"...Heaven and Hell couldn't be an open, on-going dramatic conflict; it would be more like the Cold War."
—Tad Williams
After Tad Williams and I sat down at the dining room table in my house to talk about his latest novel, 'Sleeping Late on Judgment Day,' I was once again struck by his amazing ability to get to the heart of any question, and his willingness to rip apart his own assumptions. Williams is an eloquent spokesman for what he calls 'hard fantasy.'
This might seem like a contradiction-in-terms. Fantasy is all about imagining a world which is not ours. Urban fantasy, currently overflowing at the seams, simply puts characters, critters and powers from a fantasy novel on mean streets, real or imagined. What Williams shoots for, he says, is a sort of hybrid of fantasy written with the same rigorous rule-following extrapolations that define hard science fiction.
When you listen to this conversation, you'll quickly see why the Bobby Dollar books are so much fun. It's because Williams himself is having fun, writing them on a very serious goof. That said, the big money these days is in the sort of thick-as-a-brick fantasies that are bringing new fans to the genre by virtue of their big and small screen adaptations. Williams cut his teeth writing foundational works in this genre when many of the current crop of readers (and more than a few writers) were wondering about school dances. and happily for his readers, he has something to say on that front.
Happily, I began, and now just about end this year with a Tad Williams interview. Some fun, huh?
12-09-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 186: Tad Williams, 'Sleeping Late on Judgment Day'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred eighty-sixth episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. these days I actually sort of perform them with the writers as a "lightning round" (thanks David Rich!) after the longer interview.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
