James Nicoll Reviews

Walter Jon Williams’ 1985 Knight Moves is a stand-alone¹ science fiction novel.

Eight centuries ago, Doran Falkner saved the world. Falkner Power Systems provided abundant power, which (as science advanced) could be used to build nuclear dampers and relativistic star drives. Thus, the energy crisis, the threat of nuclear war, and access to the rest of the universe, all solved all thanks to one man.

Prudent investment allowed Falkner to deliver another miracle to the world: vastly extended life. This came with a steep price-tag: any would-be immortal would have to surrender their terrestrial real estate to Doran Falkner and move to another star system.

Today, Doran is the proud owner of most of the Earth and very large, very dirty secret.

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1987’s Voice of the Whirlwind is the second volume in Walter Jon Williams’ Hardwired series. It can be read as a standalone novel¹.

Etienne Steward wakes to discover that he is a clone, the Beta, of the man with whose memories he was imbued. More revelations follow, none good: 

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Walter Jon Williams’ 2017 Quillifer is a standalone secondary-world fantasy. 

Amiable womanizer Quillifer is dispatched to serve a summons on river-stealing aristocrat Sir Stanley. Quillifer is enthusiastic about the mission; it lets him skip boring apprentice-lawyer duties. He is less enthusiastic about the prospect of a confrontation with a notoriously violent land-owner. 

The mission has an unexpected benefit. Quillifer returns home to Ethlebight to find the seaport town in flames. A vast pirate fleet has invested the town and is in the process of carrying off much of its population for ransom or slavery. Quillifer is safe, albeit bereaved. His entire family chose to die rather than submit to the pirates. His master, Lawyer Dacket, is also lost. 

Quillifer could choose to stay in Ethlebight and help rebuild. He chooses otherwise. 

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Walter Jon Williams wastes no time establishing his world in this mid-1990s science fantasy novel:

A burning woman stalks along the streets. Ten stories tall, naked body a whirling holocaust of fire. Terrified people on Bursary Street crumple into carbon at her passing, leaving behind only black char curled into fetal shapes. The heat she radiates is so powerful that structures burst into flame as she passes. A storm of paper, sucked out of buildings by uncontrolled drafts, spiral toward her and are consumed. Uncontrolled rivers of flame pour from her fingertips. Windows blast inward at her keening, at the eerie, nerve-scraping wail that pours from her insubstantial, fiery throat. In a city that girdles the world, all-devouring fire is the worst thing imaginable. 

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