Things I learned from Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass

The lesson is there, but the application will take more time. Tad Williams infuses description into narrative. Virtually every action is paired with a description or an analogy. A couple excerpts spoiler warnings placed here:

Fredericks was walking close beside them, anxious to hear whatever was said. The monkeys had lost interest, and were following Bes like a fluttering yellow cape as the little god capered for the children trotting out of the houses to line the impromptu parade route.

and

They trudged on. Orlando could no longer remember what he had felt like earlier in the morning-that wonderful, if illusory, sensation of health that had seemed to run through him instead of blood. No one else appeared to be having a good time in these hot corridors either. Even the monkeys were drooping a bit, following a more or less straight course, fanned out in a tiny "v" behind Bes like geese flying south for the winter.