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Sean Williams
 
Book List

Fantasy

  • Books of the Cataclysm: The Blood Debt
    released 2005
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    When the Homunculus emerges from the Void Beneath, Sal and Shilly are enticed out of hiding to help track it down. In return, the Sky Wardens will not prosecute them for dabbling in arcane secrets. But just what is this strange creature? What is its connection to the world’s fragmented history? And what is the connection to Highson Sparre, Sal’s missing father?

    Family secrets and political manoeuvring, live ghosts and dead bodies ... Sal and Shilly will have to deal with all these things to discover the truth about the Void Beneath, and about the mysterious Divide ...

    2005
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    "Most fantasy writers have a set-piece, battlefield kind of approach to their worlds, adding extra levels of fable or fiction to keep them interesting. But Williams has been much less mechanical in his approach, stepping through time, and coming from unexpected angles. This time, however, the sense of connectedness in all his landscapes and books is palpable, and various difficult-to-resolve threads have begun to twirl together. ... Williams' writing is suffused with themes of orphanhood, broken parenthood and flawed relations, and in this book the emotional themes and the physical landscape truly begin to reflect one another. It's the best of the books so far" (Adelaide Advertiser)

    Age: 12+
  • Books of the Cataclysm: The Devoured Earth
    released 2006
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Haunted by a ghost from the future, Shilly and her man’kin allies are drawn into the snowbound mountains on a mission to save the world.  Yod, trapped by the Castillo twins in the Void Beneath, may finally be close to breaking free.  Hard on Shilly’s heels are Sal and his father, and an uneasy alliance of Sky Wardens, Panic and foresters.  The stakes are high.  Strange and ancient forces struggle for ascendancy, including the glast and a dragon with its own agenda.

    If the Goddess rises from her Tomb the fate of the Ice Eaters will be sealed, and they will kill anyone who tries to get in their way...

    2006
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    "Williams is a master storyteller, and this novel is a celebration of his wild talent. (Jack Dann)

    Age: 12+
  • Books of the Cataclysm: The Hanging Mountains
    released 2005
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    The Divide is flooded.  Habryn Kail and the Homunculus are missing, presumed dead.  Sal and his companions seek the source of the flood in the legendary Hanging Mountains, hoping to head off a crisis that was put into motion a thousand years ago.  As conflict erupts between two long-forgotten civilisations, the outsiders find allies are hard to come by.  Taken captive and separated, they uncover uncomfortable truths about the world and how it relates to the one that came before--our world.

    Something dark and deadly is stirring in the heart of the mountains.  And the closer it comes to waking, the more certain it seems the Homunculus may not have been the enemy at all...

    2005
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    "The Hanging Mountains has something of the decaying uncertainty of the fantasy novels of China Mieville and James Lovegrove. Since it is the third book in a series of four novels--which themselves follow an earlier trilogy--there is a lot of assumed familiarity with the setting and the characters... However, this does not detract from the intrigue of the world or the pleasure of the story." (Australian Bookseller & Publisher)

    Age: 12+
  • Books of the Cataclysm: The Crooked Letter
    released 2004
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Winner
    Ditmar Award Winner

    Hadrian's mirror twin, Seth, is dead, stabbed in front of him, and the woman he and his brother both loved has seemingly disappeared.  As Hadrian searches for her, the cityscape becomes more nightmarish by the second.

    Figures from legend swirl around him to help and hinder.  These figures give darks hints of secret histories and sleeping gods stirring.  Was everything he ever knew about the world a lie?

    Caught between ancient forgotten magic and an uncertain future, Hadrian must learn to trust in the only person he has left: himself.

    2004
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Winner
    Ditmar Award Winner

    "The Crooked Letter is an edge-of-your-seat, intelligent contemporary fantasy. Compulsively readable, utterly enthralling, seriously disturbing. One of the finest fantasy novels I've read in a long, long time."  (Sarah Douglass)

    Age: 15+
  • Books of the Change: The Sky Warden & the Sun
    released 2002
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Notable Book
    Ditmar Award Nominee

    AVAILABLE IN E-BOOK

    Sal's life has been thrown into turmoil.  Homeless and haunted by a past he never suspected he had, he is unsure where he is running to -- but Shilly is very clear on what she wants.  She wants to find Lodo's old teacher and learn from him.  To search for the Mage Van Haasteren they must head north to the Interior, where Sal's mother was born.  But even if they reach the Interior there is guarantee that the Stone Mages will help them.

    The journey over rugged mountainous country on the Old Line is dangerous and the Sky Warden, Shom Behenna, is in hot pursuit.  It will take all their ingenuity and courage to reach the Divide and get across to the other side...

    2002
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Notable Book
    Ditmar Award Nominee

    "whip-crack adventure... [Williams'] layering of innocence and mystery and unknown forces is very effective, as is the scale of his vision." (Adelaide Advertiser)

    Age: 12+
  • Books of the Change: The Storm Weaver & the Sand
    released 2002
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Winner
    Ditmar Award Nominee
    Locus Recommendation

    AVAILABLE IN E-BOOK

    When the three runaways--Sal, Shilly and Skender--finally arrive at the remote island of the Haunted City, home of the Sky Wardens, Sal's great-aunt, the Syndic, is determined to keep them under control.  And if that means imprisonment, so be it.

    But the Syndic isn't the least of Sal's worries.  The ghost that live behind the ancient glass of the city are restless and no one know why or what they can do.  The golem will force Sal to do its bidding by whatever means necessary...even murder.  And it seems that the Weavers have their own plans for the three of them--but what and who are they?  Few people believe they exist, and those who do keep their knowledge close to their chests.

    Whichever path Sal chooses, it seems the price to pay is very high for those closest to him.  But he must decide...or submit to a future not of his making.

    2002
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Winner
    Ditmar Award Nominee
    Locus Recommendation

    "The Storm Weaver & the Sand is a superior Australian fantasy novel, but more than this; it is simply superior fantasy." (The West Australian)

    Age: 12+
  • Books of the Change: The Stone Mage & the Sea
    released 2001
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Nominee

    AVAILABLE IN E-BOOK

    In a world where the huge, red-sanded deserts are ruled by Stone Mages and the vast coastlines by Sky Wardens, any child with magic ability is taken away to the Haunted City to be trained in the Change.

    Fundelry is a small town much like any other in the Strand.  The people have little tolerance for anyone who stands out, and Sal and his father are strangers, running from someone ... or something.  Sal is rescued from the local bully by Shilly and her teacher Lodo, a mysterious tattooed man who seems to know more about Sal than Sal himself.  And, strangely, Sal's father seems to want to say put for a while.

    But soon the Sky Wardens will come to Fundelry -- before then Sal must uncover the connection between Lodo and the mother he never met, in order to escape a fate that seems to have been chosen for him before he was even born ...

    2001
    HarperCollins (Australia)

    Aurealis Award Nominee

    "The reason why I haven’t given up completely on fantasy trilogies is because there are people out there who believe in the genre and continue to put out interesting books rather than following the formula. Sean Williams is one of those people." (Cheryl Morgan)

    "an alchemical blend of elemental magic, tragic romance and the coming of age of a young boy who is yet to come into his own power which exists, poised between Earthsea and Mad Max, where the magic of fantasy meets the wonder of science fiction." (Locus)

    Age: 12+
 
Book Contents

When the Homunculus emerges from the Void Beneath, Sal and Shilly are enticed out of hiding to help track it down. In return, the Sky Wardens will not prosecute them for dabbling in arcane secrets. But just what is this strange creature? What is its connection to the world’s fragmented history? And what is the connection to Highson Sparre, Sal’s missing father?

Family secrets and political manoeuvring, live ghosts and dead bodies … Sal and Shilly will have to deal with all these things to discover the truth about the Void Beneath, and about the mysterious Divide …

HarperCollins (Australia) Pyr (US) Otherworld Verlag Krug Keg (Germany)