The Novels of Walter Jon Williams

Last updated September, 1998

Walter Jon Williams started out working in a similar area as Roger Zelazny. Williams is not as poetic as Zelazny and he writes more science fiction than Roger. However, in some books they share common characters (near gods) and goals (the struggle for correct action when one has nearly infinte power).

Aristoi
A remarkable novel driven by a very clever idea: namely that humans can usefully divide their personalities into many different "sub personalities". Far from being a form of disease, it represents a way to bring powerful abilities to the fore. The Aristoi are those humans who have very well developed personalities that can work together to create entire worlds.

Hard Wired
A great "cyberpunk" novel from the early 80's. Thematically related to Zelazny's novel "Damnation Ally". Very violent with hard characters who end up fighting the good fight for freedom.

House of Shards
One of the funniest science fiction books published (ranks up with Snow Crash and Martians Go Home). A sequel of sorts to an early novel titled The Crown Jewels. House of Shards is a vastly superior book.

Other Walter Jon Williams Books

Angel Station. This novel is set on a rough and not very pretty space station where two character, a brother and sister, want to escape to a better life out in space. Not one of my favorite stories but not bad.

Voice of the Whirlwind. A reasonable science fiction novel. It is about the return from war by a soldier (at leat that is what my memory says, I could be wrong). After reading Hardwired first, I was disapointed by this novel.

Rock of Ages. This book is a sequel to House of Shards. Like House of Shards, this is science fiction comedy. However, it doesn't quite work for me. Somehow I just don't find Elvis funny. I'm young enough so that Elvis was not a person that ment anything to me, I'm just a Beatles guy. Given that Elvis (or rather Elvis clones) are critical for the grand finale, I was not amused. Some other problems: our hero is subject to theviery, instead of being a thief he is always reacting to some other agency. The setting (Earth) was kind of dull. I will say that I found the various marriage sub-plots to be quite funny.

This is a good web site devoted to Walter Jon Williams

This is web-zine that Walter Jon Williams is associated with called Hardwired. It is devoted to reviews and commentary about science fiction and fantasy novels. It has not been updated in more than a year, so I assume it is defunct.

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