Shades of Magic - Tor/Forge Blog

Tor Books’ Startlingly Specific Holiday Gift Guide

November 16, 2023April 3, 2024a cat

Do you hear that??

It’s the sweet, sweet sound of gifts and the necessity of buying them for all of the humans, animals, and unidentified entities in your life. That’s a lot of pressure, but don’t sweat, because we’ve got your back, and more importantly, we’ve got a ton of increasingly niche book recommendations to get you through the holiday season! Check them out here and let us know which ones you’re grabbing in the comments.

by Rachel Taylor and a cat

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree is for the treasured party member who’s saved your character’s life many times on TTRPG night

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We all have That One Amazing Player who has pulled our butts out of the fictional fire on D&D night, and what better way to show your endless appreciation than with the gift of LITERATURE?! High fantasy, secondhand books, and first love–what more could you ask for?

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake is for the angsty goth who still wishes it was Halloween

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So they’re in denial that it’s not Halloween anymore, but guess what?! In the unbroken face of eternity, time has no meaning! Every day is Halloween!

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune is for the plucky traveler who’s got the whole world to see

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There are many ways to see new and exciting worlds, and TJ Klune always provides queer and cozy adventures that you only need to pick up a book to explore. Consider picking up his latest venture for that friend who’s been bit by the travel bug!

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle is for the action movie fanatic who owns a cardboard cutout of John Wick

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Assassins, dragon magic, and Chinese diaspora urban fantasy set in contemporary San Francisco.

Book of Night by Holly Black is for the insatiable reader who has way more books to read than hands to hold them

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And if you order and submit your receipt before 12/15, you can receive a Book of Night tote bag! Even Charlie Hall needs a safe sling to carry her contraband. Who’s Charlie Hall? A professional thief / bartender who pilfers shadow magic secrets! Read the book!

T. L. Huchu’s Edinburgh Nights series is for the Supernatural fan who’s looking to expand their fandom across the pond

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Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker, but she’s not just carrying messages anymore. You talk to one ghost and suddenly you’re spending late nights in the occult library, solving murders, and following trails of huskified children to their sinister spectral source.

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is for the science-enjoyer in your life who’s looking for environmentally-conscious fiction

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This sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future from a science fiction visionary is the perfect gift to give your non-fiction loving, environmentally aware bestie who wants to dip their toe into a more fictional space.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson is for fans looking for The Princess Bride vibes but just haven’t quite found them yet

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Do you have a Princess Bride superfan in your life? They don’t need another fandom-y Etsy gift this year–they need a book that gives them the same emotional rush they got the first time they laid eyes on the fairytale-inspired glory that is their favorite 1987 classic.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl is for the history buff in your life who can’t stop thinking about other paths the world might have taken

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After being purchased back from the Congo Free State’s colonizer, Everfair becomes a land of fantastic technologies—of spying cats and gulls, nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot poison knives. What happens when these technological advances are brought to bear against Belgian tyrant Leopold II?

That’s Everfair, and then you can read Kinning (on sale 1/23/24) for the continuation of this expansive alternate history.

Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini is for the hardcore Trekkie who’s looking for major blockbuster movie vibes in their books

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Don’t let the bright and spiffy gif fool you—in this book they boldly go where no human has gone before, equally bold in how they look past the question: Might there have been a reason?

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab is for people looking to put a different kind of magic into their holidays

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Let’s put the magic into the holidays, shall we? V. E. Schwab returns to The Shades of Magic universe with a whole new series, perfect for readers who loved the original and new fans who want to explore magical alternate universes from in front of a cozy fireplace.

Shelley Parker-Chan’s Radiant Emperor Duology is for the unhinged danmei consumer who’s looking for their next great read

The Untamed Xiao Zhan GIF from The Untamed GIFs

Do you have someone in your life that consumes danmei like candy? Are they tired of waiting for their new favorite series to be translated so they can add it to their shelves? Do we have the series for you. She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World explore a stunning reinvention of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor. It’s queer, it’s fantastical, and it’s complete! Snag both books in the duology for them now.

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher is for the friend with an ill-advised yet much-beloved Shrek 2 tattoo

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“Better out than in” on the inside of the wrist, Thornhedge open in hand.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is for anyone who has never been disappointed by the combo of Mike Flanagan and a Scary House

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Home is where the heart is, and really puts you in a vulnerable position when your house HATES you.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is for Megamind

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If you’re not Megamind, keep scrolling. Just kidding—this book is also for cat lovers and fans of Despicable Me and The Venture Brothers.

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan is for people who loved Season 2 of The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime

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If you have someone in your life that got sucked into the masterpiece that was The Wheel of Time Season 2, don’t worry, you can help them relive the fun with The Great Hunt, the inspiration for the show and the second book in The Wheel of Time series!

Lists / What's New

Literary Trick-or-Treat: 8 Book & Candy Pairings

October 6, 2023October 2, 2023a cat1 Comment

If Halloween’s about one thing, it’s the delicious candy. But! If Halloween’s about two things, it’s the delicious candy and good books (We’re Tor. We’re nerds).

Check out these pairings of sweet treats and matching reads!

The Fragile Threads of Power & Sour Patch Kids Watermelon

The tag for Sour Patch Kids might be Sour, Sweet, Gone—but not V. E. Schwab! They are BACK, returning to the expansive world(s) they created in the Shades of Magic Trilogy. The Fragile Threads of Power features both new characters and old, which is why we’ve paired it with Sour Patch Kids Watermelon. It’s everything you love and a little more. A little different. Familiar, yet new.

Traitor of Redwinter & Zombie Skittles

For very brief spans in 2019 and 2020, Skittles ran a special limited-time Halloween campaign, delivering unto us Zombie Skittles. They’re just like regular Skittles, but a few—visually indecipherable from their more delicious brethren—were zombies, and tasted awful. Traitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is way cooler than Zombie Skittles because it brings all the scary candy’s suspense without tasting abominable (probably just tastes neutrally of paper, if you tried to snack on it).

On Sale 10.24.23

Bookshops & Bonedust & Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup

The much-loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup owes its storied position in candy history to its artful fusion of two flavors: Chocolate. Peanut butter. We honor Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree by pairing it with the peanut butter cup, because it too is a smooth blend of distinct flavors. Viv is a mercenary, but a warrior stuck in recovery in a tiny beach town. But adventures seldom play out as you expect. This sleepy town and its cozy bookshop are full of peanut butter, or they are peanut butter and adventure is the chocolate. This metaphor makes sense. We will not be taking any questions.

On Sale 11.7.23

Devil’s Gun & Disco’s

Cat Rambo’s Disco Space Opera series (and playlist! Check out their playlist!) began with You Sexy Thing and continued with Devil’s Gun, named respectively after the rock time tunes “You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate and “Devil’s Gun” by C.J. & Co. Fittingly, we have elected to pair this sci-fi adventure with Disco’s, a candy we’ve never heard of before and seems to be available primarily in the United Kingdom? But whatever. C’est la vie. We did it for the name.

The First Binding & Giant Gummy Shark

For R.R. Virdi’s hugely epic The First Binding, we’re hauling in the world’s largest gummy shark. Like this massive gummified carnivore confection, The First Binding will sustain you for a while. One will feed your body, and one will nourish the soul.

Now Available in Paperback!

Starter Villain & Sour Patch Kids (Original)

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is the story of a hapless guy who inherits his uncle’s supervillain business, including among other assets, an array of espionage-ready cats. We pair it with the original Sour Patch Kids, harkening back to that aforementioned tag, Sour, Sweet, Gone. This is a book of cozy opposites—namely surprisingly cool supervillains.

Exadelic & Monster Energy

Far from a traditional Halloween trick-or-treat staple, these energy drinks nevertheless taste like candy, and pair perfectly with Jon Evans Exadelic, which is a book about occult magic and computer code. A trusty goto beverage for exhausted software engineers everywhere, this sweet, sugary drink counts as candy for the purposes of this article, and is the perfect fuel to keep you awake late into the night as you read Exadelic.

Sandymancer & Red Hots

David Edison’s Sandymancer is a classic fantasy adventure of mad god-kings, regular people with extraordinary powers, and lots of hot climates. The final note is what inspires us to dedicate a spot on this feature to Red Hots. Can you feel the heat? Hopefully you can’t taste the sand. Hopefully you have escaped the ire of mad gods.

Extras / What's New

The Fragile Threads of Power Art Roundup!

September 25, 2023September 26, 2023a cat

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab is now available! At last, readers return to the many worlds spun into being by Schwab’s Shades of Magic series…and did we mention there’s art?? Check out these renditions of the Fragile Threads cast created by lasq.draws.

Kell & Lila

Rhy & Alucard

Queen & Ren

Kosika & Holland

Bex & Calin

Tes

Order The Fragile Threads of P0wer Here

eBook Deals / What's New

Download a Free Digital Preview of The Fragile Threads of Power

July 25, 2023July 21, 2023a cat

V. E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, opens another door to a new fantasy series set in the dazzling world of Shades of Magic.

Prepare for tangled schemes and perilous adventures with friends old and new in The Fragile Threads of Power. Download a FREE sneak peek today!

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory—Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.

But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years—and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland’s absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own—but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown it instead.

And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.

These two royals from very different empires now face very similar struggles: how to keep their crowns—and their own heads.

Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.

Her name is Tes, and she’s the only one who can bring them together—or unravel it all.

Download a FREE sneak peek today!

Download Your Free Digital Preview:

Lists / What's New

Magic Users Are The Worst: 5 Examples of Garbage Wizards

March 19, 2023May 2, 2024a cat2 Comments

Out of all the wizards you might encounter in your life, the ones you probably want to meet are powerful yet kind guides. Begrudgingly helpful and somewhat strong wizards are also a possibility, yet not as fun. But perhaps the number one wizard to look out for is The Garbage Wizard. This wizard is either entirely unhelpful and there just for vibes – or they could be rancid evil wizards. Take heed if you ever encounter a Garbage Wizard like the one in The Thousand Eyes by A. K. Larkwood, out February, or any of the ones below! Warning, spoilers for The Unspoken Name below.

by Lizzy Hosty

Belthandros Sethennai from The Thousand Eyes by A. K. Larkwood – Phantom Garbage

In this sequel to The Unspoken Name, two years have passed since Csorwe and Shuthmili have risked a Garbage Wizard Belthandros Sethennai’s anger in order to gain their freedom. But when they release an eldritch power that has slept undisturbed for generations, and they run into the former lover of the wizard they are escaping, they might just discover there are worse threats out there than the Phantom Garbage Wizard they fled.

Aelis de Lenti from The Warden by Daniel M. Ford – Aimless 20-something Garbage

Aelis had a plan. First, attain connections. Great, check one, she’s actually got those, wow. Second, gain prestige by graduating from the Magister’s Lyceum? Got that too. And like many Aimless 20-something Garbage-entities of any vocation, this is where everything falls apart. What does she do now? Performing local community necromancy at her assigned post in a rural mountain forest did not have a place in her two-step plan. But she’ll do it—aimlessly she will, and she’ll drink a little too. And complain. And this is where and how perilous adventure will find her.

Harrow from Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – Goth Garbage

The second part of the Locked Tomb series, Harrow the Ninth follows Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the last necromancer of the Ninth House, and truly the Gothest Garbage Wizard to exist. After Harrow is drafted by the Emperor into an unwinnable war along with her detested rival, Harrow has to perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath. But her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her. Is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?

Red King from Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence Series – Recyclable Garbage

In this collection of the first five books of the Craft Sequence, the Red King is the Recyclable Garbage Wizard that keeps coming back for more. In a world where souls are currency, cities are powered by the fallen gods, necromantic law firms, and warrior priests exist, The Red King and Red King Consolidated continue to insert themselves into where the characters least expect – and perhaps, least want.

And check out Dead Country, Gladstone’s recent return to the world of the Craft, and a great new entry point into his mythos!

Kell from V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic Series – Insufferable Garbage

The most Insufferable of Garbage Wizards, Kell has the rare ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Kell works a double life as an ambassador to the Maresh Empire and travels between all Londons, but also as a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. When Kell discovers new perilous magic, the once precarious balance of power among the four Londons might just reach its breaking point.

AND make sure to check out The Fragile Threads of Power, Schwab’s forthcoming and much-anticipated return to the world that began in the Shades of Magic!

What type of Garbage Wizard is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

Video / What's New

Happy Birthday, Addie! V. E. Schwab Visits the Tor Books Office

March 10, 2023May 17, 2024a cat

Happy Birthday, Addie! Hope your celebration day is unforgettable <3

Here at the Tor office, we’re showing our appreciation for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue with a special visit from V. E. Schwab. Check her out as she talks about the writing process, the new paperback edition, and more.

The Writing Process of Addie LaRue

Favorite Characters of Addie LaRue

The Paperback of Addie LaRue

The Movie of Addie LaRue

BookTok & Addie LaRue

Rapid Q&A!

Pre-order The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue in Paperback Here:

Fantasy Firsts / Lists / What's New

The Walter Whites of Fantasy

October 14, 2020May 1, 2024Rachel Taylor

Some fantasy protagonists aren’t in the hero business, they’re in the EMPIRE business.

AMC’s Breaking Bad set the gold standard for protagonist turned antagonist with Walter White, the dopey science teacher turned criminal mastermind slash violent drug lord (which I’m pretty sure is what his business card said, or would say, if criminal masterminds slash violent drug lords had business cards).

But the fantasy genre has plenty of Walter Whites as well. Though they may not run a meth lab out of the back of an RV, they’ve betrayed just as many of their closest friends, and caused just as many explosions. Here’s a run-down of some of our favorites, who either turned from good/neutral to evil throughout a book series, or villains who were revealed to have gone through such a transformation before the main story started (Walter Whites of their own narratives).

As you can imagine, this post will have some mild spoilers, but we’ve done our best to keep them as light as possible. Unlike these characters’ misdeeds.

By Julia Bergen

Baru Cormorant, from The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Baru starts out even more innocent than Walter White did, and though the series isn’t finished yet, she’s well on her way to becoming even more brutal. The series begins with Baru as a happy child who has faced little adversity, living in a picturesque sea-side village with her mother and two fathers. When an empire shows up, kills one of her fathers, and starts a harsh rule that outlaws the most important parts of Bau’s life, she vows to rise up within the empire’s ranks and bring them down from within. What sets Baru apart from most fantasy characters with this same goal is that she is forced to do some truly awful things and changes as a person because of them. By the time this series is over, it seems likely she will have no problem busting out the ricin poison.

Daenerys Targaryen, from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

To be fair, I’m basing this from the TV series since the book series hasn’t finished Daenery’s story, but even in the books you can start to see Martin setting Daenerys up to go full Walter White. Getting what you want by fire and blood doesn’t generally end in a tea party. Daenerys starts out as a teenage girl living in exile, married off for political reasons, who just wants to live a safe, happy life. Throughout the events of the books, we see her come into her own power, first becoming the leader of a Dothraki army, then queen of the city of Meereen. Along the way she executes many, often using her dragons, and though her victims generally deserve it, it’s easy to see how burning people alive when necessary could get out of hand fast. If Daenerys thought letting someone choke on their own vomit would be for the greater good, she would totally do it.

Holland Vosijk, from the Shades of Magic series by V. E. Schwab

Oh, Holland. He’s had such a hard life. He starts out as the main antagonist of A Darker Shade of Magic, but throughout the trilogy we learn so much more about his backstory, and how his actions were not always within his control. As the series goes on, details of Holland’s life before his ill-fated meeting with the Dane siblings reveal that he used to be optimistic and kind-hearted, even on the cruel streets of White London. He does get something of a redemption, but that just makes him even more like Walter White (if you accept that the last few episodes weren’t a dream). Still, he does a lot of genuinely evil things, and happily lets other people die if it means getting what he wants.

The Lord Ruler, from the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

When we meet The Lord Ruler he’s in his final Walter White mega-evil phase. He’s a brutal king, using harsh punishments to prop up the noble houses and keep everyone else destitute. However, throughout the series it turns out that some of the things The Lord Ruler had done had actually been part of a much larger conflict between forces older than history. And he hadn’t always been a vicious dictator. At the beginning, he had wanted to save the world, but that came at a price he couldn’t imagine. The Lord Ruler may have actually been more vicious than Walter White, though part of that was supernatural forces upping his evil quotient.

The King in Red, from The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone

The King in Red definitely paints a more evil image than Walter White – it’s hard to imagine something more menacing than a skeleton in a red cloak, especially one with the ability to create a dragon fueled by the souls of his debtors, even if Bryan Cranston did master the evil glare. The King in Red wasn’t always a heartless overlord, though. The books heavily imply that once he was just a powerful craftsman in loving relationship. It wasn’t until the gods killed his boyfriend that he became obsessed with destroying them, and then once that was basically fully accomplished, ruling in their place. The King in Red would definitely agree that he’s in the empire business.

What's New

Our Favorite Pirate Fantasies

September 18, 2019May 2, 2024torforge11 Comments

By Alison Bunis

Two things we love: pirates and fantasy. So you know what’s even better? When we can get them together in a good old fashioned pirate fantasy adventure.

If you’re a longtime fan of this genre, you’ll find some exciting new reads and a few old favorites to revisit on this list. And if you’ve never cracked open a pirate fantasy book before―what are you waiting for? It’s got pirates and fantasy!

At Death’s Door by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Curl up with the latest in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Deadman’s Cross saga, an epic pirate fantasy perfect for her millions of Dark-Hunter fans. Welcome to the latest Deadmen’s Quest…

Valynda Moore was born cursed. So when she dies as the result of a spell gone wrong and is trapped in the body of a voodoo doll, she expects nothing else from her messed up life. Until the leader of the Hellchasers offers her a chance at redemption. She will join the crew of Deadmen on the Sea Witch and fight demons.
Easy enough? But nothing is ever easy for Valynda, and she must keep her wits about her or be denied her salvation and forced to watch as the entire world falls into the hands of absolute evil.

Dark Shores by Danielle L. Jensen

This book has it all: adventure on the high seas, blackmail, thrills, meddling gods…Teriana was the second mate of the Quincense pirate ship, and heir to the people who keep the secrets of their world’s treacherous seas―until she broke her people’s mandate to help her closest friend escape an unwanted betrothal. Marcus is the commander of the notorious Thirty-Seventh legion, and has helped the Empire conquer the entire East―but he has a secret he’ll risk his life―and the world―to protect. When the two are forced into an alliance, they must decide how far they’re willing to go for a conquest they didn’t choose…

The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab

No pirate fantasy list is complete without mentioning Lila Bard from V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series. When we first meet her in A Darker Shade of Magic, Lila is a pickpocket with a secret and a lot of ambition: one day, she’ll have her own ship. But first, she meets Kell, one of the last magicians with the coveted abilities to travel between parallel Londons: Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Grey London native Lila doesn’t know the parallel worlds exist until she robs Kell and then saves him from a deadly enemy. With new worlds at her fingertips, Lila’s not staying home―what kind of pirate would she be if she did?

Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica

Interested in some political intrigue with your pirates? How about a portal to a hidden world? Child of a Hidden Sea checks both boxes and then some. One minute, Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley. The next, she’s in the warm and salty waters of an unfamiliar world: Stormwrack, a series of island nations with a variety of cultures and economies, all in the middle of a political firestorm…and where everyone seems to know who she is, but nobody wants her to stay. With the help of a ship captain who would rather she’d never arrived, Sophie must navigate Stormwrack’s seas and treacherous politics, and win the right to decide her own destiny.

Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe was a towering master of fantasy and science fiction. He won award upon award, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and he was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2012. So it would be absolutely ridiculous of us to not include his contribution to the pirate fantasy oeuvre on this list. Pirate Freedom is the story of a young boy, Chris, who leaves a monastery in Cuba and finds himself in a world much harder than the one he remembers: a world where slaves are sold at auction, and the Spanish, French, and English are all battling for supremacy. When he’s offered the chance to work on a ship in exchange for food and a bit of money, Chris takes it, and so begins his life as a pirate. But as with all Gene Wolfe books, things are never quite as simple as they seem.

The Queen of Swords by R. S. Belcher

Maude Stapleton, one of the most popular characters from The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana, gets an adventure of her own, and it’s just as pirate-filled as we’d hoped. Respectable widow Maude is raising her daughter all by herself. But like any self-respecting respectable widow, she’s got a secret: Maude belongs to an ancient order of assassins, the Daughters of Lilith, and is the heir to the legacy of the infamous pirate queen Anne Bonney. And when her daughter is kidnapped, Maude will do anything to get her missing child back―even get in the middle of a secret war between the Daughters of Lilith and their monstrous, inhuman enemies the Sons of Typhon, or follow in Anne Bonney’s footsteps on a perilous voyage that leads to the Father of All Monsters…

Pacifica by Kristin Simmons

This one leans a little more sci-fi than fantasy, but a pirate is a pirate, so let’s not get too nitpicky. Instead, sink into the romance and perhaps the ocean (it covers the world) of Pacifica. It’s a polluted, dilapidated world, so no wonder when five hundred lucky lottery winners are offered the chance to leave their homes behind and be the first to settle in an island paradise with blue skies, green grass, and clear ocean water, everyone jumps at the chance. It sounds perfect. Except Marin Carey spent her childhood on those seas and knows there’s no island paradise out there. She’s pirate royalty, like her father and his father before him, and she knows a con when she sees one. So where are the First Five Hundred really going?

Lists

SFF Restaurants and Bars We Want to Go To

September 6, 2019May 2, 2024torforge80 Comments

By Julia Bergen

There are tons of reasons to want to live inside your favorite SFF novel, but have you ever considered what restaurants and bars you would hit up? Let’s take a tour of the best ones!

First stop: The Sol Majestic from The Sol Majestic by Ferrett Steinmetz

Why we’re going: THE FOOD

We’re starting at the most delicious restaurant in space, The Sol Majestic! Located on the aptly named Savor Station (have you ever heard of a space station that sounds so delicious?), The Sol Majestic doesn’t just let anyone eat there. People line up to be selected, and then the owner, Paulius, decides who is worthy of tasting his elite cuisine, based on how they answer the question, “Why do you love food?” Some days he doesn’t even let anyone in. You’ve never tasted dishes like these before, as the technology simply doesn’t exist yet. Paulius specializes in extremely difficult to produce ingredients, like mosses from asteroids and seafood raised in vinegar oceans. Okay, maybe those don’t sound delicious, but we’re dying to try them!

Second Stop: The Bumble Bee Cabaret from Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly

Why we’re going: Jazz Age Perfection

We can get a nice cocktail at The Bumble Bee Cabaret, and take in a show. What could be better? Especially when that show is political intrigue. The Bumble Bee’s emcee, Aristide, is also a smuggler, and having an affair with secret operative Cyrio De Paul. The scandal! Throughout Amberlough, The Bee is portrayed as a bright, sparkling atmosphere, contrasting it to the dark underbelly of political factions throughout the city. The best kind of restaurant is one where you can go and escape from the world, and the glittering, gin-swilling world of The Bumble Bee Cabaret is just that.

Third Stop: MacAnally’s Pub from The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher

Why we’re going: See some Fae PLUS Mac’s cooking

Designated neutral ground by the feuding factions of Chicago’s supernatural world, this is one of the only spots in the city (or anywhere, for that matter) where you can see a queen of the fey enjoying a lemonade a few stools down from a werewolf going to town on a steak sandwich. Everything in the bar is designed to defuse magical energies, keeping patrons safe from each other’s shenanigans. That’s enough to make this a stop all on its own, but also, everything Mac makes sounds absolutely delicious. It’s no wonder the supernatural community insists on everyone having access to his cooking (and so they can have neutral ground for discussions, but you know it’s more about the food). His steak sandwich absolutely sounds worth risking an encounter with a vampire over.

Fourth Stop: Milliways from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

Why we’re going: The view

Also known as the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, we’re going here to witness the end of time. Milliways exists at the end of the universe’s timeline, right before everything is destroyed in a reverse Big Bang. Don’t worry, Milliways is in a time loop, so we’ll be safe from actually being disintegrated. The view doesn’t just pertain to the view outside, since the patrons of the restaurant itself are just as interesting to look at, coming from all over space and time to dine here. The food and cocktails are also quite good, including an above average Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, the best drink in the universe. Please limit yourself to just one, we’re only halfway through the tour!

Fifth Stop: The Inn at the Crossroads in A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin

Why we’re going: People watching

There are plenty of places to get an incredible meal in Westeros, but most of them are in the halls of the great houses, where you’ve got just as much chance of having a mouth-watering feast as getting poisoned. We’re much safer hitting up this inn/pub. It goes by various names, and has had various owners as the old ones get murdered (we’re just not going to find a place in Westeros where there’s zero chance of murder), but many major events of Game of Thrones revolve around this place. It’s where Catelyn Stark takes Tyrion Lannister hostage, where Sandor Clegane gets injured in a bar fight, and where Brienne of Tarth has a noteworthy encounter with Lady Stoneheart. We don’t know a lot about the type of food they serve there, though it sounds like typical Westeros smallfolk fair—bland and dry. That’s fine though, we’re going here for who we might run into rather than what they’re serving.

Sixth Stop: The Stone’s Throw/The Setting Sun/The Scorched Bone from the Shades of Magic series by V. E. Schwab

Why we’re going: Maybe an Antari will show up!!

V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy follows the fates of four interconnected Londons. They have very few things in common, but they’re all called London, they’re all on a river, and they all have a tavern at the exact same spot. In our magic-less, Grey London it’s the Stone’s Throw, in the magical Red London it’s The Setting Sun, and in the brutal White London it’s The Scorched Bone. There’s probably a tavern in Black London too, but we don’t talk about Black London. The drinks at The Stone’s Throw are watered down, but it would be worth it to stand in a place that spans four worlds. Plus, Antari, people with immense magical power who can travel between worlds, often frequent all versions of this tavern. We’ll be keeping watch for someone with one all-black eye.