Walter Jon Williams Popular Books

Walter Jon Williams Biography & Facts

Walter Jon Williams (born October 28, 1953) is an American writer, primarily of science fiction. Previously he wrote nautical adventure fiction under the name Jon Williams, in particular, Privateers and Gentlemen (1981–1984), a series of historical novels set during the Age of Sail. Career Writing as Jon Williams, he designed the wargame Tradition of Victory and role-playing game Promotions and Prizes, which were republished by Fantasy Games Unlimited as Heart of Oak (1982) and Privateers and Gentlemen (1983).: 74  A role-playing game sourcebook for Cyberpunk called Hardwired (1989) was licensed by R. Talsorian Games, based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Williams.: 209  Williams was born in Duluth, Minnesota and graduated from the University of New Mexico, where he received his BA degree in 1975. He currently lives in Valencia County, south of Albuquerque in New Mexico. In 2006, Williams founded the Taos Toolbox, a two-week writer's workshop for fantasy and science fiction writers. In 2017, Williams was the Guest of Honor at the 75th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Helsinki. Publications Novels Hardwired series Hardwired (1986) Solip:System (1989), novelette released as a standalone book Voice of the Whirlwind (1987) "Wolf Time" (1987), novelette Drake Maijstral seriesAn SF comedy of manners series about the aristocratic burglar Drake Maijstral. Collected as an omnibus, Ten Points for Style (1995) The Crown Jewels (1987) House of Shards (1988) Rock of Ages (1995) Metropolitan series Metropolitan (1995), Nebula Award nominee City on Fire (1997), Hugo Award nominee; Nebula Award nominee Dread Empire's Fall seriesA military science fiction/space opera series. The Praxis (2002) The Sundering (2003) Conventions of War (2005) Investments (2008), novella Impersonations (2016) The Accidental War (2018) Fleet Elements (2020) Imperium Restored (2022) Privateers and Gentlemen series, as Jon Williams To Glory Arise, originally The Privateer (1981) The Tern Schooner, originally The Yankee (1981) Brig of War, originally The Raider (1981) The Macedonian (1981) Cat Island (1981) Dagmar Shaw seriesA sci-fi thriller series involving crowdsourcing and alternate reality games. This Is Not a Game (2009) Deep State (2011) The Fourth Wall (2012) "Diamonds from Tequila" (2014), short story published in Rogues Quillifer series Quillifer (2017) Quillifer The Knight (2019) Lord Quillifer (2022) Other novels Ambassador of Progress (1984) Knight Moves (1985), Philip K. Dick Award nominee Angel Station (1989) Elegy for Angels and Dogs (1990) Days of Atonement (1991) Aristoi (1992) The Rift (1999), as by Walter J. Williams The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way (2002) Implied Spaces (2008) Short fiction collections Facets (1990) Frankensteins and Foreign Devils (1998) The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories (Trade Hardcover: Night Shade Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59780-177-5) Notable short fiction "Dinosaurs" (1987), Hugo Award nominee "Witness" (1987), Nebula Award nominee "Surfacing" (1988), Hugo Award and Nebula Award nominee "Prayers on the Wind" (1991), Nebula Award nominee "Wall, Stone, Craft" (1993), Hugo Award and Nebula Award nominee "Red Elvis" (1994) (collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology Alternate Outlaws) "Foreign Devils" in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (1996), Sidewise Award for Alternate History winner "Lethe" (1999), Nebula Award nominee "Daddy's World" (2000), Nebula Award winner "Argonautica" (2001), Nebula Award nominee "The Last Ride of German Freddie", in Worlds That Weren't (2002), Sidewise Award for Alternate History nominee "The Green Leopard Plague" (2004), Nebula Award winner, Hugo Award nominee References External links Official website with blog Walter Jon Williams at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Critical profile and bibliography in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid at the Wayback Machine (archived November 2, 2007) Walter Jon Williams discussion at theforce.net Message Boards Interview on Bibliophile Stalker Practice for Something Else: Walter Jon Williams, Interview by Jeremy L. C. Jones, Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2011 Interview With a Writer: Science Fiction Writer Walter Jon Williams, Interview by Tom Chandler, Writer Underground blog, April 2011 Walter Jon Williams at Library of Congress Jon Williams at LC Authorities – undifferentiated name; 6 of 7 catalog records belong to this Jon Williams Jon Williams at WorldCat (Privateers and Gentlemen, among works by other Jon Williams). Discover the Walter Jon Williams popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Walter Jon Williams books.

Best Seller Walter Jon Williams Books of 2024

  • Aristoi synopsis, comments

    Aristoi

    Walter Jon Williams

    Written with care, intelligence, and grace, [Aristoi] depicts a future society based on highly developed computers and biological engineering, the key skills of which are controlle...

  • Dinosaurs synopsis, comments

    Dinosaurs

    Walter Jon Williams

    This Hugo Awardnominated novelette takes place in the distant future, when a highlyevolved humanity finds itself at war with the alien Shars. The product of eight million years of ...

  • The Fourth Wall synopsis, comments

    The Fourth Wall

    Walter Jon Williams

    Dagmar Shaw is back in Hollywood, with a plan to lasso a series of emerging technologies into a revolutionary new form of entertainment. Sean Makin is a washedup child actor clingi...

  • Metropolitan synopsis, comments

    Metropolitan

    Walter Jon Williams

    NOMINATED FOR A NEBULA AWARD. Walter Jon Williams’ classic science fantasy Metropolitan is once again available for a new generation of readers. Aiah has fought her way from povert...

  • The Time Machine synopsis, comments

    The Time Machine

    H.G. Wells

    "I've had a most amazing time...." So begins the Time Traveller's astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era and the story that ...

  • Conventions of War synopsis, comments

    Conventions of War

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Space opera the way it ought to be [...] Bujold and Weber, bend the knee; interstellar adventure has a new king, and his name is Walter Jon Williams.” George R.R. MartinAt last, ...

  • The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories synopsis, comments

    The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories

    Walter Jon Williams

    From Walter Jon Williams, the author of Hardwired and Implied Spaces, comes this bleedingedge collection of SF stories, including the Nebulawinning "Daddy's World" and "The Green L...

  • Hardwired synopsis, comments

    Hardwired

    Walter Jon Williams

    Hardwired, the acknowledged inspiration for the games Cyberpunk Red and Cyberpunk 2077, is now available in a deluxe edition for its thirtieth anniversary, with new content by th...

  • Fleet Elements synopsis, comments

    Fleet Elements

    Walter Jon Williams

    "Space opera the way it ought to be . . . Bujold and Weber, bend the knee; interstellar adventure has a new king, and his name is Walter Jon Williams."George R. R. MartinFollowing ...

  • The Praxis synopsis, comments

    The Praxis

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Space opera the way it ought to be [...] Bujold and Weber, bend the knee; interstellar adventure has a new king, and his name is Walter Jon Williams.” George R.R. MartinThe first...

  • The Good New Stuff synopsis, comments

    The Good New Stuff

    Gardner Dozois

    Once the mainstay of science fiction, adventure stories fell out of favor during the 1960s and early 1970s. But in recent years, science fiction writers have spun out galaxyspannin...

  • The Best of the Best, Volume 2 synopsis, comments

    The Best of the Best, Volume 2

    Gardner Dozois

    For more than twenty years The Year's Best Science Fiction has been recognized as the best collection of short science fiction writing in the universe and an essential resource for...

  • Songs of the Dying Earth synopsis, comments

    Songs of the Dying Earth

    George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

    This tribute anthology celebrates the work of SF/F legend Jack Vance, featuring original stories from George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons, Elizabeth Moon, Tanith Lee, Tad...

  • The Rift synopsis, comments

    The Rift

    Walter Jon Williams

    "The Rift would be a very good beach book, if you could put it down long enough to get into the water." The San Diego Union Tribune FRACTURE LINES PERMEATE THE CENTRAL UNITED STAT...

  • Deep State synopsis, comments

    Deep State

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Walter Jon Williams is a visionary of tremendous power and originality . . . He kills every damn time.” Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prizewinning author Game designer Dagmar Shaw is sk...

  • Quillifer synopsis, comments

    Quillifer

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Walter Jon Williams is always fun, but this may be his best yet, a delight from start to finish, witty, colorful, exciting and amusing by turns, exquisitely written.” George R. R....

  • The Best of Walter Jon Williams synopsis, comments

    The Best of Walter Jon Williams

    Walter Jon Williams

    With the publication of his debut novel, The Privateer, in 1981, Walter Jon Williams began one of the most varied and prolific careers in contemporary popular fiction. His work enc...

  • Days of Atonement synopsis, comments

    Days of Atonement

    Walter Jon Williams

    Peter Heck, Washington Post "Williams' longest, most densely realized and successful book to date." Roland Green, Chicago Tribune "This is a novel that works marvelously on a vari...

  • Ambassador of Progress synopsis, comments

    Ambassador of Progress

    Walter Jon Williams

    "Welldeveloped characters, an intriguing plot and a cleareyed view of the doubleedged sword called change make [AMBASSADOR OF PROGRESS] an engrossing book..." LIBRARY JOURNAL "Will...

  • The Furthest Horizon synopsis, comments

    The Furthest Horizon

    Gardner Dozois

    It is the essence of science fiction to chart the possibilities of the future, but it takes the hand of a master to capture the farthest reaches of timefutures almost unimaginably ...

  • The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid synopsis, comments

    The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid

    Walter Jon Williams

    Nebula Awardwinning author Walter Jon Williams serves up a glorious novelettesized mashup of intrigue, cuttingedge biotech, Aymara Indian spies, a Chinese cruise ship, ninjas, Ande...

  • Implied Spaces synopsis, comments

    Implied Spaces

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Walter Jon Williams really knows how to play power chords in the ‘key of wonder’ and in Implied Spaces he’s gone to town on the guitar solo!”  Charles Stross  “Implied S...

  • The Crown Jewels synopsis, comments

    The Crown Jewels

    Walter Jon Williams

    Peleng is a planet ripe for the plucking, and Drake Maijstral is an Allowed Burglar rated in the Top Ten by the Imperial Sporting Commission. But what should be a simple case of br...

  • Angel Station synopsis, comments

    Angel Station

    Walter Jon Williams

    ORPHANS OF DEEP SPACE . . .  They’re outlaws now.  Created to serve a function grown obsolete, haunted by the holographic ghost of their father, Ubu and Maria have lived ...

  • The Last Ride of German Freddie synopsis, comments

    The Last Ride of German Freddie

    Walter Jon Williams

    NIETZSCHE AT THE O.K. CORRAL! The Clantons and the Earps are heading for a deadly showdown, and into the town of Tombstone rides German Freddie, a gunslinger with a deadly reputati...

  • Quillifer the Knight synopsis, comments

    Quillifer the Knight

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Williams knows exactly what to do with Quillifer, and it's hugely entertaining.” Locus“Walter Jon Williams is always fun, but this may be his best yet, a delight from start to fin...

  • The Tree of Life synopsis, comments

    The Tree of Life

    C. L. Moore

    The Tree of Life is a classic science fiction novelette by Catherine L. Moore (pen name C. L. Moore). This is a great story, offering a good sampling of Moore's "Weird Tale...

  • This is Not a Game synopsis, comments

    This is Not a Game

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Walter Jon Williams is a visionary of tremendous power and originality . . . He kills every damn time.” Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prizewinning author When you play one of Dagmar’s onli...

  • The Book of Swords synopsis, comments

    The Book of Swords

    Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch & Garth Nix

    New epic fantasy in the grand traditionincluding a neverbeforepublished Song of Ice and Fire story by George R. R. Martin! Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettab...

  • Imperium Restored synopsis, comments

    Imperium Restored

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Interstellar adventure has a new king, and his name is Walter Jon Williams.” George R.R. MartinBlending fastpaced military science fiction and space opera, the third and final vol...

  • Knight Moves synopsis, comments

    Knight Moves

    Walter Jon Williams

    author of Berserker Fred Saberhagen Knight Moves uses an unmatched cast of characters, human and otherwise, to tell an intriguing story.  author of Game of Thrones George R....

  • Diamonds From Tequila synopsis, comments

    Diamonds From Tequila

    Walter Jon Williams

    “Walter Jon Williams is a visionary of tremendous power and originality . . . He kills every damn time.” Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prizewinning author Sean Makin was a washedup child...