His version of the Net, although obviously indebted to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and other novels, is detailed and fascinating. His 21st-century South Africa, where blacks run the government and pursue careers but where whites control most economic power, rings true. Up to that point it seemed like little more than a bloated travelog for a virtual world. I gave up on The Otherland after 1.5 books. I also liked William's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn fantasy series. In the first book in what is projected to be, in effect, a single, enormous four-volume novel, Williams (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn) proves himself as adept at writing science fiction as he is at writing fantasy. I liked both Snow Crash and The Sprawl Trilogy when I read them many years ago. It's clear that Renie has angered someone with almost unlimited power, but she remains determined to save her brother. If you like imagining how the world will turn out in the not too far distant future, then try this story of an epic journey, where the real world merges. Then her apartment is fire-bombed, she loses her job and another professor whom she has recruited to help her decipher the mystery is murdered. After her adventure, she discovers that someone has downloaded into her computer the impossibly complex image of a fantastic golden city.
A professor of computer science and an adept user of the Net, Renie retraces Stephen's trail and enters Mister J's but barely escapes with her own mind intact. Soon she discovers evidence that other children have lapsed into comas under similar circumstances. When his next Net trip leaves him in a coma, Renie is terrified and angry. When Renie Sulaweyo's younger brother, Stephen, returns from the Net after visiting Mister J's, a virtual reality equivalent of the Hellfire Club, she's worried about him.