David J. Williams

. . .has now been detected by astronomers: a gamma ray burst from a star that collapsed 95% of the age of the universe ago. . .almost 13.7 billion years. Nothing more distant has ever been spotted—nor has a higher redshift (8.2). This is the kind of thing that gives me a twinge of regret at confining my science fiction to the Earth-Moon system.  Sure, you can get up to a lot of fun within it, particularly if you leverage those libration points.  But there are times I miss the rest of the Universe. . .

“Chains of logic so far gone they’ve done the redshift.” –Stephan Lynx

My novel Burning Skies can be pre-ordered on Amazon.

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist (which reviews all manner of SF) renders its verdict on BURNING SKIES:

Hard to imagine that The Burning Skies could be even more action-packed than its predecessor . . . but somehow David J. Williams found a way to raise the bar even higher. This sequel is a veritable train wreck, and you never know what’s going to hit you next. I loved it!

What’s more:

David J. Williams sucks you into this one right from the start, and the rhythm is such that you’ll get through this novel before you know it. If The Mirrored Heavens suffered from any shortcoming, it likely was lack of depth. Not so in this sequel, however. The author demonstrates that the first volume offered us just a glimpse of the overall story arc. Revelations about the origins of Autumn Rain, the American hierarchy and structure, the Eurasian Coalition, and more, imbue this one with much more depth.

Alright!  We’re off to the races!

BURNING SKIES will be released on May 19th, and you can pre-order it on Amazon.

Just when it looked like nothing could trump the Global Economic Crisis, along comes the Dreaded Swine Flu. This may yet prove to be yet another false alarm/overblown SARS-like scare, but the fact that you can catch this from humans (and not just pigs) means that the virus has taken the key step required towards becoming a pandemic.  Whether or not it will:  who the hell knows. (though you gotta admit that soccer teams playing before empty stadiums is a bit of a mindfuck).  Particularly problematic is that it looks like this virus is one of those rare types that is MORE rather than less lethal to people with healthy immune systems, as it sends those systems into frenzied overdrive.

And, I might add, if you’ve got allergies, that means you have an overdeveloped immune system already.  So you’re doubly fucked.

And if you’re like me—with one of the highest allergy levels possible without being confined to a bubble—then you’re triply fucked.  Thanks, overzealous immune system.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to re-read The Masque of the Red Death.

If you believe you can avoid dying miserably for the next few weeks, then why not celebrate by pre-ordering THE BURNING SKIES on Amazon.

You know what’s great about being a cat? Every day is the WEEKEND. All the more so as now Dave has switched my chicken-turkey combo to “Ocean Fish and Tuna Formula”. The stuff stinks up the house, but the day the smell of finned creatures gets old is the day I retire from all this cat stuff anyway. And now it’s spring, and BIRDS ARE EVERYWHERE. What a great universe, I can tell it was created just for me.

Certainly not for Dave, though. He’s locked himself in his study with the last three years of New Scientist magazine and God only knows what the hell he’s cooking up.  In the meantime, I’m here to announce that I’m GIVING AWAY A COPY OF THE SPANISH TRANSLATION OF MIRRORED HEAVENS WITH MY COOL SIGNATURE NOT DAVE’S LAME ONE.  You don’t even need to speak Spanish to get your hands on it—and believe me, the trippy cover is something you will WANT on your bookshelf.  All you need to do is obey the following not-at-all arbitrary rules:

1.  Send an email to djwATautumnrain2110.com.

2.  Subject line should be Cielos Reflejados

3.  This is the important part.  The email text should offer some words of praise to me.  You could say, for example, that I’m a Sleek Beast, or that I run really fast, or that I can catch more mice than any other cat.  I don’t care, as long as it sounds like you mean it.

4.  The best panegyric will get the book.

5.  You have until 5 p.m. eastern standard time next Friday to send in the praise.

6.  Multiple entries are encouraged, particularly if you feel like you were a little begrudging in your initial laudatory comments.

Sound good?  Good.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wonder where my balls went.  I know Dave hid them somewhere.

The sequel to Mirrored Heavens is BURNING SKIES, and you can pre-order it right now on Amazon!

One last review trickles in. Or maybe I just missed it at the time. At any rate, I’d call this one “guardedly positive.” Nathan Brazil (!) of SFSite.com takes me to task for “wafer-thin back stories” (to which I plead guilty if you need everything spelled out for you all at once—c’mon Nate, there’s a reason this is a trilogy), and also for the fact that this isn’t (gasp!)  really cyberpunk:  the characters “aren’t punks . . .but [rather] representatives of the government.” I take this to be further proof that the genre’s become more than a little rigid; as I’ve said before, to me cyberpunk is fundamentally about alienation, and there’s no reason why servants of the government can’t experience THAT.

(And I realize there’s a taboo against “arguing” with a review, but I haven’t had my coffee yet this morning, so I’m feeling audacious. Besides, for hundreds of years writers were free to dialogue with critics; it’s only recently that authors are expected to be Good Little Scribes without the right to make any kind of meaningful comment.)

But anyone with a name like Nathan Brazil gets cut a lot of slack round my neck of the woods, especially when they close the review with something like:

I was entertained from beginning to end, and congratulate the publisher on finding a new talent. Take a dash of Robert A. Heinlein, season with early William Gibson, baste in Robert Ludlum, and what you get is The Mirrored Heavens. It is by no means an ideal combination, and some readers may not like the mix of influences at all. But I far prefer it to the alternative of the same old names with their same old characters and settings. I have a feeling that there is much more to come from David J. Williams.

Damn, I hope so.

You can pre-order the sequel BURNING SKIES on Amazon.  And tune in tomorrow, when Spartacus gives some shit away!!!!!!

The first review of BURNING SKIES is in. . ! Steven Klotz of Mentajack describes it as “as perfect a middle book as you could ask for . . . it ratchets up every element that made Mirrored Heavens what it was, and laid some pretty sturdy foundations for the third book.” The “remember to breathe” injunction was what he wrote on his bookmark. Probably a wise precaution.

You can read the whole thing here.  Mentatjack’s also giving away two signed copies of the mass-market of Mirrored Heavens, so head on over there if you’re feeling lucky!

BURNING SKIES will be released on May 19th.

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Two interesting SF movies: I gather the first is already out in some theaters but the second isn’t due out till later in the year.

Sleep Dealer: which looks to be a provocative examination of immigration and the growing stratification of wealth in the “global village.”  Anyone seen it yet?

Moon: dark psychological thriller directed by David Bowie’s son and starring Sam Rockwell.

And yeahyeahyeah. . .  I know I had all these Grand Plans about promoting Burning Skies on the blog this week.  Sorry guys, the third book took priority.  But next week I’ll be giving away Spanish copies of Mirrored Heavens, and Spartacus the Wondercat will be BACK AS PROMISED.  (Right now he’s shedding though.  Like crazy.  How much hair can one #$# animal have???)

Now surfacing after three days locked in a room with my cat and this #$# manuscript . . .and here are some cool links:

—If you haven’t watched the full Susan Boyle video, you really #$# should. Don’t mind admitting I can’t watch it without getting a little teary.

—Hat tip to Making Light: these are the principles of the American cargo cult.

—If you’re into electronica, may I recommend Sonic Solutions?  Their Pax Romana album is available on itunes, and is definitely part of the Autumn Rain soundtrack that’s usually cranking away in my head.

—Fuck, this is a cool preview-–only Roland Emmerich could pull this off.  This movie will be h-u-g-e.

—Margaret Roland over at Magic District has put together a “how to write a novel” version of the old text-based Adventure.  As hilarious as it is accurate.

I’m giving Amazon a day or two to get their arse in gear and explain what’s up before I pay my web dudes to take down their banner/link.  But simply saying it was a glitch isn’t exactly what I’d call a full mea culpa. This was either:

A.  A soon-to-be-ex middle manager’s “executive” decision.

B.  A fundamentalist Easter egg.

C.  All of the above.

I’d expect that Bezos will get ahead of this issue quickly with a public statement, but power and wealth does funny things to people’s heads/sense of accountability, so who knows? It’s amazing how a digital powerhouse is acting like a bunch of bricks-and-mortars morons.

The legendary Charlie Jane Anders over at io9 has done an awesome write-up of the new artwork on the website—check it out!

And stay tuned next week, as the BURNING SKIES campaign ramps up another notch! There’ll be prize giveaways, and rumor has it that Spartacus the Wonderbeast might be coaxed away from his magicfoodbowl to take the helm for a post or two. Hope everybody enjoys the weekend—I know I will (as long as I can crank another 3000 words by Monday).