So after hundreds if not thousands of books I have been defeated. Otherland by Tad Williams is the first book I simply gave up on as it had no redeeming features. It is long winded, dull and after nearly twenty percent of it I had no real idea on the plot, connection to any of the characters or any interest in finishing it.
This is a book which should appeal to me with its sci-fi and fantasy leanings, VR and a series of books rather than just one but strangely it is one which I had not heard off. Indeed if it were not for the excellent youtube video series by JoshStifeHeyes detailing his play through of the MMO based on the book then I would probably never have heard of it and also been a few quid better off. The video series is well worth a watch though and is far more entertaining and absorbing than the book.
So after the series I did a bit of digging and found that Otherland is actually a four book series with the first now being called City of Golden Shadow. A quick check on the local library catalogue showed no copies (even in archive) and I could not recall ever having seen the cover in a book shop. This in retrospect was my first red flag and was one I should have listened to; but I didn’t and eventually I found a kindle version on Amazon and gave it a go.
Now this is not the first book I have attempted by Tad Williams. The first was one called War of the Flowers but I never had time to read it and think I sold it but I remember at the time being distinctly whelmed but that had been many many years ago (and at the time I did not recall that book) so nothing triggered in my mind. Full of hope I started and my god was it crushed quickly. How do I describe this book? Well in truth I don’t know because after roughly twenty percent of it I have no idea on the plot. We have Rennie trying to teach !Xibbu (and reading that spelling annoyed me more than it should have done for some reason), an inexperienced computer user whilst investigating why her brother is in some sort of coma after a VR experience. We have Orlando who is distracted by a golden vista and gets his cyber avatar killed as a result and some world war one soldier called Paul who is seemingly fighting off insanity. Links between them? Overarching plot? Not a clue. After literally a quarter of the novel I have no idea what links them.
On reflection I think that it is Paul’s storyline which makes things worse. Not because it is bad but because I struggled to reconcile it with a twenty first century VR based setting. It just seems so out of place and odd. Despite trying a few times I could not get my head around it and coupled with the long winded style of writing I quickly became bored.
I have read many challenging books with questionable narrative styles, I have read old books with archaic mannerisms and styles and none of them bored me in the way this one did. So I gave up. I cannot tell you if the story had a great ending or if the characters actually grow in the remaining seventy five percent of the book; because the first twenty five percent was so bad that I could not even force myself to find out.
Unless you are a fan of this author then this is the first (and hopefully last) book I would recommend you avoid even trying to find a copy of.
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