City of Golden Shadow Audiobook By Tad Williams cover art

City of Golden Shadow

Otherland Book 1

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City of Golden Shadow

By: Tad Williams
Narrated by: George Newbern
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Buy for $15.75

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ANYONE CAN GO THERE... COMING BACK IS ANOTHER STORY.

The first in a four-audiobook series, Otherland: City of Golden Shadow is a complex suspense novel of the near future, where virtual reality has expanded to encompass all aspects of society -- and national, physical, and mental boundaries are limited only by the virtue or darkness of the imagination, offering an entirely new level of freedom to people in all walks of life. But a blood-chilling conspiracy involving the world's most powerful individuals now threatens to shatter this world to its very core.... Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Adventure Cyberpunk Fiction Hard Science Fiction Fantasy Artificial Intelligence
Immersive Worldbuilding • Complex Characters • Excellent Accent Versatility • Imaginative Concept • Intriguing Plotlines

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WAIT! Don't give up too soon!

The City of Golden Shadow opens with trench warfare. Oh no, says I, no way I'm listening to another WWI trench warfare book. I almost quit right there, but fortunately I hung in for a few more minutes and the narrative took a turn for the truly bizarre. This has to be one of the oddest opening sequences ever written. I knew right then that I was probably going to give it a pretty high rating.

The story takes place towards the end of this century (mostly?), shifting back and forth between RL and VR ( real life and virtual reality.) The main character is a female South African computer teacher, a sort of cyber detective. Her student/sidekick, a bushman, provides an interesting counterpoint to the high tech world they work in (literally!)

I like the book. Really. Still, I have to say it's awfully long.... And then there are the three remaining volumes staring me in the face. And be warned, if you make to the end of this one, you'll pretty much have to read the rest. Combined, the series adds up to Nearly 120 hours, so you won't like this book unless you REALLY like this kind of book.

As for the narration, I thought it was dead on. One thing to watch out for: within a chapter, there is absolutely no break as the scene shifts from one character/situation to another. At first I was a little frustrated, but then I decided that it was precisely the right approach to convey how very confused the characters were most of the time. (Is virtual reality just a fancy term for unreality?)

This book gets an extra star just for the sheer magnitude of intriguing strangeness. I was going to give it three because there were times when I felt like I was slogging through molasses and I wanted it to start clearing up some of the mysteries, but I kept going back to the delightful weirdness. I confess that I plan to take quite a long break before I start the next book in the series.

Weird. Seriously weird.

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I won't write a long review of this wonderful tale, a reader's dream of virtual lands made up of book worlds: Alice Through the Looking Glass, Gormenghast,, Borroughs' Mars books, etc. I've read it four times through in book form; I find George Newbern's reading wonderful. He handles the many foreign accents perfectly, even the African ones, and brings all the characters to life with their distinctive voices.

This is the best work Tad Williams has ever done, a cyberspace classic still as current as when it was written. It will be a classic, I predict, because of the strong and heart-warming characters.

A challenge George Newbern meets with triumph

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This is the start of a grand story, not a stand-alone book. It's intriguing with many threads and interesting characters.
If you like long stories where the characters find themselves in strange circumstances, trying to survive against insurmountable odds, you'll like this series.
Some books are 'novels' and some books are 'stories'. This series is a 'story' told by a wonderful storyteller.

Wonderful story-telling!

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If you could sum up City of Golden Shadow in three words, what would they be?

It's bloody amazing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mr. Sellars. He reminds me a lot of Hari Seldon from the Foundation serries.

Which scene was your favorite?

Yes.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yep.

It's incredible. Listen to it. Do it.

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This is by far one of my favorite questing stories. I first read this when cell phones had hinges and the words like pad and NETFLIX had zero meaning in reality. my how the imagery in this book has become so defined by , well, reality .

Excellent book and performance.

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