David J. Williams

While I continue to crank away on various Sekrit Projects, I thought I’d share with you a few more links related to the Autumn Rain trilogy.

First Mike Johnstone at the University of Toronto has completed his analysis of THE BURNING SKIES. I’ve mentioned previously that I thought his essay on MIRRORED HEAVENS was the most astute I’d seen yet, as he delved into the political context during which the novel was written (i.e., the last decade), and integrated that with my decision to write in the present tense in an ingenious theory that I’d be a fool to disavow.  He enlarges on this in his essay “THE BURNING SKIES:  SF and Historical Allegory.”

Second, Only the Best SciFi has reviewed trilogy finale MACHINERY OF LIGHT:  “make sure to plan big chunks of reading time because it’s hard to put down when you get going.”  He even mentions he wasn’t put off by the profanity, of which there is rather a lot.  Which is #$# awesome.

Third, Mihir Wanchoo at Fantasy Book Critic, who wrote such a fantastic review of MACHINERY OF LIGHT a few weeks back, has published an interview with yours truly in which I reveal, among other things, the extent of my ultimate ambitions, the limits of my cats’ gratitude, and the true identity of my literary idol.

Fourth, a really cool review of BURNING SKIES from Beam Me Up:  “How Williams keeps all the players and action under control is a mystery to me, but he does it and the hat trick produced from all this plate spinning is The Burning Skies”.  I’m not sure how I did it either, especially since I delegated most of the work to the cats.  Here’s an example of their immortal prose: adkljfaklfklsafkadfkak

Fifth–and in some ways this is the coolest of them all–Kung Fu Monkey mentions the Autumn Rain trilogy while discussing a UAV drone that went out of control last week and strayed into D.C. airspace. The future’s on its way people, so stay tuned.

Fantasy Book Critic loves MACHINERY, and describes me as “somewhat of a genius when it comes to describing plots”. I don’t know if “somewhat” means “sorta” or “definitely”, but I’m taking it anyway. Read the full review here.

And meanwhile Jennifer Brozek over at Apex Books has her own review of MACHINERY (a “cross between the Manchurian Candidate and Neuromancer, which works for me), along with an interview with yours truly.

On other fronts, I have a new novel proposal out in the market. So stay tuned.

Two years after its publication, Mike Johnstone, professor of English at the University of Toronto, has written what’s beyond doubt the most incisive review/analysis of MIRRORED HEAVENS out there. For starters, he’s pretty much the first reviewer to point out the parallels between the downing of the Phoenix Space Elevator and that of the Two Towers, and goes deeper than anyone has yet gone on the political context behind the novel, marrying that up with a discussion of my decision to write the trilogy in present tense:

The more I think about the novel, however, the more I am impressed by how challenging Williams makes the novel on several levels, weaving together breakneck pacing, significant narrative decisions, a conspiracy-theory atmosphere, and a political edginess into a whole that generates a rather plausible (and disturbing) vision of our nearish future. What interests me most are the narrative decisions and political edginess: the former, because I think they raise intriguing questions about what literary SF can do with forms of narrative; the latter, because I am surprised that reviewers of the novel seem to have shied away from addressing the historical context to which I believe it responds. Moreover, these two elements, in fact, mutually reinforce each other, revealing a novel more complex than it might appear at first blush.

I’ll have more to say about Jonestone’s essay in further posts but you can read it in its entirety here.

“By bringing this complex series to a close with such a bang, David J. Williams proves once and for all that he is for real.”

Read the full review here.

Here’s a link to my interview past Saturday with the one n’ only Jim Freund on Hour of the Wolf.  We had a great conversation, focusing primarily on some of the political implications behind the books….and I was super-psyched to hear how much he liked the ending of the trilogy, which he said for him invoked the vibe of Arthur C. Clarke and (gasp) Olaf Stapledon. I can’t think of higher praise, and it was all the more surreal to hear at 6 in the morning.

I’ll be on the one n’ only Jim Freund’s Hour of the Wolf radio show tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. (!)….that’s 99.5 FM Pacifica within the NY metro area, or streaming right here. Those lazy SF fans who wish to sleep in can nonetheless catch the show for the next two weeks by heading over to the show archives. Meanwhile, I’ll be loading up on caffeine….

So I’m flying out to Comic-Con tomorrow for a signing at the Bantam booth tomorrow (Friday) at 5 p.m., followed by a panel Saturday at 4:30 (“Welcome to the Future: Are you Sure you Want To Stay?”). Since GoH Samuel Delany is also on that panel, my answer right now is yes, because the man rocks.

Meanwhile, hot off the wire, here’s a review of MIRRORED HEAVENS by the Mad Hatter, followed by one of MACHINERY OF LIGHT by Cliff’s 52 Books in 52 Weeks.  And then I’ll be back to Sekrit Projects #1 and #2, both of which are picking up steam….stay tuned, and/or see you in San Diego!

Just got back from a week in Wyoming at Mike Brotherton’s Launch Pad workshop, an intensive NASA-sponsored workshop for pro SF writers. It was a fantastic week, and not just because it allowed me to escape the tropical humidity that D.C. has been plunged into for what seems like eons. Awesome lectures, brilliant stargazing, and unforgettable people….and thanks to fellow scribe Jeremiah Tolbert you see the attached picture of all of us.

From left to right, top row then lower row:

My latest post is up at Tor.com….this week, Top Secret.

Thanks to the good offices of fellow scribe Alex J. Cavanaugh, I’m the July featured author on Prinkipia, which has reprinted the interview that Alex conducted with me a couple weeks back, omitting only a few curse words that I’m sure I don’t remember.

Meanwhile, I leave this weekend for Launch Pad in Wyoming, where me and a bunch of other SF writers will be blowing our minds on the wonders of the cosmos all week.  Not to mention beating the #$# D.C. heat….