River of Blue Fire (Otherland, Volume 2)

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It's a hit!

River of Blue Fire is a flood of information in the Otherland series. It is starting to feel like a very enjoyable journey through the four part se... (show more)

River of Blue Fire is a flood of information in the Otherland series. It is starting to feel like a very enjoyable journey through the four part series. The first book was really slow going, bordering line too much character development. This book, the second in the series feels like is building the ground work for the next book in the series. The look forward instead of building the past has been much easier to read. Can’t claim to miss some of the characters which have been sixed at this point, and I am not crazy about a few of the new characters still surviving. I can only hope Emily snaps out of her behavior in another “world” or she drops off line. Can’t say I am enjoying the whining brat. I am starting to cheer for Orlando & Sam more and more, it may be because of their literary references that I am bonding with their characters more than the others, not sure yet. Anyway, looking forward to the third book in the series I am torn between my story line guesses being true or finding an unexpected delightful twist from the author. Maybe a little of both will happen in the next book, until then… (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-användare

No, it's a flop!

Although I love the style of Tad Williams, this was the hardest book to get through in terms of the story dragging on. There are about 6 chapters i... (show more)

Although I love the style of Tad Williams, this was the hardest book to get through in terms of the story dragging on. There are about 6 chapters in the middle that we could have done without and they ALL involve the Wizard of Oz simulation....Enough already!!
Towards the end the story picks up again and I regained interest, especially as Martine's story starts to come on the foreground. In all, the end left me with a cliffhanger, seeking the third book desparately!!!
I have to say this: It does not match up to the Dragonbone chair! (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-användare

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  Don't get me wrong, this is a very good book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested but to me it was just alot of the same. Nothing too terribly different happens. The characters travel through various VR worlds and must fight their way out. The basic plot doesn't change really through the entire book. The worlds may change, the challenges they encounter may vary but basically it is all the same with the more intricate details changing. I know it is the details tha... (show more)

  Don't get me wrong, this is a very good book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested but to me it was just alot of the same. Nothing too terribly different happens. The characters travel through various VR worlds and must fight their way out. The basic plot doesn't change really through the entire book. The worlds may change, the challenges they encounter may vary but basically it is all the same with the more intricate details changing. I know it is the details that make a book good or not but I kept saying to myself, "Ok, another world, another challenge, when is something really exciting going to happen?" There are so many storylines going on that it was a little bit difficult for me to follow at times, especially when I was forced to put the book down for any length of time.

  It is an interesting book with ideas that I find intriguing when applied to modern society and our continuing/growing reliance on technology. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook-användare on Nov 01, 2009 at 12:43AM

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  I was pretty excited about Otherland when I first heard about it. I'm a fan of Tad Williams' fantasy series, "Memory Sorrow and Thorn." Otherland is a high concept novel where a group of adventurers (I suppose you could say a group of normal people, but that's not what they are) is sucked into a virtual reality computer simulation where any world from the imagination is possible, and where if you get hurt in the simulation, your brain will be tricked into thinking your body is hurt ... (show more)

  I was pretty excited about Otherland when I first heard about it. I'm a fan of Tad Williams' fantasy series, "Memory Sorrow and Thorn." Otherland is a high concept novel where a group of adventurers (I suppose you could say a group of normal people, but that's not what they are) is sucked into a virtual reality computer simulation where any world from the imagination is possible, and where if you get hurt in the simulation, your brain will be tricked into thinking your body is hurt in the real world. If you die in the simulation, your comatose body dies in real life.

  I thought the series turned out okay. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I think it could have been better. For one thing, it's just too long, and is in massive need of better editing. Some of the worlds the characters explored were interesting, gripping, exciting. Some of them just seemed like descriptive slogs, where the author wanted to describe this cool idea he had for a world, and so he did so, but it had little bearing on the overall plot, and was not that interesting to the reader.

  The other major problem I had with this book was that the author insisted on carrying on a second storyline involving what was happening in the real world, with secret agents trying to find the "jacked-in" bodies of the adventurers. He carried this plot on through all four massive volumes, and I never liked it. It was always a boring distraction from the "real" action inside the simulation. Again, I think a good editor would have helped with this problem.
  The first volume and the last volume are the best, if I had to separate them out. The first because the concept is still new and exciting, and the last because you finally get the climax, which is very good. The middle two sometimes seem a little like work... (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook-användare on Apr 28, 2009 at 06:21PM

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