Customer Reviews (3)

Not Free SF Reader
A psychic girl and her cyborg brother must fend for themselves and the man/father who created them dies at his own hand.

Being kids, they try some ill-advised schemes to make money and
survive, and end up on the run, in a situation that is not at all
suited to children.

Beautiful Maria/Ubu
This is a great book...one of my favorite sci-fi books of alltime.

First of all, the whole idea of being able to capture and use the power of a singularity on board a ship to travel the stars is fascinating and powerfully described.

The two main occupants of the ship "Runaway" use their own unique powers, Ubu's perfect memory and and his sister Beautiful Maria's ability to shepherd electron flow, to control their ship and navigate the deep. But they have a problem...Ubu and Beautiful Maria are broke and desperate and need to do something soon. Out of such desperation comes risky ideas, conflict, money, screw-ups, drugs, sex, the law, aliens, hope, betrayal, power,and resolution.

This is a great ride, where eveytime you think it's going to turn out, it doesn't, or it does in anunexpected way. Walter Jon Williams has put together a great story that will keep you guessing. Try it out...it's just as good as "Hardwired" and "Voice of the Whirlwind".

hero's name a play on french theatre character "Ubu Roi"
Walter Jon Williams shares William Gibson's gift for creating a believable future--of hustlers, bankers, and whores--who are immediately recognizeable. The technology may change; but human nature will not (at least not within Williams' timescale).Again, Walter Jon Williams has an ear for realistic dialogue which the has been science fiction authors who split their time writing Star Trek episodes could learn much from. ... Read more

Product Description
By day Dagmar Shaw orchestrates vast games with millions of players spanning continents. By night, she tries to forget the sound of a city collapsing in flames around her. She tries to forget the faces of her friends as they died in front of her. She tries to forget the blood on her own hands.

But then an old friend approaches Dagmar with a project. The project he pitches is so insane and so ambitious, she can't possibly say no. But this new venture will lead her from the world of alternate-reality gaming to one even more complex. A world in which the players are soldiers and spies and the name of the game is survival. ... Read more

Product Description
Steward is a clone. A beta. His memories are fifteen years old, because his alpha never did have a brain-scan update. And in those fifteen years, the entire world has changed: The Orbital Policorp which held his allegiance has collapsed; dozens of his friends died in an off-planet war which he survived; an alien race has established relations with humanity; both his first and second wives have divorced him. And someone has murdered him. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Okay, I liked it enough
It's an okay book.Interesting narrative, boring at parts.I got it because I loved Aristoi so much in high school, which is a pretty wordy and stringy novel but fun and innovative in the way it was written.There are highlights in the book.Check it out.

Im going against the majority giving this book a negative review here but...
Voice of the Whirlwind is a fairly decent scifi book that lacks oomph. The writing style here is dry and thick. Sort of reads a lot like a William Gibson novel rather than say a Heinlein work. By this I would say that this work is slow and deliberate, lacking the zest or tounge in cheek humor that can be found in most scifi.

This is a story about a clone, revived missing the last 15 years of memory from the original person. The story gets pushed along and we find out that the clone is ex-military and has been in pivotal situations around humanities recent history.

Their are interesting hormonal drugs, mysterious aliens, interstellar factions of humanity. Covert businesses acting like Halliburton to the factor of ten...

The story itself is pretty good as well. I am mainly rating this story so low because it was pretty boring throughout. The author is just not very good at grabbing the reader and not letting go. Think of William Gibson and his early dry writing style based on the "Maltise Falcon" or "the Big Sleep". That writing style can be pulled off, but its tricky and Williams just manages to miss the mark in my mind.

Smart SciFi.
Three and a half stars rating. Mr. Williams is a good story teller and his futuristic ideas are believable. The plot, and characters are well developed, and the writing is good. There wasn't this uphill, linear progression of interesting to more interesting though. However, there was a level degree of interesting throughout with a strong ending that, although smart, just seemed to be plucked from nowhere.

FROM BACK COVER
Steward is a clone. A beta. His memories are fifteen years old, because his alpha never did have a brain-scan update.And in those fifteen years, the entire world has changed: The Orbital Policorp which held his allegiance has collapsed; dozens of his friends died in an off-planet war which he survived; an alien race has established relations with humanity; both his first and second wives have divorced him.

And someone has murdered him.

Excellent and tightly-written
I picked this off my bookshelf after not having read it for a number of years.Wow, did this book manage to hold up over time!Walter Jon Williams has always been an underrated and underappreciated SF writer; all of his books that I have read have been at least good, with many being great."Voice of the Whirlwind" falls in the great category.Williams crafted a tightly-written novel that eschews the bloat that often creeps into SF (any genre, for that matter).This book is laser-focused, with no surplusage.The characters are believable, and the story is interesting.It's a military-ish novel without the jingoism and space opera of military SF; a cyberpunk-ish novel that isn't a Gibson clone, and a first contact-ish novel that puts a fresh spin on alien-human interaction.If I have any quibble with the book, it's that part of the plot seems a little overcomplicated to me, but not enough so to be more than a minor distraction than a major problem.

If you like SF, you will almost certainly enjoy this book.I'd even recommend this as a blind purchase for yourself or as a gift.If you don't feel that adventurous, "Voice of the Whirlwind" is definitely worth seeking out at your library. ... Read more

Product Description
Ex-fighter pilot Cowboy, "hardwired" via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Panzer Boy meets Dirt Girl
I listened to this on books on tape (MP3 actually).I missed the whole cyberpunk genre growing up for some reason since I was all over Sci-fi in general.I liked the complexity of this novel although the narrator giving history and explanation was a little annoying.I think figuring that out for yourself is much more fun.Also the metaphors got more and more divorced from reality and distracting.The structure of the novel was predictable, but didn't distract from my overall enjoyment of the story.

That said, the novel had a lot of action, gun fights, and cyber body modification.I also liked the chapter intros that featured future advertisements. Modern body...modern body...modern body!It reminds me of the weird fascist commercials in Starship Troopers movie.The details of the future disutopianfinance and economy are very interesting and in some ways the center of the novel.Its new to me, but I'd put it in the oldie, but goodie pigeon hole in your cyberpunk library.

a very good gritty near future sci fi book
Williams' Hardwired is definitely worth reading. As several others here in the review section point out, this is one of the better cyber punk books you will come across. Jacking into the Matrix, existing as half human/half AI, continuing to exist due to the relevance of the computer programs wired to your soul, this is what Hardwired is all about.

The story takes place in the near term future. Other than medicine, AI, and some space sciences, the world is essentially the same technology wise. The 'Orbitals' used asteroids a decade prior to seize control of Earth. They used them as weapons and rained them down upon the cities killing hundreds of millions.

Now a few totally crazed and evil people vie for control of the 'orbitals'. The world is a pretty dark place, being abused for the pleasure of those that wield the power. The characters here feed off of each other like leaches.

For characters, Williams gives us a legend in his own time known as 'cowboy'. he was a fighter pilot and now is a panzer driver who ships pirated cargo through tariff zones. The other main character is a bodyguard/assassin/barely scraping by young woman who is still protecting her brother even though he is old enough to fend for himself and seems to resent her help.

The writing is a little dry, its of the the ilk of Gibson, but where Gibson was trying to emulate Dashiel Hammet, Williams is trying to take from Gibson and a lot of the Noir quality is lost. Still its a pretty good read and worth your time if you enjoy sci-fi.

Grim story
Cowboy delivers goods and messages, girl kills people - Orbital (in sky) manages events and people on earth. Others may like this book, but it is not for me.

Good read
Good read, a little predictable of an ending but it rounds the story out nicely.

A core cyberpunk book
This is absolutely a top-notch cyberpunk book, one of the defining works of the genre.It covers societies from desert smuggler pilots to urban street dirt to orbital corporate mindfreaks, and the tale of the future's dwindling hopes comes across clearly in all of these.I have this on my shelf next to Neuromancer, and keep reaching for Hardwired. ... Read more

Product Description
From Walter Jon Williams, author of Implied Spaces, Hardwired, and Voice of the Whirlwind, comes The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, a stunning collection of short fiction including the Nebula Award winning story The Green Leopard Plague, as well as Daddy's World, Lethe, The Last Ride of German Freddie, Millennium Party, The Tang Dynasty, Underwater Pyramid, Incarnation Day, Send Them Flowers, and Pinocchio. ... Read more

Product Description
IMAGINE A GAME WITH NO BOUNDARIES - WAITING IN A PARKING LOT, SITTING AT YOUR COMPUTER, WALKING DOWN THE STREET.YOU COULD BE CALLED AT ANY MOMENT - AND YOU'D BETTER BE READY.

THIS IS NOT A GAME.

THIS IS A NOVEL OF GREED, BETRAYAL, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

This Is Not a Book Review
Logline: a near-future techno-thriller involving alternate reality games (ARGs). I mostly agree with Larry Hosken that it was "a fun bit of fluff," but I have four big nitpicks:

* HTML is not case-sensitive;
* many puzzles are mentioned in the story, but few are shown or even described;
* I didn't believe the "banana split" puzzle would have been unsolvable--I've been GC, and I've seen much tougher nuts get cracked in seconds; and
* most of Chapter Twenty-One.

Williams acknowledges Sean Stewart in his notes, and some of the game setups are lifted right out of The Beast. Some research clearly went into this novel, but I didn't ever feel like the author really grokked the ARG scene.

I guess that's really my biggest complaint. Other than being able to use a large number of dedicated followers to perform complex, distributed tasks, there wasn't much in this story that was specific to the ARG community. You could have told pretty much the same tale with a really dedicated group of online knitting enthusiasts... who discover a long-lost cross-stitch pattern... which leads to a hidden treasure! This Is Not a Quilt, anyone?

Brisk and fun, but leaves loose ends
his is not a game is good entertainment. It is a fast paced story built around an interesting premiss.

The premiss is that a set of software agents have escaped and are now destroying national economies as part of their investment strategies. Dagmar is a game designer who harnesses an "alternate reality game" to learn what is going on, protect herself, and stop the run away agents. Plenty to work with there.

There is mystery and tension as the story unfolds. However since only a few characters are really developed, it is obvious who the villain is too early. Even those characters are not very complex or completely convincing. Some of the characters and scenes show that the author knows the gaming world.

Aside from the few main characters the rest of the book is very shallow. A number of elements are introduced at that never reappear and serve no purpose as far as I can tell. These are just left as hanging oddities. For example the Dutch couple Dagmar meets in the hotel in Indonesia. The game which is key to the story is not really well developed.

Still this is a pretty good story and there are a lot of good ideas here. I hope Williams develops them further.

A Look Into Alternate Reality Games
Dagmar is a designer of Alternate Reality Games who has been stranded in Jakarta during the chaos that resulted from a currency crisis.She is desperate to get out of the country and to safety.She realizes that she has a lot of information and power at her disposal in her worldwide community of gamers.

When one of Dagmar's friends is murdered she toys with the idea of inserting the actual murder into one of her games to see if the gamers can be of help in solving the homicide.She finds out far more than she could have imagined.

This book will appeal to readers who want to know more about ARGs who like an interesting mystery with a little bit of economics thrown into the mix.I can't quite give "This Is Not A Game" five stars because there are a few sections that move along pretty slowly, but I found it to be an interesting read.

Almost put it down...glad I didn't...
I have to admit that about 60 pages in, I was wondering how I would get through this book.It wasn't that it was bad, it just didn't grab me.Beginning with the second act, though, I was glad I stuck to it.I am not a big scifi guy and had no clue that the games being played in the book even existed, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.It's an easy read that flows well and is pretty entertaining.I would definitely recommend giving this book a read, especially if you can check it out from the library as I did.I will definitely check out other books by this author.

As for other reviews saying parts of this book are unrealistic, I guess I'm just too dumb for it to bother me.

"they were all young and games were all they knew of life"
This is not my favorite genre. But I figured Walter Jon Williams would put a new twist on the cyber thriller. And he does. This is not a serious work. The subtitle, "a novel of greed, betrayal, and social networking," whether supplied by the author himself or the publisher, gives that away. This is not a true whodunnit. There are only a few suspects, and the last part of the book, after the villian is revealed, is more of a how'll the protagonist will thwart the bad guy and, oh yeah, save the world than anything to do with the science of deduction. This is not a complaint. Mr. Williams does this smoothly, credibly, and with a great deal of suspense.

This is not a ponderous tale. It's fun, you'll probably like the way the online game players get together to first extract Dagmar Shaw, the protagonist-game creator, from a riot-torn Indonesia and back to LA, and then how they get together to help her thwart the bad guy and, oh yeah, save the world. But it's all more than a bit tongue in cheek. And one of the characters is really more of a running gag than anything else.

This is not an era that the author particularly likes. Along the way you'll get his take on the way science fiction writers are treated by their publishers, as well as his feelings about toilers in the service-industry vineyards--to say nothing of his obvious discontent with the present politico-economic system. This is not a book to pass by, if you're looking for something to pass the time. ... Read more

Product Description

The universe has fallen into bloody chaos now that the dread empire of the tyrannical Shaa is no more -- at the mercy of the merciless insectoid Naxid, who now hunger for domination. But the far-flung human descendants of Terra have finally tasted liberty, and their warrior heroes will not submit. Separated by light-years, Lord Gareth Martinez and the mysterious guerrilla fighter Caroline Sula each pursue a different road to victory in tomorrow's ultimate battle -- for the new order will be far more terrible than the old ... unless one last, desperate stratagem can hold a shattered galaxy together.

Customer Reviews (25)

Another sleepless night...
Williams' scifi is rather old-fashioned. It's not as inventive, mind-boggling or sprawling like Reynolds', Hamilton's, or Banks' works. It's classical "interstellar empires at war" space opera. There's no telepaths, no cosmic singularities, no mysterious alien artifacts. Then what makes it so good? Excellent execution: surprisingly good writing that packs a punch and somehow makes the minutae of space battles interesting, and 2 main characters who form the focus of the story (no other POV's), real and fascination (especially Caroline Sula). The familiar storylines feel fresh because they're experienced intimately by the characters that you've come to care about.

In this book, Caroline Sula, a Fleet liuetenant, is hiding undercover in the capital city of Zhanzaa after it's captured by invading Naxid forces. The secret resistance is quickly discovered and crushed, and she finds herself the most senior officer on the planet - and wages a one-woman partisan war. This was by far the most interesting part of the book (and maybe the series), as she spreads propaganda, plots assassinations, and searches for allies. She is more interesting than Martinez, with murky depths to her history and personality, and her story had a surprisingly emotional effect on me.

Meanwhile, Martinez is on the Chenforce fleet, pursuing the Naxid forces in space. A ship captain is murdered, opening a nice promotion spot for Martinez, along with the challenges of solving the murder mystery, winning over the crew, and fighting the war. I admit I skipped about 100 pages of the murder mystery, not because it wasn't interesting, but because it was 2am and I had to go to work in the morning, and I ~had~ to know what happens.

The book ends with a bang (huge space battle!) and a whimper - that was me whimpering, sad that it ended, sad because of some things that happened (since when does space opera make you tear up?!). Good book because it's fun, bad book because I didn't get any sleep last night.

Space opera Las Vegas style
I love SF and just read the whole series over the course of a week. To sum up:

Harmless, unimaginative, going-through-the-motions pulp fiction, which happens to be located in a space future.

A recap of the semi-fascistic voice in the stories of Heinlein wrapped around a B-rated classic western story, only with the gender roles swapped and with the Naxids in the role of unusually lame indians.

This is exactly the kind of SF that Paul Verhooven ridiculed in the movie "Starship Troopers".

To me Walter Jon Williams has established himself as the Barbara Cartland of Science Fiction.
Contemporary british SF writer Peter F. Hamilton does this infinitely much better, and there simply is no comparison to the grandaddy of all space opera, Asimovs Foundation-series (written around 1950).

Great conclusion to the series
Great space opera, and a fitting conclusion to the series. Walter Jon Williams writes some of the best pulp science fiction around.
It ends on a bit of an open note... I hope it sells well enough that he writes more in this universe.

Good Series Closer

Convetions of Dread isn't anything new to the series but it provides a good final chapter and wraps up all the loose ends from the previous 2 books.Assuming you read the begining of the series, I recommend the final novel.

One of the worst endings to a series I've ever read
Read this review prior to reading this book (or series, hopefully).This series ends probably as badly as any series possibly could.If it wasn't for the fact that parts of the book were OK, I'd give it 1 star, because the ending was so stupid that, if I could, I'd give it a negative five stars.

While I don't recommend you read this, I won't give away the specifics of the ending, as that would be wrong of me.However, everything that was frustrating about the first two books (i.e. silly caste structure, total reliance on patronage, accent descrimination) wins in the end, irregardless of the world changing honors that the two heroes achieve.

I truly don't understand the point of the author even writing this series, if he's simply going to allow the status quo to remain intact.One of the reasons people read books like this, is to see a civilization that has turned geologic, and then gets into a war of survival, have the ability to change.But no, the author strives to make sure that all of the stupidity that we wished to see overturned is put right back in place after the war is over.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind the love triangle ending.But the political ending really makes me regret ever picking up the first book, as I now realize that reading this series has been an absolute waste of my time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Boring
I suffered through the first book in this series, hoping that Book 2 would be better.It is painfully boring.There is not a single space battle in either book, just people floating around in space guessing what might be happening on the various planets.

Sula's character is completely unbelievable (the "Sula" that is pretending to be Sula). You get to learn very little about the alien species in these books.If you want a real space opera, read Saga of Seven Suns or the Night's Dawn.This book sucked so bad that I returned it and the rest of the series.Boring!

The Exciting Continuation of the Sci-Fi Fable of a Stagnant Society's Bloody Reaction to Change
I don't have a great amount to add to the comments by the other positive reviewers. The series' cheesy title, "Dread Empire's Fall," initially put me off, but it only took a few chapters to put me in a state that required me to get the other two books and read the story straight through.The most difficult achievement, I believe, for Sci-fi authors is to create characters and personal drama that are as engaging as the epic story and setting they inhabit.Off the top of my head, the only Sci-Fi novels that have pulled this off as well (for me) are Simmons' Hyperion series and Hamilton's Commonwealth novels.

The Sundering Is a Good Read But Falls Short of The Praxis
This second book and the series in general feature a wonderfully creative plot and universe created by the author.I have read all three and think that The Praxis is the best of the trilogy. The action in this book lagged a bit and it seemed at times that Lady Sula's plot line had been abandoned entirely.Still, I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a good sci-fi trilogy.

New Empire
Very complicated and elaborate back story that I love in science fiction.I haven't read anymore of the series yet, but will.Right now I am checking out David Brin.

The story continues...
The second book in Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire's Fall series, The Sundering, resumes exactly where The Praxis left off.It continues the story of Gareth Martinez and Caroline Sula as they battle to retake the Shaa empire from the Naxid rebels. The writing and characterization continue to be top notch so if you enjoyed the first book you will definitely like the second. Although the second book was good, I felt that it put a lot of pressure on the third book to determine whether the series will be great or not. In other words, after reading about these people and their war for two volumes, I need the third book to be truly spectacular in order to make the first two books pay off. Therefore, I will withhold judgement on the entire series until I finish the third book, but if the first two books are any indication, I don't think I'll be disappointed. ... Read more

Product Description
From Walter Jon Williams, the celebrated and influential author of Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind, and Angel Station comes Implied Spaces, a new novel of post-singularity action, pyrotechnics, and intrigue. Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself! Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmessa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

An Enjoyable Page-Turner
Implied Spaces is an enjoyable page turner with so many new an intriguing ideas coming at you it can be hard to keep up. You might think that you've picked up maybe the fifth or sixth book in an ongoing series, the backstory is so rich and complex. But no, it seems that Implied Spaces is just an incredibly fast-paced, deeply immersive stand-alone.

One of the many SF tropes in Implied Spaces is the idea that every person can "upload" to some sort of a computer so that, if they die, they can be brought back to life with all memories, emotions, and personality traits in tact. This technology is even used for long distance space travel, in which people "upload" into a small ship and leave their bodies behind. This is interesting, to be sure, but I found the characters cavalier attitude toward this process, and toward death itself, a bit disturbing. If you die, you are in fact dead. I'm not sure how the idea that an exact copy of you will be walking around, using your stuff, and interacting with your loved ones is supposed to be in any way comforting.

And one very minor quibble about the typesetting. The book uses a double space between sentences. While this may be how many of us learned to type in the 80s and before, it is certainly a no-no in publishing and makes for some jagged looking copy. Night Shade Press, please take note!

Excellent Zelazny Knockoff
I've always liked the work of Walter Jon Williams. His very first book, Knight Moves, was a Zelazny knockoff but he soon moved on to Cyberpunk and high tech sf. This book returns to the earlier form, with a preternaturally competent hero whose life spans centuries. Zelazny's heroes usually (though not always) worked in the shadows. Their actual identities were often unknown to the people whose lives they manipulated. Our hero in this book, Aristide (real name Pablo Perez) started life as a top computer scientist, participated in the establishment of the artificial intelligences which now run civilization, and spends much of his time as a vagabond swordsman investigating the "implied spaces," the spaces that grow naturally out of the artificial building of pocket universes.

On one such adventure, Aristide runs across a plot to take over all the Universes. After alerting the authorities, he volunteers to be a secret agent on a pocket Universe from which many kidnapping/brainwashings seem to have taken place. He sets up a persona named "Franz Sandow," an obvious homage to Francis Sandow, the protagonist of Zelazny's excellent Isle of the Dead. In Zelazny's book, Sandow was a "worldscaper," who could call upon mystical, even godlike powers to do his work. In this book, Aristide is almost as powerful, but his power depends upon his alliance with Endorra, one of the great artificial minds that run civilization.

My only complaint is the deus ex machina nature of the ending. Aristide gets a brilliant revelation about the nature of the Universe that the minds are able to use to come up with new technology. More than a little too pat, but still, I loved the concept, I loved the characters and I loved this book.

Too far-removed from reality to be compelling
When death is only a temporary inconvenience, any threat rings hollow. It felt like he was relying on the whiz-bang technology to keep people interested, rather than compelling characters or storylines.

fantastic!
This novel was like my personal energizer bunny. It just kept compelling me to keep reading. How can you go wrong with pocket universes, matrioshka arrays, wormholes, immorbid societies, clones, customized bodies, and AI pets? Sure it's a mashup of a lot of current SF ideas but that what makes those ideas great - they are worth reading about more than once. And yes it does appear to be a reworking of Aristoi but I loved that book too. And, thank you, it does actually qualify as entertainment - it doesn't end on a low note or ask the reader to supply the ending. And finally it stitches together a number of the things the author clearly enjoys writing about which translates to fun for the reader (and probably to tax deductions for those scuba trips!).

Daunting concepts.
Massive AIs, incorporating planetary masses. Renovations on a stelar scale. Nannotech. Pocket universes. Neural reprogramming by tailored nano/virus. Effective immortality. 'Rebooting' oneself. Avatar-clones. War. When death is only an inconvenience; when the worst thing you can do to a fellow sentient is remove his free will; when designer universes allow those with access to sufficient energy and computational power to create their very own paradise - or hell; when mankind becomes little less than gods; what happens when one of the most brilliant of the new gods goes a bit insane?

This is not, perhaps, William's best work - I found my self, like the protagonist Aristede, to be a bit too detached from events, but the sheer magnitude of the invention in the story setting is staggering. This novel barely scratches the surface of the possibilities, and opens many disturbing-yet-fascinating avenues for speculation. Fortunately, Williams declines to follow up on any but a very few of the possible threads, though the ones he did follow are hair-raising enough. If he'd followed too many, the story would've been lost, and become instead a travelogue through WJW's imagination. That's a fascinating - if no small bit daunting - prospect, and not for the faint of heart, nor does it belong in this novel. Kindly, WJW stays to the story, and it's a good one, if a bit less engaging than it might be - Aristede is simply too jaded and yet not sufficiently tortured, to make the most engaging protagonist. No Elric, he.

Yet, I wonder - does the Williams flinch from some of the darker implications created in his story? Or did he deliberately leave his own implied spaces for us to explore? ... Read more

Product Description
Successful in its efforts to create a glittering interstellar empire, founded on the use of an ultra-advanced computer and bioengineering technology, humankind becomes the prey of its own creation, the Aristoi. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Great but should have been a series
"Aristoi" is very good sci-fi, but the story is much too short and rushed to comfortably accommodate the world that Williams has created.There are just too many new concepts introduced here for a single book to do justice to both the concepts and a plot.So Williams ended up fleshing out the concepts at the expense of the quality of the plot.The plot ends up being rather simple and not wholly satisfying.

Nevertheless, the various settings that the scenes take place in are vivid, alive, and detailed.The representation of the Aristoi as a special race of "superhumans" that are capable of much more than the average person is believable to me in the context of what humanity could evolve into thousands of years from now.Their abilities are realized through a combination of nanotechnology and superior intelligence, which didn't seem too far fetched to me.You may have heard of so-called "human calculators" like Alexis Lemaire who can mentally perform astoundingly complex mathematical calculations in seconds.It seems that the human brain has tremendous untapped potential, and what the Aristoi accomplish with it is certainly plausible.

Another concept that Williams introduces is that of the daimones, one-dimensional personalities who can willingly become part of an Aristoi's psyche to advise and aid whenever necessary.This was less believable but intriguing nonetheless.The Aristoi can converse with these daimones quite intelligently and command them to do simple tasks like retrieving information from the central computer called the Hyperlogos, or modifying bodily parameters like heart rate or temperature.These conversations take place internally while the Aristos goes on with other actions or conversations in the real world.

In addition, the Aristos may simultaneously be present in a virtual world through the Hyperlogos, meeting with other Aristoi who are physically many light years away.When this happens, the Aristos gives command of his physical body over to one of his/her daimones.Apparently, even an Aristos can't perform complex actions in both worlds simultaneously.

Well it's definitely worth reading, a good airplane book.But like me you might end up feeling a bit let down that the story wasn't continued over a few more novels.Epic concepts like these deserve an epic story to go with them.

Big disappointment
This book is about a future hierarchical society, where people at the top level, the Aristoi, have God like powers.With little effort the Aristoi can create spaceships, terraform planets, and even create human beings.To move from one level of this society to the next citizens take tests, so anyone has the right to become an Aristoi God like figure.The Aristoi have multiple personalities, which work together in making him or her a superior human. The people at the lower level of the society are well taken care of.There is no poverty, deceases or hunger and must people live about 350 years.It is a very pleasant if stagnant society, so a group of Aristoi try to create a more dynamic if brutal society.All these sounds fine, but I did not like the following things about this book.The main character is into the arts, so an awful lot of time is spent describing his music compositions, his flashy clothes, and his architecture designs.The main character is bisexual and spends most of his time chasing, seducing, and having affairs with men and women.For example,in the first chapter he gets his male lover pregnant through surgery and during the procedure he seduces the attending female doctor. One annoying thing about this book is that the right side of a lot of pages show the discussing between his different personalities, which messes up the chronology of the story.Also, I did not like that the story develops in an unrealistic universe where human kind occupies hundreds of star systems, but there are no aliens anywhere.It is a boring society that shows little individuality, and where the masses are conditioned to follow and obey the Aristoi.I did not like this book. From this author I strongly recommend the Dread Empire's Fall series.

Super Reader
A far future setting story, with some very powerful and advanced
posthumans, in the technological, computer and networking sense.

One of them discovers that some others of his wealthy and powerful
class have been doing very bad things to planets full of the underclass.

He sets out to do something about it.

Awesome and magical
I've read everything there is, truly, and this is one of the best.I love his short stories, they are extremely finely crafted jewels, and this is just like that; a highly accomplished novel that the author truly cared about.

I wish he'd write more novels in this universe (in my view a continuation of his excellent Hardwired and earlier works).

Good Idea, Bad Delivery
Mr. Williams has a beautiful command of the English language and the concepts he intends to introduce us to in this novel are interesting, but the story fails to entertain.The main character is so unlikable that the first word that comes to mind when I try to describe this book is: "Crap".

The Aristoi are the aristocracy of a future society.They are the leaders and rulers of humanity; they came into power because they are more than mere humans.Their personalities are fragmented enabling them to do true multi-tasking.Mr. Williams introduces us to a multi named character that is simultaneously existing in Real Space, and several Virtual Worlds.We watch as the main character monitors and tutors a pupil working on creating multiple personalities within himself, introduces an old apprentice recently raised to the level of master to other established masters, seduces a married woman, surgically impregnates his male lover, and has conversations between his personalities.

Whether this book failed to reach me because I am not an "Aristoi" and therefore unable to simultaneously follow four conversations at once, or because this idea is not suited for the printed page, it failed to entertain me.In the end when I measure the success of a novel, it must come down to this question: "Was I entertained?"Aristoi failed that test.The main character was pompous, shallow, vain, and not worth the effort of "Getting to know him".I don't mean to insult Mr. Williams and would not want to hurt his feelings.He is obviously a talented writer with the ability to create picturesque prose.But perhaps his ideas would be better suited to a different medium, one that includes more dimensions than print alone.That future attempt should include a character worthy of a reader's time.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (80)

lots of water
I was somewhat disappointed with the story. I think people have evolved much more than depicted in this book.

Ok...but you can find better.
The Rift starts out with a great idea...and by starts out I mean you are 150 pages in before anything 'catastrophic' happens. BUT, the idea is good: earthquake shatters life as we know it.

Unfortunately, as I just mentioned, he spends a good portion of the book giving us useless info. Just like I did with the long version of The Stand, I found my scanning PAGES of this book trying to pick the actual storyline back up. And the story lines are just not that compelling. Of course we have the religious fanatic camp. And the racist camp. And then the 'nuclear accident waiting to happen' camp. And that's it.

This book turns into 'what would happen on a small stretch of the Mississippi River if a once-in-a-lifetime earthquake hit.' If you're looking for a good take on a post-apocalyptic America after the "big one," this is not your book. If you're looking for a book in search of a good editor, you are in luck.

Apocalyptic Earthquake that someday will occur!
I read this book when I was living along the New Madrid Fault line in Memphis. I was struck by how well researched this book was. Many of the places in the book are familiar.

I couldn't help but notice a lot of the reviewers on here are apparently daunted by 700+ pages of actual reading. I don't even know what to say to that. Perhaps it's best to just ignore the ignorant.

Parts of this story will remind you of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Vintage Classics). Parts will remind you of Alas, Babylon.
I consider this one of the greatest disaster books ever written and probably the best researched earthquake novel ever written.

I passed this novel on to a friend of mine when I left Memphis. I will probably have to pick up another copy at some point as I would like to revisit this story.

In Spite of Its Length...
This big book is a written loom. WW patiently weaves a long story from many threads. Little by little you'll discern the scenery but the resulting fabric will reveal itself at the end only.

Curiously enough, in spite of its length, I never got bored to the point of skipping through. I felt for Jason and Nick each time they surfaced, I understood the road-to-hell-is-paved-with-good-intentions guys, and I hated the true villains.

The woven tapestry remains in my mind: A large flowing Mississippi river at its heart helplessly watched by vulnerable human beings out of their depth.

A last note: To make the reading a bit lighter one possibly can skip all the old reports since most of their content is duplicated in the story itself.

Long Winded
I did enjoy the book, but it is a 700+ page tome.The characters were interesting as well as the writing style; yes, I did read the entire book!I do think the author could have taken out at least a quarter of the pages and still had a good novel.The biggest problem I had with it was the weight---LOL! ... Read more

Product Description
The time of reckoning is close at hand. Events in the New York Times bestselling Star Wars The New Jedi Order series take a decisive turn, as the heroes of the New Republic prepare for their most volatile clash yet with the enemy—from without and within.

In the war against the ruthless Yuuzhan Vong, the fall of Coruscant leaves the New Republic divided by internal strife, and on the verge of bowing to conquest. But those who steadfastly refuse to consider surrender—Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and their children and comrades-in-arms—are determined to seize victory against overwhelming odds. And now, finally, there are signs that the tide may be turning in the New Republic’s favor.

After capturing crucial Yuuzhan Vong intelligence, Jedi fighter-pilot Jaina Solo prepares to lead a daring surprise strike against an enemy flagship. Meanwhile, Jaina’s brother Jacen—liberated from the hands of the enemy and newly schooled in an even greater mastery of the Force by the Jedi Knight Vergere—is eagerly poised to bring his unique skills to bear against the invaders. And on Mon Calamari, the New Republic’s provisional capital, the retired, ailing hero Admiral Ackbar has conceived a major tactical plan that could spell the beginning of a swift end for the Yuuzhan Vong.

Yet even as opposing squadrons face off in the depths of space, intrigue runs rampant: in the heated political race for Chief of State . . . in the shadows where Yuuzhan Vong spies plot assassinations . . . and in the inscrutable creature Vergere, a Jedi Knight whose allegiance is impossible to predict. And as Luke Skywalker sets about reestablishing the Jedi Council, the growing faction opposed to the ways of the Force unveil a terrifying weapon designed to annihilate the Yuuzhan Vong species. But in doing so, they may be dooming the New Republic to becoming the very thing it has sworn to fight against—and unleashing the power of the dark side.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (85)

Another slam-bang Star Wars adventure
Jacen Solo lives. He disappeared after a battle in which his younger brother, Anakin, died a hero; and since then his twin sister, Jaina, has given him up for dead. So has their father, Han, although mother Leia Organa Solo has continued to believe that Jacen is alive and will one day return. Now she knows he will. She's touched him through the Force, and so has Jaina. But where has he been through all these months, during which his family grieved for Anakin and during which Jaina believed she'd lost both brothers? And what should they make of Vergere, the Old Republic Jedi knight who has lived for the past 60 years undercover (a supposed pet bird, if you please) among the New Republic's most dangerous enemy ever, the Yuuzhan Vong?

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker soon learns what his nephew's time with the Vong was like, and he decides to keep an eye on Vergere and (if possible) keep her away from Jacen. For his nephew promises to be the next generation's most powerful Jedi; and even as the new Republic's struggle to arrest the Yuuzhan Vong invasion reaches its turning point, Luke looks to the future. He has established a new kind of Jedi Order, one that Vergere disdains for its differences from the old Jedi Order that she knew. His next step in this process must be creating a new Jedi Council, one whose service the New Republic can accept - and that will require some delicate political maneuvering. Meanwhile, the fight against the Vong goes on. Jaina Solo, exhausted and all but spiritually bankrupt after coming of age in war and losing far too much of what she loves, can't be held back from the decisive battle. Jacen cannot let his twin die in that battle, even if going to her aid means sacrificing his own future and with it that of the new Jedi Order. Which neither Vergere nor Luke Skywalker can allow....

This is a slam-bang adventure, and author Williams does a fine job with the Star Wars characters. A worthy installment in a long series that even in this, its fourteenth book, goes right on building momentum.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of the "High Places" series and 2005 EPPIE winner "Regs"

I really didn't like any of the NJO series.
I have read almost all of the SW universe novels... and the NJO series was painful to read. By far the worst SW-EU noel series (and of course the longest). I only read this series because I started reading the Legacy of The Force series that came after the NJO and those books kept referencing back to things that happened during the Vong war that I didn't know about... so I read the NJO series... almost every book in this 19 book series was boring, poorly written, predictable and incredibly dry. I would only recommend reading this series if you are just DYING to know what went down in the war word-for-word. If you can live with the abridged version, look it up on Wikipedia or something and find out the main details.

One of the best SW novels of NJO and SW EU!!
This novel had some great space battles and great action scenes! It was great seeing Jaina Solo in a major role as she fights alongside Rogue Squadron in a space battle against a Yuuzhan Vong warship. And it was interesting to see her finally become a Jedi Knight known as the ''Sword of the Jedi''. That would have a made a great title for one of the movies of the fabled SW sequel trilogy. It was cool to see Vergere fly an A-Wing in a space battle but it was too bad she was killed. And it was great to see Luke Skywalker as the Jedi Master hosting a graduation ceremony for the New Jedi Order as he grants the Solo kids Jedi Knights. And it was great to see Han Solo kickass in a space battle flying the good ol' Falcon. I wish Lucas would have the sequel trilogy or do an epilogue movie or a Han Solo spinoff movie because not only do I want to see Mark Hamill back as an older wiser Luke Skywalker as a Jedi Master but to see Harrison Ford don the vest as Han Solo and fly the Falcon one last time and perhaps pass on the Falcon to his daughter Jaina.

Destiny's Way had some great worlds too like the moon Ebaq 9. I'm suprised DelRey hasn't asked Walter Jon Williams back to do another SW novel. But I hope that DR will get Williams to come back in 2011 or after to do a SW hardcover novel perhaps set after the upcoming Fate of the Jedi series and feature the big Three(Luke,Han and Leia) and Jaina & Ben Skywalker and even Allana Solo dealing with the aftermath of the defeat of the hidden peril of FOTJ and perhaps have an adventure in the Unknown Regions and/or Wild Space. And/or have Jaina get together and marry Jagged Fel and even have Ben Skywalker visit Zonama Sekot and fly a Sekotan starship in a space battle.

Did incredible damage to the series
Destiny's Way essentially killed the New Jedi Order series. In addition to being one of the only Star Wars books I have read that is actually poorly written, it essentially destroyed all the character development that had been gaining over the past several books, most especially in "Traitor". The most horrible example of this is Jacen Solo, who is reverted back to the whiny, self-absorbed fool he was at the beginning of the series with no explanation. This book marks the beginning of New Jedi Order's death throes, and, with a little help from the disappointing "Unifying Force", tarnishes what could have otherwise been an amazing book series.

The end of Tsavong Lah (The Warmaster) !A must read!!
For the past three years the Yuuzhan Vong have laid waste to the galaxy. Mighty heroes have fallen, planets have burned, and Coruscant, the illustrious seat of government for millenia, is no more. The ruins of the great city planet have given birth to Yuuzhan'tar, the legendary homeworld of the Yuuzhan Vong. All hope seems lost for the New Republic as darkness sweeps the galaxy. But from that darkness emerges a beacon of light, a lost hero, a lost son - Jacen Solo.

"It is the turning point."

This phrase echoes throughout Destiny's Way, and it proves true. Walter Jon Williams leads us on a journey that chronicles the restructuring of the New Republic, the rebirth of the Jedi Council, and the return of a lost hero - all leading up to a clash of titanic proportions. At the Battle of Ebaq a conglomeration of Yuuzhan Vong battlegroups rivaling that of Battle Plan Coruscant is wiped out to the last living ship. By novel's end Warmaster Tsavong Lah is dead and the Yuuzhan Vong... well, if there were any Yuuzhan Vong survivors they would be licking their wounds.

Williams must have delved into the layers of EU material when penning Destiny's Way. The book is filled with subtle references to more-obscure content, such as the classic X-Wing PC game. Keyan Farlander, now a Jedi and a general, returns at the helm of a New Republic fleet. We also get to see a variety of ship types instead of the standard fare: Lancer-class frigates, Corellian gunships, and the classic MC80 Mon Calamari cruiser. At the end of the novel we learn what became of the other Super Star Destroyer the New Republic's been hiding - the Guardian.

The book has a variety of battles. Williams gives us small skirmishes and dogfights, grand space battles, lightsaber duels, and even the rare underwater conflict. The submarine battle is awesome, and seems like something straight out of the pages of The Hunt for Red October, but the Battle of Ebaq takes the cake for my favorite scene (even though it's a good chunk of the book).

My favorite parts of the novel, aside from the sprawling Battle of Ebaq, were those involving the Yuuzhan Vong. Shimrra is a veritable monster, and Williams does an excellent job showing us many facets of the Supreme Overlord. We finally get a glimpse into the inner workings of the highest-level of the Yuuzhan Vong government. The Shaper Lord Ch'Gang Hool, High Priest Jakan, Warmaster Tsavong Lah, High Prefect Yoog Skell, and of course, Onimi, who is destined to be a crowd pleaser with his antics and clever rhymes. Also sure to please fans: in Destiny's Way the veil of mystery surrounding what really took place on Zonama Sekot is lifted.

Destiny's Way offers more of my favorite character - the executor everyone loves to hate, Nom Anor. Having escaped the warmaster's wrath after the events of Traitor, Nom Anor finds himself in the court of the Supreme Overlord, where he undergoes a vigorous 'mind-rape' at Shimrra's hands. It is here that Nom Anor learns of the heresy among Shamed Ones and members of the worker caste. He infiltrates a small group of heretics and decides that they need a leader - a Prophet. Later, when events turn sour and Nom Anor unadvertently leads the Yuuzhan Vong to their greatest defeat, the executor abandons his position and goes into hiding amongst the heretics. I don't think we've seen the last of him just yet.

"What are you doing, Executor?"

"Giving Shimrra an itch."

Traitor left me fearing for the executor's life, and Destiny's Way is no exception. By the end of the novel Nom Anor is a marked individual, and Shimrra will stop at nothing to have his head. How long can one run from death before it finally catches up? Hopefully forever.

I applaud Williams for not falling into a common trap - what I like to call 'fan popularity bias'. Too often we see the main characters being forced into situations, often because of their popularity among the fanbase. For example, the majority of fans were counting on a rematch between Jacen and Tsavong Lah. Instead Jaina was the one to put an end to the warmaster's reign of terror. Instead of populating the Jedi Council with all the fan-favorites he included Kenth Hamner and Tresina Lobi, two Jedi with very little prior exposure. Not only does this add to the element of surprise and believability (the main characters can't do everything), it also gives us the opportunity to learn more about second and third-tier characters.
... Read more

Product Description
Pining away in a dead-end job for which she endlessly meters out a powerful energy substance known as plasm, Aiah discovers an unlimited plasm supply and arranges a daring plan with a mysterious rebel to overthrow the government. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Not Free SF Reader
A poor woman, struggling to get by, comes to the notice of the overlord
of the city, and sees in her a useful aide, to help him in his
political struggles and control of the power source that runs
everything, plasm. She is struggling to support herself and her family
before this, so it at least helps her financial situation, if not her
longevity.

Metropolitan and City on Fire
I recently re-read both these books, and I was again impressed with the quality of WJW's writing. I've read and enjoyed most of his other books (some notable ones being Aristoi, Voice of the Whirlwind, Angel Station, etc) and love the way he paints such a large landscape beyond the edges of the story. In Metropolitan, in particular, the descriptions of the world-city are a fascinating blend of hard-boiled urban noir, chrome-finned retrofuturism, and gritty realistic detail. Some parallels could be drawn to stories like "Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville.

All the main characters progress and grow over the story arc. The Aiah at the end of City on Fire is not the same girl we meet in the begining of Metropolitan.

Finally, I appreciate that WJW actually made his main characters have distinct and interesting ethnicities. The majority of american writers have no problem including all sorts of incredible aliens, but rarely have anyone who is not caucasian as a protagonist in the story. And race is actually a factor in the story line, not just a PC sop, ala Star Trek.

Highly recommend anything by this author.

Really good story with a neat, original, SF/Fantasy world
I've read quite a few Walter Jon Williams stories, generally with considerable enjoyment, but the only novels I've read by him are the first two Drake Majistral "entertainments". Those are fun, but light. For more serious Williams, people strongly recommended Metropolitan. And, indeed, this book is really good.

It fits in that genre called "Science Fantasy", in that it involves the use of magic, but that that magic is understandable and given a quasi-scientific backing. This seems to be set on Earth, possibly very far in the future or perhaps an alternate Earth. Millennia previously, the Ascended Ones have placed a "shield" around Earth. No one can escape. However, a source of (essentially magical) energy called "plasm" is available, and it is used for power generation, telepresence, and other uses both "magical" and "scientific" (also commercial). Plasm use is regulated and taxed, and the protagonist, Aiah, is a lowly functionary at the Plasm Authority. She is a talented member of the oppressed Barkazil ethnicity in an area dominated by the Jaspeeri. As such it has been a struggle for her to attend university and graduate to this job, and to get a decent apartment with her Jaspeeri lover, another functionary. One day she witnesses a burning woman, a manifestation of unregulated plasma gone out of control. She is assigned to the team tracking down the illegal plasma source. She's sent on what she thinks is a wild goose chase, but as it happens she finds the source, and on an impulse decides to hide her find and try to sell plasma on the black market. She has some difficulty finding a buyer, and finally stumbles on the notion of selling it to the prestigious, rich, former rebel Metropolitan (i.e. something like a mayor), Constantine. She finds herself far more involved with Constantine than she ever intended, and soon she is embroiled in his plans for engineering a coup and implementing his dream of the "New City".

It's an exciting novel, and it's built on a fascinating, original, SF/Fantastic notion. Some of the plot machinations were a bit creaky, I thought: I didn't quite buy the ease of her approach to Constantine, or his attraction to her. But all this leads to an end which asks some difficult moral questions, and doesn't provide answers either to the reader or to Aiah. She remains sympathetic, but many of her actions remain questionable. I thought this was very well handled.

This is a very fine book. There is a sequel, which I will have to seek out, but Metropolitan works very well on its own.

Needs to be a movie
This books needs to become a movie. Alec Baldwin as Metropolita

Aiah is one of the best female characters in recent SF
I love Aiah. She is one of the great overacheiving heroines of SF. And she does it all with just a to-do list, a business degree, and the occasional killer pedicure! ... Read more

Product Description
Aiah worked for the Plasm Authority, metering the shimmering substance that powered the world-city, until she fell in love with Constantine, the rebel Metropolitan fighting a war to overthrow the corrupt dynasty of the Keremaths.

Now the war is over, and Aiah is at the mercy of Constantine, the tyrant she created.As sexually irresistible as ever, the former rebel has a new job for Aiah: track down the outlaw plasm divers of Caraqui and recruit them to help destroy the Silver Hand, a murderous remnant of the old kleptocracy. A reluctant Aiah finds herself working with a horrifying ally -- the "hanged man,"Taikoen, a once-human monster that lives in the plasm well, leaving it only to kill. But for Aiah, there can be no turning back. Constantine's war against the Handmen will put Aiah in touch with her lost Barkazil heritage. And it may allow her to get a glimpse of heaven itself, and to discover what waits beyond the Shield.Amazon.com Review
In the Nebula-nominated Metropolitan, Aiah andConstantine won the war for their world-city, Caraqui, by overthrowingthe corrupt Keremaths. Their ace-in-the-hole was anunlimited supply of plasm, the geomantic substance that gives theworld its power. Now Constantine has paired Aiah with their dangerous"ally," the hanged man Taikoen who lives in the plasm. For Constantineneeds help to defeat the Silver Hand and protect his New Regime, nomatter how much it will cost Aiah. In the process Aiah may finallyreach beyond the Shield, an impenetrable barrier created by theAscended Ones that seals Caraqui from the stars. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

better than the first book
From the other reviews, people seem to love or hate this book.I'm in the first camp, so this is a positive review.

In this sequel to Metropolitan, Aiah has just entered Caraqui, right after Metropolitan left off.She finds a job with Constantine's section of the new government and slowly becomes more and more involved with political intrigue and concerned with questions of morality.As head of her own department, she finds herself starting to have her own side in the mass of intrigues and attacks.She and Sorya continue to be rivals for Constantine's affections.The grumpy Rohder is back too.

There's tons of intrigue and war in the book, which deals with it more at the bureaucratic level, behind the scenes.If you like the series Sandbaggers (The Sandbaggers Collection Set 1) you will probably like this book.Constantine's ultimate goal of going beyond the shield is pretty much just hinted at, but Aiah really comes into her own.This is a lovely Brazil/steampunk-type novel and is interesting to compare to the recent flock of fantasy about cities.

Not Free SF Reader
A little bit more depth to this than Metropolitan, I think, as there is
more to do with the actual society along with Aiah, as she becomes more
important to how it functions, becomes involved with the genetically
altered underclass, and her relationship with Constantine changes.

Incredible
I was blown away by this book and its precursor, Metropolitan.I normally don't go for political intrigue tales, but William's style was so compelling, I couldn't stop reading.His concept of plasm is intriguing as well.I can't wait to see what happens in the third book, with the Dreaming Sisters, beyond the Shield.

Interesting
METROPOLITAN and CITY ON FIRE have a unique angle on magic which may be refreshing to those who, like me, have "outgrown" traditional fantasy stories.It's a bit on the literal side, more like electricity than like dreams, but the exploration of it is thorough and honest, and the story is compelling.I'm certainly looking forward to the third volume.

Creative and utterly engrossing
City on Fire is a transcendant novel in that it goes beyond most works of science fiction.At its heart, it is a story about the rites of passage endured by Aiah as she develops from a young woman into a majorsocio-political figure.This progression is handled very well, and in sucha subtle fashion that it is only at the end of the novel that one realizesjust how far she has come.In addition, the novel uses a complex politicalbackdrop and well thought-out future landscape in which to chronicle theseevents.Many of the characters are larger-than-life, yet Walter JonWilliams manages to make their successes and failures credible.Thenovel's futurist qualities are a bit more suspect in that it is based onthe existence of a compound called "plasm".This compound hasalmost magical properties, and at times I suspected I was reading a work offantasy more than of science-fiction.Nonetheless, Walter Jon Williamsadhered to a fairly rigorous realization of the socio-economic impact ofplasm, and has a very consistent world view such that after the first fewpages, I was willing to accept the society that he proposes. Walter JonWilliams novel is also blessed with his writing style--one which remainsconcise and powerful, yet avoids omissions, thus remaining quite readible.In summary, this is a truly outstanding work.Once you get past theinitially odd concept of plasm, the novel becomes a well-written,compelling read.So much so that I am quite sorry to see that there is notthird novel in the series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Terrific Collection - Cyberpunk and More
In my humble opinion, Walter Jon Williams is a largely undiscovered gem of science fiction."Facets" is a collection of his early short stories, originally published 1985-1990, and is well worth your time.

Williams writes in too many genres to really classify, but during that period, he was best known for two (awesome) cyberpunk novels, Hardwired and Voice Of The Whirlwind.This collection shows the cyberpunk influence, and includes a sequel of sorts to Voice of the Whirlwind, "Wolf Time."As always, Williams is inventive and diverse, and includes far-future stories, alternate histories, and some stuff that is harder to classify.Many of the stories are haunting and have stuck with me since I first read them, decades ago.

If there's a common thread, it's that many of the stories dip into the essence of cyberpunk - a sense of sadness born out of loss.Whether it's Edgar Allen Poe fighting in the Civil War or a former superhero narrating his fall, there's a beautiful noir-style fatalism to most of these stories that unites them.

Well worth your time.

A good hard-sf collection
A good hard sf collection; 'facets' of Williams' talent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Saints preserve us
This is part one of a three novel sequence (House of shards, rock of ages) that, taken together, amuse and satisfy. There is homage to "The Saint", there is humor, clever dialogue, and, as in all REALLY good humorous writing, some cogent points made about humanity.

SCI-FI commedy, Space Opera delicatesse
The first thing that strikes you when starting this book is the pace at wich WJW leads you through his witty plot, not leaving your mind at rest untill you have finished the book... thenleaving you with a craving formore. And a sequel of this book would be like "la crême de lacrême" ... Read more

Product Description
In the sequel to The Crown Jewels, someone turns the tables on Drake Maijstral, the Human Constellation's number-one-rated Allowed Burglar, when Drake's father's coffin is stolen. Reprint. AB. LJ. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A+ -- best of the Drake Maijstral novels.
I've been looking forward to reading this book, & I'm happy to report
that it's great fun - a marvelous concoction of foam & froth.If you've
missed the first two DM books (Crown Jewels & House of Shards, both
worth seeking out) -Maijstral is an impoverished aristo turned
Allowed Burglar in the Khosali Empire, a mannered society ruled - or
at least with standards set - by faintly canine aliens.

A plot summary won't help much here - let's see if I can find an
episode that can be yanked out of context:

Drake has bested Duke Joseph Bob of Tejas in a duel, scared off a
challenge from Capt. Milo Hay, and put off yet another challenge by
Prince Hunac of Yucatan.He's planning the media spin for all this
with Duchess Roberta Altunin, his second and inamorata:

"Excellent.Then you must tell the media of your plans for a religious
retreat."

"I will.I'm a hereditary prince-bishop after all - I'll spend the whole
night praying for peace."

"I keep forgetting you're a bishop.You're not very ecclesiastical."

Maijstral composed his face into an expression of piety."I prefer to
keep my devotions private, thank you."

"Well, I'm a hereditary abbess, so I suppose I should not criticize."

"Really?Which order?"

"The Reformed Traditional Hospice Order of the Blessed Spatula."

"Oh.The Spatulates. . .I wondered why they worshipped a bit of
kitchen equipment."

"They take it out of the vault once a year and make a holy omelette
with it . . .The ceremony is quite moving."

"I'm sure."

"My piece was a bit leathery when I tasted it, though."

-- and on and on, skipping lightly from one silly episode to another,
never losingmomentum or control.I lost count of the number of
times I laughed out loud.Other reviewers compare the Maijstral books
to Wodehouse or Panshin's Anthony Villiers books.I liked this one
more than the Panshins;I found it comparable to Wodehouse at his
best - high praise indeed.

Note that this book is also available in the omnibus "Ten Points for Style", with all three Maijstral novels, classics all.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
review copyright 1997 by Peter D. Tillman

What a clever writer
To be honest, I enjoyed the first two books from this group more, I found a little loss of momentum here. That said, taken as a whole, the three Drake Majistral novels are a great read, fun, amusing, and just thought-provoking enough to keep them from being fluff.

Now, what makes us laugh is an individual thing, but I found the climactic scene with the dueling Elvi (Elvises?) sidesplitting. Read em all.

A true laugh-out-loud farce. Don't miss!
_____________________________________________
I've been looking forward to reading this book, & I'm happy to report
that it's great fun - a marvelous concoction of foam & froth.If you've
missed the first two DM books (Crown Jewels & House of Shards, both
worth seeking out) -Maijstral is an impoverished aristo turned
Allowed Burglar in the Khosali Empire, a mannered society ruled - or
at least with standards set - by faintly canine aliens.


A plot summary won't help much here - let's see if I can find an
episode that can be yanked out of context:

Drake has bested Duke Joseph Bob of Tejas in a duel, scared off a
challenge from Capt. Milo Hay, and put off yet another challenge by
Prince Hunac of Yucatan.He's planning the media spin for all this
with Duchess Roberta Altunin, his second and inamorata:

"Excellent.Then you must tell the media of your plans for a religious
retreat."

"I will.I'm a hereditary prince-bishop after all - I'll spend the whole
night praying for peace."

"I keep forgetting you're a bishop.You're not very ecclesiastical."

Maijstral composed his face into an expression of piety."I prefer to
keep my devotions private, thank you."

"Well, I'm a hereditary abbess, so I suppose I should not criticize."

"Really?Which order?"

"The Reformed Traditional Hospice Order of the Blessed Spatula."

"Oh.The Spatulates. . .I wondered why they worshipped a bit of
kitchen equipment."

"They take it out of the vault once a year and make a holy omelette
with it . . .The ceremony is quite moving."

"I'm sure."

"My piece was a bit leathery when I tasted it, though."

--and on and on, skipping lightly from one silly episode to another,
never losingmomentum or control.I lost count of the number of
times I laughed out loud.Other reviewers compare the Maijstral books
to Wodehouse or Panshin's Anthony Villiers books.I liked this one
more than the Panshins;I found it comparable to Wodehouse at his
best - high praise indeed.

Happy reading!

Peter D. Tillman

Lackluster
This novel inculdes an extended episode of a spacefaring alien Elvis impersonator which is supposed to be humorous, but is a dull, tedious, and overblown joke. Satirical use of Elvis, in any incarnation, is no longerfunny, because it is so overused as a humorous counterpointnowadays.

Writing is crisp but uninteresting, in the face of thissimplistic story.

Rating: A+ ; best of the Drake Maijstral novels so far.
I've been looking forward to reading this book, & I'm happy to report that it's great fun - a marvelous concoction of foam & froth, skipping lightly from one silly episode to another, never losingmomentum orcontrol.I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud... ... Read more

Product Description
The empire of the Shaa lasted 10,000 years. Years of terror, infinite violence and oppressive, brutal order. Now the Shaa are no more, but the terror and violence are only beginning...The Shaa, rulers of the universe, began to commit ritual suicide when it became clear that their minds - profoundly intelligent but limited - would accept no further information. Near immortality was their one, great mistake. And so began the war between the Naxids, oldest client race of the Shaa, who believed themselves inheritors of the empire, and a frail alliance of other races, including humanity. Humanity had both suffered and thrived during the millennia in which the Shaa tried to compel the universe to conform to their notions of propriety - suffered because they were one of the first species to fall beneath the Shaa's yoke; thrived because the Shaa found humanity useful, and spread them throughout their empire, in positions of trust. As the empire expanded, through wormholes which crossed both space and time, the Shaa formulated The Praxis, a harsh ethic which they imposed on those they conquered. But it could also serve as a cloak for insurrection... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Painless History Lesson
Like most of Walter Jon Williams' books, The Praxis (Dread Empire's Fall) is a beautifully written story of the beginning of the final demise of the Shaa empire, set in far future.Don't let the wormholes, anti-matter bombs and aliens fool you though, if you understand the politics and relationships of the characters in this fine tale, you understand the Roman Empire and how it worked, looked and felt to the upper classes who exploited it for their personal benefit.All in all, the most painless introduction to the politics and life of the Empire which is the most immediate predecessor to modern Western Civilization a fan of space opera is ever likely to encounter.

The Praxis (Dread Empires Fall)
I'm sorry I'm not somebody for writing great reviews, I'd rather spend my time reading. However, I have to make an exception for this fine piece of space opera.
If you are feeling bored, because there is no new book by Peter F Hamilton to read, the old classics feel a bit too dusty, Weber and Banks haven't produced anything original recently, please, please pick up this book.
It has everything, story telling on a grander scale with a fascinating backdrop of a future universe, to the intimate details of the individual personae and how they come together. I won't give anything of the plot away, you have to read it for yourselves and find out. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A well-crafted and thoughtful treatise on life
I love this book because it's NOT about the plot excuse.

I mean that in many stories, there is Something That Happens (or Something That is Learned), which is an excuse to cause a story. And while that is true here, this time the characters KNOW that it's essentially just an excuse for action, and in fact that's what the story is about. I thought this book was going to be a trite sci-fi adventure-puzzle, but in fact it is a much more humanistic story about mortality, emotional freedom, and consequences.

The back cover of my copy mentions the discovery of teleporting wildlife on some far-off planet, and how learning the trick of it would be a fabulous prize for humanity. While this is true, the actual STORY is barely about this (in a good way). The actual story lies in WHY specifically these characters think this is a good thing to learn, in how their culture came to be, and in what happens among themselves as they continue to try and deal with these issues. The solving of The Teleportation Puzzle does of course turn out to be thematically and symbolically important, but the story is very much not just about that puzzle.

The book also manages not to be flippant or stilted in asking the ancient questions (like why am I here, and what the heck do I do with myself now?). Partially because of the specific personality of the first-person main character, I suppose, these questions keep a realistic, personal importance that I, at least, found myself able to relate to (on a human level, if not a literal-experience level).

I highly reccomend that everyone try reading this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant Comedy of Manners in an SF Setting
Williams has created a group of three brilliant comedies of manners. Drake Maijstral is an allowed burglar, an occupation sanctioned by the Khosali Empire, which has taken over the known universe. Maijstral's spectacular thefts take place in a highly mannered society where Elvis is a demigod, and the only real crime seems to be a lack of style. Thoroughly enjoyable. ... Read more