Otherland, by Tad Williams

Otherland has a lot of wonderful elements in it. There's a world-wide conspiracy, a virtual reality based global network, a mysterious something on the net that sends children into comas, and various other mysteries.

Unfortunately, it takes until about halfway through the book before you really see all of that. This is a *big* book. Williams likes to give the reader lots of atmosphere...unfortunately, I don't particularly like to read lots of atmosphere, so I ended up skimming through portions of the book.

This is also the first of a four volume series, with each novel as large as the others. So perhaps it isn't surprising that it takes so long in this first novel to develop the themes that will carry through into the rest of the novels. The term "epic" applies, since this is not a self contained novel, but rather the story is told across the entire series. This of it as a single, really large, novel.

Other good points to the book: Williams' characterization is good, with each character seeming like an individual, with their own personalities and own drives. I didn't doubt any character's actions, since at each point they were clearly driven by their own goals and by the actions of others around them.

Did I like the book? Well, that's a hard question. I did not particularly like Williams' writing style, as I prefer less atmosphere in my books. But, I loved the plot elements, and want to see how the story progresses. I'm not sure if I'll read the rest of the books in the series or not.