City of Golden Shadow

Otherland, Book 1

By: Tad Williams

Narrated by: George Newbern

Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource - its children.

©1998 Tad Williams (P)2014 Penguin Audio

Great book, great narration

Great book, great narration.
Listened to this series several times.
Absolutely love it.
Interesting parallels in our world today.

Looking forward to next book.

Great and clever story. Very interesting and imageanitative. Looking ahead to the next book to see where it is going.

Typical Tad Williams

It started off v e r y s l o w, but did get more interesting towards the end. I'm not in any hurry to tackle the next book in the series, however.

Fantastic world building + great narration

I've read the book before so I knew the story, but I really enjoyed the narration. George Newbern can do accents really well, slipped up a couple of times but really with a book of this length and complexity, and plenty of switching accents (for example, an Australian conversing with a Columbian) his skill is impressive.

One thing others have noted, which could be jarring, is that there's no distinct indication when he's switching character POVs, but this is the same in the book -- if I recall correctly, there is maybe an extra space between paragraphs but no line of separation or little design or anything. So that's fairly true to the book as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. Tad Williams is one of my favorite authors for world building (check out War of the Flowers, which is a one-shot, not part of a series) and this series, with all its length, really has the ability to dive into the world(s).

Disappointed so far

The book never got interesting. George Newbern does a good enough job I suppose. But I was never all that entertained. I guess I could also say that I was never completely bored either. It’s a very average book. I will continue the series to see if it improves. But with the first book, I did frequently find myself turning it off when I had nothing else going on. I never do that when I have an interesting story to listen to.

The 1st of the best series of books ever written?

Having gone through many of the classics, from Crime and Punishment, to the Heart of Darkness, this is my absolute FAVORITE book series of all time. I am confident putting this whole story up against the Lord of the Rings and Discworld series. The first book, almost unfairly, drags you into a story you're not truly ready to experience. This book is done very well, and unfortunately compels you into the next three.

An amazing story teller

Tad Williams' books may be long, but they are too amazing to put down. I've read all his books, now I can relax and listen while I imagine worlds that are fantastically created in great detail.

Very slow build.

Not a terrible story, with some interesting aspects, but it took its sweet time getting going. The narrator was good with voices, but you could often tell when he hit the end of a line of text--lots of misplaced pauses in his reading. Overall, no desire to move on to Book 2, and I'll probably also pass on other works from this narrator.

Kept thinking about it

Couldn’t stop thinking about this book. I don’t easily get caught up in the books I read and this one was gripping. Loved it

This is it.

The entire Otherworld series is my favorite hard Sci-fi series of all time. I have been reading both hard Sci-fi and Fantasy novels rabidly for 51 years.
Otherworld is the top of the tall pile for me. I first read it when it came out in paperback, and have reread it several times. Now that my eyes aren't so good, Audible helps.
The fabulous and flawless handling of buildup of characters of many different protagonists and also, several different villains along with vivid imaginative but believable well flowing story details of an horrifically possible near dystopian future makes this series outstanding.