Kate Elliott - Tor/Forge Blog - Page 4
Close
post-featured-image

Chaos and Cosmos Authors Answer: What is Your Character’s Astrological Sign?

Chaos and Cosmos Authors Answer: What is Your Character’s Astrological Sign?

Have you ever wondered if your favorite character shares your sign? You’re in luck—we asked our Chaos and Cosmos authors to assign their main characters astrological signs and what it means to them! Check out their answers below.


Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

Leo, OF COURSE like I can’t believe you had to ask because obviously what else would I be?

Sun is her own astrological sign.

Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Relentless Moon

I’m Aquarius. Nicole Wargin is as well.

S. A. Hunt, author of I Come With Knives

My sign is Virgo, because I’m a huge nerd who is afraid of people, but my main character, Robin Martine from the Malus Domestica series, is a Cancer crab – crafty, creative, compassionate, loyal, and you better not say nothin’ about her mama.

Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of Trouble the Saints

I’m an Aries, Phyllis is a Taurus –which is to say, we’re both stubborn as hell.

dealwithdevil  Poster Placeholder of - 14  Image Place holder  of - 15

Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

I’m a Taurus! Buc’s world doesn’t quite map to our own, but she’s closest in birth month to a Capricorn? Cosmopolitan leads me to believe that means she’s practical, self-reliant, and ambitious which is ALL Buc. They’re wrong about wanting her in your corner though–never turn your back on a street rat.

Kit Rocha, author of Deal with the Devil

Donna is a Libra, while Bree is a Pisces. Nina is a Gemini, and Knox doesn’t believe in that stuff—what are you, kidding?

Jenn Lyons, author of The Memory of Souls

My astrological sign is Capricorn, but my main character lives in a world with completely different stars and calendar system. (The year in my fantasy world, Ompher, is 384 days long, so by Earth equivalents, all of my characters are actually a bit older than the ages I give for them in the books. When Kihrin is sixteen, for example, he was really closer to seventeen, and when he’s twenty at the end of the Ruin of Kings, he’s twenty-one in Earth years. And indeed, there was a period of time in the world’s history where the Ompher’s orbit was much larger and a year was 512 days long and, and had sixteen months, not twelve…ahem. Sorry. Point is, it doesn’t really translate.)

Image Placeholder of - 82  Place holder  of - 1. addie

Andrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

In Chinese Astrology, I’m the year of the Dragon. Awa is the Year of the Dog. Djola is the Year of the Rooster.

S. L. Huang, author of Burning Roses

Pluto. We’re both contrary like that.

Also, my main character is Little Red Riding Hood all grown up and middle-aged, and full of cold hard angst just like the Kuiper belt.

Cory Doctorow, author of Attack Surface

Masha’s sign is ADHD. Also her Myers Briggs type.

V. E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

So, my sign is Cancer, and I fall in the exact center of the Cancer spectrum, I am the most Cancer to ever Cancer, except for emotions, I don’t have any of those. And, Addie is absolutely a Pisces.

 

Stay tuned for more #ChaosandCosmos all year long!

Placeholder of  -76

post-featured-image

Every Tor Book Coming This Summer

Every Tor Book Coming This Summer

It’s almost time for summer weather and that means…SUMMER BOOKS! Due to COVID-19, we shuffled some of our on sale dates around, so check here for the most up to date list of when you can get your hands on some of the most highly anticipated books of the season:

June 16

The Unconquered CityImage Placeholder of - 38 by K. A. Doore

Seven years have passed since the Siege—a time when the hungry dead had risen—but the memories still haunt Illi Basbowen. Though she was trained to be an elite assassin, now the Basbowen clan act as Ghadid’s militia force protecting the resurrected city against a growing tide of monstrous guul that travel across the dunes. Illi’s worst fears are confirmed when General Barca arrives, bearing news that her fledgling nation, Hathage, also faces this mounting danger. How much can she sacrifice to protect everything she knows from devastation?

GloriousImage Place holder  of - 5 by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven

Audacious astronauts encounter bizarre, sometimes deadly life forms, and strange, exotic, cosmic phenomena, including miniature black holes, dense fields of interstellar plasma, powerful gravity-emitters, and spectacularly massive space-based, alien-built labyrinths. Tasked with exploring this brave, new, highly dangerous world, they must also deal with their own personal triumphs and conflicts.

June 23

Poster Placeholder of - 26The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent. Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows.

June 30

Place holder  of - 98Interlibrary Loan by Gene Wolfe

E. A. Smithe is a borrowed person, his personality an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is a piece of property, not a legal human. As such, Smithe can be loaned to other branches. Which he is. Along with two fellow reclones, a cookbook and romance writer, they are shipped to Polly’s Cove, where Smithe meets a little girl who wants to save her mother, a father who is dead but perhaps not. And another E.A. Smithe… who definitely is.

July 7

Placeholder of  -92Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott

Princess Sun has finally come of age. Growing up in the shadow of her mother, Eirene, has been no easy task. The legendary queen-marshal did what everyone thought impossible: expel the invaders and build Chaonia into a magnificent republic, one to be respected—and feared. But the cutthroat ambassador corps and conniving noble houses have never ceased to scheme—and they have plans that need Sun to be removed as heir, or better yet, dead.

Or What You Will by Jo Walton

He has been too many things to count. He has been a dragon with a boy on his back. He has been a scholar, a warrior, a lover, and a thief. He has been dream and dreamer. He has been a god. But “he” is in fact nothing more than a spark of idea, a character in the mind of Sylvia Harrison, 73, award-winning author of thirty novels over forty years. But Sylvia won’t live forever, any more than any human does. And he’s trapped inside her cave of bone, her hollow of skull. When she dies, so will he.

Little Brother & Homeland by Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow’s two New York Times-bestselling novels of youthful rebellion against the torture-and-surveillance state – now available in a softcover omnibus

 

July 14

In the Kingdom of All Tomorrows by Stephen R. Lawhead

Conor mac Ardan is now clan chief of the Darini. Tara’s Hill has become a haven and refuge for all those who were made homeless by the barbarian Scálda. A large fleet of the Scálda’s Black Ships has now arrived and Conor joins Eirlandia’s lords to defeat the monsters. He finds treachery in their midst…and a betrayal that is blood deep. And so begins a final battle to win the soul of a nation.

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowl

Elma York is on her way to Mars, but the Moon colony is still being established. Her friend and fellow Lady Astronaut Nicole Wargin is thrilled to be one of those pioneer settlers, using her considerable flight and political skills to keep the program on track. But she is less happy that her husband, the Governor of Kansas, is considering a run for President.

July 21

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Phyllis LeBlanc has given up everything—not just her own past, and Dev, the man she loved, but even her own dreams. Still, the ghosts from her past are always by her side—and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she keeps in her heart. And so Phyllis will have to make a harrowing choice, before it’s too late—is there ever enough blood in the world to wash clean generations of injustice?

 The Sin in the Steel by Ryan Van Loan

Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few. It’s been weeks since ships last returned to the magnificent city of Servenza with bounty from the Shattered Coast. Disaster threatens not just the city’s trading companies but the empire itself. When Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen who sinks all who defy her.

Quantum Shadows by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. 

On a world called Heaven, the ten major religions of mankind each have its own land governed by a capital city and ruled by a Hegemon. That Hegemon may be a god, or a prophet of a god. Smaller religions have their own towns or villages of belief. Corvyn, known as the Shadow of the Raven, contains the collective memory of humanity’s Falls from Grace. With this knowledge comes enormous power. When unknown power burns a mysterious black image into the holy place of each House of the Decalivre, Corvyn must discover what entity could possibly have that much power. The stakes are nothing less than another Fall, and if he doesn’t stop it, mankind will not rise from the ashes.

Uranus by Ben Bova

Humans can’t live on the gas giants, making instead a life in orbit. Kyle Umber, a religious idealist, has built Haven, a sanctuary above the distant planet Uranus. He invites ”the tired, the sick, the poor“ of Earth to his orbital retreat where men and women can find spiritual peace and refuge from the world. The billionaire who financed Haven, however, has his own designs: beyond the reach of the laws of the inner planets Haven could become the center for an interplanetary web of narcotics, prostitution, even hunting human prey.

I Come With Knives by S. A. Hunt

Robin – now armed with new knowledge about mysterious demon terrorizing her around town, the support of her friends, and the assistance of her old witch-hunter mentor – plots to confront the Lazenbury coven and destroy them once and for all. Robin must handle new threats on top of the menace from the Lazenbury coven, but a secret about Robin’s past may throw all of her plans into jeopardy.

July 28

Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha

Nina is an information broker with a mission—she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America. Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he’s fighting to survive. They’re on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process…Or they could do the impossible: team up.

The Baron of Magister Valley by Steven Brust

The salacious claims that The Baron of Magister Valley bears any resemblance to a certain nearly fictional narrative about an infamous count are unfounded (we do not dabble in tall tales. The occasional moderately stretched? Yes. But never tall). Our tale is that of a nobleman who is betrayed by those he trusted, and subsequently imprisoned. After centuries of confinement, he contrives to escape and prepares to avenge himself against his betrayers. A mirror image of The Count of Monte Cristo, vitrolic naysayers still grouse? Well, that is nearly and utterly false.

Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz

Meet Mat, a tortured mercenary who has become the perfect shot, and Silvia, and idealistic woman genetically engineered to murder you to death. Together they run for the shadiest corporation in the world… and realize their messed-up brain chemistry cannot overpower their very real chemistry.

August 4

The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus

In a Midwestern trailer park, a Black teenage girl and a Muslim immigrant battle newly-risen friends and family. On a US aircraft carrier, living sailors hide from dead ones while a fanatic makes a new religion out of death. At a cable news station, a surviving anchor keeps broadcasting while his undead colleagues try to devour him. In DC, an autistic federal employee charts the outbreak, preserving data for a future that may never come. Everywhere, people are targeted by both the living and the dead. We think we know how this story ends. We. Are. Wrong.

Space Station Down by Ben Bova and Doug Beason

When an ultra-rich space tourist visits the orbiting International Space Station, NASA expects a $100 million win-win: his visit will bring in much needed funding and publicity. But the tourist venture turns into a scheme of terror. Together with an extremist cosmonaut, the tourist slaughters all the astronauts on board the million-pound ISS—and prepares to crash it into New York City at 17,500 miles an hour, causing more devastation than a hundred atomic bombs. In doing so, they hope to annihilate the world’s financial system.

Sorcery of a Queen by Brian Naslund

Driven from her kingdom, the would-be queen now seeks haven in the land of her mother, but Ashlyn will not stop until justice has been done. Determined to unlock the secret of powers long thought impossible, Ashlyn bends her will and intelligence to mastering the one thing people always accused her of, sorcery. Meanwhile, having learned the truth of his mutation, Bershad is a man on borrowed time. Never knowing when his healing powers will drive him to a self-destruction, he is determined to see Ashlyn restored to her throne and the creatures they both love safe.

A Chorus of Fire by Brian D. Anderson

A shadow has moved across Lamoria. Whispers of the coming conflict are growing louder; the enemy becoming bolder. Belkar’s reach has extended far into the heart of Ralmarstad and war now seems inevitable. Mariyah, clinging to the hope of one day being reunited with Lem, struggles to attain the power she will need to make the world safe again.Lem continues his descent into darkness, serving a man he does not trust in the name of a faith which is not his own. Only Shemi keeps his heart from succumbing to despair, along with the knowledge that he has finally found Mariyah. But Lem is convinced she is being held against her will, and is determined to free her, regardless the cost.

August 11

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Baru’s enemies close in from all sides. Baru’s own mind teeters on the edge of madness or shattering revelation. Now she must choose between genocidal revenge and a far more difficult path—a conspiracy of judges, kings, spies and immortals, puppeteering the world’s riches and two great wars in a gambit for the ultimate prize. If Baru had absolute power over the Imperial Republic, she could force Falcrest to abandon its colonies and make right its crimes.

The Last Uncharted Sky by Curtis Craddock

Isabelle and Jean-Claude undertake an airship expedition to recover a fabled treasure and claim a hitherto undiscovered craton for l’Empire Celeste. But Isabelle, as a result from a previous attack that tried to subsume her body and soul, suffers from increasingly disturbing and disruptive hallucinations. Disasters are compounded when the ship is sabotaged by an enemy agent, and Jean-Claude is separated from the expedition.

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar

Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. The fact is they don’t know sh*t.

Arthur? An over-promoted gangster. Merlin? An eldritch parasite. Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer. Britain? A clogged sewer that Rome abandoned just as soon as it could.

The Shadow Commission by David Mack

November 1963. Cade and Anja have lived in hiding for a decade, training new mages. Then the assassination of President Kennedy trigger a series of murders whose victims are all magicians—with Cade, Anja, and their allies as its prime targets. Their only hope of survival: learning how to fight back against the sinister cabal known as the Shadow Commission.

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe

A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm consisting of seven levels of reality. Transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Sir Able of the High Heart and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, the blade that will help him fulfill his ambition to become a true hero—a true knight. Inside, however, Sir Able remains a boy, and he must grow in every sense to survive what lies ahead…

August 25

The Memory of Souls by Jenn Lyons

Now that Relos Var’s plans have been revealed and demons are free to rampage across the empire, the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies—and the end of the world—is closer than ever. To buy time for humanity, Kihrin needs to convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual which will strip the entire race of their immortality, but it’s a ritual which certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the messengers.

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne

Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she’ll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When her crew salvages a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.

post-featured-image

Q&A: What is Your Most Chaotic Piece of Writing Advice?

Q&A: What is Your Most Chaotic Piece of Writing Advice?

Another day, another chaotic question for our Chaos and Cosmos authors! This time, we are asking them about their favorite craft—writing! To all you aspiring authors, check out their most fiercely chaotic answers below. Do you FEEL THE INSPIRATION YET!?!?!?


What is your most chaotic piece of writing advice?

 

book-9781250197245Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

Don’t write toward the market hoping to catch the trend of the moment. Trends come and go. It’s difficult if not impossible to hit a trend’s surging wave rather than its collapsing fall. Write the story you’re passionate about. Some of my novels were published at a time when they ran counter to the market and suffered for it while others hit at a surge and did well. The main thing is: I don’t regret writing a single one because they were all projects written from the heart. 

book-9781250236968Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Relentless Moon

Delete every third line of dialogue and then rewrite the interstitial text so that it still makes sense.

book-9781250306463S. A. Hunt, author of I Come With Knives

Throw out your outline. Have characters make decisions that they as real people would naturally make and follow them down a rabbit hole. Write yourself into a corner and then bust a hole in the wall to get out. You’d be surprised what kind of life-changing twists you can come up with when you’re not coloring by numbers.

troublethesaintAlaya Dawn Johnson, author of Trouble the Saints

Let everyone get precisely what they want.

 

book-9781250222589Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

Listen and strictly adhere to everything you’re told about how to write! That’s good, right?

 

deal-with-devilKit Rocha, author of Deal with the Devil

Fear is the mind-killer. (No, really. It’ll mess you up. Jump off that keyboard and believe you can fly.)

memoryofsoulsJenn Lyons, author of The Memory of Souls

There are no rules, only guidelines. Everyone’s prepared to hand out a thousand rules for how to write. For every single one of them, there’s a great work which takes that rule and vigorously snaps it in half. Break the rules! Just make sure you do so with skill and panache.

masterofpoisonsAndrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

Everything I write is fine, good, because tomorrow I can rewrite. Every draft is a rehearsal.

sleep-in-seaChristopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Don’t be afraid to throw out any or all of your story if it’s not working. When it comes to writing, you have to be ruthless in your creative decisions. Don’t fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy.

burninggrosesS. L. Huang, author of Burning Roses

Burn the rules. There are no rules.

Also, always write while wearing a hat shaped like a pineapple.

 

attacksurfaceCory Doctorow, author of Attack Surface

Write when you feel miserable and all the words are terrible, because you won’t know until after the fact and how you feel about the words is far more related to your blood sugar, stress levels, anxiety than the quality of your words. And then the corollary of that is that days when you feel like you’re writing really well, you’re probably also writing just more or less okay stuff, because that’s also related to your anxiety, stress levels, and blood sugar, so it makes writing very aniconic but it does make your writing very regular, a bit like fiber.

addie-1V. E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

My most chaotic piece of writing advice is it’s going to be bad. You’re going to write something and it’s going to be bad, it has to be bad because you have to write something before you can make it better. So, understanding that whatever you write has to be bad before it can be good, and you almost have to embrace that chaos a little bit.

Stay tuned for more #ChaosandCosmos all year long!

Placeholder of  -9

post-featured-image

Chaos or Cosmos?

Chaos or Cosmos?

There are so many important questions about our Chaos and Cosmos campaign but the first one we have to ask our authors is…are you team CHAOS or COSMOS?!

One thing is clear: Whether they write about space, wizards, hackers, or immortals, Tor authors are pretty chaotic.

Check out the incredibly important and serious answer to the question below.


Chaos or Cosmos?

Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

Cosmos.

Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Relentless Moon

Tough call… given my Lady Astronaut books, I’m obviously team Cosmos, but anyone who knows me also knows that I’m a Chaos muppet. (https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/06/chaos-theory.html)

S. A. Hunt, author of I Come With Knives

Cosmos. My life—our lives, all of us, really—have enough chaos, and I’d rather explore the cosmos. We seek out stories because we need to find order in the chaos . . . it’s why, almost always, the good guys win. Because the good guys don’t often win in real life, and to survive, we need to see the win when we can to know it’s still possible. Stories give us hope.

Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of Trouble the Saints

Cosmos.

Place holder  of - 18  Image Place holder  of - 28  Image Placeholder of - 85

Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

Chaos!

Kit Rocha, author of Deal with the Devil

Easy one—chaos, 100%

Poster Placeholder of - 57  Placeholder of  -43. The Cosmos part comes

Jenn Lyons, author of The Memory of Souls

Chaos! (The Cosmos part comes naturally from that.)

Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Cosmos.

S. L. Huang, author of Burning Roses

deep evil villain voice* CHAOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Cory Doctorow, author of Attack Surface

Definitely chaos.

V. E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Chaos.

 

Stay tuned for more #ChaosandCosmos all year long!

post-featured-image

Download a Free Digital Preview of Unconquerable Sun

Download a Free Digital Preview of Unconquerable Sun

Placeholder of  -25Start reading Kate Elliott’s Unconquerable Sun with a free digital preview! Unconquerable Sun is coming this July!

About Unconquerable Sun:

New York Times bestselling author Kate Elliott brings us a thrilling new science fiction adventure set in a rich universe full of political intrigue with Unconquerable Sun.

GENDER-SWAPPED ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON AN INTERSTELLAR SCALE

Princess Sun has finally come of age.

Growing up in the shadow of her mother, Eirene, has been no easy task. The legendary queen-marshal did what everyone thought impossible: expel the invaders and build Chaonia into a magnificent republic, one to be respected—and feared.

But the cutthroat ambassador corps and conniving noble houses have never ceased to scheme—and they have plans that need Sun to be removed as heir, or better yet, dead.

To survive, the princess must rely on her wits and companions: her biggest rival, her secret lover, and a dangerous prisoner of war.

Take the brilliance and cunning courage of Princess Leia—add in a dazzling futuristic setting where pop culture and propaganda are one and the same—and hold on tight:

This is the space opera you’ve been waiting for.

Download Your Free Digital Preview:

kindle nook ebooks.com Place holder  of google play- 15 ibooks2 24

post-featured-image

Can You Hear the Mayhem? Introducing Our Chaos and Cosmos Playlist!

Can You Hear the Mayhem? Introducing Our Chaos and Cosmos Playlist!

We’re diving into Chaos and Cosmos the RIGHT way-with an incredibly chaotic playlist!

We asked our authors to pick theme songs for their main characters and the resulting playlist is…definitely something. We recommend putting this beauty on shuffle for maximum mayhem.

video soruce

Pick a Theme Song for Your Main Character

Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

Born to be Wild – in the version played by the Handsome Alika on Idol Faire.

Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Relentless Moon

How High the Moon sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

S. A. Hunt, author of I Come With Knives

In the first, second, and third book I’d say Karliene’s Become The Beast. I just love the feminine aura it has, and the constant, building tension. It’s so simultaneously female and feral, and I love it. In other news, I listened to Halestorm’s cover of Slave to The Grind and Fist Up by Kidneythieves the whole time I was writing the fight scenes in The Hellion, the third book in the Malus series, so that might give you a good idea of where my head was at and what kind of action you can look forward to in that one.

If Tor signs any more Malus books with me, I’m gonna tell you that Robin’s theme song will become What Doesn’t Kill You Will Make You A Killer by Rabbit Junk. After the events of book 3, The Hellion, she’s gonna go Beast Mode.

Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of Trouble the Saints

Summon the Fire by The Comet Is Coming.

Placeholder of  -75  Image Placeholder of - 12. Image Place holder  of - 72

Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

Blood in the Water by Grandson.

Kit Rocha, author of Deal with the Devil

For Nina, Least Complicated by the Indigo Girls.
For Knox, Hardest of Hearts by Florence + The Machine.

Jenn Lyons, author of The Memory of Souls

Whatever It Takes by Imagine Dragons (What? You didn’t think I’d pick a theme song that didn’t have a dragon tie-in somewhere, did you?)

Andrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

For Awa— A call and response song with rattles and bees.

For Djola— Whale song.

Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Gayane by Aram Khachaturian.

Poster Placeholder of - 31. Place holder  of - 40.

S. L. Huang, author of Burning Roses

Murder, Murder! from Jekyll & Hyde. Someone’s killing sinners in the night… lots and lots and lots of them. (Spoiler: It’s Little Red Riding Hood.)

Cory Doctorow, author of Attack Surface

Good as Hell, one for the millennials. I have a 12-year-old, I’m down with the Lizzo! If it’s on TikTok I know it.

V. E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie.

Stay tuned for more #ChaosandCosmos all year long!

post-featured-image

Introducing: CHAOS AND COSMOS!

Introducing: CHAOS AND COSMOS!

Chaos-and-Cosmos-logo

The Sky Is Not the Limit

This year has gotten off to a bit of a…chaotic start, to say the very least. In 2020, Tor Books is determined to make the most of *waves hands around wildly* all this and prove that the sky is not the limit; this is a year destined for big books and even BIGGER ideas!

Chaos-and-Cosmos-SamplerGet ready to activate your sun, moon, and rising signs with stories of cosmic adventures and gleefully chaotic characters!

Featured authors include Kit Rocha (Deal with the Devil), S.A. Hunt (I Come With Knives), Alaya Dawn Johnson (Trouble the Saints), Kate Elliott (Unconquerable Sun), Mary Robinette Kowal (The Relentless Moon), Ryan Van Loan (The Sin in the Steel), Jenn Lyons (The Memory of Souls), Andrea Hairston (Master of Poisons), Christopher Paolini (To Sleep in a Sea of Stars), S.L. Huang (Burning Roses), Cory Doctorow (Attack Surface), and V.E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue). This illustrious group of wordslingers includes bestsellers, award-winners, scholars, and influencerstruly a cosmic force made of stars! Get ready to hear from the dream team—head over to our Instagram @TorBooks to see your favorite authors share their own excitement for Team #ChaosandCosmos!

To kickoff our year of unbridled chaos and burning cosmos,  download Part 1 of our FREE digital sampler, featuring Trouble the Saints, I Come With Knives, Unconquerable Sun, The Sin in the Steel, The Relentless Moon, and Deal with the Devil.

Part 2 of our cosmically chaotic sampler, featuring the titles below, is coming soon!

memoryofsouls  memoryofsouls-book. burningroses. attacksurface. addie. To-Sleep-in-a-Sea-of-Stars-CP3-thin

Keep an eye on our social media and the #ChaosandCosmos tag for the release date of Part 2 and other exciting content in the coming weeks and months.  

Who’s ready for some #ChaosandCosmos?!

Poster Placeholder of - 97

Download the Sampler:

nook ebooks.com Place holder  of google play- 13 ibooks2 67 kobo

post-featured-image

Celebrating Valentines with our Favorite SFF Ships

Celebrating Valentines with our Favorite SFF Ships

Celebrating Valentines with our Favorite SFF Ships

The term “shipping” has a lot of different meanings: riding a boat, getting a package from Point A to Point B, to name a few. But in the world of fandoms, shipping has an entirely different contextthe wanting/support of two people in a romantic relationship, be is canonly blessed by the creator or subtext brought to full fruition through the wonders of Ao3.

With all the love we’re feeling in the air (or something like that…), we decided on a mission around the office―to discover the Tor staff’s favorite science fiction and fantasy pairings and SHARE THEM WITH THE ENTIRE WORLD! From Delilah Bard and her knives, to Drarry and beyond, things got…wild.

WARNING: Here there be spoilers. Enter at your own risk


Lila and her knives-1Lila and her knives from The Shades of Magic series

Let me start off by saying I would die for/at the hands of Lila Bard, that #StabbyKingBitch. Sure, Lila cares very deeply for Kell, they’ve been through a lot together and she owes him a lot for taking her to Red London and introducing her to magic. But her knives have been with her even longer, are always at her side, and are firmly the things she loves most in the world. Schwab’s series gives us many a scene in which Lila is sharpening/tending to the knives she has, or lustfully admiring new ones with that playfully wicked glint in her eye. There is no love that ever transcends what Lila knows to be true — that at the end of the day, she only has herself, and she has to be able to defend that. Lila has found true independence and strength with her knives, and with them in her hand, she became the person she wanted to be. Could you ask for a better love story than that? I think not.

Christina Orlando, Books Editor & Publicity Coordinator, Tor.com

networkMurderbot and ART from The Murderbot Diaries

Can the grumpy one love the other grumpy one? The answer is a resounding “yes” in Martha Wells’ crushingly relatable protagonist, who just wants to close the door to have a feeling in private. Wells finds an astonishingly deep well of humanity in her proudly non-human narrator, and the books only get better when ART (the terrifyingly intelligent transport vessel who serves as the series’ answer to HAL 9000) comes on the scene and the two begin their grudging partners-to-“wait are we dating now?” partnership. ART understands what all of us in the internet age already know: love is watching the person (or Murderbot) you love watch their favorite media so you can roll around in the refracted joy. Network Effect (May 2020), the first novel-length entry in the series, is the most satisfyingly romantic of them all.

Ruoxi Chen, Associate Editor, Tor.com Publishing

A-Memory-Called-Empire

Three Seagrass and Mahit Dzmare from <>A Memory Called Empire

Spoilers.*
Sometimes you’re an overwhelmed young ambassador in the heart of a hostile space empire that might just manifest destiny you right out of a home, but you can still find a little comfort in poetry and smooches with your political attache.

a bunch of raccoons in a trench coat, Senior Marketing Manager, Tor Books 

UNSPOKEN-1Csorwe and Shuthmili from The Unspoken Name

A flinty orc priestess jock with great arms who survived some sensationally bad wizard parenting and a Seems Delicate, Actually Ineffably Powerful femme sorceress who has zero (0) sense of self-preservation and very pretty hair? Uh, sign me up, every time. Csorwe and Shuthmili share troubled pasts and upbringings as young women raised to a greater purpose at the cost of their personal happiness. The Unspoken Name knows how to bring the hurt down on you like a hammer, but their romance—and their slow discovery of how to value themselves and each other—will leave you happily wallowing in a sea of joyful, queer comfort.

Ruoxi Chen, Associate Editor, Tor.com Publishing

sunmoon
The book Unconquerable Sun and the book Relentless Moon.

Both of these Tor books are coming out in the same month, they’re both sci-fi and they have sun and moon in the title! They have so much in common! They should kiss. Wait, hold on, I have an Instagram idea.

Renata Sweeney, Senior Marketing Manager, Tor Books 

ceruleansea

Linus Baker and Arthur Parnassus from The House in the Cerulean Sea

Linus and Arthur in The House in the Cerulean Sea have a quiet, soft sort of love, like a mug of perfectly warm hot cocoa topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. There’s a secret touch of cinnamon that adds a subtle spiciness. Honestly, this ship is charming, heartwarming, and delights me to no end. Sometimes a family is a by-the-book caseworker, the master of an orphanage, and six magical children. Applicable tropes: #slowburn #pining #fluff #foundfamily

Rebecca Yeager, Ad Promo Manager, Tor Books

goodomens
Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens

One is an ex-angel who “did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards.” The other is a Principality that gave away the sword guarding the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve because he was afraid of them getting cold. Together, they make the dumbass Ineffable Husbands of my literary dreams whose well-meaning but disastrous shenanigans will make this ship sail until the end of times.

Rachel Taylor, Marketing Manager, Tor Books

The owner of this website has made a commitment to accessibility and inclusion, please report any problems that you encounter using the contact form on this website. This site uses the WP ADA Compliance Check plugin to enhance accessibility.