City Of Golden Shadow

Author: Tad Williams

Were you one of those hardboiled sci-fi nerds who lamented the travesty that was the Matrix trilogy? If so, you will be mightily pleased that we have placed City of Golden Shadow in number 4 on our list for its amazing story telling and the world of epic virtual reality and artificial intelligence that Tad Williams creates. That aside, this novel will have you questioning whether you were accidentally slipped some LSD in your coffee, with its Alice in Wonderland type hallucination imagery. Don't fear, it's not a crappy fantasy novel - the technology side comes up soon enough in the 21st century portion of the novel, where technological change has been huge and VR interfaces are easily accessible. City of Golden Shadow is a science fiction, cyber punk novel that dives into the near-future, where a virtual network created by "The Grail Brotherhood", a group of rich, powerful, and nefarious men (Felix the oldest man in the world, Jiun "the terror of Asia" and Robert the owner of the world's biggest telecommunications company) threatens the safety of the Earth. Otherland, a universe where anyone's fantasies can become a reality, may take over the world. The reader follows the story of a group of everyday people who try and stop them. And where is the AI, you ask? The AI in this story is quite unique when compared to the other science fiction novels on this list - the intelligence is stolen from the consciousness of a ten year old boy and implanted into a computer, like a hybrid human-computer intelligence. When Rennie discovers what has happened to her ten year old brother after a visit to a VR club, putting him into a coma, she begins investigating and finds many other children in similar situations. Trying to help her brother, Rennie is subjected to violence and terrorism, but she is determined to save her brother.

Books in Otherland Series (3)

River Of Blue Fire

Mountain Of Black Glass

Sea Of Silver Light