Synopses & Reviews
Anyone can go there. Coming back is another story.
New York Times best-selling author Tad Williams has become a force to be reckoned with in the publishing world, as is evident from the enormous popularity and critical acclaim for his spectacular Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. Now, DAW Books is proud to present Tad Williams's groundbreaking new masterpiece, his most compelling work to date Otherland a bold new vision of an all-too possible tomorrow.
The first in a four-book series, City of Golden Shadow is a complex suspense novel of the near future, where virtual reality has expanded to encompass all aspects of society and national, physical, and mental boundaries are limited only by the virtue or darkness of the imagination, offering an entirely new level of freedom to people in all walks of life. But a blood-chilling conspiracy involving the world's most powerful individuals now threatens to shatter this world to its very core....
Otherland is Tad Williams's finest hour, an astonishing work of fiction that is truly destined to become a classic.
Review
"At an imposing seven-hundred-plus pages, only the most die-hard SF/computer tech fans will stick with it, but the research, writing, and character development are all remarkably well done." Kevin S. Beach, VOYA
Review
"Williams proves himself as adept at writing science fiction as he is at writing fantasy....His version of the Net, although obviously indebted to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and other novels, is detailed and fascinating. Best of all, however, are Williams's well-drawn, sympathetic characters..." Publishers Weekly
Review
"An exciting addition to the growing virtual reality literature from the author of Caliban's Hour." Library Journal
Review
"Another doorstopper fantasy from Williams, book one of a projected tetralogy large enough to satisfy the most gargantuan appetite....[A]fter 782 pages of flabby confusion, readers, like most of the characters, will have only the vaguest idea of what it's all about. If, for whatever reason, you intend to absorb the entire tetralogy, you'll need your reading spectacles, a cool hundred bucks, a prodigious memory, and unlimited patience." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
First book in
New York Times-bestselling author Tad Williams's cyberpunk fantasy series
- "Tad Williams is the brightest and best of the fantasists." ―Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods Otherland. Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource--its children.
Only a few have become aware of the danger. Fewer still are willing or able to take up the challenge of this perilous and seductive realm. But every age has its heroes, and unusual times call for unusual champions:
Renie Sulaweyo, a teacher and the backbone of her family, proud of her African heritage, has fought all her life simply to get by. She has never wanted to be a hero. But when her young brother is struck down by a bizarre and mysterious illness, Renie swears to save him. When people around her begin to die, she realizes she has stumbled onto something she is not meant to know, a terrifying secret from which there is no turning back.
Xabbu is a Bushman, come to the city to learn skills which may save the spirit of his tribe. With the heart of a poet and the soul of a shaman, he will journey with Renie on this quest into the very heart of darkness.
Paul Jonas is lost, seemlingly adrift in space and time. As he flees from the bloody battlefields of World War I to a castle in the sky, and onward to lands beyond imagining, he must not only evade his terrifying pursuers, but solve the terrible riddle of his own identity.
Fourteen-year-old Orlando is also the invincible barbarian Thargorm, but only in his imagination. However, youth and frailty are not enough to get you excused from saving the world.
And Mister Sellars, a strange old man on a military base, a prisoner of both the government and his own body, may be the greatest mystery of all. Is he part of The Grail Brotherhood? Does he oppose them? Or, as he sits like a spider at the center of a vast web, does he have ambitions of his own?
The answers will only be found in Otherland.
Synopsis
Otherland...
Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nighmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource--its children.
About the Author
Tad Williams has held more jobs than any sane person should admit to-singing in a band, selling shoes, managing a financial institution, throwing newspapers, and designing military manuals, to name just a few. He also hosted a syndicated radio show for ten years, worked in theater and television production, taught both grade-school and college classes, and worked in multimedia for a major computer firm. He is cofounder of an interactive television company, and is currently writing comic books and film and television scripts as well. Tad and his family live in London and the San Francisco Bay Area. You can find Tad Williams at tadwilliams.com.�