Sea of Silver Light

Otherland, Book 4

By: Tad Williams

Narrated by: George Newbern

Length: 37 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

A group of adventurers searching for a cure for comatose children find themselves trapped in a sequence of virtual worlds, the only opponents of a conspiracy of the rich to live forever in a dream. Now, they are forced to make an uneasy alliance with their only surviving former enemy against his treacherous sidekick Johnny Wulgaru, a serial killer with a chance to play God forever. Few science fiction sagas have achieved the level of critical acclaim - and best-selling popularity - as Tad Williams's Otherland novels. A brilliant blend of science fiction, fantasy, and technothriller, it is a rich, multilayered epic of future possibilities.

©2002 Tad Williams (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Too long, and not long enough

Yay! I’m finally finished with Otherland. And Boo! I’m already finished with Otherland.

This fourth book is the longest of the series. Some parts of it feel too long.

The Otherland system is dying. The operating system (the Other) and John Wulgaru are locked in a duel to control the network. For most of the book it appears that Wulgaru, aka Dread, will eventually win and torture all the brave adventurers we have been following throughout the series to death, on line and off. It takes the resources of everyone to finally defeat both him and Felix Jongleur. Meanwhile, the company of adventurers is split up in new and non-intuitive ways as they wander through dark, empty, and largely undefined spaces whose monotony is broken only by the seemingly limitless array of monsters Dread manages to conjure up.

In the end, the on-line adventurers finally manage to unravel the whole story of Otherland, and their off-line helpers manage to destroy Jongleur and his associates and send Dread to a state that inescapably manages to remind one of falling alive into the Hell of Incessant Suffering.

As always, George Newbern manages to keep the story interesting even through the painfully long parts of minimal progress.

Perfect end for an Incredible Series.

While this book series can get abstract in its description at times, I am intensely happy I read (listened) to this series. I believe this book wrap up of the MANY characters storylines was the most thorough I have ever known. Which makes sense because the series was 4 large volumes long. And the narrator, George Newbern, was excellent. I felt this was like “Battlefield Earth” that had a large cast of people to act all the voices. But the Astounding thing was it was just one person. A MUST read/listen. Can’t recommend highly enough!

I continued to listen to the series because it was paid for.. a big mistake

This was truly an awful series. I had much from Tad Williams in the past so I purchased this knowing that I would like it. I had read so many good reviews of the book. Surely I would enjoy this as well. A few hours in to the first book, I could already tell that I didn’t care for Rene, Cabbo and her father. You will have to excuse the spelling of names. I listened to the audiobooks so I have no idea how Williams spelled their names. But, there were other characters that were introduced that I liked well enough so I decided to continue listening.

Eventually I started checking out some more reviews and it they talked about how the books picked up once they went into the simulated worlds. I guess it did for a very short period of time but quickly became very repetitive. Williams went on and on as the characters hopped from one world to the next. It was extreme overkill... very monotonous.

Eventually the characters outside the sim world took on larger roles. With the exception of Rene’s dad, I found most of that interesting. The lawyer, the American parents, and the police detectives were all interesting characters. I guess I liked the woman that played a character on a kids show as well. But again, the books largely fell apart with the Rene, Cabbo, and Rene’s dad. They were absolutely cringe worthy. The story line itself was riddled with some silly moments especially involving Dread towards the end.

I don’t know. I know I’m rambling. Newborn did a fine job for the most part. There were instances of mispronounced words and little other hiccups here or there that should have been corrected. But he did a great job with the different accents. But it’s not nearly enough to save this series.

one if the best

this series is fantastic! hope they make it into a series and not a movie

The Ending to a Wonderful Story

This is the ending of a grand story. The story is intriguing with many threads and interesting characters.
If you like long stories where the characters find themselves in strange circumstances, trying to survive against insurmountable odds, you'll like this series. Surprises right up to the end.
Some books are 'novels' and some books are 'stories'. This series is an amazing 'story' told by a wonderful storyteller.

what a conclusion

shame the dreamy otherland / daw audio jingle/tune that appeared at the end of books 1,2 and 3 isnt there.
unexpected developments and dialogues until the very last chapter, very nice !

Wonderful, mesmerizing story,

I wish there was more story! I find it amazing how predictive this is, we may not be too far off from virtual online worlds, and what will happen to humanity? Great series and narration!

The perfect conclusion of a fantastic story

I adore these books and the narrator was so diverse with his accents I would keep forgetting it was only one person. an amazing audio book experience

I enjoyed the entire series

I just began reading this series, not really expecting to like it. Whereas, this is not normally the type of fiction I normally read. But from the 1st book right through to the 4th this Author certainly captured my interest. So I have now read The Witchwood Crown, and am impatiently waiting for the next book in that series!

omg

this book, this series is f*ing amazing! i normally wouldn't even go for a sci-fi book. but I like tad so I went out on a limb, and this series grabbed me by the soul and never let go.