Second book in New York Times-bestselling author Tad Williams's
cyberpunk fantasy series - "Tad Williams is the brightest and best of
the fantasists." ―Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods
Otherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a
private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the
greatest minds of the twenty-first century. But this most exclusive of
places is also one of the world's best kept secrets, created and
controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and
ruthless individuals, a private cartel known--to those who know of their
existence at all--as The Grail Brotherhood.
Though their purpose in creating Otherland is still a mystery, it may
not remain so for long. For they have exacted a terrible price from
humanity in the process, and even their highly organized global
conspiracy cannot hide the nature of their crimes forever.
And now a small band of adventurers has penetrated the veil of secrecy
that prevents the uninitiated from entering Otherland. But having broken
into the amazing worlds within worlds that make up this universe, they
are trapped, unable to escape back to their own flesh-and-blood bodies
in the real world.
And as dangers and circumstances split their party into small, widely
scattered groups, their only hope of reuniting lies in returning again
and again to the River that flows--in one form or another--through all
the worlds.
But the odds seem to be completely against them as they--and the one
outsider with whom they might join forces--become hopelessly lost in
realms where an Ice Age tribe's fears can only be quenched in
blood...where insects are as large and deadly as dinosaurs...where they
are caught in the war between a man made of straw and one made of
tin...where cartoon ads take on a life of their own...where humans
strive to survive in the aftermath of an alien invasion...and where one
among their party is actually The Grail Brotherhood's most terrifying
weapon--a sociopathic killer who has never failed and whose current
mission is to make certain that not even one member of this little
invasion force lives long enough to reveal the truth about Otherland to
the people of Earth...
