Archive for August, 2010

New MACHINERY OF LIGHT reviews

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

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.

Deconstructing MIRRORED HEAVENS

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

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.

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist reviews MACHINERY OF LIGHT

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

“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.

Hour of the Wolf interview

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

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.