Preview
  • City of Golden Shadow

  • Otherland, Book 1
  • By: Tad Williams
  • Narrated by: George Newbern
  • Length: 28 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,815 ratings)

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City of Golden Shadow

By: Tad Williams
Narrated by: George Newbern
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Publisher's summary

Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource - its children.

©1998 Tad Williams (P)2014 Penguin Audio
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What listeners say about City of Golden Shadow

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    1,100
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Performance
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Story
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  • 3 Stars
    170
  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Scene Pauses!

Well done. Accents handled well, although sometimes inconsistent. Biggest issue was the lack of sufficient pause between scene changes. If I hadn't known the book well, I would have gotten very confused.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Cyberpunk DNA

You have to remember that this book was published in 1996, a scant few years after Snow Crash, and almost 20 years before Ready Player One. Nevertheless, I found this book to be very fresh and I loved the perspectives. The reader did a great job differentiating between voices making following the story much easier.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great book and a good listen!

I read this book when it first came out in hardback and became an instant Tad Williams fan. It was the first book about virtual reality that really captured my imagination. It also interested me because it’s main characters are not just based in North America, but draw on Africa and Australia.

The plot is complex and requires some attention to detail, and at first its hard to put the different scenarios (The trenches of World War I, and Edgar Rice Burrow’s Barsoom), into any sort of context with the rest of what is going on, but as it slowly unfolds there are lots of “AHA” moments that make this such a delight.

The narrator did a wonderful job of capturing the voices, and the spirit of the book. Once you listen to this you are going to want to download the next in the series right away.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

JUST KEEP READING!

The story is slow in the beginning, but then you won't be able to
Put it down!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My favorite scifi series

I first found this book when I was in 8th grade and fell in love with it instantly. The complexity of the multiple story lines that only slowly starts to intertwine was fascinating.

When I saw it here on audible, I was delighted and scooped up this - and all the others in the series instantly. I was worried though, because there is only one reader who would have to embody many people - of different genders, many ages and from many different countries. But I was blown away by George Newbern he did the accents in ways that made people but was never over the top (I'm going to look for more books he has narrated.)

I hesitate to delve into the plot because the gradual discovery as you go along is so great in this series. I will just re-state, as I said in my title, that this is my favorite scfi series, and if you start it and allow it to draw you in it will probably hook you too.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

long and boring

this book is 28 hours of waiting for something to happen. the characters are not overly interesting and the story takes so long to start that by the time it does you aren't really interested.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful book

Absolutely amazing book I was very impressed I will most definitely listen to the 2nd book in the 3rd and 4th

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Well written / intriguing, but leaves you hanging

Good story and greatly fleshed-out characters. The many jumps between different Virtual Worlds can become confusing at points. The ending is definitely leading to a sequel, because it pretty much just leaves you hanging with some major unresolved points.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, great narration

Great book, great narration.
Listened to this series several times.
Absolutely love it.
Interesting parallels in our world today.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Looking forward to next book.

Great and clever story. Very interesting and imageanitative. Looking ahead to the next book to see where it is going.

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