David J. Williams

I’ve been radio silent for a while here, but I daresay the end of the year is worth resurfacing for. Especially as THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT has been named the sixth best speculative fiction read of 2010 by Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, which is a nice way to finish up a decade that began with me starting to write the books that would take me on a very long strange trip.  To those of you who stuck with me for the whole trilogy, thanks for sharing the ride, and stay tuned for more announcements shortly.  So on behalf of me and ze cats, happy new year; may we have a better second decade then the last century did…

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.

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.

“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.

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 tonight the LAST reading of THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT world tour goes down four blocks from where I’m writing this, at 7 p.m. Borders Books @18th and L, downtown D.C. Hope to see ya there!

Hope everybody had a good holiday weekend.  It’s so hot in D.C. that my cats wish they had no fur, but that’s another story. As to today’s business:

First, a reminder to those of you in the D.C. area that I’ll be back at Borders 18th and L tomorrow night at 7 p.m. reading from MACHINERY OF LIGHT!  Hope to see you there…

Second, Cybermage has named Claire Haskell as one of the “Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction”.  Can’t say I disagree.

Third, Rico Dostie of TreksinSciFi and I had a great podcast conversation last week about the books, even though I was more than a little jetlagged at the time.

Fourth, the Falcata Times has weighed in with a review of the entire trilogy, calling it a “real treat” and a “top author recommendation for the year.”

See you manyana at Borders…

Captain Zoom here. 

The big moment has arrived.

And I’m pleased to announce the winner of the contest to win the entire Autumn Rain trilogy is . . . .

AJAX!  Yes, Ajax has won all three books.  Which means he and I can now line our litter box with every single page of the trilogy while we languidly purr and …

What’s that?

Really?

FUCK.

Well, you’re not going to believe this, but Dave has churlishly informed me that BOTH of his household cats are ineligible.

However, non-household cats are fair game.

And Mirik Smit of the Netherlands has a cat.  Perhaps this is why he has won the entire Autumn Rain trilogy.  Perhaps not.  Cats are mysterious that way.  At any rate, congratulations are due to Mirik.

As for the rest of you losers, I mean, contestants, don’t despair.  You can still always, yanno, buy the books.

Shoplifting is also an option, though you heard ’nuffin from me.

For those of you in Vancouver BC, I’ll be having an end-of-tour party for THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT Sunday night at La Terrazza restaurant in Yaletown! If you’re in the area, send me an email at djwATautumnrain2110.com and I’ll put you on the guest list.

Meanwhile, the cats will announce contest winners announced on MONDAY. Stay tuned.