Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 104

Impersonations: The Excerpt

There’s a lengthy excerpt of my new Praxis novelImpersonations available at Tor.com. Please feel free to drop everything you’re doing and read it.

Watch List

As you might have been able to tell from my last couple of posts, I’m getting a little grumpy about my entertainment options. Just look at TV. We are really in television’s golden age, with dozens of channels programming 24 hours per day, and an unprecedented number of high-quality series on networks or available for streaming. Unfortunately I don’t have an unprecedented number of hours in which to watch all these series, so maybe a little culling is in order. I’ve got a number of series just...

Kings and Kings

Went off to “the historic” El Rey theater last night to see the Gipsy Kings. (I won’t claim to have actuallyheard them.) I’m aware of the claim that rumba-flamenca is merely flamenco-lite, and I don’t care. I like me that Afro-Peruvian-Aragonese-Andalucian-Havana-Provençal sound, so sue me. So I went to The King (El Rey) to hear a band composed mainly of the Reyes (King) family, called the Kings. If I were better able at the moment to access the more mischievous parts of my gray matter, I wo...

Reviews in the Nick of Time: Stranger Things

Netflix’s Stranger Thingshas been widely appreciated for its deft appropriation of 1980s film and music (much of which is actually Seventies film and music, but nevermind), and one acquaintance of mine called it “the movie that Stephen King and Steven Spielberg never made.” I understand that people might enjoy a series that sort of name-checks all the stuff they loved when young, but the Eighties weren’tmy youth, dammit, and I’m wanting more than a pastiche, however expert, of something of wh...

Free Books!

I have some advanced reading copies ofImpersonations, my new novel, and I’m happy to give them away to eager readers. So I’ll be running a contest, but the contest will be available only to readers of my newsletter. So if you want the books, you should sign up. And even if you lose the contest, you still get a free ebook. Since the novel is set in the Praxis universe, and I want the books to go to readers who will appreciate it, the contest will involve knowledge of the Praxis universe. Which...

Days of Romping About

I’ll be spending this weekend romping about Bubonicon 48, New Mexico’s plague-friendly science fiction convention, which means I’m unlikely to be posting here. You, however, are welcome to join me at the convention, which is scheduled to be awesome. In the meantime, please remember that my 99-cent sale onAmbassador of Progress still has a few more days to run, after which it will beover. You can find the novel on the following online retailers: Amazon,Google,iBooks,Smashwords,Barnes & Noble,...

Thoughtful Question

I had a lovely Worldcon, held in Kansas City, a town which I’ve always found congenial. The event was full of friends, many of whom I don’t get to see nearly often enough, and the days and nights were full of bustle, chat, drinks, and fun. I also got to eat somereally good steaks,which you might expect in a city that builds statues to cows. I met a number of new readers, which I’m always pleased to do, and one sent an email with an interesting question. He’s working his way through my backlis...

Homebow

We returned from Kansas City through a big monsoon storm, but once on the ground we were welcomed by what was possibly the brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen. It was raining and I was in a hurry, so this was the best angle I could find on it. You’ll note a second, fainter rainbow just outside the first.

I Am At The Worldcon

I am in Kansas City, at the 74th World Science Fiction Convention. If you’re in town, come say hi at any of the following events: Science Fiction as Epic

Thursday 13:00 – 14:00, 3501F (Kansas City Convention Center)

Often science fiction that is epic in nature is dismissed as “space opera,” but science fiction can be epic without resorting to the world destroying of Edmond Hamilton or the dogfighting X-Wings of Star Wars. What constitutes epic science fiction and what does it do that more per...

Progress

I’m pleased to report that my first science fiction novel,Ambassador of Progress, is now on sale for a mere 99 cents. You may find it at Amazon, Google, iBooks, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Ambassador of Progress is unlike my other SF, in that it’s overtly anthropological science fiction. I think it’s successful on its own terms, and I recommend it to you. I’ve written an essay about it elsewhere. Happy reading!