Happy birthday to the magical Tad Williams

Before finding success as an acclaimed bestselling author, Tad Williams held numerous odd jobs, including insurance salesman, radio host, laying titles, and several years in a rock band called Idiot. Among his numerous acclaimed works are the classic stand alone novel Tailchaser’s Song (1985), the series Memory, Sorrow & Thorn (The Dragonbone Chair [1988], Stone of Farewell [1990], and To Green Angel Tower [1993]), Otherland (City of Golden Shadow [1996], River of Blue Fire [1998], Mountain of Black Glass [1999], and Sea of Silver Light [2001]), Shadowmarch (Shadowmarch [2004], Shadowplay [2007], Shadowrise [2010], and Shadowheart [2010]), Bobby Dollar (The Dirty Streets of Heaven [2012], Happy Hour in Hell [2013], and Sleeping Late on Judgement Day [2014]), The Ordinary Farm Adventures (both with Deborah Beale The Dragons of Ordinary Farm [2009] and The Secrets of Ordinary Farm [2011]). Williams other non-series books include Child of an Ancient City (1992 with Nina Kiriki Hoffman), Caliban’s Hour (1994), Mirror World (1998), and The War of the Flowers (2002). His most recent works. a return to the world of the popular Memory, Sorrow & Thorn, comprise The Last King of Osten Ard series (The Heart of What Was Lost [2017], The Witchwood Crown [2017], Empire of Grass [2019], Brothers of the Wind [2021], and Into the Narrowdark [2022]).

Cover art by Kerem Beyit
Design by Elizabeth Story

Williams has authored comics for DC, Image, Wildstorm, and Big Entertainment. Titles included Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, The Next, WildC.A.T.S., Divine Right, and Mirrorworld: Rain. His numerous shorter works have been collected in Rite: Short Work (2006), A Stark and Wormy Knight (2011), THE VERY BEST OF TAD WILLIAMS (2014), and Le plus heureux de tous les enfants décédés [French] (2018).

All of us at Tachyon wish the fantastical Tad a happy birthday.