Walter Jon Williams: Quotes, Bibliography, and a List of Books by Author Walter Jon Williams

Search - List of Books by Walter Jon Williams

"The mass-market paperback, for one, is too expensive." -- Walter Jon Williams

Walter Jon Williams (born October 15, 1953) is an American writer, primarily of science fiction.

Several of Williams' novels have a distinct cyberpunk feel to them, notably Hardwired (also an homage to Roger Zelazny's novel Damnation Alley) and Voice of the Whirlwind. However, he has explored a number of different styles and genres, including farce (e.g., the Majistral series), postcyberpunk space opera (Aristoi), military science fiction (Dread Empire's Fall series), alternate history (Wall, Stone, Craft), science fantasy (Metropolitan and City on Fire), disaster thriller (The Rift), a Star Wars novel (The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way) and historical adventure (Privateers and Gentlemen series), and police procedural (Days of Atonement), usually in a science fiction context. He has also contributed to some of the Wild Cards cooperative novels.

Williams was born in Duluth, Minnesota and attended the University of New Mexico, where he received his BA degree in 1975. He currently lives in Valencia County, south of Albuquerque in New Mexico.

Williams played roleplaying games (in a group with other sf authors including George R. R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass) and has written both fiction and rulebooks for the games Privateers and Gentlemen from Fantasy Games Unlimited and Cyberpunk from R. Talsorian Games.

Quotes more less

"An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table.""Being a writer was never a choice, it was an irresistible compulsion.""Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science.""Everything that you read is an influence on everything you write, and you want to draw as many elements into your work as you can.""For every SF reader of that period, Robert A. Heinlein was also a touchstone.""Genre labels are useful only insofar as they help you find an audience.""How long it takes to write a book depends on its length.""I can't speak for the other authors, but what I hoped to achieve was to illuminate certain corners of the Lucas universe that hadn't yet been explored.""I found college useful for a lot of other reasons. It exposed me to a great many influences I wouldn't otherwise have encountered, and gave me a lot of time with some very intelligent people whose thoughts are still with me.""I now have to find a reason to write, every single day.""I want a platform that, like a book or a magazine, I can carry into the bath or leave at the beach.""I wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember.""I was pretty much grown-up by the time I attended school in Britain - or as grown-up as I'll ever get.""I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses.""I'm in favor of any technology that makes my work available to the reading public at a reasonable price.""I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings.""I've experienced writer's block, but never for more than a few days.""I've learned that I get blocked when my subconscious mind is telling me that I've taken the work in a wrong direction, and that once I start listening to what my subconscious is trying to tell me, I can work out the problem and get moving again.""If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors.""It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak.""It's hard to generalize, because they're all different. When I started, I decided to take as much advantage as I could of the freedom offered by the SF field.""Now I have to motivate myself much more than I had previously.""Science fiction readers probably have the gene for novelty, and seem to enjoy a cascade of invention as much as a writer enjoys providing one.""Some of my ideas were shot down by Lucasfilm because they stepped on territory that has been reserved for the movies. I didn't have a problem with that.""That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.""The big battle at the end of DW isn't drawn from history, but it's influenced by history, certainly.""The Internet offers an interesting combination of advertising and community by participating in the community you can become an advertisement for yourself.""The Rift, which was well over a thousand pages of manuscript, took two years.""Try to meet as many authors, agents, and editors as you can.""When state and religion are one, religion becomes a means for the powerful to remain in power.""Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part."

Bibliography more less

Novels

Hardwired series

Hardwired (1986)
System (1989)
Voice of the Whirlwind (1987)

Drake Maijstral series

The Crown Jewels (1987)
House of Shards (1988)
Rock of Ages (1995)

Metropolitan series

Metropolitan (1995), Nebula Award nominee
City on Fire (1997), Hugo Award nominee; Nebula Award nominee

Dread Empire's Fall series

The Praxis (2002)
The Sundering (2003)
The Conventions of War (2005)

Privateers and Gentlemen series, as Jon Williams

To Glory Arise, originally The Privateer (1981)
The Tern Schooner, originally The Yankee (1981)
Brig of War, originally The Raider (1981)
The Macedonian (1981)
Cat Island (1981)

Other novels

Ambassador of Progress (1984)
Knight Moves (1985), Philip K. Dick Award nominee
Angel Station (1989)
Elegy for Angels and Dogs (1990)
Days of Atonement (1991)
Aristoi (1992), on preliminary list for Hugo Award for Best Novel; cover art nominated for Hugo Award for Best Original Artwork
The Rift (1999), as by Walter J. Williams
Destiny's Way (2002)
Implied Spaces (2008)
This Is Not a Game (2009)
Deep State (2010, forthcoming)

Short fiction collections

Facets (novel)|Facets (1990)
Frankensteins and Foreign Devils (1998)
The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories (Trade Hardcover: Night Shade Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59780-177-5)

Notable short fiction

"Dinosaurs" (1987), Hugo Award nominee
"Witness" (1987), Nebula Award nominee
"Surfacing" (1988), Hugo Award and Nebula Award nominee
"Solip:System" (1989)
"Prayers on the Wind" (1991), Nebula Award nominee
"Wall, Stone, Craft" (1993), Hugo Award and Nebula Award nominee
"Foreign Devils" in Global Dispatches (1996), Sidewise Award for Alternate History winner
"Lethe" (1999), Nebula Award nominee
"Daddy's World" (2000), Nebula Award winner
"Argonautica" (2001), Nebula Award nominee
"The Last Ride of German Freddie", in Worlds That Weren't (2002), Sidewise Award for Alternate History nominee
"The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid"" (2004)
"The Green Leopard Plague" (2004), Nebula Award winner, Hugo Award nominee

Total Books: 123

2019 - The Praxis Dread Empire's Fall [Dread Empire's Fall Series, 1] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780062884770
ISBN-10: 0062884778
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

1992 - Days of Atonement (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780812501803
ISBN-10: 0812501802
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.

1990 - Angel Station (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780812557879
ISBN-10: 0812557875
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.

1987 - Hard Wired [Hardwired, Bk 1] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780812557961
ISBN-10: 0812557964
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.