From Mountian of Black Glass: vol III of the Otherland series by Tad Williams-<b><i>Quote:</i></b> Whatever else the creators of this simulation might have planned, Paul thought, they had done a very fine job of capturing the Mediterranean world's astonishingly clear, bright light. Even early on this hot morning the rocks along the cliff seemed as crisply pale as new paper, the reflected glare so fierce that he could not stand too close to them. Even with the sun behind him, he had to shade his eyes.
I've got to learn the rules of this thing, he thought as he watched the seagulls wheeling below him. Not Greece, but the whole network. I have to make sense of it or I'll just wander forever. The other version of Vaala, the one that spoke first in my dream, then through the Neandertal child, said that I had to get to a black mountain.
"It reaches to the sky," she had told him, "covers up the stars . . . That is where all your answers are." But when he had asked her how he could find it, she had answered, "I don't know. But I might know, if you can find me." And then the dream-version of Vaala had sent him here, to search for what seemed herself in another guise — but that was where the whole thing fell apart completely. How could she know . . . but not know? What could such a thing mean? Unless, as he had guessed the night before, she was neither normal person or simulation, but something else. Perhaps she had meant that in different simulations she had access to different memories?
But in this Penelope version of her she doesn't seem to know anything at all, he thought sourly. She doesn't even know she's a version — doesn't know that she's the one who sent me here.
The moderator would be me 4 now. Williams is a great Sci/Fantasy writer. From his weird vitual reality Otherland to Green Angel Station he is admired by fans of both genres. I have read City of Golden Shadow and half of River of Blue Fire. I look 4ward 2 finishing the series as they explore the awesome concepts of a future time where conciousness assumes form in a fanastic and refreshingly different "Virtual Reality" fantasy world(s?). !Xabbu and Riene enlist some of the oddest VR explorers our world has 2 offer 2 aid them in their search for Riene's brother who lays dying in southern Africa with his conciousness imprisoned and hidden somewhere unknown in this deep, everchanging and mysterious land.
Meanwhile Paul Jonas stumbles around lands that seem familiar to him but r not. Jonas has some of the wildest computer messages sent 2 him that tell him to "meet" at certain places in Otherland. But he can only see them as signs that make him question his reality or make him pause 2 think. 'hmmm....mayb I am, actually, a larger conciousness that exists outside of this world'. WHO is the global brotherhood of evil, rich, masterminds that control this place?
What in the world is their insane agenda? Who could stop them? Impossible! It's amazing stuff and a VERY compelling ride!
The true human being is the meaning of the universe. He is a dancing star. He is the exploding singularity with infinite possibilities. <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 10/20/02 7:17:09 am
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