Countdown 2016, 23: Burn Bright

Welcome to the Electron Dance Advent calendar. Each day will bring another post from the archives.

Have you read Stanley Kubrick Is Gone posted on 14 June 2011?

Believe me when I tell you, for most mortals, Bill Williams’ Necromancer from 1983 is quite impossible to beat. But what a rush! That first round trying to grow trees as the forest spider picks them off one by one; that second round with the dread of spiders hatching as your walking trees attempt to tiptoe through the vaults; that final round where you confront the necromancer himself and it’s just a matter of time before you’re spider food. It overwhelms you, it obliterates you.

I was sad to learn, many years later, that Bill Williams had died at an early age. But he had always known it would be so – thus I had to tell his story. I found a way of intertwining his history with the experience of Necromancer which I believe gives it more tragic bite than simply recounting his personal story.

Stanley Kubrick Is Gone was the most popular entry of the Where We Came From series.

Go read it.

From the comments:

• Tom: “The quote under the Vaults, to me, is the shining moment of his legacy, the thing we should remember from Bill Williams.”
• Steerpike: “It’s so important to remember some of the geniuses we lost tragically early.”
• Barrie Ellis: “Fascinating life, with some really interesting parallels to the fictional book Skallagrigg by William Horwood.”
• Gregg B: “A fascinating read and I’ve got to say, from the videos, Necromancer looks excellent, and I really mean that.”