online, and his sister, Renie, suspects that it has something to do with the VR. Trying to understand what happened, and with the help of a few others, she discovers something beyond any imagination.

Beside her storyline, there are several others’, and you, as the characters themselves, will not know for sure when and where they are: in the VR or RL. There are snippets at the beginning of each chapter with news from RL, apparently not related to the storyline, but toward the end the connection becomes obvious. I also think their role is not to lose yourself completely in the VR. The following one was very amusing to me – at least here we were able to host the event:

NETFEED/SPORTS: TMX Makes Olympic "Goodwill Gesture"

(visual: TMX/Olympic flag rippling over Athenaeum, Bucharest)

VO: Telemorphix, Inc. has made what it calls a "goodwill gesture" to resolve its dispute with the International Olympic Committee and the government of the Wallachian Republic. Instead of "The Telemorphix Bucharest Olympic Games," as the corporation had initially insisted the event be known, the official name will be "The Bucharest Olympic Games, Sponsored by Telemorphix."

I can’t put into words how complex and amazing it is; maybe for a veteran gamer it will not be that astonishing, but for me it was an incredible journey. Yes, it’s very long, and it doesn’t have closure, because it’s just the first part of the story; as the author told us, “it’s not really a series – it's one very, very long novel".

If you're not a fan of long stories, then skip it - for Tad Williams, the story is not about the destination, it's the journey that’s important. But if you love them, this is one of the most amazing stories, with an incredible worldbuilding and a bunch of odd characters (both real and virtual) that will grow on you – you'll either love those worthy of it and hate the villains, but none of them will leave you indifferent.

One more thing: as these days is the European Football Championship, below fragment made me laugh so hard, it’s was so fitting, because all I hear from my colleagues in the morning are talks about the matches:

”Renie had heard a colleague say that men were like dogs; if so, it was never more apparent than when they watched the movement of a ball.”