Rachel Taylor - Tor/Forge Blog

Immerse Yourself in an Electric Space-Fantasy with The Genesis of Misery Playlist!

July 29, 2023May 16, 2024Rachel Taylor1 Comment

Are you ready to dive into the electrifying space-fantasy that’s now available in paperback, The Genesis of Misery? Author Neon Yang is ready to help you find the vibe with their exhilarating playlist, featuring bops from Arcade Fire, Billie Eilish, and more!

It’s an old, familiar story: a young person hears the voice of an angel saying they have been chosen as a warrior to lead their people to victory in a holy war.

But Misery Nomaki (she/they) knows they are a fraud.

Raised on a remote moon colony, they don’t believe in any kind of god. Their angel is a delusion, brought on by hereditary space exposure. Yet their survival banks on mastering the holy mech they are supposedly destined for, and convincing the Emperor of the Faithful that they are the real deal.

The deeper they get into their charade, however, the more they start to doubt their convictions. What if this, all of it, is real?

A reimagining of Joan of Arc’s story given a space opera, giant robot twist, the Nullvoid Chronicles is a story about the nature of truth, the power of belief, and the interplay of both in the stories we tell ourselves.

Buy The Genesis of Misery in Paperback Here:

Author Features / Behind the Scenes / On Writing

On Writing In Constraints by Jacqueline Carey

July 7, 2023July 6, 2023Rachel Taylor1 Comment

Writers love a challenge and today Jacqueline Carey, author of Kushiel’s Dart and the upcoming companion novel, Cassiel’s Servant, joins us on the blog to discuss the constraints around writing. Check it out here!

By Jacqueline Carey

I enjoy writing in constraints.

I’m not talking about the kind that come with straps and buckles and blindfolds… although to be fair, I’ve written about those constraints more than your average fantasy author. When your heroine has been chosen by the angel of punishment to experience pleasure in pain, you’ve got to expect a healthy dose of spice.

No, literary constraints are what I’m talking about. CASSIEL’S SERVANT is a companion novel. It mirrors KUSHIEL’S DART at every step of the way. From the outset, we see our protagonists embark as children on parallel paths, growing into the roles that will define them. And once their paths merge, the entirety of Joscelin’s actions and dialogue in CASSIEL’S SERVANT is constrained by the framework of KUSHIEL’S DART. And since that novel was narrated by Phèdre nó Delaunay, who misses little and forgets less, there wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room in terms of events.

So why write it?

A number of years ago, I wrote a poem on commission for a benefit. I pledged an Elizabethan sonnet and polled readers. Overwhelmingly, fans wanted a love poem from Joscelin, my stoic warrior-priest, to Phèdre, the daring courtesan who stole his heart. For the first time, Joscelin spoke. Not just lines of dialogue—he opened up his inner narrative. And it turns out that my taciturn hero given to letting his blades talk for him is more thoughtful and self-aware than I knew, with a keen sense of the absurd.

I wasn’t sold on it right away. I took a detour into the desert with a different warrior brotherhood in STARLESS, but it wasn’t enough to silence Joscelin’s inner voice. It was stuck in my head like a refrain. Finally, I allowed myself to imagine what Phèdre and Joscelin’s journey might look like through his eyes.

A lot different.

One thing about constraints, they force you to be creative, patient and diligent. My Sundering duology was constrained by the concept—LORD OF THE RINGS reenvisioned as epic tragedy. It was constrained by copyright issues that meant I had to recreate Tolkien’s plot structure and build a world to support it in forms that were at once original and yet recognizable as mirrors of the source material.

More recently, MIRANDA AND CALIBAN is a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest which was wholly constrained by the original source material. There’s a lot of empty space between the beginning and the ending of that play. Like twelve years’ worth! It allows room for creative improvisation.

Side note: Renaissance magic is wwaaaayy more boring than you might expect. My commitment to historical authenticity forged some surprising constraints. Renaissance magic is mostly astrology and casting horoscopes. Kind of like a slumber party for gouty mathematicians and their wealthy patrons.

In some ways, CASSIEL’S SERVANT might be the tightest literary squeeze yet. I had to adhere to my own original source material. Once we left the Prefectory of the Cassiline Brotherhood, there were very few opportunities for improvisation within the strictures of the plot.

But it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of space to land a knockout.

One thing (among many) for which Bruce Lee was famous was the “one-inch punch,” featured in various Southern Chinese martial arts styles. According to Wikipedia and the countless kung fu movies I watched in college, this is a skill which generates tremendous amounts of impact force at extremely close distances. MythBusters registered the impact of a one-inch punch at 153 lbs with a force gauge. Uma Thurman one-inch punched her way out of a buried coffin in Kill Bill.

For me, writing with constraints requires a similar skill. It forces me to concentrate on extracting the maximum dramatic impact from any pivotal scene. And the one place of freedom, of expansiveness, of infinite possibility, within the story as it unfurls is inside of Joscelin himself.

There’s a lot of intrigue in KUSHIEL’S DART. Picking apart the tangled threads is one of the pleasures Phèdre’s perspective as a courtesan, spy and pawn in this ongoing game of crowns and thrones affords.

Joscelin, on the other hand, would be hard put to care less about political intrigue. It’s not just that he’s uninterested in it—it takes a shocking turn of events for him to fully grasp the fact that this frivolous-seeming assignment is deadly serious. It’s also due to the fact that House Verreuil is basically a D’Angeline version of “old money”. Political maneuvering and speculation are considered gauche. If you have some interesting thoughts on dog breeding or hydraulics, they’re all ears, but money and politics are things one does not discuss in polite society.

Fittingly, Joscelin’s life is circumscribed by constraint. As the middle son of an old aristocratic family, he’s pledged from birth to the Cassiline Brotherhood, bound by tradition and filial duty. He’s bound by his vows and his own sense of honor. Falling in love with Phèdre is the one-inch punch that turns his world upside down and shatters his heart to pieces. Writing in constraints has its rewards!

There are plenty of fight scenes in CASSIEL’S SERVANT and I loved writing them from Joscelin’s view in the thick of the fray—even during the numerous times he went down swinging in captivity. But for me, nothing lands as hard as that one-inch punch of true love.

Jacqueline Carey is the New York Timesbestselling author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Kushiel’s Legacy series of historical fantasy novels. Recent novels include the Shakespearean adaptation Miranda and Caliban and the epic fantasy standalone Starless. Carey enjoys doing research on a wide variety of arcane topics, and an affinity for travel has taken her from Iceland to China to date. She currently lives in West Michigan.

Pre-order Cassiel’s Servant Here:

Lists

Be Gay, Do Crime: 7 SFF Books Full of Chaotic Queer Criminals

June 23, 2023May 15, 2024Rachel Taylor4 Comments

Two things we love at Tor: Being gay. Doing crime. And who does gay crimes better than the characters of our authors? Check out this list of queerly criminal stories for your perusal pleasure.

Check it out!

The Thousand Eyes by A. K. Larkwood

Eons ago, the Serpent Goddess Iriskaaval destroyed her own empire. Millenia later, our wayward heroes from The Unspoken Name must contend with her re-manifestation. Contained within this book is a multiplicity of crime, yearning, love, action, death, betrayal, and sometimes apotheosis. It’s amazing and incredible and should be read with quickness and haste.

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Olivie Blake’s virally sensational The Atlas Six tells the story of six ambitious magicians as they vie for induction into a secret society that safeguards all the world’s most dangerous and forbidden research and knowledge. They drink fancy drinks, create magical wormholes, pour over research, and occasionally gayly pour over each other… and then backstab!

This is a book for lovers of romance, betrayal, and intricate intrigue 😈

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

In Ryka Aoki’s brilliant debut, Light from Uncommon Stars, love is weighed against Faustian bargains. Shizuka Satomi cut a deal with a demon long ago to save herself from damnation. Now, she must convince seven violin prodigies to sell their souls for success. But! A retired starship captain and a shop that sells warm donuts give her a chance at real love. Don’t miss this defiantly joyful adventure of queer courtship and crimes.

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

Look. Sometimes, to solve the big crimes, you need to commit a few smaller, more fun crimes. Kiem and Jainan, our two favorite space princes, need to solve a murder as they fall into mutual pining (despite being married) and that means things like hacking databases and a little bit of light breaking and entering.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Linus works for Extremely Upper Management, and they have a lot of rules. One of the most important is “Do Not Form Attachments”. But that’s pretty hard when you’re soft and gay and you end up on a private island with the mysterious Arthur Parnassus and the cabal of terrifying but adorable children with supernatural powers he looks after.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Few people on this list frighten us as much as Zhu Chongba, the titular heroine of She Who Became the Sun. She’s willing to do an awful lot of crime to achieve greatness. Plus she did steal her brother’s identity to masquerade as a man and join the rebellion against the Khans.

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Set in gritty alt-history Harlem, the crime in Trouble the Saints is organized! Phyllis LeBlanc is a bisexual assassin, hired to keep the Manhattan underworld in line. Trouble is both a magical love story and a compelling exploration of race in America at the dawn of World War II. And there are also knives. A lot of knives.

Lists / What's New

Our Ships Will Never Sink: A List of Tor Staffer’s Ultimate OTPs!

June 16, 2023July 5, 2023Rachel Taylor25 Comments

We have a lot of OTPs (One True Pairings) here at Tor, but today, we’re here to talk about our ULTIMATE OTPs. We asked our staff to tell us about their favorite TDA ships and they delivered.

Check them out below!

Samantha Friedlander, Marketing Assistant (she/her)

My favorite TDA OTP would have to be Esther and Cye from Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. Their chemistry leapt off the page and was one of the many reasons why I loved this novella!

Yvonne Ye, Ad/Promo Assistant (she/her)

The Stormlight Archive: I ship Kaladin/therapy, and if you’ve met the man, you’ll understand why

Alternatively! For the Teixcalaan duology by Arkady Martine, I ship Three Seagrass/Mahit Dzmare because I support beleaguered bureaucrat 4 beleagured bureaucrat :))))) If your OTP doesn’t have email work sessions together, do they even love each other?

a cat, Marketing Coordinator (he/him)

My TDA OTP is a match made in magic hell and it’s Talasseres Charossa from The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood and John Gaius from Harrow the Ninth. Tal is a rogue with a thing for garbage wizards and John Gaius, the Emperor Undying, is the garbage-ist wizard of all. This pairing is literally cursed, but so potent it must be true.

Anna Merz, Publicity Assistant (she/her)

I would like to start this off by saying I for one ship the Marketing and Publicity teams at TDA xoxo

But also I mega ship Samson and Abitha from Slewfoot. A wholesome Monster/devil love of flower crowns, bees, and revenge.

Becky Yeager, Manager of Ad/Promo & Marketing (she/her)

Kadou and Evemer from A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

One is a prince. The other one is a bodyguard. Could I make it any more obvious? Prince Kadou is kind, thoughtful, and anxious. Evemer is loyal, honorable, and reserved. Together they are everything I want out of a couple: a perfect balance of sweet and oh no, he’s hot. They bring out the very best in each other as they contend with conspiracies, a counterfeit crisis, and the periodic assassination attempt. If slow burn and pining are your cup of tea, then look no further than A Taste of Gold and Iron.

Rachel Taylor, Marketing Manager (she/her)

Definitely Caethari and Velasin from A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows. Arranged marriage trope? Queer romance? Yearning? WHAT MORE COULD I WANT?!?!?!

What is your SFF OTP? Let us know in the comments?

Lists / What's New

Every LGBTQ+ Book Coming from Tor Books in 2023

June 3, 2023May 8, 2024Rachel Taylor7 Comments

Who’s ready to kick-off Pride with some AMAZING new books?? WE ARE. Check out our list of SFF books with LGBTQ+ representation publishing in 2023 🏳️‍🌈

Sandymancer by David Edison

All Caralee Vinnet has ever known is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. A privileged few control what elements remain. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost. Caralee has a secret—she has magic in her bones and can draw up power from the sand beneath her feet to do her bidding. But when she does she winds up summoning a monster: the former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and has stolen the body of her best friend. Caralee will risk the whole world to take back what she’s lost. If her new companion doesn’t kill her first.

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

Destry’s life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they’re building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she’s devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E’s future for generations to come.

ON SALE NOW!

The Warden by Daniel M. Ford

She had the money, the connections, even the brains. It was simple: become one of the only female necromancers, pass as many certifications as she could, get a post near the capital, then… profit. The funny thing about plans is that they are seldom under your control. Now Aelis, a daughter of a noble house and a trained Magister of the Lyceum, finds herself in the far-removed village of Lone Pine. Mending fences and delivering baby goats, serving people who want nothing to do with her. But, not all is well in Lone Pine, and as the villagers Aelis is reluctantly getting to know start to behave strangely, Aelis begins to suspect that there is far greater need for a warden of her talents than she previously thought.

ON SALE NOW!

Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott

The Republic of Chaonia fleets, under the joint command of Princess Sun and her formidable mother, Queen-Marshal Eirene, have defeated and driven out an invading fleet of the Phene Empire, though not without heavy losses. But the Empire remains undeterred. While Chaonia scrambles to rebuild its military, the Empire’s rulers are determined to squash Chaonia once and for all. On the eve of Eirene’s bold attack on the rich and populous Karnos System, an unexpected tragedy strikes the republic. Sun must take charge or lose the throne. Will Sun be content with the pragmatic path laid out by her mother for Chaonia’s future? Or will she choose to forge her own legend?

ON SALE NOW!

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe. The day Vic repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio. When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory and together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio.

ON SALE NOW!

The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson

Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks. With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top. But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape. It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.

ON SALE 6/13/23

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Ox Matheson was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harbouring a secret that would change him forever. For the family are shapeshifters, who can transform into wolves at will. Drawn to their magic, loyalty and enduring friendships, Ox feels a gulf between this extraordinary new world and the quiet life he’s known. He also finds an ally in Joe, the youngest Bennett boy. Joe is charming and handsome, but haunted by scars he cannot heal. Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town, and tore a hole in his heart. Violence flared, tragedy split the pack and Joe left town, leaving Ox behind. Three years later, the boy is back. Except now he’s a man – and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

ON SALE 7/4/23

Ravensong by TJ Klune

Gordo Livingstone never forgot the lessons carved into his skin. Hardened by the betrayal of a pack who left him behind, he sought solace in the garage in his tiny mountain town, vowing never again to involve himself in the affairs of wolves. It should have been enough. And it was, until the wolves came back, and with them, Mark Bennett. In the end, they faced the beast together as a pack… and won. Now, a year later, Gordo has found himself once again the witch of the Bennett pack. Green Creek has settled after the death of Richard Collins, and Gordo constantly struggles to ignore Mark and the song that howls between them. But time is running out. Something is coming. And this time, it’s crawling from within.

ON SALE 8/1/23

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor. But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband—and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan.

ON SALE 8/22/23

Traitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

The power of the Sixth Gate grows stronger within Raine each day—to control it, she needs lessons no living Draoihn can teach her. Her fledgling friendships are tested to a breaking point as she tries to face what she has become, and her master Ulovar is struck by a mysterious sickness that slowly saps the vitality from his body, leaving Raine to face her growing darkness alone. There’s only one chance to turn the tide of power surging within her—to learn the secrets the Draoihn themselves purged from the world. The book can teach her. She doesn’t know where she found it, or when exactly, but its ever changing pages whisper power that has lain untouched for centuries….

ON SALE 10/24/23

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek. Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books. Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine.

ON SALE 11/7/23

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

With the plot against them foiled and the city of Qi-Katai in safe hands, Velasin and Caethari have begun to test the waters of their relationship. But the wider political ramifications of their marriage are still playing out across two nations, and all too soon, they’re summoned north to Tithena’s capital city, Qi-Xihan, to present themselves to its monarch. With Caethari newly invested as his grandmother’s heir and Velasin’s old ghosts gnawing at his heels, what little peace they’ve managed to find is swiftly put to the test. Pursued by unknown assailants and with Qi-Xihan’s court factions jockeying for power, Vel and Cae must use all the skills at their disposal to not only survive, but thrive.

ON SALE 12/5/23

Fantasy Firsts / Lists

Immortal Women of Fantasy

May 12, 2023May 2, 2024Rachel Taylor5 Comments

What would it be like to live forever? Would you see it as a blessing…or a curse? Some of our favorite women in fantasy wrestle with this question throughout the entirety of their immortal (or very long) lives. Check out some of our favorite long-lived women here, and let us know who you’d add to the list in the comments.

Addie LaRue from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name. Trade Paperback on Sale Now!

Circe from Circe by Madeline Miller

Not unlike Addie LaRue, the Greek goddess Circe was also cursed to an eternity in a more literal exile. Cast out of the halls of her father Helios and forced to live alone on her island, she becomes more powerful than anyone could expect by using her own unique talent: witchcraft. Relegated to a few lines in Homer’s Odyssey, Madeline Miller re-invents the sorceress into a symbol of resilience, heartbreak, and, ultimately, humanity.

Galadriel from The Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien

The “Lady” of the woods of Lothlórien, Galadriel is one of the greatest Elves in Middle-earth and the bearer of Nenya, one of the three Elven rings of power. Beautiful and aloof, Galadriel is witness to some of the greatest battles of Middle-earth’s many ages and still manages to surprise herself after long centuries of life by supporting the Fellowship on their quest and facing and rejecting the seductive evil of The One Ring.

Claudia from Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Trapped in the body of a five-year-old girl, Claudia, the adopted vampire “daughter” of vampire power couple, Louis and Lestat, has an innocent appearance that belies her bloodthirst and the blessing of immortality comes with a curse of not being able to survive on her own without an adult companion, making her perhaps the loneliest and most vulnerable of this central family.

Yennefer from The Witcher saga by Andrzej Sapkows

Sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg is one of the main characters and the love interest of protagonist Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher saga. One of the most powerful mages in the series, Yennefer is known for her beauty, chaotic neutral tendencies, and hot temper. By way of her magic, Yennefer is able to live for an indefinitely long period of time, but at the cost of her fertility, a fact that haunts her throughout the series.

Extras / What's New

The Art of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

May 10, 2023May 3, 2024Rachel Taylor

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab is available in paperback now, and it’s got some pretty amazing art in it! Check out a selection of these illustrations from Julia Lloyd below, and don’t forget to tell all your friends about the unforgettable story of the immortal woman who no one can remember.

Title: Revenir, found on p. 14

Description: A sculptural series of five wooden birds in various postures and stages of pre-flight, mounted on a narrow marble plinth

Title: Untitled Salon Sketch, found on p. 162

Description: A rendering of Madame Geoffrin’s famous salon, brimming with figures in various stages of conversation and repose.

Title: Open to Love, found on p. 224

Description: Originally displayed as a interactive installation, in which the aluminum heart, perforated by small holes, hung suspended over a bucket.

Title: Ho Portato le Stelle a Letto, found on p. 298

Description: An illustration of a woman, the lines of her body imitated by the twisting bedsheets.

Title: One Forgotten Night, found on p. 90

Description: A largely monochromatic piece, paint layered into a topography of black, charcoals, and grays. Seven small white dots stand out against the backdrop.

Title: “Dream Girl”, found on p. 362

Description: This piece of original sheet music, signed by singer/songwriter Toby Marsh, captures the beginnings of the song “Dream Girl” and was auctioned off as part of the Music Notes annual gala to fund public school arts programs in New York City.

Title: The Girl Who Got Away, found on p. 432

Description: Collection of six (6) photographs depicting a girl in motion, her features erased, obscured, or otherwise unreadable.

In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab’s genre-defying tour de force.

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Order The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Special in Trade Paperback Here:

eBook Deals / Lists

May 7th: SUPER MEGA eBook Sale Day!!!

May 7, 2023May 14, 2024Rachel Taylor

Who’s ready for some super hot ebook deals for ONE DAY ONLY?! Check out all the amazing books you can snag for only $2.99 today!

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death. Fleeing into the unknown she is drawn into a team of outcasts: A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home. A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother’s shadow and claims a purpose of his own. An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact – one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe. On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation. But with each passing moment, doom draws closer.

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries. Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories. But real life doesn’t always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

Book of Night by Holly Black

Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make. She’s spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie Hall. Now, she’s trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but getting out isn’t easy. Bartending at a dive, she’s still entirely too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. Not to mention that her sister Posey is desperate for magic, and that Charlie’s shadowless, and possibly soulless, boyfriend has been hiding things from her. When a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie descends into a maelstrom of murder and lies. Determined to survive, she’s up against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, gloamists, and the people she loves best in the world—all trying to steal a secret that will give them vast and terrible power.

Vengeful by V. E. Schwab

Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine. But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her new-found power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other. With Marcella’s rise, new enmities create opportunity–and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn’t tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm, human-free world. They’re the universe’s largest and most dangerous panda and they’re in trouble.mIt’s not just the Kaiju Preservation Society who have found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

eBook Deals / What's New

eBook Deals: May 2023

May 1, 2023May 14, 2024Rachel Taylor

It’s almost summer and what could be as good as warm weather? Some hot ebook downprices! Check out what books you can snag for only $2.99 in the month of May.

Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton

STRIKE FAST, LOVE HARD, LIVE FOREVER This is the motto of the Lady Knights—sworn to fealty under a struggling kingdom, promised to defend the prospective heir, Banna Mora. But when a fearsome rebellion overthrows the throne, Mora is faced with an agonizing choice: give up everything she’s been raised to love, and allow a king-killer to be rewarded—or retake the throne, and take up arms against the newest heir, Hal Bolingbrooke, Mora’s own childhood best friend and sworn head of the Lady Knights.

Flint & Mirror by John Crowley

As ancient Irish clans fought to preserve their lands and their way of life, the Queen and her generals fought to tame the wild land and make it English. Hugh O’Neill, lord of the North, dubbed Earl of Tyrone by the Queen, is a divided man: the Queen gives to Hugh her love, and her commandments, through a little mirror of obsidian which he can never discard; and the ancient peoples of Ireland arise from their underworld to make Hugh their champion, the token of their vow a chip of flint. From the masterful author of Little, Big comes an exquisite fantasy of heartbreaking proportion.

The Whispering Swarm by Michael Moorcock

Postwar London, Swinging Sixties London–a time and place of creativity and social change. Young Michael Moorcock embarks upon adulthood as both editor and writer of science fiction and fantasy, helping shape the genre into its modern form through his work and his friendships with other writers. His marriage is new and fresh; his children are young and raising them, an adventure. But no adventure lasts forever, and Moorcock begins to chafe under the grind of work and family. What seems a chance encounter with a monk–one of the White Friars–leads to a secret at the heart of London. Massive yet phantasmal doors lead to the Alsacia, a hidden world inhabited by great heroes of both history and fiction.

Author Features / Fearless Women / What's New

The Economics of a Space Empire: Paying for Intergalactic Wars

April 29, 2023April 27, 2023Rachel Taylor

We love space operas. LOVE. But we have questions.

Like how does one even afford a death star? How does faster than light travel affect supply and demand!?

Yeah fine, we get it. We’re nerds. But Kate Elliott joined us anyway, to talk about using ancient history to perfect the far future world of her epic space opera Unconquerable Sun and its follow-up, Furious Heaven.

By Kate Elliott

Much ink and countless hours of talk have been spilled on the question of which elements of social and physical landscape are critical to developing a consistent, believable secondary world.

Unconquerable Sun is a space opera spun from the premise of a gender swapped Alexander the Great (in space). It’s remarkable how useful teasing out aspects of life and society in the ancient world has been when it comes to creating an economic landscape for this far far future setting. Economics is a big topic, and in its largest theoretical sense can seem daunting. I chose to focus on three aspects: a top-down state economy, agriculture, and logistics.

Ancient Macedonia’s primary sources of wealth came from revenues raised through its forest and mineral resources. The king largely controlled timber and mineral wealth while, especially in the lowlands, aristocratic families partitioned out pasturage for horses and cattle as well as farmland. Wealth from the latter would be returned to royal coffers via taxes and gifts. King Philip’s treasury financed the training and outfitting of a powerful modern (in its time) army as well as his multiple campaigns.

But war is expensive. Fleets and military campaigns can also be paid for in part by what is looted or strong-armed from conquered lands. Both Philip and his son Alexander were always on the hunt for more revenue, more resources. Accounts of Alexander’s campaign frequently mention the staggering wealth of the Persian Empire which fell into the hands of Alexander to be distributed in part to his generals and his army. Later, what remained of this wealth was fought over and disbursed between the generals who, having survived him, battled among themselves for control of his empire. To the victor, the spoils.

As my story opens, the Republic of Chaonia has been on a war footing for over twenty years. I kept this state-controlled model of a war economy in mind as I wrote.

Because I grew up in rural Oregon farm country, my early world building thoughts inevitably stray to what food will be available in the world or worlds I’m writing about. What do people eat? What else do they grow for other purposes like feed, textiles, fragrances, cosmetics, fuel, pharmaceuticals, ecological health, and ecological mitigation?

What does agriculture have to do with the economy of space opera?

A common (although not required) element of space opera is a story set within a rich network of star systems. Even with a speedy means of interstellar travel, these are exceptional distances that can’t be conceived of as a mere one hour plane hop or car drive away.

Again, the ancient world proved useful as a means of conceptualizing distance as a measure both of time and space. In those days it could take weeks or months or even years to travel from one place to another on foot, mounted, or by wagon. The Persian Empire built a Royal Road that stretched from one of its capitals, at Susa, to the city of Sardis in what is now Turkey. This road made swifter communications possible, helped armies move more expeditiously, and benefited trade as well as tax collection.

It turns out that agriculture provides a perfect foundation on which to think about how an extended and extensive futuristic trade economy might work. What crops and vegetation are available and why? Where and how are these grown? Are they consumed locally only? If they are moved to a nearby city or across a continent or to another planet in the same star system, then who is moving these goods at what cost and for what destination? What about the economics of interplanetary trade? What other resources are valuable on and off planet? Is there anything worth trading on an interstellar level? How does a space merchant make a living, given the distances and expenses involved? The existence of merchants and the means by which they get from place to place exists in the deep background of the tale.

Agriculture rolls into the final element of this economic trifecta according to a saying attributed variously to Napoleon or Frederick the Great: An army marches on its stomach.

“Supply is the basis of strategy and tactics,” as Donald W. Engels wrote in his classic study Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army (University of California Press, 1978). The enemies of Chaonia think about supplies and resources, and make decisions based on what they know of Chaonia’s fleet disposition and resource management. Queen-Marshal Eirene and her daughter, Princess Sun, and their marshals, go through similar calculations. As the character Hestia Hope says in Unconquerable Sun, “Logistics win campaigns.”

Politics and war can’t exist without the means and method to wage it. A story like Alexander’s erupts in large part because of the particular circumstances of his time and his background and his unique placement in the world at that moment. Part of my goal in the series has been to capture something of that unique moment. I’ve used pieces of the ancient world as building blocks, threads reaching across a great distance into an imagined far future setting.

Kate Elliott’s gender spun Alexander the Great in space is out now. Elliott been writing science fiction and fantasy for 30 years, after bursting onto the scene with Jaran. She is best known for her Crown of Stars epic fantasy series and the New York Times bestselling YA fantasy series Court of Fives. Elliott’s particular focus is immersive world building & centering women in epic stories of adventure, amid transformative cultural change. She lives in Hawaii, where she paddles outrigger canoes & spoils her schnauzer.

Thanks to Dr. Jeanne Reames for her help in writing this post.

Author: Rachel Taylor

Immerse Yourself in an Electric Space-Fantasy with The Genesis of Misery Playlist!

Buy The Genesis of Misery in Paperback Here:

On Writing In Constraints by Jacqueline Carey

Pre-order Cassiel’s Servant Here:

Be Gay, Do Crime: 7 SFF Books Full of Chaotic Queer Criminals

Our Ships Will Never Sink: A List of Tor Staffer’s Ultimate OTPs!