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• Tad Williams Otherworld series

  darania > August 31st, 2004, 09:49 AM

  Has anyone else out there read the entire Tad Williams Otherworld chronicles & if so what do U think of the plot & characters...?

• Tad Williams Otherworld series

  mpee > October 28th, 2004, 04:22 AM

  This is a monster of a quartet to get through.
  
  The conclusion is interesting, but I'm not sure it is worth the 3000 odd pages it takes to get there.
  
  I think Williams fell in love with his creation and spent too much time sending his heroes from virtual world to virtual world. I think the entire quartet could have been condensed, and so a much more tightly written work. This quartet gets bogged down in detail, but in doing so seems to pay homage to many classic works: Alice in Wonderland, War of the Worlds, Egyptology, Wizard of Oz, etc..
  
  Still, it is an interesting read. I've always been a fan of Williams' style. Easy, readable style.
  
  You could actually probably read the first and fourth books and not miss out on too much!
  
  ~ Matt
  
  P.S. Tailchaser's Song is probably one of his most tightly written works and is therefore IMO his most rewarding read.
  
  Caliban's Hour is worth a look, while Child of an Ancient City is an interesting idea that probably falls a bit short.
  
  However, all of these are short (for Williams) and are more tightly written than the Otherworld books.

• Tad Williams Otherworld series

  Kassa D > November 21st, 2004, 08:05 AM

  I read the first novel in the Otherworld series and found that although the story itself was reasonably interesting, it did get too bogged down in detail and seemed to marvel at its own worldscape and its slightly obscure at times characterisation. (Not quite sure if that could be legally counted as a sentence but oh well, syntax has always been my mortal enemy! :angry: )
  
  Still, I did enjoy reading about Orlando and some of the cyber worlds or games Williams created were really fascinating. I found myself wanting him to write more about Orlando's mythic/medieval, Morrowind-like game (say that one fast three times :bg: ) and less about the rest of his world!
  Actually, I think that was one of his problems and why the book became so tedious to get through. He tried to cram way to much World into it but put an equal amount of characterisation in as well, which created a smooth running but overlong read.
  
  Still, maybe the other books weren't as bad, I just couldn't bring myself to read them when I saw that they were just as long as the first one!

• Tad Williams Otherworld series

  dennisjbarton > December 8th, 2004, 03:22 AM

  Ditto Kassa's thoughts on bogged-down. Kind of reminded me of that Chung Kuo (sp?) series that came out in the 90s: nice concept, just way too long and way way too detailed. Can't see commiting so much time to reading a series of nine or ten books when there are works like Gravity's Rainbow out there to be re-read.
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