If you're a fan of massive fantasy-adventure epics and you have never heard the name, you are missing so much. I first came across Williams three years ago, when I read Tailchaser's Song, which is about cats and clearly influenced the Erin Hunters of Warriors. Tailchaser's Song amazed me, but I wasn't very proactive in finding other books of his (too enraptured at that time by Deeper by Roderick Gordon, perhaps). But about a year ago, I started searching for more Tad Williams books, and I found quite a lot. He hasn't written as much as Terry Pratchett, but Williams' books are all far longer. (Example: My copy of The Dragonbone Chair is 766 pages long, not counting the various introductions and forwards and the appendix with character lists, place names, things, creatures, pronunciation guides, translations...)
Now, I may disappoint by admitting that my experience of Tolkien is basically nonexistent. No, I have not read The Lord of the Rings. Yes, I read The Hobbit--half of it--before being so utterly bored that I could not go on (which almost never happens to me). But I feel like Williams' books are probably like TLotR, since so many people say that they are. Besides, I may not have read the classic fantasy series, but I do know a little of it, so infused with it is our culture.
Maps! Languages! Dragons! Elves! Adventures! Trolls!
Lots of people associate those words with Tolkien. They should also be associated with Williams--at least The Dragonbone Chair.
My introduction may outdo the rest of the review in length, so I shall shut up and get to the summary soon. As a last word, this is only my second Williams, so my style of praise may seem weird--like I've actually read everything he's written, which I absolutely have not. But I can't imagine him writing a bad book, so...I'm justified.
Osten Ard. The known world. The huge empire united and ruled by King John Presbyter when he was still a young man. It is a land of many countries and people: To the south is Nascadu, Wran, Thrithings, Nabban, and Perdruin. To the north, Hernystir, Rimmersgard, and Yiqanuc. John rules his vast empire from the Hayholt, an ancient, ancient castle in Erkynland. The Hayholt has had several mortal kings, but before that, it was called Asu'a, and ruled by the Sithi--Osten Ard's elves. But, humans being as they are, the Sithi were slowly wiped from their lands--Asu'a fell to a Rimmersgard king, and both the Sithi and their Hernystiri allies suffered great losses in battles during the Sithi's last great days. Now the elves are in hiding; some say that they are gone altogether. But Osten Ard is happy and perfect under John's rule. How could a man who killed the terrible dragon Shurakai and saved his people not rule well?
Unfortunately, John is dying. He has lived to an absurd age, but his time has come, and soon the great Dragonbone Chair will be passed on to the eldest of his two sons, Elias.
Simon is a castle scullion, fourteen years old, uneducated, and dreaming of a soldier's glory. Under the watchful eye of Rachel the Dragon, Mistress of Chambermaids, he's frequently caught being idle, and consequently beaten. Simon loves going to see old Doctor Morgenes, a man who Simon just knows is a wizard of some sort, and, hardly able to believe his luck, Simon ends up apprenticed to Morgenes--spending most of his time learning to read (not doing magic).
But with John's death comes terrible change. Elias takes over as High King, bringing with him his homesick daughter, Miriamele, his eerie "priest" companion, Pryrates, and a host of bad decisions. Elias taxes to poverty not only other countries of Osten Ard but also baronies of Erkynland. His younger brother, Prince Josua of Naglimund, ends up in the dungeons for seemingly no reason at all. Day and night, Pryrates seems to be whispering in his ear. And, topping off everything else, the Storm King--Ineluki--of the Norns, a strange race dwelling in the far, far north, is, after five hundred years, rising again...
Circumstances throw Simon from everything he knows and out into the forest, embarking on an adventure of which he scarcely understand the meaning, meeting Binabik and Qantaqa, troll and wolf of Yiquanuc, along the way, and even encountering Jiriki, a Sithi prince. Meanwhile, war roils throughout Osten Ard, with kings and princes and dukes and duchesses dying and being imprisoned left and right, and the Storm King grows stronger. But hope can be found, even if in the strangest of places.