City of Golden Shadow

City of Golden Shadow
by Tad Williams
DAW Books, 1996. 780 pgs. Sci-Fi

Renie inhabits a future earth where it's more common to live in virtual reality than real life. Renie's little brother is constantly on the Net, visiting people and places that Renie isn't sure she entirely approves of. But when her brother mysteriously falls into a coma Renie suspects it has to do with the Net, and her investigation has her diving into the Net and down the rabbit hole in search of the truth.

This book was fascinating, bewildering, dark, and at times really had me wondering what was real and who was dreaming. I didn’t realize until I was done that this was published in 1996! The worlds he crafted here were so much like elaborate versions of Second Life and World of Warcraft that I thought he must have played those and built his story around the ideas. The fact that this book predates all of that is amazing. One challenge was that a few of the story lines were so different from one another I didn't know how they could possibly be connected. Over time they are slowly pulled together until everything, amazingly, starts to make sense, but it took about two-thirds of the book to get there. Unfortunately, the ending still leaves some questions unanswered and quite a substantial cliffhanger. Still, I liked this, I just wish I had more time to delve deeper into this series. I'd recommend this for fans of elaborate science fiction novels, people interested in online worlds, and anyone looking for an ample series to dive into.


BHG