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 . . .

Favian Markham is a rising young American officer 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.

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, streetfighters cloak their murders under the Code Duello, the pirate Jean Laffite defies 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 …

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.

“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 a brilliant conclusion in Walter Jon Williams’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.

Walter Jon Williams has received nominations for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, as well as for almost every other major award in science fiction. The expansive tale Deep State follows Dagmar Shaw, who organizes vast, alternate-reality games with millions of players across the globe – all while revolution stirs in the city around her. When her friend offers her a gig of impossibly high stakes, she can’t refuse, even if it means placing her own life on the line.

“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 Accidental War, the second book of a brand-new series set in the Praxis–an epic mix of space opera and military science fiction, from a grand master of science fiction, Walter Jon Williams.

The Praxis, the empire of now extinct Shaa, has again fallen into civil war, with desperate and outnumbered humans battling several alien species for survival. Leading the human forces are star-crossed lovers Gareth Martinez and Caroline Sula, who must find a way to overcome their own thorny personal history to defeat the aliens and assure humanity’s survival.

But even if the human fleet is victorious, the divisions fracturing the empire may be too wide to repair, as battles between politicians, the military, and fanatics who want to kill every alien threaten to further tear the empire apart. While Martinez and Sula believe they have the talent and tactics to defeat an overwhelming enemy, what will prevent their fellow humans from destroying themselves?

Walter Jon Williams regularly draws praise for pushing the limits of the science fiction genre. His third novel featuring AR (augmented reality) games designer Dagmar Shaw, The Fourth Wall follows Sean, a washed-up child actor recruited to star in Dagmar’s latest movie project. But when people on set start dying, Sean wonders if Dagmar’s secretive behavior is hiding a more dangerous game. “Williams and Dagmar fans will rejoice, and it should attract the near-futurists and techno-thriller crowd as well.”-Kirkus Reviews

In Walter Jon Williams’ classic cyberpunk novel, the remnants of a war-ravaged America endure in scattered, heavily armed colonies, while the wealthy Orbital Corporations now control the world. Cowboy, an ex-fighter pilot who has become “hardwired” via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, is now a panzerboy, a hi-tech smuggler riding armored hovertanks through the balkanized countryside. He teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals. Together, they gather an unlikely gang of misfits for a ride that will take them to the edge of the atmosphere.

This action-packed adventure is a must-read for science fiction fans everywhere.

“Interstellar adventure has a new king, and his name is Walter Jon Williams.” –George R.R. Martin

Blending fast-paced military science fiction and space opera, the third and final volume in a dynamic trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Praxis, set in the universe of his popular and critically acclaimed Dread Empire’s Fall series, comes a tale of blood, courage, adventure, and battle in which the fate of an empire rests in the hands of two lovers.

Shattered Victory

Star-crossed lovers Gareth Martinez and Caroline Sula have decisively beaten the forces of the corrupt Zanshaa government. It seems all there’s left to do is to travel to the capital of Zanshaa to reunite the empire under the banner of the Restoration. Before they can sweep up the pieces, though, it’s revealed that any advance would spring an enemy trap. To make things worse, their opponents have more resources than Martinez and Sula could have imagined, and a superior force is now aimed at the heart of the Restoration.

Shattered Love

But before Martinez and Sula can contend with the gathering enemy forces, a surprising act of violence on Sula’s part threatens their relationship–and damages their trust. Hurt and confused, Martinez sends Sula into exile while he tries to recover from his broken heart. Somehow, these two lovers must repair their relationship in order to defeat this new enemy threat… especially when more than love is at stake.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is 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.

Aiah has fought her way out of poverty and discovers 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 the government and upend the cosmic order.

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.

Blending fast-paced military science fiction and space opera, the first volume in a dynamic trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Praxis, set in the universe of his popular and critically acclaimed Dread Empire’s Fall series–a tale of blood, courage, adventure and battle in which the fate of an empire rests in the hands of a cadre of desperate exiles.

It’s been seven years since the end of the Naxid War. Sidelined for their unorthodox tactics by a rigid, tradition-bound military establishment, Captain Gareth Martinez and Captain the Lady Sula are stewing in exile, frustrated and impatient to exercise the effective and lethal skills they were born to use in fighting the enemy.

Yet after the ramshackle empire left by the Shaa conquerors is shaken by a series of hammer blows that threaten the foundations of the commonwealth, the result is a war that no one planned, no one expected, and no one knows how to end.

Now, Martinez, Sula, and their confederate Nikki Severin must escape the clutches of their enemies, rally the disorganized elements of the fleet, and somehow restore the fragile peace–or face annihilation at the hands of a vastly superior force.

With the publication of his debut novel, The Privateer, in 1981, Walter Jon Williams began one of the most varied and prolific careers in contemporary popular fiction. But much of Williams’s best work takes place in the shorter forms, as this generous volume, filled to overflowing with award-winning and award-nominated stories, clearly proves.
The Best of Walter Jon Williams reflects its author’s affection for-and mastery of-the novella form. Elsewhere in the collection, Williams offers us one brilliantly sustained creation after another. The Nebula Award-winning “Daddy’s World” takes us into a young boy’s private universe, a world of seeming miracles that conceals a tragic secret. “Dinosaurs” is the far future account of the incredibly destructive relationship between the star-faring human race and the less evolved inhabitants of the planet Shar.
“Diamonds from Tequila” is a lovingly crafted example of SF Noir in which a former child actor attempts a comeback that proves unexpectedly dangerous. “Surfacing” is a tale of alienation featuring a research scientist more at home with the foreign and unfamiliar than with the members of his own species.
These stories, together with half a dozen equally substantial tales, are the clear product of a master craftsman with a seemingly limitless imagination. The Best of Walter Jon Williams is the capstone of a truly remarkable career.

Captain Favian Markham, USN, is a man surrounded by secrets–secrets that will be revealed when he is court-martialed for losing his ship.

Secrets are 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.

Originally published as by “Jon Williams,” this is one of the historical novels, long out of print, with which Walter Jon Williams began his career.

“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

The first book in the completed Dread Empire’s Fall trilogy, followed by The Sundering and Conventions of War.

All will must bend to the perfect truth of The Praxis

For millennia, the Shaa have subjugated the universe, forcing the myriad sentient races to bow to their joyless tyranny. But the Shaa will soon be no more. The Dread Empire is in its rapidly fading twilight, and with its impending fall comes the promise of a new galactic order … and bloody chaos.

A young Terran naval officer marked by his lowly birth, Lt. Gareth Martinez is the first to recognize the insidious plot of the Naxid–the powerful, warlike insectoid society that was enslaved before all others–to replace the masters’ despotic rule with their own. Barely escaping a swarming surprise attack, Martinez and Caroline Sula, a pilot whose beautiful face conceals a deadly secret, are now the last hope for freedom for every being who ever languished in Shaa chains–as the interstellar battle begins against a merciless foe whose only perfect truth is annihilation.

After bringing listeners The Dread Empires Fall Trilogy (The Praxis, The Sundering, and Conventions of War), Skyboat Media and Blackstone Publishing come together again to present The Praxis Triad, an original audiobook compilation of three novellas from Walter Jon Williams’s Praxis universe.

Investments finds Gareth Martinez unable to find a meaningful post due to the hostility of his superiors. He’s accepted a meaningless post as Inspector General of Chee, a newly settled world. Intending nothing more than a pleasant vacation with his family, he first stumbles across a murderous conspiracy, and then learns he must battle a literal cosmic menace that threatens to wipe out all life on the planet.

In The Stickpin, set in the Naxid War, Caroline Sula leads the resistance against the Naxid occupiers and shows how a pleasant afternoon stroll can have deadly consequences to the enemy.

Then in Impersonations …

Having offended her superiors by winning a battle without permission, Caroline Sula has been posted to the planet Earth, a dismal backwater where careers go to die. But Sula has always been fascinated by Earth history, and she plans to reward herself with a long, happy vacation amid the ancient monuments of humanity’s home world.

Sula may be an Earth history buff, but there are aspects of her own history she doesn’t want known. Exposure is threatened when an old acquaintance turns up unexpectedly. Someone seems to be forging evidence that would send her to prison. And all that is before someone tries to kill her.

If she’s going to survive, Sula has no choice but to make some history of her own.

Fast-paced and terrifyingly real, The Rift is a blockbuster novel of destruction, heroism, and survival that is sure to grab fans of recent disaster movies.

It starts with the dogs. They won’t stop barking. And then the earth shrugs–8.9 on the Richter scale. It’s the world’s biggest earthquake since Lisbon in 1755, and it doesn’t hit California or Japan or Mexico, but New Madrid, Missouri, a sleepy town on the Mississippi River. Seismologists had predicted the scope of the disaster–but no one listened.

For hundreds of miles around, dams burst, engulfing entire counties in tidal waves of mud and debris. Cities collapse into piles of brick and shards of glass. Hospitals and schools crumble. Bridges twist and snap, spilling rush-hour traffic into rivers already swollen with bodies. Within minutes, there is nothing but chaos and ruin from St. Louis to Vicksburg, from Kansas City to Louisville. Every bridge down, every highway torn, every house gone.

America’s heartland has fallen into the nightmare known as the Rift, a fault line in the earth that wrenchingly exposes the fractures in American society itself. As a strange white mist smelling of sulfur rises from the crevassed ground, the real terror begins for the survivors, who will soon envy the dead, including:

Jason Adams, a teenager separated from his mother; Nick Ruford, an African-American engineer searching for his estranged daughter; Noble Frankland, the television preacher whose visions of hell have become all too real; Larry Hallock, a technician working frantically to prevent a nuclear meltdown at his power station; And Omar Paxton, a sheriff and Ku Klux Klansman who seeks racial vengeance in the turmoil of disaster.

Walter J. Williams has created a modern American disaster saga, a story based on terrifying fact, filled with non-stop action, peopled with characters who are heartbreakingly real. Witnessing authentic heroes surfacing in the unlikeliest places, you will share their horror, feel their despair, and triumph with them in their struggle to survive. One thing you will know for sure: It can happen here. And sooner or later, it will.

“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’s 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.

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 Johnson de Marquez, 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.

Once upon a time, there were four of them. And though each was good at a number of things, all of them were very good at games… Dagmar is a game designer trapped in Jakarta in the middle of a revolution. The city is tearing itself apart around her and she needs to get out. Her boss Charlie has his own problems — 4.3 billion of them, to be precise, hidden in an off-shore account. Austin is the businessman — the VC. He’s the one with the plan and the one to keep the geeks in line. BJ was there from the start, but while Charlie’s star rose, BJ sank into the depths of customer service. He pads his hours at the call-center slaying on-line orcs, stealing your loot, and selling it on the internet. But when one of them is gunned down in a parking lot, the survivors become players in a very different kind of game. Caught between the dangerous worlds of the Russian Mafia and international finance, Dagmar must draw on all her resources — not least millions of online gamers– to track down the killer. In this near-future thriller, Walter Jon Williams weaves a pulse-pounding tale of intrigue, murder, and games where you don’t get an extra life.

Originally published as The Privateer, this is Walter Jon Williams’s 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.

This second installment in a classic cyberpunk series is a fast-paced ride through a gritty, well-imagined world.

Steward is a clone, a beta. His memories are fifteen years old because his alpha never had a brain-scan update. And in those fifteen years, the entire world has changed. An alien race known as the Powers has established relations with humanity. The Policorp that held his allegiance has collapsed. He fought and survived the off-world Artifact War, but dozens of his friends did not. Both his first and second wives have divorced him. And, more importantly, someone has murdered him, causing the activation of the beta backup. Now Steward must probe into the horrors of the war, its politics and betrayals, to find out who wanted him dead—if he doesn’t want to die again.