With the massive introduction and explanation of the world the Otherland novels taken care of in "City of Golden Shadow" it's time to get down to some serious business (and the actual action part of the plot) with the second volume in the series, "River of Blue Fire."

Where we last left them Renie (the virtual reality professor)!Xabbu (her one time student who happens to be one of the last surviving bushmen), Orlando (a dying fourteen year old boy), Fredericks (Orlando's best friend, just revealed as a girl), Martine (a French virtual expert who is blind and processes data in a whole new way) T4b (an apparent adolescent in gaming body armor), Sweet William (a gothic clown with a chip on his shoulder) Florimel (a mysterious supposed woman who doesn't want to share information) and Quan Li (the grandmother of a child affected by the same mysterious unknown illness striking down child net users all around the world-including Renie's brother Stephen) had just managed to follow the bread crumbs that the seemingly benevolent Mr. Sellers left to the Otherland network-only to be abandoned as an attack in the real world left them stranded in the virtual land-where things may not be real but can kill them just the same.

Our group of adventures doesn't stay together for long though. First Renie and !Xabbu and then Orlando and Fredericks are separated from the larger group and left to fend for themselves in increasingly bizarre simulations ranging for a twisted OZ to a cartoon kitchen. And there's a larger problem. None of the group or others who are the normal inhabitants of the Otherland can get offline. Making the dangers that would normally just bounce you offline now probable fatalities.

Before they lost connection with Sellers the whole group was told to follow the river that makes its way in some way or another through all of the simulations-and to find a man named Paul Jonas- who it seems Sellers himself helped escape from the Grail Brotherhood and represents something of great importance to those in power-especially the leader of the TGB.

Jonas himself is still being bounced around, though he has regained much of his early memory he still has no idea what's happening to him or why the era he's in keep changing. Pursued through multiple simulations by programs designed to catch him and detain him he finally starts to catch on to the fact that some of the places he's been visiting are fictional.

And at the same time, unknown to the rest of the virtual party, the insane serial killer who calls himself Dread and normally works for the head of the brotherhood has discovered the network by accident and taken over one of the traveling parties Sims for his own sick purposes-an impediment that can only make the all important task the travelers must accomplish that much harder.

To top it all off the Otherland network is experiencing odd failures-and the oh-so mysterious operating system that runs it (which only one man seems to know anything about) is degrading and warping the virtual environment in weird and dangerous ways.

And a strange winged woman in multiple forms is appearing to our travelers to give cryptic advice in almost every simulation.

Meanwhile in the real world one of the actors who plays the all popular Uncle Jingle on the Net is suffering debilitating headaches-which only occur when she's doing her job. Things take a more drastic turn when an attorney hired to represent Fredericks' and Orlando's parents seeks her out for information on what could have possibly happened to the teens.

And a pair of detectives in Australia are tracking down an old cold case-a case that leads them to a boy who supposedly died years ago-a boy who called himself Dread...

Like its predecessor this book has a ton going on. There is far more immediate action in this novel because most of the background has been covered already. But the way Williams writes is so beautiful-so very true to what people would feel like in such a situation. Instead of taking our brave group of explorers and making them constantly optimistic and fairly powerful, the author does an excellent job illustrating how hopeless these few little people feel coming up against the most sophisticated piece of technology in the world that happens to be owned by the richest and most powerful people in the world.

Every bit as excellent as the first I recommend that if you even slightly liked reading "City of Golden Shadow" that you go on to this book. And if like me, you are non-tech savvy enough to routinely forget which of the four buttons on your Ipod turns it off, then have no fear. The tech in this is simplified enough for a luddite and the frequent funny moments make up for anything hard to understand.

Five stars. I'm on to the next book.

River of Blue Fire (Otherland, Volume 2) Features

• ISBN13: 9780886778446
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

River of Blue Fire (Otherland, Volume 2) Overview

New York Times bestselling author Tad Williams presents...

The mass market edition of Volume Two...

"A powerful, near-future cyberthriller."--Booklist

"Williams proves himself as adept at writing science fiction as he is writing fantasy....Fascinating." --Publishers Weekly

"An exciting addition to the growing virtual reality literature."--Library Journal

* A bestselling author--New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, London Times, Publishers Weekly



Read More ...

---

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

(asin:0886778441)

Related Products

• Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland, Volume 3)
• Sea of Silver Light (Otherland #4)
• City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, Volume 1)
• The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 1)
• The Stone of Farewell (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Book 2)

Thanks To : discount epic fantasy : review and comparison best buy cheap discount for best your life down sleeping bag