River of Blue Fire - Tad Williams

This is the second book in the Otherland series and picks up directly from where City of Golden Shadows left off. They are all one story and not separate books. The group are now trapped within the VR worlds that they were searching in the first book. More of the over plot is revealed and as a reader you can start piecing things together in a very satisfactory way. Once again the series is relatively slow but the depth of characters and feeling for the world that Williams gives you makes this, in my view, not a problem so much as an odd writing style, it makes the book a slow journey through the events rather than a rip roaring adventure ride that most Sci Fi books are. ...  Read the complete review

Part Two of Tad Williams' Otherland story is, as befits a middle act, a journey. Or, since the story follows a variety of characters and threads, several journeys. Each of these views is showing part of a world of the future, and a fragment of the gigantic Net system known as Otherland. The setting is an enormous virtual world, or many worlds, through which many of the characters are travelling in search of answers. Friends and relatives have been drawn into a mysterious illness, and disturbingly the victims are children. Without giving away the plot, these casualties are linked to the dark conspiracy that underlies the story. These machinations have trapped ...  Read the complete review

This continues straight on from the end of the first book and fortunately it has a synopsis of the first book so you can remember what has happened without haveing to re-read the first book(although you want to re-read the first book). The story has covered massive amounts of ground since the beginning of the first volume.I don't want to give too much away as it will ruin it for those who haven't read any.It gets even better in this volume and stranger.More questions are posed and more left unanswered. Again a Brilliant book but not accesible for those who haven't read the first one. ...  Read the complete review