O You Lucky Brits!

Oh to be in England now that This Is Not a Game is there!

Yes! The British paperback of TINAG is now available!

My Glorious Name Shall Ring Forever

Locus magazine has bowed to the inevitable and put This Is Not a Game on their end-of-the-year recommended reading list. The other stuff on the list isn't too shabby, either!

Walter's First Contest

I've never run a contest before, but now that This Is Not a Game has appeared in paperback, I find myself in a generous mood.

As in years past, this year we produced a calendar for 2010, in this case featuring photos taken by me in Turkey and in France, including this one of the travertines at Pamukkale. The calendar includes holidays for Canada, the US, and Mexico, and also features notable dates such as Jules Verne's birthday, as well as my own (so you'll know when to send presents).

So here's what you need to do. Send me a photo of yourself along with your personal copy of the new mass-market paperback of This Is Not a Game. I'll put the photos in a hat (as it were), and the first two names drawn will receive copies of the calendar. Autographed, if you like.

Where do you send the photos? My email address is not hard to come by. It's a simple ARG-like puzzle, which should be easy to solve, and is appropriate to the subject matter of the book.

My favorite photos will also be published here, assuring your image instant immortality. And if you're immortal, you'll need a calendar in order to know what day it is. It's a win/win situation!

The Praise is Endless as the Sea

This Is Not a Game has grown up, into a mass-market paperback! (Yeah, okay, that doesn't make sense, but bear with me.)

Probably on that account, there have been a lot of reviews appearing in the last few weeks, so I'm going to take a few moments to point to them with pride.

From Hornswoggler:

And if you know anything about Williams -- if you've read his sophisticated and witty Drake Maijstral novels; or Aristoi, the great lost SF novel of the early '90s; or the two magnificent far-future science fantasies Metropolitan and City on Fire; or incredible short stories like "Prayers On the Wind" -- you know that he's one of the best writers in the speculative fiction field, as consistently inventive and exciting and as compelling a storyteller as anyone. If you haven't read Williams yet, go grab whichever of those earlier books sounds the most intriguing -- or Days of Atonement, one of the best near-future police-procedurals ever written, or the great cyberpunk novel Hardwired, or...you can get this book, which is still available, and practically new . . .

This Is Not a Game has one of the best subtitles I've seen in many years -- "A Novel of Greed, Betrayal, and Social Networking" -- and that's a good description of this novel. It's a compelling story about the kind of people that have been driving the future for the last generation, and what might be next; a thriller on both a conceptual SFnal level as well as in its plotting. As always, Williams tells a story that keeps the pages turning while creating real, rounded characters in a deeply believable world -- he's just one of the best out there at the SF game.

From Mystery Book Blog:

For a 462-page book, this is a pretty fast read, because Walter Jon Williams does a great job of moving this action-based thriller along. One of the underlying concepts is complex, but Williams doesn't let that stand in his way of writing a good tale. He distills what readers need to know into digestible packets and lets it rip . . .

I'm going to use that word again: surprise. It was a pleasant surprise to find a realistic female character who didn't feel it necessary to be a superwoman or to compete with the big boys, but who turned out to be brave and resourceful despite her self-doubts.

And from Fantasy Book Critic's list of Favorite Novels of 2009:

Expertly written and executed, scarily relevant, and massively entertaining, "This Is Not A Game" should be on everyone's reading list…

That summed it up rather nicely, I thought.

Now that the book is available at popular prices, you should be able to afford to buy lots of copies.

And by the way, isn't the new cover purty?

Ceci N'est Pas Une Update

Coming in February from Editions l'Atlante!

(Translated by our own Jean-Daniel Brèque)

TINAG UK

Here's the preliminary cover for the British mass-market edition of This Is Not a Game. There'll be some tweaking between now and the final version, but it's mainly in place.

The binary code actually spells out This Is Not a Game. How cool is that?

Trying Not to Blush

Christian Sauvé says some kind things about This Is Not a Game on his web site:

But there’s a bit more at stake than a look at games that bring together thousands of people in a global clue-hunt: As This Is Not a Game begins, our ARG-creating protagonist Dagmar Shaw sees her holidays in Indonesia become a catastrophe as the country is shut down and riots break around her hotel. Engineering her rescue away from this mess ends up being a problem that not even a well-financed Israeli security contractor can solve: In the end, Dagnar finds greater value in tapping the game-playing community and crowd-sourcing her own safety to the diverse talents of perfect strangers scattered around the globe.

And that’s just the first act, because once she’s back stateside, Dagmar’s life soon turns into a nightmare when friends are acquaintances are murdered. It’s clear to her that this is not a game-related development, but the players of her ongoing ARG aren’t so sure. When the police admit that the investigation may tax even their capabilities, Dagmar sees another opportunity to let the group mind of her plays chew on the evidence. But as she eventually discovers, it’s hard to get away from the game once it takes over…

While over at Tor.com, Jo Walton--- who I swear I am not paying for all the kind things she's said about me in that forum--- likewise has some good things to say.

I’ve written before about what a brilliant and versatile writer Walter Jon Williams is, so it’s no surprise that his new novel absolutely blew me over. This Is Not A Game is an exciting near-future science fiction story that does everything right.

There are four friends from a college RPG group, and they’re grown up. Charlie is a software millionaire, Austin is a venture capitalist, Dagmar is running a company that runs ARGs, and BJ is a failure working on a helpline and gold-farming to make ends meet. Dagmar gets caught up in Indonesia when the currency collapses and civilization breaks down after it. Her online resources and gaming friends turn out to be more help than she would have expected. But “This Is Not A Game.” There’s an interesting line between fiction and reality in a game like that, and while rescuing Dagmar is real, to the players she enlists to help, that almost doesn’t matter. Things get more complicated from there on, everything turns out to be more complex, more connected, and more satisfyingly resolved, than you would imagine possible.

Williams has always been good at extrapolation, and this is a terrific day-after-tomorrow near future. He’s been involved in various “reality” games and deeply understands how they work. The description of putting the game together and the way it works arefascinating and realistic. I often find depictions of gaming in fiction very irritating, but Williams knows why people play and what kind of people they are. Early on he uses a description of the four friends’ gaming styles to illuminate their characters. The forum messages between the gamers are just exactly the way these things work. Incidentally, I haven’t seen character developed through online messages done so well since A Fire Upon the Deep.

The economics and software sides of the book also make sense. It isn’t possible to talk about some of the niftiest stuff without major spoilers, and I’m reluctant to spoil anything at all because the pace at which information is revealed is masterful. Things that don’t look as if they’re connected are connected . . .

This is an exciting novel with great characters, including a very nice geeky female protagonist. It also has chewy science fiction ideas under the fast-paced action layer. I expect to see it on a lot of next year’s award ballots. I’m surprised I haven’t heard more buzz about it already. This might be because Williams is one of those writers who everyone infuriatingly takes for granted. Oh, another terrific masterpiece that’s not at all like the last book. Well, it’ll be on my Hugo nominations, because I definitely haven’t read five better books this year.

So there you have it! Don't just buy the book, start handing it awards! Don't worry about me--- I can take it!

Got Euros . . . ?

Here we see pictures from the catalog of Dumont, one of my German publishers. This Is Not a Game got a four-page spread in the middle of the catalog! (Michelle Houellebecq, John Cheever, and Haruki Murakami only got two pages each!)

For a minute there, I thought they were going to keep the US title, but on further inspection I see the book has been retitled Off. I'm not sure what this has to do with anything, nor do I remember any carp in the book.

But hey, I'm stoked, so I'm not, you know, carping. (I had to say that before Larry Hodges did.)

Meanwhile, if you can't wait for the German edition, you can still read it in English.

At This Rate, My Plan for World Domination Will Come to Fruition Even More Quickly!

Mark W. Tiedemann has said some awesomely nice things about This Is Not a Game over on irosf.com.

When Williams is good, he is very good—and this is one of his best. He dances across the lines that blur real world and gameplaying with elegance and an acerbic sense of consequences that denies the artificial separation between the two worlds. When games grow large and complex enough, he suggests, they become the real world. The more factors added in to "flesh it out," the more a game takes on all the unanticipated aspects of real life. In this case, greed, jealousy, murder—and, as an added wrinkle, international politics.

People get drawn in from the various and unexpected touch points of the game world and get mangled in the course of discovering they have crossed a line somewhere and now, This Is Not A Game. In many ways, it never was, as Dagmar learns.

On another level, Williams is exploring the parameters of so-called social networking in a sphere of global communication that separates people by nanoseconds through myriad links that often bypass the comfortable and comprehensible channels through which we expect events to transpire. The connections made with communities that have utterly divergent, yet occasionally sympathetic, interests demonstrate the potential for cause and consequence unmediated by "authorized" intercessors.

Glowing praise like this should only motivate you to purchase a copy.

Nag Time

Have I nagged you lately to buy This Is Not a Game?

Or Implied Spaces?

I thought not.

My Fame Advances

The Review Fairy has been good to me this week.

First, This Is Not a Game got a nice review in the Seattle Times.

Fast-paced and with an immensely satisfying resolution, "This Is Not a Game" uses the latest true-to-life phenomenon of "Alternate Reality Games" to make its gripping story's grasp tighter, more relentless, and one you'll miss when it at last lets you go.

Then, Implied Spaces got a nice mention over at the Mad Hatter.

Williams has amazing ideas about technology and what could happen to society given the chance . . . Williams somehow mashes up conspiracies, zombies, AIs, government bureaucracy, planet crushing weapons, and galactic war yet it never seems absurd.

And then Songs of the Dying Earth, and my story in particular, were praised in a very thorough review over next door in the Wertzone.

'Abrizonde' by Walter Jon Williams is a highlight, featuring the besieged castle of Abrizonde and charting the fortunes of the hapless Vespanus who is trapped within. This is a great story, tense and dramatic with an amusing finale . . . Songs of the Dying Earth (****½) is an exceptionally strong collection, a rich and sumptuous banquet of tales from the end of time. The weak links here are not enough to dilute the impact of the best stories in the collection, and the best stories are thought-provoking, memorable and sharply funny.

And it's only Tuesday! The only way it could get better is for you all to go forth and buy some of my books!

Another Ringing Endorsement

Bev Vincent likes my book!

I don’t say this lightly: This is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams is one of the best novels I’ve read recently.

The online store is open.

Two More Appearances For Your Pleasure

I seem to be everywhere online these days.

First, there's an interview with me on Tor.com, wherein John Joseph Adams and I discuss This Is Not a Game.

And next, TINAG is reviewed by Paul Raven on authors-books.com.

I feel we should read This Is Not a Game as a genuine hybrid, an effort to take the best bits of the technothriller and the SF novel and combine them into something that can straddle both camps . . . This Is Not a Game is a technothriller with the distinction of being written with a respect for the reader’s intelligence, and I would love to see more books like it on the shelves at supermarkets and airports.

Buy more copies! All the smart people are doing it!

My Book Fixes Computers!

This Is Not a Game can inspire you to fix your computer!

Or so Zachdude reports over on My iPC.

Getting your computer fixed is clearly one of the side benefits of owning the novel. More benefits will be revealed in time: clearly you need to get your copy now, if you haven't already.

Not Girly In Singapore!

This Is Not a Game has garnered a great review from the Straits Times, Singapore's foremost newspaper!

While all of this is interesting, without strong characters and an engaging plot, This is Not a Game would be nothing but another bit of 'fan fiction' about the joys of living online.

Instead, Williams' novel is punchy, tightly plotted – very tightly with a strong twist or two – and entertaining. There's a enough action and global drama to keep any thriller lover happy.

While it's not a particularly 'girly' book, the character of Dagmar ensures a strong female focus which mean readers of both sexes with enjoy This is Not a Game.

Like other speculative fiction authors before him, most notably William Gibson, Williams has managed to take what is happening now, wrap it in imagination and offer us a look at the future.

There you have it--- not only is it a great book, now it's officially Not Girly!

Meanwhile--- or perhaps even simultaneously--- Paul Stotts over at Blood of the Muse has even more to say!

This Is Not a Game is a compelling mystery, one that threateningly demands—like a militant nun, ruler in hand, your knuckles spread before her—for you to continue, to finish. Stopping, it’s not an option. It’s not even a thought. You turn the pages of the book not just to get answers, but to get the questions, also. And neither disappoint. There is no letdown, no clumsy resolution, no descent into lameness. Everything works, the story coming together beautifully like a well-played game of chess, Williams maneuvering the reader, skillfully. Like a pawn. A very happy pawn.

The novel feels fresh, new, totally unique. Something completely different from the tired, recycled space opera found in most sci-fi novels today. You’ll remember This Is Not A Game afterwards, for its distinct storyline, for being unlike anything else you’ve read. For being special. A rabbit hole, both deep and dark, leading to a dazzling wonderland, where a game imitates life. And life imitates a game.

I may be a militant nun, but at least I'm not a girly militant nun!

And, to cap off a lovely day, over at authors-books.com, we find the following:

So Walter Jon Williams’ This Is Not A Game lies. It is a game. A hell of a game, a fascinating mystery, and intriguing social commentary. Where every reader is a winner, no matter what alternate reality you choose to call home.

It's probably time for you all to buy new copies, so you can track down the truth behind this lying militant non-girly nun rumor!

A Brief Commercial Message

I hope you appreciate my restraint in not telling you in a while that you should go out and buy This Is Not a Game.

Because it's a really good book and, y'know, you should.

The Glory Keeps On Accruin'

I've returned from my trip out of town to discover that even more praise for my book has been distributed throughout the web! (Such good taste you people have!)

Over at BookGeeks, Sam opines: "But this is an important book - perhaps the point at which ARGs become mainstream . . . "

Fantasy Book Critic sez: “This Is Not A Game” is the first Walter Jon Williams novel that I’ve read, and it lives up to all of the hype and praise surrounding the author. Masterfully written and executed, scarily relevant, and massively entertaining, “This Is Not A Game” is a gem of a novel and should be on everyone’s reading list…"

Buy copies for yourselves! And then for all your friends!

Special Cool TINAG Web Page!

Orbit has created a special web page just for This Is Not a Game. There are descriptions of the book, a thrilling excerpt, and a special surprise Not a Game, which I won't spoil by giving away here.

Elsewhere in cyberspace, Sci Fi Wire has reviewed TINAG:

"Dagmar Shaw is our main protagonist in this novel, which combines droll satire, cyber-fu knowingness, ingenious extrapolation, social commentary and techno-thriller suspense. A washed-up fantasy writer, Dagmar designs ARGs--Alternate Reality Games--at the behest of her billionaire boss, Charlie Ruff. But the latest ARG, The Long Night of Brianna Hall, is manifesting some strange real-world repercussions. When people around Dagmar start dying, she realizes that more is at stake than just a paycheck derived through fantasy role-playing.

"Williams' dialogue is razor-sharp, his plotting breakneck, his eye for trends keen and his empathy with his characters deep. He allots equal time to the emotional development of Dagmar and the book's conceptual brain candy. She emerges from this tale changed, but with her core values reinforced. A reluctant hero for our era, she proves that wit and geekdom trump brute force and greed . . . "

There you have it! Geekdom triumphs! Let the celebrations begin!

It's Here!

This Is Not a Game is available on Amazon!

In the immortal words of William Mulholland: "There it is. Take it."

(Thanks to Ralf for pointing this out.)

More Happy Internets Praises!

entertheoctopus has reviewed This Is Not a Game.

. . . This is a novel that’s truly of the internet age; most of the behind-the-scenes action happening in the pages would have been inconceivable only a decade ago. However, that doesn’t mean that readers have to be familiar with the tech to appreciate the story. This is Not a Game is at its heart a good suspense novel, a technothriller for the Facebook generation that will keep readers engaged until its final pages. Highly recommended.