But even though I’ve always hated slow books where boring stuff happens most of the time, I never felt bored with these. It might not be the kind of book for everyone.

Layer after layer is peeled back from the plot. And all linked up into the “Grail” – a virtual reality of mind numbing complexity and realism. Questions and actions that cut to the very root of life itself. The solid Bonnie Mae Simpkins – the mother figure and seemingly the only one capable of making the Wicked Tribe listen to her! Felix Jongleur – the old heartless asshole who wants to live forever, is pathologically afraid of death, and is willing to sacrifice anything and everything to achieve his goal. The lost Paul who finds his true nature like Odysseus. The blind frenchwoman Martine – terrified of the psychopath Dread whom she comes into contact with. His quest reaches a success he could never even have fathomed. !Xabbu (That’s not a spelling mistake – the exclamation mark is part of his name), the centered Bushman who’s trying to preserve whatever he can of his almost dead culture. The “Wicked Tribe” – a bunch of children represented as flying monkeys. Characters like the dying kid Orlando Gardiner who wants to be a hero in the best tradition of the Lord of the Rings. To see all these themes come together in a fantasy/science fiction novel thrills me no end. I must admit these questions are of interest to me because I’ve been thinking of them myself for years. Is a virtual copy truly “us”? If no such thing as a “soul” exists, then who are we exactly? If we transfer our consciousness into a machine, are we merely killing ourselves and creating a new person, or is that person us? Do we die each time we go to sleep and awaken as someone else? We see themes of virtual immortality, deep philosophical questions concerning our our very identity. From the time they were completely unaware of the “Grail” network, to becoming an intricate part of it. I’ve grown so attached to the characters! When I look back now at the very first books, I’m astounded at how far I’ve traveled with them. Even if the technology for this kind of thing doesn’t exist today, there’s no reason why it couldn’t exist in the future. The “fantasy” as you might call it is extremely grounded in reality. Tad Williams takes the virtual reality bull by the horns and pushes it as far as it will go. So it’s more like eight books instead of 4.Įven though it features a tight cast of characters, the scope is epic. I mean seriously, it’s almost as if each was twice the length of a regular novel. Even though you might say that virtual reality fiction has been around for a long time, I’ve never read anything quite like this. Nor is it like any other science fiction story either. They blew me away.įirst of all, this isn’t like any other “fantasy” book you’ve encountered. I filed them away for later because the first volumes weren’t on the shelf. They were on the bookshelf and I didn’t know why they caught my attention. I first encountered these 4 books when Anupa and I went on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico.

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