OTHERLAND Book One - City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams - No Spoiler Book Review
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- Опубликовано: 25 сен 2023
- OTHERLAND Book One - City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams - No Spoiler Book Review
#scifi #books #booktube
City of Golden Shadow is the first entry in the Otherland series and it is WEIRD. I hope you enjoy this no spoiler review and let me know if you plan to read this series down in the comments.
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Great review, Jimmy! One of the aspects of the story that struck me when I first read it 25 years go is how Tad introduces characters scattered across the world with limited (or no) connections between them (thereby confounding the reader), and then slowly connects them all in the virtual world in a kind of shared quest encompassing heroes and villains. It's as if he was crafting a large metaphor of how the internet began connecting the world in good and bad ways in the 1990s.
Orlando might be my favorite character in the series. Tad wrote a novella (found in the Legends II anthology) featuring Orlando that provides a nice epilogue to the series. You might want to track it down.
Oh man thank you! I definitely wanna read that epilogue type story. Orlando is so easy to connect with for multiple reasons. I have to say your point about the internet metaphor may be the best way anyone could ever explain this first book. You’re spot on!
Nice review! First read City of Golden Shadow about 20 years ago and it is still my fav sci-fi book ever. I mostly read Fantasy though and Otherland is actually the only Tad Williams books that I have read. And I agree that Orlando's POV is the best one... him and Fredricks are my fav duo and the main reason why I kept going through all four books. The first book is definitely the best one because of the mystery of it all. Also the audio book version is simply fantastic IMO... the guy doing all the different voices was down right amazing.
Great review Jimmy! I had no idea what this book was about and just hearing the explanation had my jaw on the floor for the whole video everytime you brought up something else. Would love to try out Tad Williams soon but the sheer size of those tomes makes me cower in fear. Excited to get to him!
As long as you’re cool with slower books I think you may enjoy it!
I love that you cover some of the slightly older works.
I try 😁
this sounds nuts, definitely gonna check this out!! thanks for the upload :)
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for reading this book and the review! I read the first three books way back when published and loved them. Now might be a good time to reread the series. 👍
Thanks!
I need to read more Williams. I can see him becoming a favourite author for me.
He’s the man!
I just picked up this book recently! Tad Williams’ work is something I think I’ll enjoy a lot
I hope you love it!!!
I'm so glad you've started to read Otherland. Like most of Tad Williams' series, it's a slog, but the payoff is so worth it. Otherland in particular feels like this wonderful blend of science-fiction, epic fantasy, technothriller, and horror.
I’m hyped!
I really enjoyed this series, its the only Tad Williams I ever read actually.
Great video as always!
Thanks!
Also started Shadowmarch, I’m liking it so far. Hopefully I can finish it before I have to return it to the library next week.
I liked the first Shadowmarch book a lot, need to return to it
I read the first two of this series, liked them, and then took a break cause they’re chunky, and a bit slow at times. Hearing your thoughts makes me want to get back to it since I do think it only goes up in book 2.
Join me!
Thanks Jimmy!!! The video was playing at .75 % and I was wondering if you had hit your head too hard at Jujitsu, but safe to say your head is intact
😂😂😂
Okay so totally not me thinking that this was just your typical run of the mill epic fantasy, lol. Thanks so much for doing this review, I am a thousand times more intrigued to give this series a shot now! I love me a good slow burn with some inventive elements, so this should be fun to try out!
Yeah it’s the most non conventional epic lol
This is one of my favourites, and my wife's too even though our tastes are quite different. I figured you'd enjoy it, it's a trip!
It was so fun
Man, I want to get into Tad Williams so badly, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to for at least another year. Your reviews are slowly convincing me to rethink my TBR 😅
Yesss my plan is working
Interesting title. I have not read a book by Tad Wlliams but the way you review it, this one gets my full attention.
It’s a slower journey but full of imagination
@@thefantasynuttwork I tend to love slow journey.
I really enjoyed this series but you need to check out his Shadowmarch Quartet. It's soooo good and gets nowhere near enough love. It's incredible fantasy and everyone sleeps on it.
read book one and liked it a ton! Will be getting back to it later
Lovely review of this book.
For a possible pronunciation of !Xabu's name, see Tad Williams' reading of City of Golden Shadow. He does it once in the beginning 😆And yes, it's a sort of clicking sound, but not produced with the tongue but rather at the back of the mouth, which makes it very difficult for us non-Africans to produce.
I didn’t wanna embarrass myself hahaha
@@thefantasynuttworkI understand. I was "lucky" enough to be in a class with an African student for one semester while taking Middle Ancient Egyptian (that was for fun, because Ancient Egypt always fascinated me). The professor said there were speculations that Egyptians had that clicking sound too, as that would explain why there's 2 hieroglyphs for the k sound, and had that student demonstrate how it sounds.
The closest description I can come with is a k sound produced at the back of the mouth, where the throat begins.
I don't remember too much from that class, but this is a fun little bit of trivia I can use to make me seem awfully knowledgeable 🤣
I’ll be honest, I have a 0% interest in this series…but I’ll watch your videos over them and I’ll still be entertained haha good job man, as always
Hahaha thanks man
I remember when this book came. My library in Las Vegas got a copy pretty quickly. I checked it out and read couple of chapters and decided that the book was too chuncky and returned it. I might have to give it a second chance after this review.
It’s definitely very chunky haha
I love weird sci fi but do I have the stamina for this series? That is the question! Thought you did a great job describing the different aspects of it, might pick it up later in the fall when I'm in the mood for a longer, more in depth read.
Thanks Maddy!
I’ve been meaning to get to this one, have had a copy for a few years. It’s long though 🤔
It’s long and very slow, gotta pick that perfect moment for it!
Very nice review.
Moi intrigued. 🤓
Thanks!
From the perspective of someone who lives in South Africa, he really did get a lot of nuances of the cultures here right.
Ps. If I'm not mistaken, you can use a click that sounds almost like a dripping tap (tongue against the roof of your mouth) to pronounce the !X part, so no Z sound is involved.
Thank you! That’s very helpful
Jimmy has read more books preparing for this review than I have all year. 😮🤙🤙 #callmetad
Only book one so far 😅
Been waiting for this review. You said you could start here with Tad, but would you recommend starting here?
You can. The books are kinda big, but there are only 4. Tad does have a few standalones if you wanna get a taste of his style.
I’d say yes, war of the flowers is another great start
@@thefantasynuttwork Otherland sounds so wild haha Thank you!
@@Rogue_VI Thanks!
This book was my gateway into Tad's writing, as I grew up in a household with science fiction loving parents who hated fantasy. It blew me away when I picked it up. (Ironically enough, I picked up Perdido Street Station around the same time as the first fantasy novel I read since childhood, so Mieville and Tad were my gateways into fantasy). It literally changed what I expected to get out of reading fiction.
If you think the series is weird now, just wait, because it gets even stranger in the later books. And it is notable how well the series has aged, considering many of the 1990s attempts to integrate the internet into their worldbuilding come across as antiquated today as Larry Niven's stories about a habitable Mars from the 1950s/1960s.
That’s awesome! Mieville is tremendous
@@thefantasynuttwork Yeah, I'm about halfway through writing my first novel now, and Mieville, Tad, and Erikson are who I'm primarily influenced by when I'm trying to write...though I also like GRRM and R. Scott Bakker a ton as well.
Jimmy you may want to check out a book called Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan, a fictional story about a woman who joins an aborigine tribe in the Outback. It really is unforgettable. When I read it 30 years ago I thought it was non-fiction.
This sounds really weird and awesome. Fantastic review my man. I gotta give Tad a try.
Kind of like me tbh
@@thefantasynuttwork 😂
I love this series. It meanders a bit in typical Tad Williams style but it’s so creative and genre bending. Very fun.
He’s one of my favs
Holy crap this sounds absolutely wild-I need to try this
It’s very slow but I think good!
My absolute favourite series! Read it a loooong time ago (had to wait a year for the last book) and the characters still live in my mind. ❤
I’m excited to continue!
I love this one! I’ve read book 1 like 4 times
That's awesome!
@@thefantasynuttwork first picked it up at the age of like 12 in book club edition at a second hand store. I have since tracked down all four in hardcover and have two of them signed
I need to finish book 4. But yeah this series is absolutely bananas. Love to see the Tad Williams representation. Also haven’t commented in a while lol.
It’s good to see you 😁
I have started many Tad William’s books and this was definitely my favourite
😂
Otherland isn't really a book series. It is a single 3,700 page book separated into four volumes by the publisher.
True lol
@@thefantasynuttwork When treated as a single book, it is either the fifth or sixth longest book ever (there are versions of In Search of Lost time both longer and shorter than it for number 5), so I get why the publisher split it up. That said, I own it in Paperback, E-Book, and used four Audible credits to have it in audiobook. Easily one of my top five.
🔥
😁
Though it took me a few months to finish this due to a slump at the time, the amount of imagination and different worlds created in Tad’s first book I will never forget. He also does something not many other authors do, which is give you a summary in his follow up books of previous books if you decide to take a break between them. Great series!
Tad is so kind for those summaries honestly hahah
I absolutely love this series.
Love to see it
I think the second book is a bit of a step down and the weakest of the four, but IMHO books 3 and 4 are a great time and the series might be his best overall.
Very excited to see where it takes me
I loved this series overall. I did have an issue with something late in book 4 but it wasn't something that made me think I'd wasted my time or would prevent me from recommending these books. There is so much cool stuff going on.
Ooooo I can’t wait to see if I can pick out what it is 👀
"It started in the mud, as many things do"
Just wait, it gets so much more weird, nightmarish, and mother of God what did I just read.
I’m pumped for that hahah, and what a great line
I think what most people think of as a slog is just Tad painting with words a literary analog to immersion. Some of it's slice of life, and some of it is for suspense. His epics are great because of the admixture of these elements with all the other moments from other genres he borrows from to cultivate something so engaging over time for whatever governing genre he is running with. Oh, well, can't please everyone. Hell, I couldn't get into Wuthering Heights at all, and it was required reading for my senior year. To this day I still think all the Bronte sisters are the worst authors this world had the misfortune to birth forth. Their writings are war crimes.
For me it never feels like a slog but I always have to caveat my reviews with the fact they’re slower books cause I know I’m a weirdo who likes slower books haha