Book Trailer - Tor/Forge Blog

Discover The Mystic Trilogy by Jason Denzel!

June 12, 2022May 17, 2024Rachel Taylor1 Comment

We are so excited, but also so sad to be publishing the final book in the The Mystic Trilogy, Mystic Skies, on 10.11.22. But don’t worry, just because the series is ending doesn’t mean it’s the end of all the amazing content celebrating this enchanting epic fantasy! Check out this special message from author Jason Denzel, plus a series trailer!

By Jason Denzel

On behalf of Tor Books, I’m proud to present the media trailer for The Mystic Trilogy.

This video is produced by me and features artwork from cover artist Larry Rostant and illustrator Ariel Burgess, as well as a voice over by Kitty Rallo.

Two decades ago, around 2002-2003, before my kids were born and before the practicalities of a day job and mortgage payments settled over me, I was heavily into filmmaking. Young, starry-eyed me had grand ideas for developing a portfolio of short fantasy films that would unlock a wondrous Hollywood career.

One such idea was to produce a trilogy of short films that would focus on a protagonist who would grow in age and experience and power with each installment. The first short would showcase their attempt to become a Mystic’s apprentice. The second film would take place years later, during a rare celestial event and when a rival strolled into town. And the concluding volume would take place decades after that and would capture a full-on magical battle between 2 warring masters vying for control of the land. All three of those shorts would be shot on location, and would feature the latest computer graphics that my 2003-era iMac could handle.

Of course, those films never happened. But something better did: I wrote them as books.

No longer constrained by a shoestring budget (or 2003-era iMac special effects), I took those core ideas and blossomed them into The Mystic Trilogy book series. And I’m delighted that at long last, the concluding volume, Mystic Skies, will be published by Tor Books on October 11.

Apprentice. Mystic. Master.

From the very start, the plan was to examine the life of a starry-eyed young person who was full of hope and optimism and then put them through the grinder of life and love and loss. The key element for me was to discover a protagonist who did not break under the onslaught of life. I needed a hero who retained their spirit and hope and strength despite all that they’d been through.

And there she came, out of the foggy Myst of my imagination, the person this story needed: Pomella AnDone.

The first book in the series, Mystic, explores Pomella’s youth. Mystic Dragon explores the fire. And now, on October 11, Mystic Skies brings the story full circle and examines the culmination of her choices and actions.

The Mystic Trilogy begins with a strong YA vibe, but the three books are best described, I think, as adult fantasy. I deliberately worked to make these stories accessible to mature readers of all ages, and to be something that multiple generations of readers could share and enjoy.

You can begin reading right away. The free, unpublished series prologue is available on my website, and you can get sample chapters for all three books from Tor.com. If you prefer audiobooks, you’re in luck because the incredibly talented and accomplished Mary Robinette Kowal performs each one.

The end of The Mystic Trilogy is almost here. But like the Myst that permeates Pomella’s world, this story is everlasting and is always ready for new dreamers to experience it.

Jason Denzel is the founder of Dragonmount, the leading online community for Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” saga and the web’s top destination for franchise-related news, features, and discussion. Dragonmount has been featured in USA Today, CNN, ABC, Wired, and the Los Angeles Times. Denzel lives in Northern California with his two young boys, and owns a lot of swords. He is the author of the Mystic Trilogy (Mystic, Mystic Dragon, and Mystic Skies).

Pre-order Mystic Skies Here:

Extras / Video

Book Trailer: Book of Judas by Linda Stasi

September 8, 2017May 17, 2024torforge1 Comment

About Book of Judas: When her infant son is placed in mortal danger, New York City reporter Alessandra Russo is forced to save him by tracking down the missing pages of the Gospel of Judas, a heretical manuscript that was unearthed in Al-Minya, Egypt, in the 1970s. The manuscript declares that Judas was the beloved, not the betrayer, of Jesus.

The Gospel disappeared for decades before being rediscovered, rotted beyond repair, in a safety deposit box. Rumors insist that the most important pages had been stolen—pages that Alessandra now must find, if they even exist.

Do the lost pages contain a secret that will challenge Christianity’s core beliefs about the creation of life, or that might hold the power to unleash Armageddon? What if such explosive documents fell into the hands of modern-day terrorists, dictators, or religious fanatics?

Alessandra plunges into a dark world of murder, conspiracy, and sexual depravity…and most importantly, a race against the clock to save her own child.

In this exciting follow-up to The Sixth Station, award-winning journalist Linda Stasi brings her formidable investigative skills, big city street smarts, and fast-flying pen to a thriller that will leave readers breathless.

Book of Judas will be available September 19th.

Order Your Copy

Video

Book Trailer: Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine

May 27, 2016May 17, 2024torforge

About Arabella of Mars: Since Newton witnessed a bubble rising from his bathtub, mankind has sought the stars. When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, he proved that space travel was both possible and profitable.

Now, one century later, a plantation in a flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby, a young woman who is perfectly content growing up in the untamed frontier. But days spent working on complex automata with her father or stalking her brother Michael with her Martian nanny is not the proper behavior of an English lady. That is something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England.

However, when events transpire that threaten her home on Mars, Arabella decides that sometimes doing the right thing is far more important than behaving as expected. She disguises herself as a boy and joins the crew of the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company, where she meets a mysterious captain who is intrigued by her knack with clockwork creations. Now Arabella just has to weather the naval war currently raging between Britain and France, learn how to sail, and deal with a mutinous crew…if she hopes to save her family remaining on Mars.

Arabella of Mars, the debut novel by Hugo-winning author David D. Levine offers adventure, romance, political intrigue, and Napoleon in space!

Arabella of Mars comes out July 12th. Pre-order it today:

Video

Book Trailer: A Shadow All of Light by Fred Chappell

March 30, 2016May 20, 2024torforge

In A Shadow All of Light by Fred Chappell, Falco, a young man from the country, arrives in the port city of Tardocco with the ambition of becoming an apprentice to a master shadow thief.

Maestro Astolfo, whose mysterious powers of observation would rival those of Sherlock Holmes, sees Falco’s potential and puts him through a grueling series of physical lessons and intellectual tests. Falco’s adventures coalesce into one overarching story of con men, monsters, ingenious detection, cats, and pirates.

Read an excerpt of A Shadow All of Light.

Video

Book Trailer: The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

March 4, 2016May 17, 2024torforge

Two sisters embark on a Shakespearean tale of switched identities, complicated love triangles…and meddlesome gods. Rakaia is rescued on the road by none other than the Demon Child, R’shiel, still searching for a way to force Death to release her near immortal Brak. Charisee tries to act like the princess she was never meant to be and manages to draw the attention of the God of Liars who applauds her deception and only wants to help.

Then there is the little matter of the God of Music’s magical totem that has been stolen — and how this theft may undo the universe — in Jennifer Fallon‘s The Lyre Thief.

Read a sneak peak of The Lyre Thief.

Video

Book Trailer: All the Birds in the Sky

January 25, 2016May 17, 2024torforge

From Charlie Jane Anders, editor-in-chief of io9.com, All the Birds in the Sky is a stunning novel about the end of the world–and the beginning of our future.

Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn’t expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one’s peers and families.

But now they’re both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who’s working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world’s magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s every-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together–to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.

Read a sneak peek of All the Birds in the Sky.

Video

Book Trailer: Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente

October 22, 2015May 17, 2024torforge

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente

Radiance is a decopunk pulp SF alt-history space opera mystery set in a Hollywood-and solar system-very different from our own, from New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente.

Severin Unck’s father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father’s films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars. For this is not our solar system, but one drawn from classic science fiction in which all the planets are inhabited and we travel through space on beautiful rockets. Severin is a realist in a fantastic universe.

But her latest film, which investigates the disappearance of a diving colony on a watery Venus populated by island-sized alien creatures, will be her last. Though her crew limps home to earth and her story is preserved by the colony’s last survivor, Severin will never return.

Told using techniques from reality TV, classic film, gossip magazines, and meta-fictional narrative, Radiance is a solar system-spanning story of love, exploration, family, loss, quantum physics, and silent film.

Video

Book Trailer: The Unnoticeables by Robert Brockway

July 1, 2015May 17, 2024torforge

The Unnoticeables by Robert Brockway

From Robert Brockway, Sr. Editor and Columnist of Cracked.com comes The Unnoticeables, a funny and frightening urban fantasy.

There are angels, and they are not beneficent or loving. But they do watch over us. They watch our lives unfold, analyzing us for repeating patterns and redundancies. When they find them, the angels simplify those patterns and remove the redundancies, and the problem that is “you” gets solved.

Carey doesn’t much like that idea. As a punk living in New York City, 1977, Carey is sick and tired of watching strange kids with unnoticeable faces abduct his friends. He doesn’t care about the rumors of tar-monsters in the sewers or unkillable psychopaths invading the punk scene—all he wants is to drink cheap beer and dispense ass-kickings.

Kaitlyn isn’t sure what she’s doing with her life. She came to Hollywood in 2013 to be a stunt woman, but last night a former teen heartthrob tried to eat her, her best friend has just gone missing, and there’s an angel outside her apartment. Whatever she plans on doing with her life, it should probably happen in the few remaining minutes she has left.

There are angels. There are demons. They are the same thing. It’s up to Carey and Kaitlyn to stop them. The survival of the human race is in their hands.

We are, all of us, well and truly screwed.

Follow Robert Brockway on Twitter at @Brockway_LLC, on Facebook, or visit him online.

Video

Book Trailer: A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

May 27, 2015May 17, 2024torforge

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

A School for Unusual Girls is the first captivating installment in the Stranje House series for young adults by award-winning author Kathleen Baldwin. #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot calls this romantic Regency adventure “completely original and totally engrossing.”

It’s 1814. Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four fronts. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of Regency England’s dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don’t fit high society’s constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies—plans that entangle the girls in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy, and war.

After accidentally setting her father’s stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. But Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible—until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads—or their hearts….

A School for Unusual Girls is a great next read for fans of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series and Robin LaFevers’ His Fair Assassin series.

Follow Kathleen Baldwin on Twitter at @KatBaldwin, on Facebook, or visit her online.

Author Features / Video

When the Heavens Fall – The Making of the Film

April 8, 2015May 17, 2024torforge

By Marc Turner

Do you have any idea how many epic fantasy books are going to be published this year? No, neither do I, but I’m guessing it’s a lot. It’s hard as a new author to stand out from the crowd. People don’t like to think of writers competing with one another, but in some sense they do. No-one can possibly read every fantasy book, so how do you ensure yours is the one that makes it onto someone’s to-be-read list? I mean, there’s a book coming out later this year that features knights and dinosaurs. Knights and dinosaurs! Hey wait, where are you going? Come back!

You see the problem.

A while ago I came up with the idea of making a video trailer for my book. I’d just seen a teaser trailer for Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart that I thought was very effective. It features a woman walking up to the White House and summoning a ball of magical energy in her hand before throwing it at the building. That’s all. Nothing about the characters, nothing about the plot. But it certainly made me want to find out more.

The simplicity highlighted for me what I saw as a drawback in a lot of the video trailers for books that I’d seen previously: they tried to convey too much information about the story. That’s understandable, perhaps, but it’s difficult to summarise the plot of many fantasy books without making them sound silly. Try it with The Lord of the Rings. “So, there are these little people with hairy feet, and one of them has to throw a magic ring into a volcano to kill a Dark Lord . . .” Knowing nothing more, is that a book you’d rush out to buy? Of course, I’m not doing the book justice (who could?), but I’d argue it’s impossible to do it justice in the space you have available in a trailer.

The second problem with trying to convey too much story is that unless you’re using a voice actor you end up with lots of words on screen. But this is supposed to be a video, right? If someone wanted to read what the book is about, they’d look at the blurb. A trailer has to do something different. The best ones I’ve seen use images and music to create a mood, and tell you just enough about the book to spark your interest.

Unfortunately, finding the right images and music can be a challenge, particularly on a budget – and particularly for a fantasy book. My debut, When the Heavens Fall, tells the story of a man who steals an artefact that gives him power over the dead, then uses it to resurrect an ancient civilisation in order to challenge the Lord of the Dead for control of the underworld. That’s not the sort of subject matter most people are looking for when they go to a stock photo website. Put “undead army” into the website’s search box, and you won’t be inundated with options. No really, it’s true.

What about finding an image for your characters, though? That should be simple enough. Except you can never quite find a photograph that corresponds exactly to how you see the characters or (more importantly) to the detail in the book. Or the person in the picture is wearing the wrong sort of clothes, or standing in front of something that might just appear out of place in a medieval fantasy setting. Like a helicopter. Having looked through hundreds of images for my “main” character, Luker, I was forced to fall back on a photo of a man in a hood. But, hey, this is epic fantasy. It wouldn’t feel the same without a hooded man in there somewhere.

So, having robbed the process of all of its mystery, it’s time to invite you to sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the video trailer for When the Heavens Fall.

It’s best viewed with the lights turned down and the music turned up . . .

Marc Turner was born in Canada, but grew up in England. His first novel, When the Heavens Fall, is published in May this year from Tor in the US and Titan in the UK. A short story set in the world of the novel is coming soon at Tor.com. The story will also be available as a free audio file. Marc can be found on Twitter at @MarcJTurner and at www.marcturner.net.

Pre-order Mystic Skies Here:

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