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Tad Williams – River of Blue Fire

The second volume in a 4-volume book. Not series, just a book. As Tad Williams notes in his “Author's notes”: “... it's not really a series – it's one very, very long novel, which should be under one cover except that 1) it would take so long to write that my family and pets would starve, and 2) they couldn't make covers that size, unless they were adapted from circus tents.” And this simple fact is both the power and weakness of this book. First of all, this book start with a summary of the first volume,a good thing because it's literally been years since I read the first book. The summary quickly refreshed my memory as to what happened in the first volume, and so I was ready to actually start reading this one. Again, it's clear throughout the book that Williams is creating a world here that is unique. With eye for detail, he describes surroundings, feelings and thoughts, characters, happenings. You could nearly say the Tolkien of cyberpunk. Or maybe that would be the best way to compare Williams' work in this book to other works. Tolkien also was able to drag you into his world until you were completely focused on what happened in the story. Your link to the outside world gone. Williams, both for you while reading and for the main characters in the story, severs the link with the outside world. But Williams seems to fall into the same trap Tolkien fell into: It goes on and on and on making some parts very hard to read. Sometimes, you think “yeah yeah, now I know what's happening”. Yet every single thing, every single detail, has a function within the bigger story, and Williams clearly needs that long to get all the details across in the right way. After the first volume, it took me a few years to get to reading volume 2. It was quite an effort to read the full volume 1. Williams has learned, it seems, because after this volume, though I crave to read some other books first, I don't feel I need a few years until the next volume. A few months max. A few months to read some other books. But not as long as before. So, as I started: the length of the book is both it's greatest power, because it enabled Williams to get facts across that he usually wouldn't have the space for in the story, and it's the greatest weakness, because it at some points makes the book very hard to read. Where volume 1 was “very interesting”, volume 2 is already “quite captivating”. I am anticipating more growth for volumes 3 and 4.
September 21, 2006 - tags: books