The Land Across - Tor/Forge Blog

Tor Finalists for the World Fantasy Awards

July 14, 2014May 10, 2024torforge

A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS and THE LAND ACROSS are finalists in the Novel category, and QUEEN VICTORIA’S BOOK OF SPELLS and DANGEROUS WOMEN are a finalists in the Anthology category.

Two Tor authors are being awarded the Life Achievement Award: Ellen Datlow and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and Irene Gallo is a finalist for the Special Award–Professional for art direction for Tor.com.

Tor.com also has two finalists in the Novella category and one in the Short Story category.

Here is the complete list of Tor’s finalists:

Novel: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan and The Land Across by Gene Wolfe
Anthology: Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Novella: “Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10/13) and “Burning Girls” by Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com, 6/13)
Short Story: “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 4/13)
Special Award—Professional: Irene Gallo, for art direction of Tor.com
Winners of the Life Achievement Award: Ellen Datlow and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

This year’s judges are Andy Duncan, Kij Johnson, Oliver Johnson, John Klima, and Liz Williams. Winners will be announced at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention held in Washington, D.C. in November.

What's New

Starred Review: The Land Across

November 12, 2013May 15, 2024torforge

“Wolfe, in masterful mood, builds his characters, explores the puzzles, links the elements together and contrives to render the backdrop both intriguingly attractive and creepily sinister. Sheer enjoyment.”

Gene Wolfe’s The Land Across got a starred review in Kirkus Reviews!

Here’s the full review, from the October 1st issue:

From the accomplished author of Home Fires (2011, etc.), a new fantasy that seamlessly blends mystery, travelogue, authoritarianism and the supernatural.

Grafton, an American travel writer, becomes intrigued by a remote and unnamed Balkan country that chooses to make itself extremely difficult to visit—no flights land there, roads turn back on themselves in the mountains, and so the only way in is by train. But at the border, guards remove him from the train and confiscate his passport and luggage. Instead of prison, though, he’s housed with the surly thug Kleon and his attractive wife, Martya, with the proviso that if Grafton absconds, the police will shoot Kleon. Martya, with whom he’s soon having an affair, tells him of a treasure hidden in an abandoned house. Unfortunately, the house is haunted—confirmed by their discovery of a mummified corpse behind an old mirror. Then, Grafton’s kidnapped by the Legion of the Light and conveyed to the capital, where he agrees to help them broadcast their religious-supernatural philosophy. Soon enough JAKA, the secret police, capture him and throw him in jail, where he finds fellow American Russ Rathaus—apparently some kind of sorcerer who soon manages to escape by unknown means. Grafton realizes that the only way he’ll resolve the situation is by figuring out what’s really going on, so when he’s interrogated by Naala, a senior JAKA agent in pursuit of a thoroughly unpleasant black-magic cult known as the Unholy Way, he agrees to help her. But is Grafton a reliable narrator, and is Rathaus as innocent as he seems? Wolfe, in masterful mood, builds his characters, explores the puzzles, links the elements together and contrives to render the backdrop both intriguingly attractive and creepily sinister.

Sheer enjoyment.

The Land Across will be published on November 26th.

What's New

Starred Review: The Land Across

November 12, 2013May 15, 2024torforge

“Wolfe evokes Kafka, Bradbury, and The Twilight Zone in combining the implausible, creepy, and culturally alien to create a world where every action is motivated by its own internal logic, driving the story forward through the unexplored and incomprehensible.”

Gene Wolfe’s The Land Across got a starred review in Publishers Weekly!

Here’s the full review, from the September 9th issue:

An expedition to write a travel guide lands an American in a nightmare of mystery, espionage, and the supernatural. Grafton, arrested on arrival in an unnamed Eastern European country, is assigned to the custody of a private family. This leads to his involvement in a treasure hunt and a relationship with his married jailer, Martya, with cryptic encounters along the way. Then Grafton is kidnapped by a dissident group, the Legion of the Light, which wants him to make radio broadcasts in English. This involves him in a struggle between the secret police (JAKA), and the Satanist group the Unholy Way. Grafton is glad to meet another American, magical adept Russ Rathaus, but Rathaus’s escape from imprisonment leaves unclear who is pursuing whom, and the disappearance of Martya requires Grafton to figure out what the sides are so he can choose one. Wolfe evokes Kafka, Bradbury, and The Twilight Zone in combining the implausible, creepy, and culturally alien to create a world where every action is motivated by its own internal logic, driving the story forward through the unexplored and incomprehensible.

The Land Across will be published on November 26th.