Sean Williams

Reviews are probably the least interesting part of this LJ, but I do try to keep on top of them for my future reference.  While cleaning out the actual physical inbox on my desk I stumbled across some regarding the Broken Land books that I hadn't filed away, so here they are.

The Age thought The Dust Devils "deft and crisply rendered" while Viewpoint described it as "good speculative fiction" that "imagines a future upon familiar terrain.  This is the arid interior of Australia gone to sand, its few denizens roaming the landscape for survival and seeking shelter in the half-buried remains of old cities."  (Not true of the entire world, but a reasonable description of that part of it.) Viewpoint also thought that The Changeling "could be viewed as a thriller", a "thrilling" one at that, which "will keep you guessing into the end".

The Sunday Age concluded its crisp summary of The Scarecrow thusly: "In this third instalment in the Broken Land series, Ros is confronted by arduous choices about friendships and the future."  Spot on, I'd say.  Where those choices ultimately lead him and what kind of future he has won't be spelt out in future books, but will be revealed in short fiction coming out later this year.

It's that time of year again: the Aurealis Award judges honour some and overlooks others, sometimes seemingly on a whim, but always (he says from experience) after long and careful consideration. I feel very fortunate to be nominated again this year, since the field is so unbelievably strong, and I'm glad to be in such excellent company (on and off the lists). I'm looking forward to January 24, when we celebrate this wonderful, vibrant community of ours, and I hope you'll come along to join in.

For the record (because this is where I tend to keep track of these things) my nominations are:

Earth Ascendant - Best SF Novel
The Changeling - Best YA Novel and Best Children's Long Fiction
The Dust Devils - Best Children's Long Fiction
Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams - Best Collection

(Sorry about the subject line, btw. I knew millisynth would like it. :-)

Learning that I was the Chameleon King yesterday reminded me that reviews that have been mounting up since The Changeling came out. Thought I'd better post them before the arrival of the next book makes them all rather moot.

Ian Nichols in the West Australian found it "rewarding to see Sean Williams, Australia's premier speculative fiction writer, turn his hand to young adult fiction, because it becomes something special indeed, as readable by adults as it is by younger people. [The tale] is riveting and one not to be missed."

Jason Nahrung in the Brisbane Courier Mail called it "a truly memorable tale. I didn't need the inclusion of chapter one of the next book in the trilogy, The Dust Devils, to whet my appetite for the next instalment."

Australian Women's Weekly listed The Changeling as one of "10 Great Reads for Children" while Magpies considered it a solid "intriguing". Fun kids' mag M Reads gave it four stars, saying: "This book is a cliffhanger, MANIACS, and we recommend you get your hands on this unpredictable adventure!"

The Dust Devils is out in September. I hope people like it as much.

Thanks, everyone, for the best wishes (the haiku remedies particularly helped). I'm back on-deck now and pondering which news to blog first: Swancon, the launches of Magic Dirt and The Changeling, finishing The Grand Conjunction, the Ditmar Awards, my Dickless status, the wonderful rain in Adelaide...?

I guess I'll start with the first one and work my way through. Swancon was a blast. Thanks to everyone involved for putting on another wonderful show. There have been reports posted on-line and I don't see the need in repeating what's been said many times over, but the guests were wonderful, the masquerade was a hoot, and the weekend in general went by in a happy, drunken blur. "Tick...tick...tick...tick...BOOM!"

A very big thank you to everyone who attended the launches, and even engaged in audience participation when pressed to. Magic Dirt is out and proud, and available from Ticonderoga in two splendid editions. Buy it now, if only for the cover! The Changeling is just as beautiful, imho, and a very different read. The feedback has been wonderful. I hope every kid in Australia reads and is freaked out by it.

Saturn Returns might have missed out on the Philip K Dick Award (despite Jay Lake's most excellent spruiking of it on the night), but it was still a splendid spread to be part of. Receiving the Ditmar Award at Swancon was icing on the cake, really, and I'm enormously grateful to everyone who voted for it. Kudos to everyone else nominated, and congratulations to the other winners on the night. This is such a talented and good-natured community. There will never be enough awards to go around.

My damaged status had everything to do with sleepless nights and exposure to the real world, and bore no relation at all to the cold and wet Adelaide to which I returned home. Perfect weather, really, to dive into the final edits of The Grand Conjunction, the last book in the Astropolis series. It's been a long and winding road, writing this book; I'm both relieved and sad it's done. So often I don't know what books are about until I've finished them, and in this case it appears I've spawned another romance: one in which the collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda plays a role, but a romance all the same. I'm a sucker for it, I guess.

My next projects are The Scarecrow (the last of this round of kids' books) and completely reorganising my study (you know, because there's never a good time so it might as well be now). Lined up after that are a thriller, another YA novel, PhD stuff, and appearances here and there. I'll report on the latter as they grow nearer.

For now, I'm off to have some soup.

Thanks for being such a wonderful bunch of people. I am sending you all happy vibes.

I've just had some dates confirmed by the most excellent Darren Nash, so here is my publication schedule for the next few months:

March:
The Changeling - Australia mass market paperback (Angus & Robertson)

May:
Earth Ascendant - US mass market paperback (Ace)
Earth Ascendant - Australian mass market paperback (Orbit)

June:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: US hardcover (Del Rey)
Saturn Returns: UK mass market paperback (Orbit)

November:
Earth Ascendant: UK mass market paperback (Orbit)

The best part of this news is that local readers of the Astropolis series aren't going to be stiffed by import prices when the next book comes out.

Meanwhile, work on book three continues apace. (I can hear the whips cracking as I type...)

Below is the cover* of my first kids' novel, The Changeling, which will be published by HarperCollins March 2008.

Below the cut are the covers to the sequels, The Dust Devils and The Scarecrow.

They couldn't be more different to the wonderful cover and illustrations by David Cornish, which I posted here a while back. It doesn't matter. I love them both. What do you think?

Soon I'll post an excerpt for your reading pleasure, and I'll link to that here.

I am quite immodestly proud of these books. They may be the best things I've written, so far.



( The Dust Devils & The Scarecrow )

* Cover design by Natalie Winter. Cover images all courtesy of Shutterstock.

I've almost run out of David Cornish's illustrations for The Changeling. This is the last full-page image, capturing a very lonely young boy running away from home with everything he owns slung over his shoulder.

Perhaps it's a little self-indulgent to claim any kind of parallel between Ros and the book itself, especially when HarperCollins is going to look after it very well in the big, bad world. I do, however, feel a bit nervous about its fate. More so than usual, I mean. Maybe it's because it's taking so long to get into print, or because the writing of it has crossed so many complicated times in my life, or because it taps into so much of my childhood...I don't know.

However that anxiety's come into being, David's captured it well. I want to leap into that picture, pick Ros up and whisk him off to somewhere everyone loves him.



Last...

"The night was utterly dark. Only when lightning struck, as it did with increasing frequency, could Ros see anything at all, and then just for a split-instant. Afterwards, dazzled, he could barely see the ground ahead of him."

The Changeling is set in the same world as The Books of the Change and The Books of the Cataclysm, so there were always going to magical hi-jinks along the way.

In this illustration, David took another unexpected turn, one I particularly like. To have Ros busting out of the frame like this is very appropriate at that point in the story.

Having artists take your words and add their own creativity to them is a humbling experience. It's hard, afterwards, to draw a clear line around the work and state with any confidence where ownership lies. Certainly, my mental images of Ros, Kuller and the camel changed after seeing David's work. I'm very sad he didn't get to finish the project, as I'm sure he would've done amazing things with crabblers (yet more giant spiders), gypsies, golems, and a one-eyed Stone Mage...



Next...

"Ros could have stopped there but the flame kept coming. He emptied all his rage and frustration into it, all his despair and fear and uncertainty, all the betrayal he felt from his family and all the hatred he felt at himself."

This is one of my favourite pictures that David drew for The Changeling. It's hard to explain why without giving away the plot, but this picture comes at a relatively upbeat point in what has been up to then a pretty dark story. And it features the camel, which has a character all of its own. While writing this novel as part of Adelaide Uni's Creative Writing Program, the call to spare the camel was overwhelming from my fellow students. That was as surprising as it was gratifying.



"The world was a blur by the time he reached the back door. He slipped twice before reaching the camel and clambering awkwardly onto its back. Whether it recognised the smell of its former master, hoped for better treatment from Ros, or simply responded to the command in his voice, it raised itself up on knobbly knees with a weary sigh and then clambered to its feet."

Next...

The Changeling is the first book I've written that really taps into my childhood fears. Well, the issue of giant spiders does crop up elsewhere, but that remains an adult fear, so it's not really what I'm talking about here.

The latest of David Cornish's pictures for the book eerily captures the terror I once felt for my father. He wasn't a bad man, but when I was little he scared the crap out of me all the same. Looking at this picture, I am ten all over again.



"Ros's father was a big man and craggy with it. His hands were like clubs, toughened by a life on the land. He hadn't always been surly, but his temper had soured as the dry months dragged on. Anger showed in the tightness of his lips and the set of his broad back. Although Ros did his best to help, it was never enough."

Next...