All is not well in the succession to the throne and there are dark forces conspiring to topple the empire.
Simon is a kitchen boy serving his time in the feudal household of the good King John in the Hayholt, the fortress at the heart of the Osten Ard empire. As at the beginning of any journey, there’s a bit of familiarisation before we can properly get going on the epic quest behind this book and its two (or three depending on how you read them) successors. The inspiration of George RR Martin’s later, multi-character, relationship-based epic fantasy is the starting place for many, maybe the majority of Tad fans. So where to begin? Where it all began: The Dragonbone Chair (Book One in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series)
TAD WILLIAMS OTHERLAND VOLUME 1 SERIES
I’m not sure if anyone has tried adding up the number of published words but if we assume the minimum length of any of his series books is 300,000 ( and many are much longer) my guess would be in excess of 5 million words all told. And as dangers and circumstances split their party into small, widely scattered groups, their only hope of reuniting lies in returning again and again to the River that flows-in one form or another-through all the worlds.īut the odds seem to be completely against them as they-and the one outsider with whom they might join forces-become hopelessly lost in realms where an Ice Age tribe's fears can only be quenched in blood.where insects are as large and deadly as dinosaurs.where they are caught in the war between a man made of straw and one made of tin.where cartoon ads take on a life of their own.where humans strive to survive in the aftermath of an alien invasion.and where one among their party is actually The Grail Brotherhood's most terrifying weapon-a sociopathic killer who has never failed and whose current mission is to make certain that not even one member of this little invasion force lives long enough to reveal the truth about Otherland to the people of Earth.When discussing the work of Tad Williams, three words tend to crop up: ‘beloved’ (as in best-loved author) ‘warm hearted’ (his delight in creating empathic heroes and heroines) and ‘immersive’ (his ability to conjure massive, sweeping worlds rivalling Tolkien). 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. And now a small band of adventurers has penetrated the veil of secrecy that prevents the uninitiated from entering Otherland. For they have exacted a terrible price from humanity in the process, and even their highly organized global conspiracy cannot hide the nature of their crimes forever. Though their purpose in creating Otherland is still a mystery, it may not remain so for long. 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. 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.
0 kommentar(er)
