Walter Jon Williams

Walter Jon Williams is an American published author and actor and has also written for television ("All Great Neptune's Ocean", Andromeda). Born October 15, 1953 in Dublin, Minnesota, this writer also goes by the pen name of Jon Williams. In the course of his career, he has published several full length novels as well as some collections of short fiction.

The best place to start is the Privateers & Gentlemen series, the earliest of Walter Jon Williams's multi-book series: it opens with The Privateer (1981) and runs to 8 books across 1981–1984, ending with Cat Island (1984). Walter Jon Williams's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Walter Jon Williams has 160 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1981 and 2025. 112 of them belong to 10 named series — the largest being the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series with 26 books — and 48 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Walter Jon Williams's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Privateers & Gentlemen (1981–1984, 8 books), Hardwired (1986–1989, 3 books) and Maijstral (1987–1995, 4 books), plus 6 more.

This guide splits Walter Jon Williams's 160 books into 10 named series and 48 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Star Wars: The New Jedi Order (26 books, 1999–2006); Dread Empire's Fall (9 books, 2002–2022); Privateers & Gentlemen (8 books, 1981–1984); Dagmar (4 books, 2009–2017); Maijstral (4 books, 1987–1995), plus 5 further series.