Mountain of Black Glass

After reading the series "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" several years ago, I mentally noted Tad Williams as fantasy-writing force to remember. Even though that series fit the stock formula fairly well, it did it with panache. The heroes were not morally squeaky-clean and were a little rough around the edges. That is to say, they were living, breathing people who would have fit in with the masses of humanity in any era. They were Everyman thrust into extraordinary circumstances.So, when I saw that Mr. Williams' next series strayed from the realm of fantasy, I feared that he might be over-reaching himself. I was a fool to have worried. Although I have only read the first book of "Otherworld" so far, I have to place Mr. Williams in that small group of writers (Jules Verne, Stephen Donaldson, Robert Silverberg, Gene Wolfe, and a few others) that have been able to produce masterworks in both the fantasy and SF genres. And what SF it is! For a half-baked synopsis, we are thrust into the middle of the 21st century, where the entire planet Earth has become an electronic global village for those of enough means to afford it. What we think of as today's world-wide web has grown beyond all bounds and has practically taken on a visceral presence. To those with good enough equipment, the net has supplanted the physical world as their place to shop, to sight see, and to seek pleasures undreamed of in real life (or, RL as it is known to the citizenry of the day). Of course, as is always the case, much of the world's population still lives at a third-world level while the super wealthy have managed to transcend even the bounds of the known net to devise their own fantastic playland, known to the few who are aware of it as Otherland. The creators of Otherland are performing some evil deeds that somehow involves trapping pre-teen and teenage hackers in a state of stasis for some yet unknown sinister purpose. The story centers around a group of friends and relatives of some of the kids imprisoned in the net, others with axes to grind against the founders of Otherland, and a few rouge constructs loose in the net that are out to bring down the powers that be. I don't think I've given anyway any secrets that will decrease your enjoyment of the book. Does this sound suspiciously cyberpunk, or what? But, it is cyberpunk with panache. Mr. Williams shamelessly mixes in a little "Jack in the Beanstalk", a little "Alice in Wonderland", a taste of Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld", and just enough "Martian Chronicles" to know it's there. It is cyberpunk with a sense of humor, but also with a sense of dread. As is the case with George R. R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire", this is not a series for everyone. It is intense and some characters come to rather gruesome ends. It is not quite as graphic as Mr. Martin's series, but there are some unsettling moments. Having said that, I will also say that it's no more frightening than anything else in the genre, so tak

The vision this book projected nearly blinded me. The book opens spectacularly and keeps hitting you with a brilliantly protrayed world and facenating characters. This is the best sci-fi fatasy blend that I have ever read. Williams weaves in and out of sub-plots, building up suspence with remakable effectiveness(I bought the sequal the day I finshed it). Children are collasing into unexplianable comas after trips on the net. People are finding mysterious keys, and visions of a golden city. A dreaded serial killer is attacking a secret society, to protect his employers. All these events lead to the golden city where some answers are held. This story is a fun ride through a world that is a remarakable feat of imagination. Anyone can think up of a story like this, but it takes real talent to make it work. This book is really the first part of four, of what is one book. Williams comments on this, saying he wrote the outline as just one story, but he obviously cannot publish one 3,000 + page book.

If you want to read a wonderful balancing act of sci-fi, excellent characters (and characterization), satire, mythology ,with some philosophical questions wavering the scale of good vs. evil...this book is for you. Be warned: people with a short attention span will find this book difficult (the writer of the Kirkus Review comes to mind). If you like to be challenged by your choice in fiction-by all means read this book! Williams reminds me of John Barth in his manipulation of mythology and the human condition

City of Golden Shadow, the first book in the series, set the stage and introduced us to the Otherland world, set sometime in our near future. In the second installment, River of Blue Fire, our various heroes found themselves spread out across the virtual realm of the Otherland virtual network. Now, in the third book, Williams has managed to up the ante, and things actually happen. I felt the first book was excellent as an introduction, but the second fell off as nothing of any real import seemed to occur. Now, in Mountain of Black Glass, Williams has paid off on the promise he made in Golden Shadow. The first two books are must-reads to understand this masterpiece, but the payoff is worth it. Williams' ability to create another world is unmatched, and his capacity to weave an ever-increasing number of storylines into a compelling and coherent narrative is startling. Well worth the read, though this lengthy series is not for the faint of heart or short of attention span.

I must say that I am really enjoying Tad Williams' "Otherland" series quite thorougly. "Mountain of Black Glass" was no exception; it was, in my opinion, a fine addition to series, and helped resolves several plot points while beginning several more. Being one of the 'in-between' books in the series, it is largely concerned with furthering the plot until the conclusion of the tetralogy, but still things that *should* get done in the plot do. And, of course, the author throws in enough new and suprising material tho satisfy--and confuse-- the audience. By the end of the book, the reader is as clueless as to what is really going on as the hapless characters are themselves. The suspense and tension only add to the book's appeal, as Williams is making us all wait patiently for the final volume for all our questions to be answered.I must applaud Tad for once again creating some fine fantastical worlds for his characters to play in. Seeing Paul struggle through ancient, Homeric Greece or Rene and the Gang struggle through the House was very entertaining. Tad has done a remarkable job on developing his characters; the reader grows to care for them, and when an unfortunate few do not make it to the last page alive...well, I must say I felt a bit distressed, to say the least.The only real complaint I have about the book is that the numerous character perspectives can be quite confusing at times. There are literally dozens of separate players in this little drama, and when each is given their own time in the spotlight, things can get a little muddled at times. But I feel that that problem is overcome by the wonderful variety of the characters and the interesting perspectives each one brings. Rene, Dread, Cristabel, Jongleur--each is different in their own way, and each brings something different to the narrative. I can hardly wait till the end of the series just so I can see how everything is finally resolved!