Michael Z. Williamson

Michael Z. Williamson
Williamson in 2011
Born	1967 (age 57–58) Birkenhead, England
Occupation	Author
Nationality	American
Genre	Science fiction, military science fiction, military fiction, political thrillers
Website
michaelzwilliamson.com

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Michael Z. Williamson (born 1967), is a Hugo Award nominated, Wall Street Journal and Locus Magazine bestseller-listed science fiction and military fiction author.

Biography

Williamson was born in Birkenhead, England. His family moved to Canada, then to Newark, Ohio, where he graduated from Newark High School in 1985. After high school, he joined the military and served in a support role in the Air Force for 5 years, then in the Air and Army National Guard, for a total of 22 years. Williamson's military career included service with the US Air Force in deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Williamson has three children and is married.

Writing career

Williamson was recruited as an author by ex-soldier and publisher Jim Baen who "recruited a batch of younger, like-minded authors from similar backgrounds"; Williamson, David Drake, John Ringo and Tom Kratman. Commonalities in the works of these authors include the setting of a civilization in decline with heroes battling against conventional wisdom.

Williamson's first book, Freehold, was released in January 2004 to mixed reviews. It made #3 on the April 2004 Locus Bestsellers list for science-fiction paperbacks. Freehold is set in a future where the United Nations rules the world as a socialist empire.

His second novel, The Hero, was written with John Ringo and made the Locus Bestseller list in February 2006. He has also written the Target: Terror series. His novel Angeleyes has sold over 100,000 copies, and as of 2016 his books had sold half a million copies.

Williamson was the editor of Forged In Blood, which was released in September 2017. Voters in Locus magazine's Preditors and Editors Readers’ Poll named it as the year's best anthology. The book was set in Williamson's Freehold universe and he also wrote or co-wrote five of its 16 stories; other contributors included Larry Correia, Tony Daniel, and Tom Kratman. The stories are linked as they trace the history of a single sword, from its forging in Japan in the third century BC through to Williamson's Freehold of Graine in the 24th century, with each episode related from the sword's perspective and with it as the main character.

Mark Lardas of the Galveston Daily News praises the authors for creating a coherent anthology while attempting "something original [by] telling a story through an object." He describes the result as an "engaging book" that "[f]ans of combat science fiction will find ... irresistible. The science fiction review magazine Tangent describes the work as a celebration of "soldiers and their tools" that is satisfying to those for whom that premise appeals. The review also notes that the "entire anthology consists of stories in which individuals solve problems with violence (or its threat) in a world in which sweet-talking is inadequate to the present threat" and depicts the United Nations as "exactly the kind of incompetent actor that it is regarded by many who have seen its works up close while serving in other military forces." A similar perspective has led to criticism of Freehold as portraying the UN at an ideological extreme and thereby sacrificing the opportunity for insights that arise when it is recognized that "real-world governments are far more layered and nuanced, doing a lot right and a lot wrong."

Williamson's Wisdom From My Internet, a collection of witticisms and political polemic from the Internet, was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2015. The Hugo nominations that year triggered accusations of politically motivated bloc voting. The controversy resulted in a number of categories, including the one containing Wisdom From My Internet, receiving "No Award". Williamson himself stated while the poll was underway that he had voted for no award in all categories, including the one in which his work appeared.

Themes

According to John Clute, writing in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, a theme running through the works of Williamson is a fight to maintain freedom against external enemies with the heroes adhering to libertarian principles. Clute notes the frequent presence of female heroes in Williamson's works and feminist critic Liz Bourke describes Williamson's treatment of female characters as "less clearly marginalizing" than that of John Ringo and Tom Kratman.

Blair Nicholson, in a doctoral thesis from the University of Waikato, draws a connection between the works of Williamson and David Weber who both emphasize that in military science fiction, the hypothesized military environment must be depicted in realistic detail down to details of strategy and tactics. According to Williamson the work should then seek to "explore the proposed system, and its interactions with the people – soldiers and civilians – involved". Nicholson notes that Williamson depicts the United Nations as an enemy, and particularly so in his Freehold (2004) novel, where the United Nations appears as an authoritarian oppressor. This depiction of the United Nations has parallels in the Marine in Space series by Ian Douglas and in the works of Tom Kratman and is reflective of a negative right-wing popular opinion on the institution.

Works

Freehold Universe

Grainne War/Aftermath

1. Freehold (Baen, January 2004, ISBN 0-7434-7179-2 Search this book on .)
2. The Weapon (Baen, August 2005, ISBN 1-4165-0894-5 Search this book on .)
3. Contact with Chaos (Baen, April 2009, ISBN 978-1-4165-9154-2 Search this book on .)
4. Rogue (Baen, September 2011, ISBN 978-1-4391-3462-7 Search this book on .)
5. Angeleyes (Baen, November 2016, ISBN 978-1-4767-8186-0 Search this book on .)

Ripple Creek

1. Better to Beg Forgiveness... (Baen, November 2007, ISBN 1-4165-5508-0 Search this book on .)
2. Do Unto Others (Baen, August 2010, ISBN 978-1-4391-3383-5 Search this book on .)
3. When Diplomacy Fails... (Baen, August 2012, ISBN 978-1-4516-3790-8 Search this book on .)

Freehold anthologies

These are anthologies containing stories set in the Freehold universe by multiple authors.

• Forged in Blood (Baen, September 2017, ISBN 978-1-4814-8270-7 Search this book on ., as editor and author)
  • "Broken Spirit" with Dale C. Flowers (short fiction)
  • "Choices and Consequences" (short fiction)
  • "The Day the Tide Rolled In" with Leo Champion (short fiction)
  • "The Reluctant Heroine" (short fiction)
  • "The Thin Green Line" (short fiction)
• Freehold: Resistance (Baen, forthcoming in December 2019, ISBN 9781982124236 Search this book on ., as editor and author)

Target: Terror series

A military sniper adventure series set in the world of the Target: Terror arcade game.

• The Scope of Justice (Avon, July 2004, ISBN 0-06-056524-1 Search this book on .)
• Targets of Opportunity (Avon, March 2005, ISBN 0-06-056525-X Search this book on .)
• Confirmed Kill (Avon, September 2005, ISBN 0-06-056526-8 Search this book on .)

Legacy of the Aldenata

Set in the Legacy of the Aldenata series created by John Ringo.

• The Hero with John Ringo (Baen, June 2004, ISBN 0-7434-8827-X Search this book on .)

Collections

These are collections on Williamson's fiction and non-fiction.

• Tour of Duty: Stories and Provocations (short story/essay collection, Baen, August 2013, ISBN 978-1-4516-3905-6 Search this book on .). Stories original to this collection include:
  • "Misfits" with Gail Sanders (short fiction)
  • "One Night in Baghdad" (poem)
  • "Port Call" (short fiction)
• Tide of Battle (short story/essay collection, Baen, July 2018, ISBN 978-1-4814-8336-0 Search this book on .). Stories original to this collection include:
  • "How Sweet the Sound" with Morgen Kirby (short fiction)
  • "Off the Cuff" (short fiction)

Short fiction

• "Naught but Duty" in Crossroads and Other Tales of Valdemar (DAW, December 2005, ISBN 0-7564-0325-1 Search this book on .)
• "The Humans Called It Duty" in Future Weapons of War (Baen, March 2007, ISBN 1-4165-2112-7 Search this book on .)
• "The Sword Dancer" in Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar (DAW, December 2008, ISBN 978-0-7564-0528-1 Search this book on .)
• "Wounded Bird" in Changing the World: All-New Tales of Valdemar (DAW, December 2009, ISBN 978-0-7564-0580-9 Search this book on .)
• "The Price" in Citizens (Baen, May 2010, ISBN 978-1-61824-764-3 Search this book on .)
• "The Groom's Price" with Gail Sanders (DAW, December 2010, ISBN 978-0-7564-0633-2 Search this book on .)
• "Battle's Tide" in Exiled: Clan of the Claw (Baen, August 2011, ISBN 978-1-4391-3441-2 Search this book on .)
• "The Brute Force Approach" in Baen Books Free Stories 2011 (Baen, August 2011)
• "Heads You Lose" in Lawyers in Hell (Kerlak Enterprises, August 2011, ISBN 978-1-937035-01-3 Search this book on .)
• "The Bride's Task" with Gail Sanders in Under the Vale and Other Tales of Valdemar (DAW, December 2011, ISBN 978-0-7564-0696-7 Search this book on .)
• "A Hard Day at the Office" in Rogues in Hell (Perseid, July 2012, ISBN 978-0-9851668-7-8 Search this book on .)
• "A Flower Grows in Whitechapel" with Gail Sanders in Elemental Magic (DAW, December 2012, ISBN 978-0-7564-0787-2 Search this book on .)
• "A Peony Amongst Roses" with Gail Sanders in Elementary (DAW, December 2013, ISBN 978-0-7564-0959-3 Search this book on .)
• "Soft Casualty" in Baen Books: Free Stories 2014 (Baen, February 2014)
• "A Fire in the Glass" with Jessica Schlenker in Crucible: All-New Tales of Valdemar (DAW, December 2015, ISBN 978-0-7564-0902-9 Search this book on .)
• "The Digital Kid" in 2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush (ECW Press, April 2016, ISBN 978-1-77041-292-7 Search this book on .)
• "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Grandpa?" in Black Tide Rising (Baen, June 2016, ISBN 978-1-4767-8151-8 Search this book on .)
• "Medley" with Jessica Schlenker in Tempest: All-New Tales of Valdemar (DAW, December 2016, ISBN 978-0-7564-0903-6 Search this book on .)
• "Starhome" in Baen Books: Free Stories 2016 (Baen, 2016)
• "Hate in the Darkness" in Star Destroyers (Baen, March 2018, ISBN 978-1-4814-8309-4 Search this book on .)
• "Inhale to the King, Baby!" in Voices of the Fall (Baen, March 2019, ISBN 978-1-4814-8382-7 Search this book on .)

Other works

• A Long Time until Now (Baen, February 2014, ISBN 978-1-4767-8033-7 Search this book on .)
• Wisdom From My Internet (Patriarchy Press, December 2014, ISBN 978-1-943801-01-5 Search this book on ., Hugo-Nominated)

External links

• Official website
• Michael Z. Williamson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Williamson, Michael Z at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• Publication catalog on Baen website

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