Creators on Reddit

Tad Williams

Fantasy author, Osten Ard

How we know it's theirs

Their 2013 r/Fantasy AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 6 posts and 513 comments from u/Tad_Williams, dated 2013 to 2024, most often in r/Fantasy, r/books and r/TadWilliams.

Best moment

A redditor wrote in r/TadWilliams

On “Tad Williams AMA”

On one of your livestreams I think you mentioned cutting an undead dragon from Last King due to the then still running Game of Thrones, was that the original form the Ogre would take? IMHO I think the Ogre as it exists is a pretty cool creature, very alien and unique for the…

u/Tad_Williams replied

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No, the ogre was always meant to be what it turns out to be. The dragon was going to be the beast sacrificed (SPOILER HERE) to resurrect Hakatri. It was going to be raised by one of Akhenabi's spells. But I hadn't reached that part of George's work in my own reading, and when I realized he had already done something like that, I decided not to use it for fear of people thinking I'd deliberately copied it.

It would have been very dead and very smelly. That might have been interesting, I suppose, but it was not to be.

More moments

A redditor wrote in r/TadWilliams

On “Tad Williams AMA”

Just pretty curious about the very helpful cat! We see him/her with Simon down below the castle and then in Amarasu’s tree home and later with Guthwulf back under the castle. Where does this very helpful cat come from and for that matter go? Thank you so much!!

u/Tad_Williams replied

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Amusingly, that cat and its magical impact in various situations is a direct response to how Tailchaser's Song (selling it and getting it published) -- which, for those who don't know, was my first novel, a fantasy about cats -- affected my life. I often thought (and still think) in amazement of how that imaginary cat who was born from an old typewriter on my kitchen table when I had no idea of ever being a working writer, went on to cross the world. It's still in print, forty years on! That's truly a magical cat.

I realize that doesn't answer the in-universe question about the cat, but I'm okay with some things remaining mysteries. Maybe it was a friend of Geloë's?

A redditor wrote in r/Fantasy

On “I’m Tad Williams. I have no choice about it. (http://www.tadwilliams.com/”

Oh, I would love it so much! Honestly, though, I reread the Shadowmarch series just a couple months ago and was struck by how well it would work as an adapted series, even better than MS&T would, in my opinion.

u/Tad_Williams replied

To be honest, SHADOWMARCH was originally conceived as a possible episodic television show. But nobody in television then seemed to get it. One guy said, "But there's already Xena! Who needs more fantasy?"