David J. Williams

Nader Elhefnawy has penned an extremely thoughtful review of the entire trilogy for Strange Horizons.

On a more personal note, I should say it’s very cool to finally be IN Strange Horizons; I sent them some shitty short stories several years ago, which they (wisely) declined to publish. Though I did have one that featured a gang of space pirates trapped on Titan that I was rather partial to at the time.  Alas, this was before I learned how to write.

Anyway, now I need to get back to the cats and the Sekrit Projects.  Enjoy the Halloween weekend….

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.

Attention Fools.

This is your Captain speaking.

Captain Zoom, that is.

Though I am less than a year old, I can proudly say I have done absolutely no fucking work during any of that time.

Truly, I am the uberslacker.

But today that changes.

Today, I personally preside over the contest to determine who wins the final advance copy of THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT.

Beginners and casual readers:  I refer you to my litterbox.   This one’s for the fanatics only.   Email all answers to djwATautumnrain2110.com and I will judge you mercilessly.

Roll ‘em . . ..

#1:   Where does the fight between Sarmax and Carson take place?

#2:  Who wins?

#3:   What do people call Szilard behind his back?

#4:  What is the name of the Praetorian major who has custody of the Remoraz?

#5:  What drug are Spencer and Linehan dosed with in the final moments of MIRRORED HEAVENS?

Good luck.  I mean, may you gnash your teeth in a mouseless darkness forever.  Mwahahahahahahahahahhhahaahahahaa.. .

Well, the cat’s out of the bag now, per my post in Jeff Vandermeer’s Booklife yesterday, which revealed the existence of sites like this one.  Tune in before they cart the whole thing off to Area 51 for further tests.

Pat over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has released his end-of-the-year Hotties, of which BURNING SKIES clocks in at #14. As if that weren’t enough, he’s also tied me with the formidable Jeff Somers for “most improved author” . . . . though last year he had MIRRORED HEAVENS at #20, so said improvement does not mean you get to ignore the earlier portion of my oeuvre, which remains as packed with hijacked maglev trains as ever.  Meanwhile, I’m off to relish my hawtness.

There’s a certain strand of geek culture that seems to almost pride itself on being unable to see the wood for the trees. In particular, it’s pretty funny to watch Aint It Cool News firing away at Avatar after having hailed the latest Star Trek movie as the second coming earlier this year.  Yet there’s not even a comparison.  The one was warmed-over triumphalist nostalgia, the other a totally original visionary freight-train.  Avatar’s storyline is being derided as thin in some quarters; for me, it was stripped down to its archetypal essentials, and all the more epic as a result. And let’s not lose sight of the fact that featuring a physically disabled lead character is in many ways as groundbreaking as the 3-D lushness that makes this movie something you could get so lost in.  As of this writing, 3-D tickets were outselling 2-D tickets two to one, though the movie itself did well under a hundred million in the States.  Which doesn’t really matter when it raked in more than $150 million overseas, and looks set to have strong legs, in part because the snowstorm that blanketed so much of the east coast acted as a considerable downer on box office performance.  Unless next week’s Sherlock Holmes becomes a ticket-stealing juggernaut, Avatar looks set to roll back and forth over the holiday box office like one of those killdozers from the first Terminator movie.

To be fair, I think what might have pissed off some at AICN is Cameron’s high-handed tone, which drifted perilously close to eco-preachiness.  This didn’t bother me, partially because I think that regardless of the specifics, he’s right on the fundamentals (we ARE going to be a planet bereft of green if we keep this up), but also because I really got into the idea that the moviemaker who took human-eating aliens to a whole new level back in the 1980s has now turned the whole equation on its head:  now humans are the invaders, and the notion of alien becomes relative.  “The aliens went back to their dying world”, concludes Sam Worthingon’s voiceover . . . but movies are never going back after this.

Well, it’s (almost) all over. I’ve sent Bantam my revisions to the copy-edited version of THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT, and now I’m surfacing with a couple of updates.

First, Jess Horsley and Jeff Saylor over at Figures.com have included the first two books in their annual Holiday Buyers’ Guide! It’s true that there aren’t any action figures for my characters yet, but my cats are busy constructing some even as I write this. So stay tuned.

Second, I gave some writerly advice to the folks at io9:  “How Do you Bridge the Gap Between Two Cool Moments in Your Novel?” Check out what I had to say here.  And like all writer advice, take it with a grain of salt.  (Or maybe a chunk.)

is one heckuva of a cool town. Reading at Malaprops went great, and it was awesome to see my high school pal Karen Casey (now an Asheville denizen), as well as writer friends Richard Dansky and Melinda Thielbar, who drove three hours (!) from Durham to the reading. I love towns with lots of laid-back people and steep hills, and Asheville certainly qualifies. Weirdly enough, the Washington Post ran an article on Asheville the day I got back; I gather the reporter was at the same drum circle Friday night that I was.

And that’s all she wrote for the BURNING SKIES readings.  The summer’s almost over, and I am now steeped in book three edits.  (And I can’t help but notice that I’ve bought myself yet another day to explain that Babylon A.D. purchase to you. . . . )

I’ll be reading from BURNING SKIES Thursday night at legendary indie bookstore Malaprop’s at 7 p.m. I’ve never been to Asheville before, so can’t wait. Normal blogging will resume next week, which gives me a few more days before I have to try to explain to you guys why I succumbed and bought the Babylon AD director’s cut.

I’m venturing down from the OC wastelands into San Diego today, where chaos has already gripped the city as ComicCon 09 opens. Giant apes storming through the streets, world-changing trade announcements, alien funny cars. . .fortunately the geniuses at io9 have provided a handy-dandy chart to help one navigate all the madness.

As to my schedule:

FRIDAY, 2:30-3:30 Building Tomorrow’s Technology— How does a present where the availability of natural resources is already an issue affect the technology one imagines for the future? Moderator Steve Saffel (editor and publishing consultant) maps a path with panelists Greg Bear(City at the End of Time), David Williams (Burning Skies), Dani & Eytan Kollin (The Unincorporated Man), and Kirsten Imani Kasai (Ice Song). Room 3.

FRIDAY, 3:30-4:30 p.m: Autograph sessions with panelists.  (AA1)

SATURDAY 12 noon: I sign copies of BURNING SKIES at Bantam’s booth in the exhibit hall.

SATURDAY 3 p.m.: I  am eaten by a leopard.

But before that happens, make sure you buy BURNING SKIES!