Just Finished Rereading Final Two Books in Tad Williams' Otherland Series

Several years ago I went with my family to Walt Disney World near Orlando, specifically the Magic Kingdom.  One of the attractions there was a show called Carousel of Progress, which through their famous robotic doll/actors portrayed the advance of technology and living standards over the years...and a glimpse into the future.  That rosy future showed grandma sitting in the living room with the kids playing a virtual reality space video game...as she called out her increasing score the voice-sensitive oven in the kitchen kept heating up correspondingly, to a smoky ending...

The kind of virtual reality that causes its participants to react to what's going on in a manner that can be seen by outside observers is also exemplified by the commercial showing another VR video game player falling all over his furniture while getting caught up in the "action".  In Tad Williams' four-part science fiction Otherland series...for which I just finished rereading the final two books...you can't tell at all what's going on in virtual reality for their users (the story is set a hundred years into our future): the connection goes straight to their brains, bypassing their physical bodies.  I find this notion of such disconnectedness with the outside world more than a little problematic.  On the other hand, although I've not yet experienced virtual reality, I wonder whether it might be a bit hazardous should my own physical reactions to what's digitally going on, like with grandma or the stumbling young man, possibly result in damage or injury.  Well, I guess I'll never know until I try it out...

I liked Otherland, which is kind of like a "Jurassic Park" for virtual reality: there are many great wonders for the visitors, but they soon find that they are trapped in an artificial alternate reality that is ominously changing in a way that increasingly threatens their very existence.  My favorite book in the series was the first one, in which the novelty of the world of virtual reality is presented.  Too soon, though, I was getting tired of the characters traveling from one "world" to the next, each time having to get accustomed to each new setting with its rules and new characters.  There were several important mysteries that needed solving, and the author kept teasing me, the reader, with them until the very end of the final book...Sea of Silver Light...when one of the characters finally lays it all out for everyone to understand...

To Otherland's credit I do think that the characters in this series were memorable and thoughtfully crafted.  There's a lot of dialogue in here and you get to know each of them (and there are quite a few) very well...in a way that you might not know the "real" folks around you.  Ultimately, it was the novelty of the virtual reality experience at the beginning and then characters like Renie, !Xabbu, Long Joseph, Orlando, Fredericks, Olga, Mr. Sellars, Cristabel, Paul Jonas, "Dread", and Matrine...to name just some of the standouts...that sustained me through to the end.  I think there is a problem with all series in that they tend to be longer than necessary, with that final volume often loaded with explanations at the expense of action.  Otherland was like this, but I nevertheless highly recommend it as a peek into one of our many possible futures...

Here's a list of the Otherland books:

#1 City of Golden Shadow
#2 River of Blue Light
#3 Mountain of Black Glass
#4 Sea of Silver Light