If you enjoy quality Fantasy writing, this is definitely one to try - oh, and the little news clips at the start of each chapter had me laughing out loud.Ĭity of Golden Shadow is a sci-fi epic set in some undefined future where the Internet has gone all VR a bit like Ready Player One but written years before. Astoundingly for a story this long, and for me this only applies to Lord of the Rings, The Gormenghast Books and The Song of Ice and Fire (so far) from the Fantasy genre, this cycle is also eminently re-readable and rewards repeated forays into its multiplicity of worlds.
I shall not try to summarize the plot or characters but I guarantee that there are characters here that you will not have met before and plot structures abound that will have you reeling and wondering how it was done. But this story (as the four books are a single story not a tetrology), constitutes one of the most original, ambitious and extraordinary pieces of storytelling it has been my pleasure to delight in over the past few years. Tad Williams' first major outing (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn) was well written and had some good ideas but was a bit sub-Tolkein for my taste. These modern Fantasy writers (let's not worry about Tolkein who invented the modern genre and is possibly more stolen from than any author in history by the afore-mentioned hacks) include George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Lois MacMaster Bujold, Neil Gaiman and our current focus, Tad Williams. However every so often Constant readers such as myself come across genuine gems among the dross.
The list of such writers who should never have been allowed near a pen/typewriter/computer is huge and I will not elaborate here. Modern Fantasy, and I do classify this as Fantasy more than Science Fiction, is mostly, with some notable exceptions, truly appalling: derivative, badly plotted, dreadfully under-realised and under-developed characters.
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