Tad Williams
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Otherland: Sea of Silver LightOtherland, Book Four.
Synopsis Otherland -- the private, multidimensional universe created and controlled by The Grail Brotherhood, an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals -- was crumbling. The Brotherhood's plans for immortality within the network had been shattered by the monstrous intelligence that ran the network, a presence known only as the Other, and by the even more monstrous human being who called himself John Dread. Seizing control of the network from his employer, Felix Jongleur, Dread had now made himself the god of this virtual universe and was systematically turning the network's worlds into killing grounds. As helplessly trapped as Renie Sulaweyo, !Xabbu, Sam Fredericks, Martine, Paul Jonas, and the rest of the small band who had entered Otherland in an attempt to save the many children held captive within this virtual reality, Jongleur was now forced to make common cause with his enemies. Yet even as they struggled through the maze of invented worlds, striving to reach the true heart of Otherland, time was growing short. Caught in the surreal and deadly landscapes of the failing network, the desperate band battled against increasing odds to save the children, solve the bizzare mysteries of Otherland, and escape back to reality. But before long there might not be a "real" world to return to for any of them. For destroying Jongleur's playground was merely a dress rehearsal for Johnny Dread. Dread's ultimate plan was to gain control of Jongleur's massive corporate holdings and spread apocalyptic destruction through the entire Earth.... |
Reviews
Review From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly
This stunning finale to the gigantic Otherland tetralogy (City of Golden Shadow, etc.), a brilliant fusion of quest fantasy and technological SF, is sure to please Williams's many fans. Otherland, a complete universe co-existent with the real world, incorporates elements of the Arabian Nights, the Alice and Oz books, the Neanderthal Age, the Trojan War, rewritten Roman history (Hannibal returns three centuries after his death to crush Rome, without elephants), as well as numerous nursery rhymes and fables. An enormous cast of courageous humans confronts monstrous insects, unimaginable dangers and all the appurtenances of fantastic adventure. At nearly 700 pages this is a mighty mouthful to swallow, but a well-crafted if convoluted plot sustains interest through the lengthy climax, which explains the inexplicable. Those scenes grounded in a recognizable world are the most compelling. Individuals may live in both worlds, despite Otherland being only made of "light and numbers." Characters dead in real life can still be alive in the virtual world, as in the poignant plight of a young woman, whose dress and manners are 18th century, who's in love with a young man snatched, apparently, from the trenches of WWI. Are they real or "sims" (simulations)? Generously, the author supplies two master villains: one for whom we may begrudge some respect; for the other, no mercy. The Otherland books are a major accomplishment. Agent, Matt Bialer. (Apr. 10) Forecast: Williams should enjoy another run up the genre bestseller lists with this strong concluding volume. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. (Printed with the permission of BN.com)
The Barnes & Noble Review
In December 1996, I picked up a copy of Tad Williams' I, a 770-page tome. Somewhere in the first 50 pages or so, I was hooked. I found I was reading something that was unlike anything else that I had previously read. The best comparison I could come up with was a dark version of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, one of my favorite books. Only when I reached the end of the book did I realize, with great frustration, that this was only the first book in a four-book saga.
A full 18 months later, the second book, Otherland: River of Blue Fire, was released. If anything, it was better than the first installment. Unfortunately, I read the book much too quickly and had to wait almost two years before I could read the third Otherland book, Mountain of Black Glass.
In 2001 -- almost five years after it all began -- the final volume in this epic saga, Otherland: Sea of Silver Light, finally became available. As I started this volume, two things became apparent to me. The first thing was that I was very happy that a brief synopsis of the previous three novels was included in the beginning of this book. The second thing was that, within a few pages, it became apparent that I remembered and cared for all of the characters in the book. Regardless of the genre, if the reader does not care about the people that populate the book, the author has failed. Williams successfully makes us interested in a very large group of people, along with their individual quests. This is not an easy thing to do when you consider that this series took about 3,000 pages and half a decade to complete.
Sea of Silver Light picks up right where Volume Three ended, and immediately the reader discovers the answer to one of the big questions in the first three books -- about Paul Jonas's relationship with his angel, Avialle. This was a wonderful way to begin the book, because the reader is instantly drawn into the lives and situations of all of the main characters (and there are many of them).
This series takes place somewhere around 50 years in the future, and the central theme is the evolution of the Internet. Virtual reality is the norm, making both online games and research much more entertaining. People can plug into the Net and experience other realities as an avatar. Of course, those with the most money can experience much more than those without. Felix Jongleur, along with several other extremely wealthy and powerful individuals, has taken over 30 years to create an online environment so realistic that all five senses are utilized, making online and real-world experiences sensorially identical. Each member of Jongleur's group, the Grail Brotherhood, has created environments that he is the master of. The number of environments seems to be infinite, from ancient Egypt to the battle of Troy to a version of Mars. However, the operating system (an entity known as the Other), is somehow responsible for making thousands of children unable to go offline; their real-life bodies lapse into a coma-like state, their lives slowly ebbing away. Various characters, both online (those people are stuck online with no way out, except to die) and in the real world, try to find out just what is happening to the world's children.
Otherland: Sea of Silver Light takes us along with its main characters, as each group is trapped in a different environment. The operating system begins to crumble as Jongleur's personal assassin, known as Dread, double-crosses his boss and begins to take over all of Otherland. Williams manages to make the tension build throughout the 900-plus pages, while answering (or allowing us to answer) all of the saga's questions. The ending of this book was all I hoped it would be. (Wayne Jackson)