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Thrilling and Chilling Halloween Reads From TPG!

OUR TIME HAS COME……AGAIN!

What time is that, you ask? The time of October, which means Fall, which means…HALLOWEEN! And yes, we first posted this list LAST Halloween, but we will not be taking questions at this time, thanks.

We’re kicking off the scariest month of the year with some thrilling old, new, and new-in-paperback reads from Tor Publishing Group! Check them out below and let us know which is at the top of your TBR in the comments.


MordewMordew by Alex Pheby by Alex Pheby

God is dead, his corpse hidden in the catacombs beneath Mordew. In the slums of the sea-battered city, a young boy called Nathan Treeves lives with his parents, eking out a meagre existence by picking treasures from the Living Mud and the half-formed, short-lived creatures it spawns. Until one day his desperate mother sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew. The Master derives his magical power from feeding on the corpse of God. But Nathan, despite his fear and lowly station, has his own strength—and it is greater than the Master has ever known. So it is that the Master begins to scheme against him—and Nathan has to fight his way through the betrayals, secrets, and vendettas of the city where God was murdered, and darkness reigns.

Book of Night by Holly Black

Book of Night by Holly BlackCharlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make. She’s spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie Hall. Now, she’s trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but getting out isn’t easy. Bartending at a dive, she’s still entirely too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. Not to mention that her sister Posey is desperate for magic, and that Charlie’s shadowless, and possibly soulless, boyfriend has been hiding things from her. When a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie descends into a maelstrom of murder and lies. Determined to survive, she’s up against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, gloamists, and the people she loves best in the world—all trying to steal a secret that will give them vast and terrible power.

Last Exit by Max GladstoneLast Exit by Max Gladstone

When Zelda and her friends first met, in college, they believed they had all the answers. They had figured out a big secret about how the world worked and they thought that meant they could change things. They failed. One of their own fell, to darkness and rot.Ten years later, they’ve drifted apart, building lives for themselves, families, fortunes. All but Zelda. She’s still wandering the backroads of the nation. She’s still fighting monsters. She knows: the past isn’t over. It’s not even past.The road’s still there. The rot’s still waiting. They can’t hide from it any more. Because, at long last, their friend is coming home. And hell is coming with her.

Just Like Home by Sarah GaileyJust Like Home by Sarah Gailey

“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she’s come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he’d built for his family. Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be? There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.

Black Tide by KC JonesBlack Tide by KC Jones

It was just another day at the beach. Then the world ended. Mike and Beth were strangers before the night of the meteor shower. Chance made them neighbors, a bottle of champagne brought them together, and a shared need for human connection sparked something more. Following their drunken and desperate one-night stand, the two discover the astronomical event has left widespread destruction in its wake. But the cosmic lightshow was only part of something much bigger, and far more terrifying. When a lost car key leaves them stranded on an empty stretch of Oregon coast and inhuman screams echo from the dunes, when the rising tide reaches for their car and unspeakable horrors close in around them, these two self-destructive souls must fight to survive a nightmare of apocalyptic scale.

The Witch in the Well by Camilla BruceThe Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce

When two former friends reunite after decades apart, their grudges, flawed ambitions, and shared obsession swirl into an all-too-real echo of a terrible town legend. Centuries ago, beautiful young Ilsbeth Clark was accused of witchcraft after several children disappeared. Her acquittal did nothing to stop her fellow townsfolk from drowning her in the well where the missing children were last seen. When author and social media influencer Elena returns to the summer paradise of her youth to get her family’s manor house ready to sell, the last thing she expected was connecting with—and feeling inspired to write about—Ilsbeth’s infamous spirit. The very historical figure that her ex-childhood friend, Cathy, has been diligently researching and writing about for years. What begins as a fiercely competitive sense of ownership over Ilsbeth and her story soon turns both women’s worlds into something more haunted and dangerous than they could ever imagine.

The Echo WifeThe Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey by Sarah Gailey

“I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married. It took me so long to hate him.” Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be. And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband. Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up. Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

You Let Me InYou Let Me In by Camilla Bruce by Camilla Bruce

Cassandra Tipp is dead…or is she? After all, the notorious recluse and eccentric bestselling novelist has always been prone to flights of fancy—everyone in town remembers the shocking events leading up to Cassie’s infamous trial (she may have been acquitted, but the insanity defense only stretches so far). Cassandra Tipp has left behind no body—just her massive fortune, and one final manuscript. Then again, there are enough bodies in her past—her husband Tommy Tipp, whose mysterious disembowelment has never been solved, and a few years later, the shocking murder-suicide of her father and brother. Cassandra Tipp will tell you a story—but it will come with a terrible price. What really happened, out there in the woods—and who has Cassie been protecting all along? Read on, if you dare…Get it in paperback now!

Certain Dark ThingsCertain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive its heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized. Atl needs to quickly escape the city, far from the rival narco-vampire clan relentlessly pursuing her. Her plan doesn’t include Domingo, but little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm. Vampires, humans, cops, and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all?

SlewfootSlewfoot by Brom by Brom

Connecticut, 1666. An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector. The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil. To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help.mTogether, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake. “If it is a devil you seek, then it is a devil you shall have!” This terrifying tale of bewitchery features more than two dozen of Brom’s haunting paintings, fully immersing readers in this wild and unforgiving world.

The Last House on Needless StreetThe Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward by Catriona Ward

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

HEXHEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.

The Living DeadThe Living Dead by George A. Romero & Daniel Kraus by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus

It begins with one body. A pair of medical examiners find themselves battling a dead man who won’t stay dead. It spreads quickly. 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.

Nothing But Blackened TeethNothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw by Cassandra Khaw

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

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On the (Digital) Road: Tor Author Events in September 2021

We are in a time of social distancing, but your favorite Tor authors are still coming to screens near you in the month of September! Check out where you can find them here.

Christopher Paolini, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

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Monday, September 6
A Room of One’s Own, in conversation with J. S. Dewes
Crowdcast
7:00 PM ET

Tuesday, September 14
In conversation with Jay Kristoff, multiple venues
Zoom
7:00 PM PT

Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead

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Tuesday, September 7
University Bookstore, in conversation with Colleen O’Halloran
Zoom
6:00 PM PT

Kit Rocha, The Devil You Know

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Wednesday, September 8
Love’s Sweet Arrow/Tubby & Coos, in conversation with Jessie Mihalik & Jeaniene Frost
Crowdcast
TBD

TJ Klune, Under the Whispering Door

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Wednesday, September 22
Anderson’s Bookshop
Zoom
8:00 PM ET

Thursday, September 23
An Unlikely Story, in conversation with V. E. Schwab
Crowdcast
6:00 PM ET

Friday, September 24
Loyalty Books
TBD
8:00 PM ET

Thursday, September 30
Charis Books, in conversation with Ryka Aoki
Sign Up
7:30 PM ET

Alex Pheby, Mordew

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Monday, September 27
Mysterious Galaxy, in conversation with Christopher Buehlman
Crowdcast
9:00 PM ET

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On the (Digital) Road: Tor Author Events in November

We are in a time of social distancing, but your favorite Tor authors are still coming to screens near you in the month of November! Check out where you can find them here:

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

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Wednesday, November 11
Tor After Dark: NaNoWriMo Edition
Instagram
5:00 PM ET

Monday, November 16
Macmillan Library Happy Hour
Crowdcast
4:00 PM ET

Saturday, November 21
Miami Book Fair, in conversation with Leigh Bardugo
Books & Books
2:00 PM ET

Brandon Sanderson, Rhythm of War

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Tuesday, November 17
Rhythm of War Launch Event
Sign Up Here
8:00 PM ET

Wednesday, November 25
Tor After Dark: NaNoWriMo Edition
Instagram
7:00 PM ET

Christopher Paolini, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

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Wednesday, November 18
Tor After Dark: NaNoWriMo Edition
Instagram
7:00 PM ET

Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead

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Saturday, November 21
FanNation: THE LIVING DEAD: Daniel Kraus on the legacy of George A. Romero
More Information Here
1:00 PM ET

Kit Rocha, Deal with the Devil

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Monday, November 30
River Dog Book Co. and The Briar Patch
Register Here
7:00 PM ET

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Spooky SFF to Read This Halloween

What is that we hear? Is that…a bump in the night? A whisper in our ears? We think that means Halloween is approaching, and we’re embracing all the chills and thrills with our favorite spooky SFF novels. Check out our list of books that put a shiver down our spines here…if you dare.


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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.

Image Place holder  of - 57HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.

Image Placeholder of - 41The Toll by Cherie Priest

Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon and have reservations in the Okefenokee Swamp cabins for a canoeing trip. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge with old stone pilings, with room for only one car. Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. Melanie is missing. When he calls the police, they tell him there is no such bridge on Route 177….

Poster Placeholder of - 67Burn the Dark by S. A. Hunt

Robin is a YouTube celebrity gone-viral with her intensely-realistic witch hunter series. But even her millions of followers don’t know the truth: her series isn’t fiction. Her ultimate goal is to seek revenge against the coven of witches who wronged her mother long ago. Returning home to the rural town of Blackfield, Robin meets friends new and old on her quest for justice. But then, a mysterious threat known as the Red Lord interferes with her plans….

Placeholder of  -37I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth…but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones returns with Night of the Mannequins, a contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

The city of Elendhaven sulks on the edge of the ocean. Wracked by plague, abandoned by the South, stripped of industry and left to die. But not everything dies so easily. A thing without a name stalks the city, a thing shaped like a man, with a dark heart and long pale fingers yearning to wrap around throats. A monster who cannot die. His frail master sends him out on errands, twisting him with magic, crafting a plan too cruel to name, while the monster’s heart grows fonder and colder and more cunning.

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On the (Digital) Road: Tor Author Events in September

We are in a time of social distancing, but your favorite Tor authors are still coming to screens near you in the month of September! Check out where you can find them here:

Gregory Benford and Larry Niven, Glorious

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Wednesday, September 2
Second Life
More Information Here
12:00 PM PT

Jenn Lyons, The Memory of Souls, Ryan Van Loan, The Sin in the Steel

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Wednesday, September 2
Gibson’s Bookstore, in conversation with Andrea Hairston
Zoom
7:00 PM ET

David Mack, The Shadow Commission

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Thursday, September 3
Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop
Streamyard
6:00 PM CT

Christopher Paolini, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

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Tuesday, September 15
Barnes & Noble, in conversation with Tad Williams
Register Here
7:00 PM CT

Wednesday, September 16
Doylestown Bookshop, in conversation with Chuck Wendig
Crowdcast
7:00 PM ET

Friday, September 18
Anderson’s Bookshop, in conversation with Jennifer Hale
Register Here
7:00 PM CT

Sunday, September 20
Cuyahoga Public Library, in conversation with John Scalzi
Register Here
7:00 PM CT

Monday, September 21
Quail Ridge Books, in conversation with Pierce Brown
Register Here
7:00 PM ET

Tuesday, September 22
Left Bank Books, in conversation with Ann Leckie
Register Here
7:00 PM CT

Thursday, September 24
Hicklebee’s Books, SFF Writing Class
Register Here
10:00 PM ET

Friday, September 25
King’s English, in conversation with Brandon Sanderson
Register Here
9:00 PM ET

Saturday, September 26
Tattered Cover, Nerd Trivia Night hosted by Paolini
Register Here
9:00 PM ET

Sunday, September 27
Third Place Books, in conversation with James Rollins
Register Here
10:00 PM ET

John Scalzi, The Last Emperox

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Wednesday, September 16
Cuyahoga County Library in conversation with Terry Virts
Zoom
7:00 PM ET

Jenn Lyons, The Memory of Souls, Brian Naslund, Sorcery of a Queen

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Thursday, September 24
Towne Book Center
Zoom
7:00 PM ET

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The Lasting Legacy of George A. Romero: A Conversation with Tom Savini and Daniel Kraus

George A. Romero invented the modern zombie in his seminal film, Night of the Living Dead. Without Romero, there would be no World War Z, no The Walking Dead. Two of Romero’s biggest admirers and collaborators join together for a candid conversation on the themes, ideas and messages behind the legend’s greatest work: “The Godfather of Gore” Tom Savini (special effects artist, actor, director, stunt man, teacher, mentor) and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water), who has posthumously completed the zombie novel Romero left behind when he passed in 2017. The newly released The Living Dead (August 4, 2020), is a story of the zombie plague, from first rising to the fall of humankind – and beyond. This conversation was moderated by film critic Walter Chaw.


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Order The Living Dead Here:

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On the (Digital) Road: Tor Author Events in August

We are in a time of social distancing, but your favorite Tor authors are still coming to screens near you in the month of August! Check out where you can find them here:

Kit Rocha, Deal with the Devil

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Tuesday, August 4
Tor After Dark
Instagram Live
7:00 PM ET

Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead

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Tuesday, August 4
Powell’s in conversation with Mary Roach
Zoom
6:00 PM PT

Wednesday, August 5
Book Soup in conversation with Grady Hendrix
Crowdcast
6:00 PM PT’

Thursday, August 6
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, in conversation with Josh Malerman
Crowdcast
7:00 PM PT

Tuesday, August 11
Anderson’s Bookshop, in conversation with Megan Abbott
Zoom
8:30 PM CT

Wednesday, August 12
Doylestown Bookshop, reading and Q & A with Gabino Iglesias
Zoom
6:30 PM ET

Thursday, August 20
Fountain Bookstore, in Conversation with Stephanie Kuehn
Register here
6:00 PM ET

Mary Robinette Kowal, The Relentless Moon

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Wednesday, August 5
University Bookstore in conversation with Fonda Lee
Zoom
6:00 PM PT

Friday, August 7
Poisoned Pen, in conversation with Pat King
Zoom
8:00 PM ET

Saturday, August 8
Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester
Zoom
2:00 PM ET

John Scalzi, The Last Emperox

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Thursday, August 6
Kepler’s in conversation with Lindsay Ellis
Zoom
4:00 PM ET

Mary Robinette Kowal, The Relentless Moon and Kate Elliott, Unconquerable Sun

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Thursday, August 6
Riverstone Books, authors in conversation
Zoom
7:00 PM ET

Brian Naslund, Sorcery of a Queen, Curtis Craddock, The Last Uncharted Sky

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Tuesday, August 11
Old Firehouse Books, authors in conversation
Register here
7:00 PM MT

David Mack, The Shadow Commission

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Thursday, August 13
Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop
Streamyard
6:00 PM CT

Lavie Tidhar, By Force Alone

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Sunday, August 16
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, in conversation with Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Crowdcast
1:00 PM PT

Saturday, August 22
Chevalier’s Books in conversation with Ian McDonald
Register Here
12:00 PM ET

Gregory Benford and Larry Niven, Glorious

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Thursday, August 20
Midtown Reader
Register Here
6:00 PM ET

Jenn Lyons, The Memory of Souls

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Tuesday, August 25
Read It Again Books
Streamyard
7:00 PM ET

Wednesday, August 26
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore
Zoom
7:00 PM PT

Friday, August 28
Toadstool Bookshop
4:00 PM ET

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The Undead Never Die: Our Favorite Undead SFF Novels

The Undead Never Die: Our Favorite Undead SFF Novels

Is anyone else having a Spooky Reading Summer? We’re so excited for all of these new horror books hitting our shelves, especially The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus! To celebrate its release, check out our list of other undead sci-fi/fantasy novels. They’ll give you the chills you need to fight this summer heat.


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The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus

New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus completes George A. Romero’s brand-new masterpiece of zombie horror, the massive novel left unfinished at Romero’s death! Set in the present day, The Living Dead is an entirely new tale, the story of the zombie plague as George A. Romero wanted to tell it.

Place holder  of - 20The Rains by Gregg Hurwitz

From the New York Times bestselling author of Orphan X and comics in the BatmanWolverine, and Punisher universes comes this relentlessly thrilling adventure perfect for fans of The Walking Dead and The 5th Wave. A Hollywood screenwriter, developer, and producer (VThe Book of HenryBlack Flags), Gregg Hurwitz brings his cinematic flair to this suspenseful new tale.

Image Placeholder of - 33I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth…but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

Poster Placeholder of - 80The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde. Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni’s stepson, Jason, from an infected campground. They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town. There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form.

Placeholder of  -90World War Z by Max Brooks

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the pandemic.

image-37326Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland’s stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.

 

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Announcing Tor Books Programming at San Diego Comic-Con @ Home 2020!

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Tor Books is heading to San Diego Comic-Con @ Home 2020!​

San Diego Comic-Con has gone virtual this year, and while we’re sad not to see all of our amazing fans and readers in person, we are so excited to join this year’s virtual convention! Tor Books and Tor.com Publishing are proud to announce our list of virtual programming starting on July 23. See below for our digital panels, and don’t forget to check out our virtual booth at #2701!

To learn more about SDCC @ Home 2020, find the website here, and follow the #TorSDCC2020 hashtag on Twitter for updates from the show!

Thursday, July 23

3:00-4:00 PM PT

Brandon Sanderson Spotlight

#1 New York Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson returns with the newest book in his Stormlight Archive series, Rhythm of War, coming in November from Tor Books, and eagerly anticipated by his devoted legions of readers around the world. Join Sanderson as he gives an exclusive preview of this latest volume in the addictive epic fantasy series and answers some burning questions from fans!

Warning: there may be some spoilers!

For more info on Sanderson, Rhythm of War, his upcoming graphic novel from Vault Comics, and what other books might be on the horizon, please visit www.brandonsandeson.com.

Friday, July 24

5:00-6:00 PM PT

The Living Dead: Celebrating the Legacy of George Romero

George A. Romero invented the modern zombie with Night of the Living Dead, creating a monster that has become a key part of pop culture.Unfortunately, when he died, his last, epic story was incomplete. Enter Daniel Kraus, co-author, with Guillermo del Toro, of the New York Times bestseller The Shape of Water (based on the same idea the two created for the Academy Award-winning movie) and many other works of horror and suspense.  A lifelong Romero fan, Kraus was honored to be asked by Romero’s widow Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, to complete The Living Dead. The Living Dead will be released from Tor in August, but come join Kraus, Desrocher-Romero, and moderator Richard Newby (The Hollywood Reporter) for a sneak peak, as they discuss the book and the legacy of George A. Romero.

Visit here for a special poster when you preorder the book.

Saturday, July 25

11:00 AM-12:00 PM PT

The Official Dune Publishing Panel

Bestselling science fiction authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson discuss the exciting new Dune graphic novels, comics, and original novels coming out this fall. Joined by their editors, Herbert and Anderson will discuss content from their past and upcoming projects, including Frank Herbert’s masterpiece Dune (Ace) with senior editor Jessica Wade, the graphic novel adaptation of Frank Herbert’s masterpiece, Dune: The Graphic Novel, Book 1 (Abrams ComicArts), with editor Charlotte Greenbaum, the prequel trilogy of books beginning with Dune: House Atreides (Del Rey), with executive editor Anne Groell, the prequel comic series Dune: House Atreides (BOOM! Studios) with company CEO & founder Ross Richie, and Dune: The Duke of Caladan (TOR), with editor Christopher Morgan.

12:00-1:00 PM PT

Calling All Book Lovers: A Sneak Peek at New Books from Tor, Tor Teen and Tor.com Publishing

From Brandon Sanderson to V.E. Schwab, from Tamsyn Muir to Martha Wells, Tor publishes some of the greatest sci-fi, fantasy, and horror stories around. This will be a panel to shine a spotlight on some of the exciting books that Tor, Nightfire, Tor Teen, and Tor.com Publishing have to offer. Join the book lovers from the Tor team as they share a sneak peek at new and upcoming SFF, and updates from fan-favorite authors, as well opportunities to win some fabulous freebies.

Visit bit.ly/torSDCC for more information on our books and authors.

Sunday, July 26

1:00-2:00 PM PT

Tor Teen: Own Your Magic

From journeying under the stars to learning what makes you extraordinary, join Tor Teen authors TJ Klune (The Extraordinaries), Mark Oshiro (Each of Us a Desert), Bethany C. Morrow (A Song Below Water), Sarah Henning (The Princess Will Save You), and Charlie Jane Anders (Victories Greater than Death) as they discuss the power behind owning your magic. There’s no limit to what might happen when one begins to bend the rules.

Visit bit.ly/torSDCC for more on all these authors and some fun surprises!

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Excerpt: The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus

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Poster Placeholder of - 60George A. Romero invented the modern zombie with Night of the Living Dead, creating a monster that has become a key part of pop culture. Romero often felt hemmed in by the constraints of film-making. To tell the story of the rise of the zombies and the fall of humanity the way it should be told, Romero turned to fiction. Unfortunately, when he died, the story was incomplete.

Enter Daniel Kraus, co-author, with Guillermo del Toro, of the New York Times bestseller The Shape of Water (based on the Academy Award-winning movie) and Trollhunters (which became an Emmy Award-winning series), and author of The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (an Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year). A lifelong Romero fan, Kraus was honored to be asked, by Romero’s widow, to complete The Living Dead.

Set in the present day, The Living Dead is an entirely new tale, the story of the zombie plague as George A. Romero wanted to tell it.

It begins with one body.

A pair of medical examiners find themselves battling a dead man who won’t stay dead.

It spreads quickly.

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.

Please enjoy this excerpt of The Living Dead, available 08/04/20.


No Teeth

The playground area felt recently deserted, the hanging mist smudged, the stomped leaves expanding. Muddy shoe prints spotted across sidewalks before getting lost in asphalt. Greer tracked one set of prints up the steps of Señorita Magdalena’s single-wide, from which gurgled Spanish—urgent from Magdalena, guttural from José Frito, ornamented by the cries of the children. Greer tuned it out and turned around.

The bloody handprint on her trailer-door window was accompanied by a second near the dryer vent, the size of a man’s hand. Drasko Zorić, maybe? Had the Serbian injured himself? A garish red stripe was smeared along the vinyl siding all the way to the trailer’s end. The mist was reducing the blood to a rose-colored wash. Greer exhaled and kept her phone at the ready. You didn’t risk being marked as a narc by calling police to the Last Resort for minor injuries. Drasko Zorić, or whoever the injured person was, wasn’t in sight. Greer couldn’t act yet.

She studied the playground through the rain, feeling the ghosts of happiness past. The swing set was a gallows of dangling chains. Only the merry-go-round’s base had survived metal collectors: a sharp steel disc littered with doll disembowelments. Two spring riders, a pelican and cockatoo, flopped listlessly, their aluminum bodies dented by children enraged by their impotence. Only the rusty climbing dome remained intact. It looked like a whale skeleton stripped of hide and blubber.

A woman lay in the leaves beneath it.

Greer called automatically: “Daddy?”

A response came, but not from Freddy Morgan: “Girl! Girl!”

It sounded so much like bullets Greer ducked. The call came from an old but freshly waxed sedan ripping down the road in excess of the posted 5 mph, wet asphalt hissing beneath its tires. Its grille bashed a plastic trash bin, sending garbage all over the road and peppering Greer with coffee grounds. The car skidded to a halt.

Mr. Villard leaned over the passenger seat toward a window rolled down an inch. Mr. Villard was fastidious in every respect, but today his hairpiece hung like a patch over an eye. His right hand spread mud over the passenger seat.

“Get out,” he said. “Everyone’s gone mad.”

“Have you seen my dad?”

“Get clear of the whole park. If you can’t, get inside your unit and lock the door.”

“Is it . . .” Greer searched for sense. “Gangs?”

“There’s no time! Do what I say!”

“Freddy Morgan,” she pressed. “He’s part of your club—”

“There is no fucking club anymore! Don’t bother me with this shit! I have to go!”

It was the spit on Mr. Villard’s chin that froze the liquid terror of Greer’s veins. She felt exposed, like the gray rain had fingers longer than Mr. Villard’s. No smart girl got into a car with a man she hardly knew, but her growing sense was normal rules no longer applied. She pulled on the passenger door handle. It rebounded with a clunk: locked. Greer looked disbelievingly at Mr. Villard.

“Let me in,” she said.

He drew back as if she were festering with disease.

It was the most chilling moment of her life.

“The Syrians.” Mr. Villard’s voice broke. “These Syrians show up and now this? You think that’s a coincidence?” He bared teeth that looked ready to bite. “This used to be a nice place.”

There came a crash. Greer and Mr. Villard turned in unison to see Señorita Magdalena’s trailer swaying upon its cinder block joists as if it contained brawling bears. Also from inside: screaming, fleshy thumps, shattering glass.

Greer risked Mr. Villard’s incisors and pushed her fingers through the car window’s gap. “Don’t leave me here.”

“Let go of my car!” he screeched. “Black bitch, I’ll tear your fingers off!”

Greer retracted fast enough to bloody her knuckles, but felt nothing. This was Mr. Villard. President of the Sunnybrook Club. Who’d proclaimed it a travesty when someone destroyed all the black lives matter signs. His tires spun, and the car sprang forward, walloping a second trash bin. Greer retreated into the playground, watching the car take out a plinth of mailboxes. Behind her, the cries from Señorita Magdalena’s trailer rose to tortured moans.

Greer repeated Mr. Villard’s only sensible words: “Get out.”

A miserable lowing made her turn to the climbing dome. The woman under it was struggling. Bare brown arms extended from a cotton nightdress insufficient for the autumn chill. Greer couldn’t leave the woman there in the rain. She confirmed 911 was still a thumb-tap away and jogged closer, carefully avoiding the fulcrum of a missing seesaw. Extending twenty inches from the ground, the post had tripped hundreds of kids.

It was Mama Shaw. Seventysomething years old, she was a Sunnybrook Club regular and the least valuable of the lot. Her mellifluous Jamaican accent demanded attention, which was unfortunate, considering the non sequiturs of her input. If Mr. Villard’s topic was beautification, she’d bewail the devil music coming from adjacent homes. If the club was discussing clamping down on prostitution, she’d lament all the dog poop. These interjections always came from Mama Shaw’s bedroom, so close to the playground she needed only lean out the window, cigarette in hand, to participate. Until this moment, Greer had forgotten the reason Mama Shaw stayed inside.

Her legs had been amputated two years ago.

Diabetic infection, Greer had heard. She’d seen hospital orderlies loading the legless woman into a medical van via stretcher. Once, Greer had been fetching mail when they’d arrived, and though she’d averted her eyes from the sight of Mama Shaw plated like a steak, she’d heard the orderlies crack jokes as if the woman they carried were already dead and couldn’t hear. There’d been a certain archness to how they’d said Their and They.

“If I were these people,” one said, “I’d stay at the hospital as long as I could.”

“Hey, we’re Their personal valets,” said the other. “Maybe They’re smarter than They seem.”

Now Mama Shaw was outside, facedown, her nightdress revealing her thigh stumps. The grass beneath the dome long ago had been scuffed away; mud oozed between Mama Shaw’s squeezing fists. Greer looked around and absorbed the evidence: rain-diluted splashes of blood along Mama Shaw’s trailer steps and a luge-like furrow carved through wet leaves. Mama Shaw hadn’t been tossed here. She’d crawled out here by herself.

Why the fuck hadn’t anyone helped her?

Greer kneeled down. Her sweatpants soaked. She set her phone on the damp ground, the screen brilliant with three encouraging digits. It would be the last time she ever touched it.

“Mama Shaw,” she said. “It’s Greer Morgan. I’m going to pull you out, okay?”

With a sucking sound, Mama Shaw pulled her face from the muck. Her gauzy gray hair was matted to her skin. Her eyes, already cataracted, had gone full white; black pupils skittered beneath mucus before locking on Greer. The cords in Mama Shaw’s neck pulled taut as she opened her mouth so wide Greer thought her lower jaw might unhinge. The woman’s upper and lower dentures popped out and landed in the mud. From the toothless hollow rose an urgent chuffing.

Señorita Magdalena’s trailer rocked again. Stabilizer cables pinged under the strain.

Greer tamped down the urge to flee. Mama Shaw must be having a seizure, and Greer was the only one who could do anything about it. She took firm hold of Mama Shaw’s wrists. The skin was as clammy as lunch meat. When she adjusted her grip, the dents made by her fingers remained visible. Was that because of diabetes? Did the disease gelatinize blood, make skin thick and sluggish?

Mama Shaw was a hefty woman, but when Greer pulled, her body slid easily through the leaves, like she was half the weight. Of course she was, Greer thought abruptly—she was missing both legs. Greer kept pulling until the woman’s upper body escaped the perimeter of the dome. Mud and leaves piled into Mama Shaw’s mouth and covered her nose. She’ll suffocate, Greer thought, remembering how, mere minutes ago, she’d pretended to smother herself with a pillow. How quickly her morning melodrama had come to look childish.

Greer bent to clear mud from Mama Shaw’s face.

“Get back!”

How many shocks could she take? Greer bit back a scream as Sam Hell charged down the asphalt, his Kangol hat keeping the rain from his glaring eyes. He held a gun. Not a hunting rifle like one of Daddy’s but an automatic sidearm, the kind hoodlums liked to flex in front of friends. He held the gun sidewise too, that douche move Greer only saw in action flicks. None of that meant the pointed gun wasn’t scary; Greer froze, afraid to move even the hand she had on Mama Shaw’s face.

“She’s choking!” Greer pleaded.

“Shut up and move your ass!”

Mama Shaw’s fingers cinched around Greer’s wrist. That was good news—it meant the woman was alert enough to be frightened. But Mama Shaw’s grip tightened until Greer’s wrist bones smarted. Despite the gun bearing down on her, Greer moved her head to look at Mama Shaw.

And Mama Shaw bit her.

The old woman flung her head at Greer’s hand, her toothless, mud-filled mouth enveloping the teenager’s first two fingers. Mama Shaw’s jaws snapped together, putting pressure on Greer’s knuckles. She had only a second to consider the freakish sight before she was thrown aside by a massive jolt to the shoulder that tossed her aside and jolted Mama Shaw’s body. Propelled by the impact, Greer’s phone shot out of sight beneath damp leaves.

The back of Greer’s head whacked against wet ground. Had Sam Hell shot her? A loud thwack made her blink away the rain pooled in her eye sockets and sit up. Sam Hell was kicking Mama Shaw in the face. For the second time, from the looks of it—the woman’s nose was broken open to the pearl-colored cartilage. That’s what had hit Greer: not a bullet but Sam Hell’s foot. She felt a belated burst of pain in her shoulder at the exact second his boot connected with Mama Shaw’s chin.

“Stop!” Greer cried. Again, she tried to summon her protector: “Daddy!”

Mama Shaw’s neck jerked back with a moist crack. The top of her skull rang against a bar of the dome. It was beyond grotesque, this legless old lady under assault. A wail burst from Greer’s chest. Sam Hell didn’t pause. He reached Greer in a single step and put a boot to her chest, pressing her into the mud. Greer felt all oxygen blast from her body. She thought strangely of Qasim, his weight against her, her breath sucked into his mouth. Sam Hell’s gun, not sideways this time, came straight at her.

“You’re bit!” he shouted.

She wheezed for air. “What?”

“That old bitch fucking bit you, and you’re fucking fucked!”

Was Mama Shaw rabid? That made sense. The Last Resort brimmed with rats. One of them had gone rabid, bitten Mama Shaw, and she’d crawled out here and scared the living shit out of the Sunnybrook Club. Greer raised her right hand and looked it over. Mud, two blades of leaf. No blood, not even a scratch. She showed it to Sam Hell.

“Gums,” she croaked.

The gun jumped closer. A raindrop bridged the barrel to her nose.

“Bitch, what?”

The boot on her chest pressed harder. She could feel her body sinking. She was going to end up buried right here at Sunnybrook Mobile Home Resort, the place on Earth she most wanted to leave.

“No teeth,” she grunted. “No teeth.”

Sam Hell’s eyes bulged as he stared at her hand, but Greer had no confidence he was seeing straight. When not inebriated, the man was manic, hulking around Miss Jemisha’s trailer, kicking down railings and punching in windows. If she didn’t let him in, he’d go raging down the road, spewing bile—bitch whore cunt pig skank ho tramp. This was his current state, the most heightened Greer had seen it.

She’d also never seen him up this early. Miss Jemisha must have rushed home from the disrupted club meeting and woken him up. None of that explained his reaction. If Mama Shaw was sick, he could call for help or just stay the fuck away. He didn’t need to kick the woman in her face and aim his piece at a neighbor.

“How I know you ain’t bit elsewhere?” he demanded.

Greer’s mind went straight to sexual violation. Of course it did. High on something, he’d make her take her clothes off under the pretense of checking for bite marks. Then he’d rape her, his gun pressed under her chin, and if a single fucking member of the do-gooder Sunnybrook Club saw, they’d pull a Mr. Villard and get out. They wouldn’t even call 911, the same way Greer hadn’t and for the same reason: that ruinous, perpetuating cycle of so-called self-protection.

Sam Hell loomed, rain shivering from his hat, chin, arm, and gun, while his frantic gaze searched her rain-soaked body. The only sounds were their panting breaths, the patter of rain, and the slurps of Mama Shaw.

New sounds broke the tension. They came from Señorita Magdalena’s trailer. The feline whine of a screen door opening only to prematurely crash shut, like someone unsure how to operate it, followed by the hard, uneven shuffles of feet tumbling down steps, lots of them. The gun barrel swung away from Greer’s face as Sam Hell responded to the sounds. Greer pushed herself to her elbows and leaned to see for herself.

No longer would she have to wonder how many children Señorita Magdalena had. There were five, ranging from ages five to thirteen. Obviously, none had been marshaled today for school. The quintet was a swiftly untangling pyre of tangled limbs at the foot of the steps. They were oblivious to the rain on Their faces, the mud splashed over Their pajamas, the Rorschachs of blood all over Them. They stood up and looked about, daft as ducks, until one of Them, a girl of maybe seven, spotted Sam Hell and Greer Morgan, and, without a word, began walking their way.

Copyright © George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus 2020

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