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5 SFF Books Featuring Memorable Trips

by Becky Yeager

Buckle up, readers. Do you hear the call of the road? These authors did, except the routes they have planned involve stops that are decidedly elsewhere. Don’t forget to pack your map.


opens in a new windowPoster Placeholder of - 73Last Exit by Max Gladstone

Have you ever gone on a road trip, had everything go completely wrong, and then decide maybe it’s worth trying that road trip a second time? Ten years ago, Zelda led a band of merry adventurers whose knacks let them travel to alternate realities and battle the black rot that threatened to unmake each world. The group’s center—its heart—was Sal, Zelda’s lover. On their last mission, Sal was lost. And they all fell apart. A decade later, Sal threatens to return, surrounded by the rot. Zelda cannot face this peril alone and needs to reunite the old band. Which brings us to Road Trip 2.0 where the stakes are higher than ever.

opens in a new windowPlaceholder of  -74American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Shadow only wanted to go home when he finally got out of prison. Tragedy leads him to accepting a job offer from a mysterious man named Mr. Wednesday to become his bodyguard. Together they travel across America on a strange road trip. There’s far more than meets the eye to the places they visit and the individuals they meet.

opens in a new windowPlace holder  of - 37The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher

Sometimes the road requires protectors. The Brotherhood of the Wheel descended from a small offshoot of Templars. They are a secret group of knights composed of truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, and others. Their mission is to defend the roads of the world and to guard those who travel on them. Jimmy Aussapile is one such knight. He’s driving a big rig down South when a promise to a ghostly hitchhiker sets him on a quest to find out the terrible truth behind a string of children gone missing all across the country.

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 47Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston

This is one traveling act you won’t want to miss. Redwood and Aiden are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors. At the turn of the 20th century they leave behind George and journey to Chicago, going from a haunted swampland to a “city of the future.” Their adventure is both magical and painful as they deal with trauma, a changing world, and the challenges their own abilities present.

opens in a new windowImage Placeholder of - 83Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha

Road trips are so much more challenging when the terrain involves a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Luckily, mercenary librarians are made of tougher stuff. The prospect of access to the long-lost U.S. Library of Congress is enough to convince Nina, Maya, and Dani to work with the Silver Devils, a rogue group of enhanced ex-soldiers. Together they will deal with numerous perils including no-good biker gangs and the secrets they’re keeping from each other. Now if Nina can avoid falling for the leader of Silver Devils then everything might go off without a hitch.

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$2.99 Ebook Sale: The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher

opens in a new windowImage Placeholder of - 72The ebook edition of opens in a new windowThe Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher is on sale now for only $2.99! This offer will only last for a limited time, so order your copy today.

About The Brotherhood of the Wheel: 

In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon–a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order’s original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.

Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies–any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.

Jimmy Aussapile is one such knight. He’s driving a big rig down South when a promise to a ghostly hitchhiker sets him on a quest to find out the terrible truth behind a string of children gone missing all across the country. The road leads him to Lovina Hewitt, a skeptical Louisiana State Police investigator working the same case and, eventually, to a forgotten town that’s not on any map–and to the secret behind the eerie Black-Eyed Kids said to prowl the highways.

Order Your Copy

opens in a new windowkindle opens in a new windownook opens in a new windowebooks.com opens in a new windowPoster Placeholder of google play- 24 opens in a new windowibooks2 85 opens in a new windowkobo

This sale ends December 4th.

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New Releases: 3/21/17

Here’s what went on sale today!

opens in a new windowThe Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

opens in a new windowPlace holder  of - 30 Our universe is ruled by physics. Faster-than-light travel is impossible—until the discovery of the Flow, an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time, which can take us to other planets around other stars.

Riding the Flow, humanity spreads to innumerable other worlds. Earth is forgotten. A new empire arises, the Interdependency, based on the doctrine that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war—and, for the empire’s rulers, a system of control.

The Flow is eternal—but it’s not static. Just as a river changes course, the Flow changes as well. In rare cases, entire worlds have been cut off from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that the entire Flow is moving, possibly separating all human worlds from one another forever, three individuals—a scientist, a starship captain, and the emperox of the Interdependency—must race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

opens in a new windowFollow Me Down by Sherri Smith

opens in a new windowPlaceholder of  -22 Mia Haas has built her life far from the North Dakota town where she grew up, but when she receives word that her twin brother is missing, she is forced to return home. Back to the people she left behind, the person she used to be, and the secrets she thought she’d buried.

Once hailed as the golden boy of their town, and now a popular high school teacher, Lucas Haas disappears the same day the body of one of his students is pulled from the river. Trying to wrap her head around the rumors of Lucas’s affair with the teen, and unable to reconcile the media’s portrayal of Lucas as a murderer with her own memories of him, Mia is desperate to find another suspect.

All the while, she wonders: If he’s innocent, why did he run?

opens in a new windowNorthern Stars by Glenn Grant & David G. Hartwell

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 40 From the earliest days of modern science fiction, Canada has given readers some of the most important authors in the field–and many of the finest stories. World Fantasy Award-winning editor David G. Hartwell has teamed up with Canadian writer and critic Glenn Grant to compile Northern Stars, an anthology of stories by the writers who have built Canada’s rich science fiction tradition. Now in paperback for the first time, Northern Stars is the definitive overview of science fiction’s northern frontier, a valuable addition to any fan’s library.

opens in a new windowSpymaster by Margaret Weis & Robert Krammes

opens in a new windowPoster Placeholder of - 25 Captain Kate Fitzmaurice was born to sail. She has made a life of her own as a privateer and smuggler. Hired by the notorious Henry Wallace, spymaster for the queen of Freya, to find a young man who claims to be the true heir to the Freyan, she begins to believe that her ship has finally come in.

But no fair wind lasts forever. Soon Kate’s checkered past will catch up to her. It will take more than just quick wits and her considerable luck if she hopes to bring herself—and her crew—through intact.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

opens in a new windowThe Brotherhood of the Wheel by R. S. Belcher

opens in a new windowImage Placeholder of - 29 In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon–a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order’s original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.

Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies–any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.

opens in a new windowNightstruck by Jenna Black

opens in a new window The night is the enemy, and the city of Philadelphia is its deadliest weapon.

Becket is an ordinary teenage girl, wrestling with the upheaval of her parents’ divorce. A studious high school senior, her biggest problems to date have been choosing which colleges to apply to, living up to her parents’ ambitious expectations for her, and fighting her secret crush on her best friend’s boyfriend. But that all changes on the night she tries to save an innocent life and everything goes horribly wrong.

NEW FROM TOR.COM

opens in a new windowChalk by Paul Cornell

opens in a new window Andrew Waggoner has always hung around with his fellow losers at school, desperately hoping each day that the school bullies — led by Drake — will pass him by in search of other prey. But one day they force him into the woods, and the bullying escalates into something more; something unforgivable; something unthinkable.

Broken, both physically and emotionally, something dies in Waggoner, and something else is born in its place.

In the hills of the West Country a chalk horse stands vigil over a site of ancient power, and there Waggoner finds in himself a reflection of rage and vengeance, a power and persona to topple those who would bring him low.

NEW IN MANGA

opens in a new windowA Centaur’s Life Vol. 11 Story & Art by Kei Murayama

opens in a new windowLord Marksman and Vanadis Vol. 3 Story by Tsukasa Kawaguchi; Art by Nobuhiko Yanai

opens in a new windowMerman In My Tub Vol. 6 Story and art by Itokichi

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Tor is at WonderCon 2016!

WonderCon

Tor is at opens in a new windowWonderCon in LA this weekend! See the schedule below to find out where you can find your favorite Tor authors.

Friday, March 25, 2016
opens in a new windowGetting to the Point
12:00p.m. – 1:00p.m. Room: 151
SF/F authors discuss the pointy strategic bits of weapons and battle tactics as their characters battle for causes from the mundane to the sublime.
Featuring: Carrie Vaughn (The Kitty Norville Series), Brian Staveley (Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne series)
Signing to follow, booth #3000

opens in a new windowFuturecasting and Timeline Salad
3:00p.m. – 4:00p.m., Room: 151
Looking at the past, present, and future through different lens and timelines
Featuring: Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky) Greg Van Eekhout (The California Bones series)
Signing to follow, booth #3000

opens in a new windowBuilding Worlds with Words
7:00p.m. – 8:00 p.m , Room: 411
Whether it’s far-flung futures or fantastical stories, the worlds that authors build are complex. How do storytellers create brand new worlds and unexplored universes? What is it like to become an architect for expansive mythos treasured by the masses? What’s the process for developing exciting new protagonists and working with established icons? Join this panel of authors as they discuss how they create their worlds, the process involved in creating nuanced characters and working with licensed properties.
Featuring: V.E. Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows)
Signing to follow, booth #3000

Saturday, March 26, 2016

opens in a new windowMythos Mix-Up
11:00a.m. – 12:00p.m., Room: 151
Centuries of mythology inform our storytelling; how do authors pick and choose what they incorporate and what they alter?
Featuring: Randy Henderson (Arcana Familia series)
Signing to follow, booth #3000

opens in a new windowIt’s a Horrible Life (or UnLife)
2:00p.m. – 3:00p.m., Room: 151
What is it about grim and gritty, dark and dystopian, that readers crave? And how can humor exist in the midst thereof?
Featuring: R.S. Belcher (Brotherhood of the Wheel), Robert Brockway (The Unnoticeables)
Signing to follow, booth #3000

opens in a new windowV.E. Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows) in Conversation with Mark Oshiro
4:30—5:30, Room 152
Signing to follow, booth #3000

Sunday, March 27, 2016

opens in a new windowSpotlight on Carrie Vaughn (The Kitty Norville Series)
12-1 pm, Room 515A.
Signing to follow, booth #3000

opens in a new windowUnexpected Enemies, Unlikely Friends
2:00p.m. – 3:00p.m., Room: 151
Personal and political alliances make for strange bedfellows
Featuring: V.E. Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows)
Signing to follow, booth #3000

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The Mythology of the Road

opens in a new windowArkwright
Written by opens in a new windowR. S. Belcher

Most Urban Fantasies tend to be centered around, well, urban landscapes—vast sprawling cities, tiny hidden shires, small towns—like this little place in the old west I wrote about called opens in a new windowGolgotha. Civilization is an intricate character in so many fantasies, from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s Lankhmar to Sandman Slim’s Los Angeles.

My latest book focuses on another archetypal mythology—just as visceral and human as urban stories—the mythology of the road. At the center of the myth of the road is the wanderer, a traveler who, in taking the hero’s journey, gets in touch with some lost, secret part of themselves or makes some great discovery. From The Canterbury Tales to The Hobbit to Easy Rider, you can see the theme, the mystical transformation of the individual through the crucible of the road.

The road also represents the frontier; the unknown on the other side of that mountain, sea, or continent. Americans have invested a great deal of cultural identity in mobility, a constant hunger for new frontiers to escape a static present. American myth focuses on the road and has made heroes and cultural icons of those who travel upon it, either literately or metaphorically—the frontier explorer, the mountain man, the cowboy, the railroad engineer, the astronaut, the biker, even Kerouac’s Beats and the Hippies that followed them.

In the 70s, truckers joined the ranks of modern folk hero. For a time the country was obsessed with CB radios and the arcane code language professional truckers used over the airwaves. Gear-jamming nomads roaming the asphalt of the interstate in movies like Smokey and the Bandit and Convoy turned a normal blue collar profession into something larger than life.

As a kid of the south, growing up in that era, I recall listening to a CB base station in my mother’s kitchen. I remember sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night to listen, trying to understand the secret code these knights of the wheel spoke to each other as they raced through the darkness. We lived close enough to the interstate to hear the traffic rushing by day or night. Many nights, those sounds were the lullaby that put me to sleep.

There were a ton of urban myths tangential to the highway in the 70s—tall tales of psychopaths with a hook for a hand killing kids in cars, murderous hitchhiking strangers, the Boggy Creek Monster terrorizing a small town, chainsaw-wielding cannibals, Bigfoot, and ghostly hitchhikers uttering apocalyptic prophecy before they vanish.

My new novel, The Brotherhood of the Wheel, explores the horrors and occult secrets of America’s highways. Its heroes are a secret society of truckers, outlaw bikers, and state troopers who protect travelers from roaming serial killers, monstrous urban myths, and the devouring, unknowable things that loom just beyond your headlights.

Buy The Brotherhood of the Wheel today:
opens in a new windowAmazon | opens in a new windowBarnes & Noble | opens in a new windowBooks-a-Million | opens in a new windowiBooks | opens in a new windowIndiebound | opens in a new windowPowell’s

Like R. S. Belcher on opens in a new windowFacebook and follow him on Twitter at opens in a new window@AuthorRSBelcher for updates.

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On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events for March

opens in a new windowRiders by Veronica Rossi opens in a new windowA Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab opens in a new windowCharacter, Driven by David Lubar

opens in a new windowTor/Forge authors are on the road in March! Here is the info on all of our upcoming author events. See who is coming to a city near you!

Charlie Jane Anders, opens in a new windowAll the Birds in the Sky

Tuesday, March 1
Google
Mountain View, CA
2:30 PM

R.S. Belcher, opens in a new windowThe Brotherhood of the Wheel

Thursday, March 3
Fountain Bookstore
Richmond, VA
6:30 PM

Saturday, March 5
Barnes & Noble
Roanoke, VA
2:00 PM

Wednesday, March 9
Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Lexington, KY
7:00 PM

Saturday, March 26
Wondercon
Los Angeles, CA
2:00 PM

Susan Dennard, opens in a new windowTruthwitch

Tuesday, March 1
Half Price Books
Dallas, TX
7:00 PM
Also with Veronica Rossi.

Randy Henderson, opens in a new windowBigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free

Tuesday, March 1
Tattered Cover
Denver, CO
7:00 PM

Tuesday, March 15
Auntie’s Bookstore
Denver, CO
7:00 PM

Wednesday, March 16
Rediscovered Books
Boise, ID
7:00 PM

Glen Hirshberg, opens in a new windowGood Girls

Sunday, March 6
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
3:30 PM

Saturday, March 26
Borderlands Books
San Francisco, CA
3:00 PM

David Lubar, opens in a new windowCharacter, Driven

Saturday, March 5
Emmaus Public Library
Emmaus, PA
5:00 PM
Books provided by Let’s Play Books.

Wednesday, March 9
Anderson’s Bookshop
Naperville, IL
5:00 PM

Thursday, March 10
Joseph Beth Booksellers
Crestview Hills, KY
7:00 PM

Saturday, March 12
Valley Ranch Library
Irving, TX
2:00 PM

Veronica Rossi, opens in a new windowRiders

Tuesday, March 1
Half Price Books
Dallas, TX
7:00 PM
Also with Susan Dennard.

Friday, March 11
Rakestraw Books
Danville, CA
7:00 PM

Wednesday, March 16
Kepler’s Books
Menlo Park, CA
7:00 PM
In conversation with Michael Grant.

Friday, March 18
Books Inc
San Francisco, CA
7:00 PM
Also with Caragh O’Brien and Stephanie Kuehn.

Tuesday, March 22
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
7:00 PM
Also with Kiersten White and Mary E. Pearson.

Lawrence M. Schoen, opens in a new windowBarsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard

Thursday, March 24
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Monday, March 28
Powell’s Books
Beaverton, OR
7:00 PM

V.E. Schwab, opens in a new windowA Gathering of Shadows

Tuesday, March 1
Third Place Books
Lake Forest Park, WA
7:00 PM

Wednesday, March 2
Old Firehouse Books
Fort Collins, CO
7:00 PM

Thursday, March 3
Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

Saturday, March 5
Malaprop’s
Asheville, NC
3:00 PM

Tuesday, March 8
Joseph Beth Booksellers
Lexington, KY
7:00 PM
Also with Gwenda Bond and Julie Kagawa.

Saturday, March 12
Southeastern Young Adult Book Festival
Murfreesboro, TN

Friday, March 18-Sunday, March 20
Virginia Festival of the Book
Charlottesville, VA

Friday, March 25-Sunday, March 27
WonderCon
Los Angeles, CA
Guest of Honor

Kristen Simmons, opens in a new windowThe Glass Arrow

Monday, March 21
University Bookstore
Naperville, IL
7:00 PM

Brian Staveley, opens in a new windowThe Last Mortal Bond

Tuesday, March 15
Phoenix Bookstore
Burlington, VT
6:30 PM

Friday, March 18
Brookline Booksmith
Saratoga Springs
7:00 PM

Thursday, March 24
Brookline Booksmith
Brookline, MA
7:00 PM

Andrea Thalasinos, opens in a new windowFly By Night

Friday, March 4
Mystery to Me Bookstore
Madison, WI
7:00 PM

Sunday, March 6
Arcadia Books
Spring Green, WI
2:00 PM

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New Releases: 3/1/16

Here’s what went on sale today!

opens in a new windowArkwright by Allen Steele

opens in a new windowArkwright by Allen SteeleWritten by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele’s Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy.

  opens in a new windowThe Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher

opens in a new windowThe Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. BelcherIn 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon–a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order’s original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.

Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies–any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.

opens in a new windowCharacter, Driven by David Lubar

opens in a new windowCharacter, Driven by David Lubar

Character, Driven is a powerful and hilarious coming-of-age novel for young adults by acclaimed author David Lubar.

With only one year left of high school, seventeen-year-old Cliff Sparks is desperate to “come of age”—a.k.a., lose his virginity. But he’s never had much luck with girls. So when he falls for Jillian, a new classmate, at first sight, all he can do is worship her from afar. At the same time, Cliff has to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, since he’s pretty sure his unemployed father plans to kick him out of the house the minute he turns eighteen. Time is running out. Cliff is at the edge, on the verge, dangling—and holding on for dear life.

opens in a new windowFly by Night by Andrea Thalasinos

opens in a new windowFly By Night by Andrea ThalasinosOn the same day Greek American marine biologist Amelia Drakos receives word that funding for her beloved Seahorse Laboratory has been cut, she discovers that her deceased father had lived a secret life.

With foreclosure and unemployment looming, as well as the fallout from a brief, confusing love affair, Amelia reluctantly becomes curator for Minnesota’s Mall of America Sea Life Aquarium. At the same time, a string of perplexing e-mails from someone with her late father’s name, Ted Drakos, arrive. Ted claims that he has important information about an inherited property on Lake Superior. And that he is her older brother.

In Fly by Night, Andrea Thalasinos shows that family secrets can jump-start a new way of looking at the world.

NEW FROM TOR.COM:

opens in a new windowThe Devil You Know by K. J. Parker

opens in a new windowThe Devil You Know by K. J. ParkerThe greatest philosopher of all time is offering to sell his soul to the Devil. All he wants is twenty more years to complete his life’s work. After that, he really doesn’t care.

But the assistant demon assigned to the case has his suspicions, because the philosopher is Saloninus-the greatest philosopher, yes, but also the greatest liar, trickster and cheat the world has yet known; the sort of man even the Father of Lies can’t trust.

He’s almost certainly up to something; but what?

NOW IN PAPERBACK:

opens in a new windowFingal O’ Reilly, Irish Doctor by Patrick Taylor

opens in a new windowMadness in Solidar by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

opens in a new windowMark of the Beast by Aldophus A. Anekwe

opens in a new windowRingworld’s Children and Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner

opens in a new windowThe Medicine Horn and Trapper’s Moon by Jory Sherman

opens in a new window1916 by Morgan Llywelyn

NEW IN MANGA:

opens in a new windowDevils and Realist Vol. 8 by Madoka Takadono, art by Utako Yukihiro

opens in a new windowMayo Chiki! Omnibus 4-5 by Hajime Asano, art by Neet

opens in a new windowSee upcoming releases.

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