Tad Williams - Otherland.

[L. Arkwright]

Imagine a world maybe 50 to a hundred years from now. Imagine how computer technology would have advanced. In the series of novels by TW the internet is the one main media, entertainment and commercial centre for the world. Its all accessed using virtual reality (VR) The story followers a series of adventurers who by differing paths end up in a network called Otherland and find themselves unable to come off line.
The books are well thought out and you get the feeling that the author hasnt just done idle research for these, more that he actually knows his stuff concerning computers. The first one I found was a little slow but when you are writing a series of four which will essentially be one large book, I suppose you can afford to be. It centres more on the characters, the world around them and various other aspects of the day to day living in that timeline so by the second book you come to feel like you actually know these people and that the place they come from is somewhere where you have lived.
The story is epic in scale, with numerous sub plots all going off at the same time but at no point does this become a mish mash of too much info. The author has the talent for giving you small hints concerning the mysteries of the situation the characters are in but never giving too much away so as a result you feel the need just to keep on reading.
I heartily recomend this book to any lovers of Sci fi.