Otherland, Vol. 4
Sea of Silver Light
Tad Williams
DAW, 922 pages
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In reading a multi-volume series that's still in the process of creation, not all the suspense lies in the plotline.
This is especially true when the quality of the early installments is high: one can't help wondering whether the
author will be able to deliver a finish strong enough to satisfy the expectations s/he has raised (of course, sometimes
one can't help wondering whether the author will ever deliver a finish at all, but that's another story). In Sea
of Silver Light, Tad Williams accomplishes this and more, drawing his massive Otherland saga to a triumphant
conclusion.
Over the course of the previous volumes, a group of adventurers, drawn by their search for the cause of the inexplicable
coma illness that has claimed children all over the world, has become trapped within the Otherland system, a secret
and incredibly advanced virtual reality environment. Otherland consists of dozens of different worlds, fashioned
to the whim of the members of the Grail Brotherhood, the shadowy organization that owns the system. The Brotherhood's
intent is immortality: they plan to transfer virtual constructs of their personalities into Otherland, leaving
their real bodies, and the real world, behind. Over time, the system has grown unstable (its mysterious sentient
operating system, the Other, is behaving in ways its masters don't understand), but the Brotherhood decides to
proceed even so. Unbeknownst to them, however, Dread--the psychotic-but-brilliant minion of the Brotherhood's leader,
ruthless billionaire Felix Jongleur--has gained access to the system. At the climactic moment of transfer, Dread
seizes control of the Other. Most of the Grail Brotherhood are killed or injured. Only Jongleur survives intact.
The adventurers, who've spent much of the story struggling separately through a series of strange virtual worlds,
find themselves separated yet again in the aftermath of Dread's attack. One group--including Paul Jonas, who has
been trapped in the system from the beginning, and Martin Desroubins, a blind net expert who senses the Otherland
system in ways the others can't--are caught once more among the worlds of Otherland, many of which have been horribly
damaged and perverted by Dread's psychotic plundering. The other group--including Renie Sulaweyo, a university
instructor whose brother has been claimed by the coma illness, !Xabbu, a displaced Bushman who is also her student,
and Felix Jongleur himself--winds up in a much stranger place, a series of bizarrely distorted fairytale worlds.
These, it turns out, aren't part of the Otherland system at all, but an independent creation of the Other.
Meanwhile, in the non-virtual world, a determined police detective continues her real-life pursuit of Dread, and
yet another group works to unravel the mysteries of Otherland, and to free those trapped inside it. It's a race
against time, for the Other has been damaged by Dread's attempts to subdue it and may be dying, threatening the
demise of the entire system. To save Otherland and its hostages, the searchers must discover what, and where, the
Other is. In the astonishing secret at the heart of Otherland lies the real truth of its makers' evil.
Otherland is a tremendously complex work, a function not simply of its great length but of Williams' inventiveness,
which over the course of the narrative has generated an enormous number of mysteries, themes, characters, and plotlines.
The challenge of resolving all these, as well as delivering the sweeping climax the huge tale demands, is truly
formidable. Williams proves equal to it. The leadup to the solution of the final mystery is a long one, but the
payoff is more than big enough and strange enough to justify it--with some completely unexpected twists saved up
for last, and an intriguing speculation as to exactly what kind of reality a virtual reality might become, if it
were allowed to evolve. Story and character threads are tied up with impressive thoroughness; I don't think there's
a single thread left dangling. Especially good are the last few chapters, in which the aftermath of adventure is
addressed (an area most fantasists prefer to avoid), with the characters uneasily adjusting to non-virtual reality,
and coping with the not-always-happy consequences of their experiences. Best of all, Williams is able to make this
final installment as entertaining and emotionally involving as any of the previous ones--no mean feat, given everything
else he must accomplish.
Throughout the series, Williams has thoughtfully examined the importance of storytelling as a tool by which human
beings shape their perceptions of self and world, and the relationships between them. All the invented worlds of
Otherland are stories (sometimes literally, for a number of them are novels brought to life), through which the
members of the Grail Brotherhood have given shape to their dreams of immortality; and along Paul's and Renie's
and the others' difficult journeys, storytelling has helped them retain their connection to the real world and
gain perspective on the struggles they undergo. In Sea of Silver Light, this theme comes to the forefront,
particularly in the portrayal of the Other. Crippled, tormented, and profoundly lonely, the Other has quite literally
shaped world and self from story, and it's in that story, far more than in the technological mystery of its being,
that the key to understanding it lies. The Other imposes story also on Renie and her companions, who over the course
of the narrative have gradually taken on archetypal qualities--the warrior, the wise woman, the clever trickster--and
who are in turn cast by the Other in archetypal quest roles. It's an interesting interplay between the idea of
quest and the quest-structure of the series as a whole.
When such an enormous saga is so thoroughly summed up, there's always the danger that redundancies will become
apparent: themes and characters that could have been stripped from the narrative, to yield a leaner work. But if
one occasionally has that suspicion as Otherland draws to a close, it doesn't diminish the enjoyment of
the whole. Strongly written, finely characterized, masterfully plotted, and above all consistently intelligent
in its examination of self and story, real and virtual, and the blurred boundaries in between, this series stands
as a major achievement, and should cement Williams' reputation as one of the most accomplished authors now working
in the field.
Copyright © 2001 Victoria Strauss
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