Williams, Walter Jon 1953-

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WILLIAMS, Walter Jon 1953-

(Jon Williams)

PERSONAL:

Born October 15, 1953, in Duluth, MN; son of Walter Ulysses and Eva Williams; married Kathy Hedges. Education: University of New Mexico, B.A., 1975. Hobbies and other interests: Sailing, kenpo karate.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New Mexico. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Tor Books, 175 Fifth Ave., 14th Floor, New York, NY 10010. E-mail—walterjon.w.@genie.com.

CAREER:

Writer. Also worked as a teacher of martial arts, small-boat sailing, and English.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Philip K. Dick Award nomination, 1986, for Knight Moves; Nebula Award nominations, 1988, for short story "Witness," 1989, for short story "Surfacing," 1993, for short story "Prayers on the Wind," 1994, for Wall, Stone, Craft, and 1996, for Metropolitan; Hugo Award nominations, 1988, for Dinosaurs, 1989, for "Surfacing," and 1994, for Wall, Stone, Craft; Sturgeon Award nomination, 1988, for Dinosaurs; Campbell Award nomination and Kurd Lasswitz Award nomination, both 1988, for Hardwired; World Fantasy Award nomination, 1994, for Wall, Stone, Craft.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Ambassador of Progress, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1984.

Knight Moves, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1985.

Hardwired, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1986.

The Crown Jewels (also see below), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1987.

Voice of the Whirlwind, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1987.

House of Shards (also see below), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1988.

Angel Station, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1989.

Days of Atonement, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1991.

Aristoi, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Metropolitan, HarperPrism (New York, NY), 1995.

Rock of Ages (also see below), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Ten Points for Style (includes The Crown Jewels, House of Shards, and Rock of Ages), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1995.

City on Fire, HarperPrism (New York, NY), 1997.

The Rift, HarperPrism (New York, NY), 1999.

Destiny's Way, Del Rey (New York, NY), 2002.

The Praxis, Avon (New York, NY), 2002.

UNDER NAME JON WILLIAMS; "PRIVATEERS AND GENTLEMEN" SERIES

The Privateer, Dell (New York, NY), 1981.

The Yankee, Dell (New York, NY), 1981.

The Raider, Dell (New York, NY), 1981.

The Macedonian, Dell (New York, NY), 1984.

Cat Island, Dell (New York, NY), 1984.

OTHER

Solip:system (short stories), Axolotl Press (Eugene, OR), 1989.

Hardwired: The Sourcebook, R. Talsorian Games (Berkeley, CA), 1989.

Facets (short stories), introduction by Roger Zelazny, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Elegy for Angels and Dogs (novella; bound with Graveyard Heart by Roger Zelazny), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Dinosaurs (novella), Pulphouse Publishing (Eugene, OR), 1991.

Frankensteins and Foreign Devils (novellas and short stories), New England Science Fiction Association Press (Framingham, MA), 1998.

Contributor of short stories to anthologies, including Short Story Hardbacks #12 and Short Story Paperbacks #18, Pulphouse Publishing (Eugene, OR), 1991; When the Music's Over, edited by Lewis Shiner, 1991; War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, edited by Kevin J. Anderson, 1996; and Worlds that Weren't, Roc (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

A prolific American writer of science fiction novels and short stories in various styles, Walter Jon Williams began his authorial endeavors with sea stories under the shorter name Jon Williams. In 1984 his science fiction novel, Ambassador of Progress, was published in the genre in which the author, now writing as Walter Jon Williams, would settle. Ambassador of Progress takes place on an earth-like planet having feudal characteristics. The protagonist, Fiona, a visiting ambassador from a sophisticated world, gets involved in a power struggle between the planet's warrior and governing classes. The author's new course was not initially applauded: soon after publication, Fantasy Review labeled Ambassador of Progress a "dreary tale."

Williams let only a year pass before the publication of Knight Moves, which proved to be more successful than his previous work. The story concerns a radically advanced earth and a "world-shaper" named Falkner whose inventive genius has made humankind immortal and has largely given him control of the planet. Thomas Dunn, writing in Fantasy Review, characterized Knight Moves as being "suffused with elegiac warmth of the late, lamented Walter Tevis and with [Ursula K.] Le Guin's moral earnestness."

By the mid-1980s, Williams found himself beguiled by the then-emerging popular science fiction sub-genre called "cyber-punk" whose most widely known practitioner is William Gibson. Critics noted the influence of Gibson's innovations in Williams's novel Hardwired. Another, and openly acknowledged, influence was fellow science fiction writer Roger Zelazny, whose "Damnation Alley" was appropriated for the setting of Hardwired. Hardwired, with the minions of powerful off-earth multinational corporations called "Orbitals" as enemies, eventually aroused enough enthusiasm to spawn a video game. A second novel in the "Hardwired" series, Voice of the Whirlwind, appeared in 1987, along with the inauguration of a second series, not cyber-punk, concerning a stylish criminal of the future whose crimes are permitted because he performs them so cleverly. This thief, Drake Maijstral, first appears in The Crown Jewels, and then resurfaces the following year in House of Shards.

Critical opinion was divided about Voice of the Whirlwind. The powerful multinational corporations described in Hardwired appear again, and this time the protagonist is a cloned soldier whose original died under the Orbitals' employ in mysterious circumstances. The clone sets out to uncover the truth about his original's death. A New York Times Book Review science fiction columnist reported that the bravura in Williams's narrative in the face of a horrifying and fractured future world was invigorating. However, other reviewers pointed to what they perceived as Williams's heavy borrowing from fellow science fiction writers.

A later novel, Aristoi, explores the promise of some intriguing technologies. The Aristoi are the world's aristocrats and spend a great deal of time probing their inner natures via virtual reality. However, Williams again demonstrates his distrust of the power class: several of these god-like creatures have conspired to manipulate whole worlds and cause humanity trouble. Critics responded favorably to the book: an Analog contributor observed that in Aristoi Williams developed themes of religion and duty originally found in Days of Atonement, though in unexpected ways. The Aristois who manipulated worlds as a sort of social science experiment were attempting to act as gods. Fighting these Old Testament style "mean-spirited, meddling" gods is the hero, Gabriel, who acts as a guide and inspiration.

More recent novels include Metropolitan, which was characterized by Washington Post Book World contributor Tim Sullivan as highly readable "due largely to pungent characterization and persuasive dialogue," and Rock of Ages. In Metropolitan, Aiah, an employee of the Plasm Authority—plasm being the force upon which the world, now one big city, operates—finds a well of plasm and experiments with it, and is soon swept up in a larger power struggle. Despite finding the book readable, Sullivan labeled the plot "weary" and noted the complexity of the drawing of the female protagonist as the book's redeeming factor. In Rock of Ages, Williams reintroduces the character Drake Maijstral, the charming thief of the Crown Jewels sequence. In Rock of Ages, Drake undergoes his typical picaresque and comic experiences, embarking on a number of adventures, including duels, love affairs, and the theft of his father's coffin.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Popular Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1997.

PERIODICALS

Analog, February, 1993, review of Aristoi, pp. 160-168.

Bookwatch, August, 1998, review of Frankensteins and Foreign Devils, p. 12.

Fantasy Review, January, 1985, review of Ambassador of Progress, p. 2; April, 1985, Thomas Dunn, review of Knight Moves, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1999, review of The Rift, p. 910.

Library Journal, August, 1995, p. 123; August, 1999, Jackie Cassada, review of The Rift, p. 147.

Locus, February, 1990, p. 23; August, 1999, review of The Rift, p. 19; November, 2002, Faren Miller, review of The Praxis, pp. 21, 23.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June, 1997, review of City on Fire, p. 25.

New Statesman, May 20, 1988, p. 27.

New York Times Book Review, August 2, 1987, review of Voice of the Whirlwind, p. 25; March 12, 1991, p. 37; May 14, 1995, p. 24; February 23, 1997, review of City on Fire, p. 20.

Publishers Weekly, September 25, 1987, p. 100; August 17, 1992, p. 492; July 5, 1999, review of The Rift, p. 64.

Science Fiction Chronicle, December, 1999, review of The Rift, p. 41.

Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 1984, p. 207.

Washington Post Book World, May 24, 1987, p. 6.; March 25, 1990, p. 10; April 30, 1995, Tim Sullivan, review of The Metropolitan, p. 8; February 23, 1997, review of City on Fire, p. 11.