New Releases by 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 STATES. Some comprise the New Madrid fault, the most dangerous earthquake zone in the world. Other fracture lines are social—— economic, religious, racial, and ethnic. What happens when they all crack at once? Caught in the disaster as cities burn and bridges tumble, young Jason Adams finds himself adrift on the Mississippi with African-American engineer Nick Ruford. A modern-day Huck and Jim, they spin helplessly down the river and into the widening faults in American society, encountering violence and hope, compassion and despair, and the primal wilderness that threatens to engulf not only them, but all they love... " A breakout book that you''ll swear the author lived" —— SF Age "I don''t like disaster novels. I would not have even glanced at The Rift if it weren''t backed by Walter Jon Williams'' reputation for excellence. And I definitely would not have kept reading if Williams hadn''t demonstrated on every page that he deserves his reputation. The result? I was so engrossed in—— and engaged by ——The Rift that I forgot that I don''t like disaster novels. This book is an impressive achievement.” —— Stephen R. Donaldson, New York Times bestselling author of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant "The Rift is bloody wonderful! Williams brings an historic disaster back for an encore and metaphorically flattens it again. This is the stuff for which sleep is lost--and awards are made." —— Dean Ing "The Rift shakes up the world like it''s never been shaken before." —— Fred Saberhagen "[For fans of the disaster novel] Williams delivers the requisite thrills and setpieces—— but he also, to paraphrase Conrad, offers a bit of that truth for which they forgot to ask." —— Locus

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 poverty and discovered a limitless source of plasm, the mysterious substance that powers the world-city. Her discovery soon involves her with Constantine, the charismatic, dangerous, seductive revolutionary who plans to overthrow, not simply the government, but the cosmic order . . . “A spectacular blend of fantastic science, high politics, and low intrigue . . . Williams’s world and characters are richly imagined yet utterly real.” —Melissa Scott “Entertaining . . . Williams understands that science fiction can breathe life into language . . . [His] writing is always lean, lively and engaging." New York Times Book Review “Blends SF aspects with noir stylings to create a potent atmosphere or urban dystopia . . . Ever the expert storyteller, Williams provides more than enough suspense.” Publishers Weekly

Nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Award, City on Fire returns to the world-city of Metropolitan, a city dominated by plasm, the magical substance capable of both creation and destruction. With her help, Aiah’s lover Constantine has established himself in the metropolis of Caraqui, a nation dominated by corrupt officials, gangsters, and the genetically altered known as the “twisted.” Here they hope to create a revolution in the cosmic order--- but first they must fend off treachery, war, and the threat of Taikoen, the “hanged man,” a deadly creature that lives within plasm itself. Aiah must fight not only for her revolution and for her place in the world, but for Constantine’s very soul.

Loren Hawn is a traditional Western peace officer walking the streets of 21st Century New Mexico, and seemingly unaware that times have changed. And when a dying man named Randal falls out of a bullet-riddled car and dies in Loren’s arm, Loren finds he isn’t the only man living in the wrong time--- because he remembers pulling Randal’s dead body out of a wrecked car twenty years before. He knows the car belongs to a scientist who works at the high-security laboratory built on the outskirts of town, and he knows that if he doesn’t work fast, all evidence of a crime will disappear into national security vaults. In order to bring justice back to his community, Loren will have to risk everything, his life, his job, his faith, and his family. The Chicago Sun-Times said, "This is a novel that works marvelously on a variety of levels--- as an adventure story, a trek through personal entanglements, a study in detailed police techniques and an elightening lesson in theoretical science. And if that isn''t enough, it also offers a totally unexpected ending.

Steward is a Beta— a clone. In his memories, he’s an elite commando for an orbital policorp— but because his Alpha never did a brain-scan update, Steward’s memories are fifteen years out of date . . . and in those fifteen years, everything has changed. An interstellar war destroyed the company that held his allegiance. His wife has divorced him, along with the second wife that he can’t even remember. Most of his comrades died in a useless battle on a world called Sheol, and those who survived are irrevocably scarred. An alien race has arrived and become the center of a complex and deadly intrigue. And someone has murdered him. “Fast-moving, hard-driving, with a robust well-handled plot . . . a stirring and heartening performance.” – Kirkus Reviews “Walter Jon Williams proves that he is a master of action, character and galaxy-spanning plots.” — Fantasy Review “A combination of fast action, gritty realism, and high-tech polytechnics that is certain to be popular with Williams’ growing audience.” –Booklist. “(Williams) is a master of the intricate yet fast-paced plot— the essence of thrillers and novels of political intrigue.” –Locus

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 their entire lives skating along the edge of extinction. Now they and their ship Runaway are in flight both from the law and from a predatory clan of competitors. They’re going to come back rich, or not at all. But what they find in the depths of space isn’t wealth, but a secret so startling that Ubu and Maria will need every last reserve of guile, cunning, and intelligence just to survive . . . “No one can accuse Williams of failing to grow with each new major work . . . Straight-forward space adventure with a strong picaresque flavor. The pacing is brisk, the high-tech details vivid, the rewards to readers considerable.” ---Booklist “Williams colorfully invokes the life of the trader families and their honkeytonk space stations. With its emphasis on youth, beauty, sex, and mischief, [ANGEL STATION] also conjures a contemporary mood agreeably distinct from its futuristic settings.” --Publishers Weekly “Williams has it all.” --Analog “Williams is a skillfully literate addition to the stylish new generation of science fiction writers.” ---Chicago Tribune

In a frigate stolen from his own navy, Captain Favian Markham races to New Orleans with the dispatches he’s captured from a British warship— dispatches making it clear that the city will soon be the target of a British fleet and an invading army. But Favian finds New Orleans a city of intrigue, where Creoles conspire against the Americans, where streetfighters cloak their murders under the Code Duello, the pirate Jean Laffite battles the Navy, and a cabal of elite soldiers conspire to hand the city to the enemy— and where two sensuous Creole women, Eugenie and Campaspe, vie for his favor. In order to resist the coming invasion, Favian must fight his way clear of conspiracy and unite the divided city, and soon discovers that in order to buy time for the defenders, he must sacrifice his own ship, and his own career, in a hopeless fight against an overwhelming power . . .

Captain Favian Markham, USN, is a man surrounded by secrets. Secrets that will be revealed when he is court-martialled for losing his ship. Secrets held by his mistress Caroline. The secrets of enemy spies signaling to British ships over the horizon. And the greatest secret of the War of 1812, a secret which will be revealed once Favian breaks the enemy blockade in The Macedonian, a frigate stolen from his own government . . . The Macedonian, originally published as by "Jon Williams," is one of the works of historical fiction with which Walter Jon Williams began his career.

Devastated by the loss of his family, Gideon Markham has retreated to his ship and the life of the sea. Heir to a privateering tradition, he brings his schooner into the Gulf of Mexico to wage unremitting war on the British who threaten America’s freedom. But the puritanical Gideon finds the Gulf a strange and threatening place, and soon he must face Jean Laffite’s pirates, a mutiny, an attack by Red Stick Creeks, and a British invasion . . . none of which he finds as baffling and alarming as Maria-Anna de Suarez, an attractive widow who gambles at cards, brandishes a pair of pistols, and plans to lead an expedition into the heart of enemy territory, with Gideon as her guide and pawn. Originally published as The Yankee, this is one of the action-packed historical novels with which Walter Jon Williams began his career.

Favian Markham is a rising young American officer in during the War of 1812. As commander of the small, slow brig Experiment, he must break the British blockade and take his outgunned vessel on a daring raid into the Narrow Seas of England. On his desperate journey he faces duels, rivalries, ambitious politicians, yardarm-to-yardarm combat, and the deadly beauty of a foreign courtesan. Yet his greatest battle is not with the enemy, but with his own divided nature . . . Brig of War (originally published as The Raider) is one of the historical novels with which Walter Jon Williams began his career.

The Wild Cards universe has been thrilling readers for over 25 years. In Walter Jon Williams''s "Prompt. Professional. Pop!" shows that to make it in Hollywood, it''s not enough to be beautiful and talented, you''ve also got to take advantage of every opportunity that pops up. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A brand-new Wild Cards novel, edited by New York Times #1 bestselling author George R. R. Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass

Short novels are movie length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This collection presents the best-of-the-best short science fiction novels published in 2012 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form. In "In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns," by Elizabeth Bear, Police Sub-Inspector Ferron investigates the murder of genetics engineer, Dexter Coffin, who has been turned inside out, in a cutting edge biomedical lab set in a not too distant future India. In Jay Lake''s"The Stars Do Not Lie," Morgan Abutti is soon in fear for his life when he tries to announce his discovery of something in the stars that contradicts the creation myth of a major religion on his planet. In "The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future," also by Jay Lake, set in the author''s "Sunspin" series, the Howard Immortal, Before Michaela Cannon, and an untrustworthy shipmind investigate the cause of the Mistake, an alien attack on human civilization with an EMP weapon that occurred more than a thousand years ago and wiped out most of its technology. In "Sudden, Broken and Unexpected," by Steven Popkes, a burnt-out, talented musician is hired to help a world-class rock star divaloid, an electronic construct, prepare for her new world tour. There''s only one problem, the musician passionately despises divaloids. In Robert Reed''s"Eater-of-Bone," marooned human colonists, from the "Great Ship," fight for dominance on a planet inhabited by smaller, weaker, and less intelligent aliens. Finally, in "The Boolean Gate," by Walter Jon Williams, set in the 19th century, an elderly Samuel Clemens escapes his Mark Twain persona through his friendship with Nicola Tesla. As Tesla''s inventions come to fruition, Twain suspects that Tesla has opened up a gateway to an alien intelligence.

This is Walter Jon Williams’ first published work, one of the historical novels with which he began his career. The American Revolution is throwing up a new breed of hero, Yankee privateers who dare the might of the Royal Navy to slash at British commerce. Foremost among them are the three Markham brothers, Jehu, Josiah, and Malachi, who link their destiny to that of their young nation, and seek their fortune in the cannon’s mouth.

"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 Spaces pioneers a new genre of SF--- the ''Sword and Singularity'' novel. Williams combines fantasy tropes believably with nanotech, bleeding-edge infotech speculation, classic smashing-planets space opera, and intriguingly human, or possibly post-human characters along with a fast-moving plot and a quirky sense of humor in a melance that''s cosmological, theological, ontological, comic, and thoroughly entertaining." ---S.M. Stirling The mysterious swordsman Aristide wanders the multiverse with his talking cat Bitsy, both of them in search of the "implied spaces," the accidents of architecture in a world that is itself artificial and created by a supreme intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world of Midgarth, Aristide discovers a plot that threatens to shake the multiverse to its foundations, a sinister enemy intent on laying all humanity in his thrall. Aristide must surmount war, plague, death, the loss of love, and cosmic havoc in order to finally confront the enemy, whose secret brings all reality into questions . . .

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. Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

“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. Martin At last, the climactic final episode of the Dread Empire’s Fall trilogy--what started with The Praxis and The Sundering comes to the brilliant conclusion in Walter Jon William''s epic space adventure. Working on opposite sides of the galaxy--one in deep space, the other undercover on an occupied planet--and haunted by personal ghosts, Captain Gareth Martinez and Lieutenant Lady Caroline Sula fight to save the Empire from the vicious, alien Naxid. In a desperate, audacious bid to stop the Naxid fleet, Martinez makes a move that could win the war...and lose his career. Meanwhile, Sula’s guerilla tactics may not be enough to stop the Naxid, until she tries one deadly, final gambit. And make sure to see what happens after, in the first new Praxis novel in ten years, The Accidental War, available Fall 2018!

“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. Martin Following The Praxis, Walter Jon Williams’ critically-acclaimed mix of space opera and military science fiction, the conflict grows for the fate of humanity…and the universe. The Dread Empire of the Shaa is no more, following the death of the last oppressor. But freedom remains elusive for the myriad sentient races enslaved for ten centuries, as an even greater terror arises. The Naxids—a powerful insectoid species themselves subjugated until the recent Shaa demise—plan to fill the vacuum with their own bloody domination, and have already won a shattering victory with superior force and unimaginable cruelty. But two heroes survived the carnage at Magaria: Lord Gareth Martinez and the fiery, mysterious gun pilot Lady Caroline Sula, whose courageous exploits are becoming legend in the new history of galactic civil war. Yet their cunning, skill, and bravery may be no match for the overwhelming enemy descending upon the loyalist stronghold of Zanshaa, as the horrific battle looms that will determine the structure of the universe—and who shall live to inhabit it—for millennia to come.

Thank you, Mr. Vance / Dean Koontz -- Preface / Jack Vance -- The True vintage of Erzuine Thale / Robert Silverberg -- Grolion of Almery / Matthew Hughes -- The Copsy Door / Terry Downling -- Caulk the witch-chaser / Liz Williams -- Inescapable / Mike Resnick -- Abrizonde / Walter Jon Williams -- The Traditions of Karzh / Paula Volsky -- The Final quest of the Wizard Sarnod / Jeff Vandermeer -- The Green bird / Kage Baker -- The Last golden thread / Phyllis Eisenstein -- An Incident at Uskvesk / Elizabeth Moon -- Sylgarmo''s Proclamation / Lucius Shepard -- The Lamentably comical tragedy (or the laughably tragic comedy) of Lixal Laoavee / Tad Williams -- Guyal the Curator / John C. Wright -- The Good magician / Glenn Cook -- The Return of the Fire Witch / Elizabeth Hand -- The Collegeum of Mauge / Byron Tetrick -- Evillo the Cunning / Tanith Lee -- The Guiding nose of Ulf?nt Banderoz / Dan Simmons -- Frogskin cap / Howard Waldrop -- A Night at Tarn House / George R.R. Martin -- An Invocation of incuriosity / Neil Gaiman.

Presents a collection of four novellas that explore alternate history, including "The Daimon," in which Sokrates leads his soldiers to victory over the Spartans, and "The Last Ride of German Freddie," in which Nietzsche finds himself in Tombstone, Arizona, in works by Harry Turtledove, S. M. Stirling, Mary Gentle, and Walter Jon Williams. Reprint.

No Star Wars fan will want to miss this exciting eBook exclusive adventure from Nebula Award-winner Walter Jon Williams, author of the Star Wars The New Jedi Order hardcover novel, Destiny’s Way. That’s Jedi Knight Kyp Durron’s opinion about the planet Ylesia, home base of the so-called Peace Brigade, a group of traitors dedicated to hindering the war efforts of the New Republic and hastening the ultimate victory of the merciless Yuuzhan Vong. Kyp’s plan calls for a lightning-fast strike, backed with overwhelming force, to destroy the Brigade’s offensive capabilities and teach prospective traitors that betrayal carries a heavy price. But young Jacen Solo, still bearing the scars of his imprisonment by the Yuuzhan Vong, has a better idea: a daring raid into the heart of Ylesia’s capital, with the objective of capturing the Brigade’s top leaders—including the newly sworn-in President, Thrackan Sal-Solo, cousin to Jacen and his twin, Jaina. But unknown to the Jedi and the New Republic forces, Supreme Overlord Shimrra of the Yuuzhan Vong has dispatched reinforcements to the Ylesia system. Instead of a swift surgical strike, Jaina, Jacen, Kyp, and their comrades are about to find themselves locked in a desperate battle for survival, with the odds stacked against them and time running out. . . . BONUS: This original novella includes an exclusive excerpt from Star Wars: New Jedi Order: Force Heretic I: Remnant and an interview with the author.

This is a landmark anthology of four original novellas by the reigning masters of alternate history. Set in different eras, different places, and different times, these forays into "what might have been" showcases the stunning breadth and far-reaching possibilities the genre represents.