Tad Williams began his Otherland series with the massive City of Golden Shadow and continues it with the equally hefty River of Blue Fire. Williams says it will require four (big) books to tell his complex, multithreaded tale, and at the rate that the plot of this second novel moves, readers will see what he means. Not that the book is a slow read; in fact, River is as much a suspenseful page-turner as the first book.

As River opens, we join up again with the ragtag bunch of searchers trapped in an astoundingly detailed and frightfully dangerous virtual world known as Otherland. Lurking in disguise among the group is the brutally vicious serial killer Dread, trying to find information that will help him overthrow his Grail Brotherhood masters. The group follows a ubiquitous river through world after world, unable to go offline, and subject to the increasingly terrifying certainty that things in this supposedly virtual place are all too real. Meanwhile, Paul Jonas, an amnesic (but somehow pivotal) character fleeing from two sinister beings, finds more and more of his memory as he does his own Huck Finn river trip. As in the first novel, each new world that the characters enter, from Paleolithic Ice Age to something suspiciously like Oz, is fully realized and completely unpredictable.

Williams is a master at parceling out information to the reader in dribs and drabs, which is frustrating yet tantalizing, like a particularly good computer game. When the group is split up and the adventure divides further, the reader senses the author as a puppet master, following some incredibly complex flows of information. The best course is just to hang on and enjoy Williams's deft characterizations, lush descriptions, and wildly divergent plot. If you've ever been white-water rafting, you'll recognize the feeling. --Therese Littleton


From Publishers Weekly
In his first work of SF, Otherland: City of Golden Shadow (1997), bestselling fantasist Williams (To Green Angel Tower) introduced one of the most impressive virtual-reality landscapes ever created. Otherland, a gigantic realm consisting of untold numbers of virtual universes, is the creation of the mysterious and evil Grail Brotherhood, a cabal of billionaire capitalists, ruthless gangsters and corrupt government officials. Bent on discovering the secret of eternal life, they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, even the deaths of hundreds of children whose minds have been trapped on the Net. City of Golden Shadow told the story of a small band of virtual explorers who dared to enter Otherland without permission, some for adventure, others to save the children ensnared on the Net. In this second volume of a projected four-book series, the quest continues. As often happens with middle entries in a series, there are a few problems. Despite a six-page summary, readers unfamiliar with City of Golden Shadow may have trouble figuring out the complex backstory. Further, with little to tie the various plot threads together at either end, the book lacks an obvious structure. Still, Williams is an exciting and endlessly inventive writer whose character development is particularly strong, and his fans should roundly enjoy this volume while looking forward to the remaining installments. Editors: Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Trapped in the top-secret virtual world known as Otherland, a small group of online explorers travel along a river of possibilities in search of a way back to the real world. This sequel to OtherWorld: City of Golden Shadow (LJ 11/15/96) delivers a kaleidoscopic array of dreamscapes and nightmare worlds that form a setting for a complex tale of conspiracy and betrayal. Williams displays a prodigious talent for spinning multiple variations on a theme as he alternates between real and virtual worlds. This fast-paced, ambitious blend of fantasy and sf belongs (along with its predecessor) in most fantasy collections.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Williams' Otherland saga straddles the line between sf and fantasy. Otherland, in which imagination can create everything, is implicitly the result of advanced twenty-first-century science. On the other hand, Otherland operates, once Williams sets it going, as much by magical concepts as by natural ones. This second volume in the series presents the adventures of a small band of hardy, even heroic folk who have broken the Grail Brotherhood's barriers to entering Otherland and are hoping to open the place to the common run of humankind. In the course of this part of its journey, the band encounters--to cite only a few of the book's exciting features--giant insects, advertisements coming to life, postholocaust worlds, and treachery from a Grail Brother within their own ranks. Williams depicts the band's adventures vividly, sometimes giving them a satirical edge, sometimes a didactic one, and sometimes both, but he piles the satire and instruction on so that the characters sometimes seem crowded nearly offstage. Also, even in this age of the multivolume yarn and even though this one is the work of a powerful imagination and high-class world builder, this particular book would have profited from trimming. So it is not the ideal place to start learning about either megasagas or Williams. But it is a powerful story and indubitably absorbing reading for fantasy lovers, especially those with long attention spans. Roland Green


From Kirkus Reviews
Second chunk of Williams's vast four-part doorstopper about Otherland (City of Golden Shadow, 1996), an exclusive and impregnable virtual reality created by the evil Grail Brotherhood. Various good guys--amnesiac WWI soldier Paul Jonas, teacher Renie Sulawayo, blind researcher Martine Desroubins, the strange, crippled, mysterious old Mr. Sellars, etc.have banded together to try to prevent the Brotherhood from doing, well, whatever it is that they're planning to do, with the control of everything (both real-world reality and the anything-goes cyberspace of Otherland) at stake. Patience, patience. The author apologizes for not providing proper endings for each individual entry, but he's actually writing one single book, thousands of pages long, that's broken up into chunks for practicality's sake. Now you know. For the rest, even with Williams's helpful synopsis, it's a dreadful struggle to remember who, what, where, when, and especially why. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Tad Williams presents...

The mass market edition of Volume Two...

"A powerful, near-future cyberthriller."--Booklist

"Williams proves himself as adept at writing science fiction as he is writing fantasy....Fascinating." --Publishers Weekly

"An exciting addition to the growing virtual reality literature."--Library Journal

* A bestselling author--New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, London Times, Publishers Weekly

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Otherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the twenty-first century. But this most exclusive of places is also one of the world's best kept secrets, created and controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals, a private cartel known - to those who know of their existence at all - as The Grail Brotherhood. And now a small band of adventurers have penetrated the veil of secrecy that prevents the uninitiated from entering Otherland. But having broken into the amazing worlds within worlds that make up this universe, they are trapped, unable to escape back to their own flesh-and-blood bodies in the real world.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In his first work of SF, Otherland: City of Golden Shadow (1997), bestselling fantasist Williams (To Green Angel Tower) introduced one of the most impressive virtual-reality landscapes ever created. Otherland, a gigantic realm consisting of untold numbers of virtual universes, is the creation of the mysterious and evil Grail Brotherhood, a cabal of billionaire capitalists, ruthless gangsters and corrupt government officials. Bent on discovering the secret of eternal life, they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, even the deaths of hundreds of children whose minds have been trapped on the Net. City of Golden Shadow told the story of a small band of virtual explorers who dared to enter Otherland without permission, some for adventure, others to save the children ensnared on the Net. In this second volume of a projected four-book series, the quest continues. As often happens with middle entries in a series, there are a few problems. Despite a six-page summary, readers unfamiliar with City of Golden Shadow may have trouble figuring out the complex backstory. Further, with little to tie the various plot threads together at either end, the book lacks an obvious structure. Still, Williams is an exciting and endlessly inventive writer whose character development is particularly strong, and his fans should roundly enjoy this volume while looking forward to the remaining installments. Editors: Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert. (July)

VOYA - Kevin Beach

Tad Williams, popular author of another fantasy series entitled Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, has his own Web site where readers exchange theories and trivia about his characters. This series is projected to fill at least four volumes. Volume two picks up where the original book (Otherland [DAW, 1996/VOYA June 1997]) left off, with the various 21st-century characters caught in a cyberspace dreamscape presumably controlled by a secret society known as the Grail Brotherhood. Unable to go off-line, the rag-tag group, each with his or her own reason for being there, follows the river that takes them from one grid to another in Otherland, each landscape more bizarre than the one before. They seek answers to why they or their relatives lie in coma states as their minds remain trapped in the virtual realm. The main character is once again a confused Paul Jonas who is relentlessly pursued through the various scenarios. The other main characters, including two Africans, a teacher, and a bushman, lead the rest of the personalities through other fantastic panoramas. Add to this plots involving a serial killer, the world's oldest human, the host of a children's TV show, an old man who secretly monitors the activities on-line, and the efforts of the various cybernauts' family members who watch over the characters' real bodies. Stories enticingly criss-cross as the plot slowly beings to thread together. The characters are interestingly drawn as they divulge their secrets. Attention to plot twists and the unexpected keeps the reading entertaining; still, the typical YA reader may not want to invest energy in a series that is already over 1,600 pages in two installments. Excellent, imaginative writing definitely make this a must for the audience of fantasy and cyber-fiction readers. VOYA Codes: 5Q 3P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Will appeal with pushing, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Library Journal

Trapped in the top-secret virtual world known as Otherland, a small group of online explorers travel along a river of possibilities in search of a way back to the real world. This sequel to OtherWorld: City of Golden Shadow (LJ 11/15/96) delivers a kaleidoscopic array of dreamscapes and nightmare worlds that form a setting for a complex tale of conspiracy and betrayal. Williams displays a prodigious talent for spinning multiple variations on a theme as he alternates between real and virtual worlds. This fast-paced, ambitious blend of fantasy and sf belongs (along with its predecessor) in most fantasy collections.

Kirkus Reviews

Second chunk of Williams's vast four-part doorstopper about Otherland (City of Golden Shadow, 1996), an exclusive and impregnable virtual reality created by the evil Grail Brotherhood. Various good guys—amnesiac WWI soldier Paul Jonas, teacher Renie Sulawayo, blind researcher Martine Desroubins, the strange, crippled, mysterious old Mr. Sellars, etc.þhave banded together to try to prevent the Brotherhood from doing, well, whatever it is that they're planning to do, with the control of everything (both real-world reality and the anything-goes cyberspace of Otherland) at stake. Patience, patience. The author apologizes for not providing proper endings for each individual entry, but he's actually writing one single book, thousands of pages long, that's broken up into chunks for practicality's sake. Now you know. For the rest, even with Williams's helpful synopsis, it's a dreadful struggle to remember who, what, where, when, and especially why.