Otherland

[The Xeno]

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Just curious if anyone has read Tad William's work. About two years ago i stumbled across the Otherland series, and became an instant fan (well, it took forever to finish the series...but near instant ), I believe it's one of the greatest (and longest) sci-fi stories I've read. Bear in mind, it was published in '96 - and is a marvel of prediction.

Otherland - City of Golden Shadow Pt. 1
Otherland - River of Blue Flame Pt. 2
Otherland - Mountain of Black Glass Pt. 3
Otherland - Sea of Silver Light Pt. 4
(Sci-fi epic. And I do mean epic. This is a four volume beast.)


Once I started to read/research his other works, i discovered he has a fantasy epic... Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn - which is comprised of:

The Dragonbone Chair Pt. 1
Stone of Farewell Pt. 2
To Green Angel Tower (conclusion of the trilogy, broken into two books)

I am not a particularly avid Fantasy fan - but I really enjoyed this trilogy -
it isn't high-fantasy and its no dungeon crawl either. It's a nice, solid work, that creates a very immersive world with a huge cast.

My least favorite work of his - War of the Flowers.
But I will need to re-read it, before I claim to actually dislike it.

Finally, his recent fantasy exploration is the Shadowmarch series -
I've only read the first book and have mixed impressions. Once again, a solid fantasy world.

[Phoenix of Terra]

Tad Williams... hmmm

*plans assualt on the nearest Borders*

[The Xeno]

Just be prepared... none of his works are potato chips.
With the Otherland series (I am neutral towards his fantasy stuff):
I set into them with my usual level of prejudice - and he pulled a number of stunts that normally make me throw down books in disgust (you do not make reference's to cult-classics without getting the facts dead on), and several times I almost thought I'd spent weeks of reading just to run into canned-fodder.

But, at the end of it - I looked back and was really, really impressed.
I don't think Tad is a genius of a writer - but he definantly makes up for any quality disparity with quantity - and for once, such a tactic worked for me.
Considering i had no positive expectations, didn't even buy the books (picked them up for free volunteering at a book sale)... actually stopped reading the first chapter to do something else....meh... slug through it and I think at the end you will be pretty astounded.

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