Otherland
I just finished the 4th book in Tad Williams' Otherland series and I really loved all of it. I enjoyed the long, slow pace and the unrushed pace of things...to me it represented a sort of real world experience of thinking that you're almost there and finished only to find out that you still have a long way to go. These were the first books by Tad Williams that I had ever read and I would definetly like to read more of his stuff....he has such a vivid imagination and writes in such a rich, thick way that makes you pay attention...lots of little details to catch.
While I really enjoyed these books, and find myself missing the characters and thinking about the conclusions...I find that the ending was a little to neat and tidy. For one, outside of getting really worn out, mentally exhausted and sometimes physically damaged the characters all make through realtively unscathed. All the good guys have good endings and all the bad guys get their just deserts...and while that is all well and good I felt that for a work of this magnitude a little more sacrafice was warranted...making the reader hurt and suffer to get to the end...but when you finish you can breath a sigh of relief and close the cover knowing that everything is going to be okay. Nice, but not really overly compelling.
I've read some some reviews on Amazon and I think I agree with the reviews that weren't just 'fanboy' posts...the series really could have been three books and not lost any of it's potency and in fact it might have been a more enthralling series if it had ended a little earlier. But over all I really liked this series...it struggles near the end and it gets a little far fetched...but I'd recommend it.