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Every Paperback Coming From Tor This Fall 2024

Looking for some fall reads? Explore the must-have paperbacks hitting the shelves this season. šŸ‚ šŸ„§


September 24

 

9781250829320All The Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

After foiling a plot and securing the city of Qi-Katai, newlyweds Velasin and Caethari begin to explore their relationship, but political tensions still loom.Ā With Caethari newly invested as his grandmotherā€™s heir and Velasinā€™s old ghosts gnawing at his heels, what little peace theyā€™ve managed to find is swiftly put to the test. Caeā€™s recent losses have left him racked with grief and guilt, while Vel struggles with the disconnect between instincts that have kept him safe in secrecy and what an open life requires of him now. Pursued by unknown assailants and with Qi-Xihanā€™s court factions jockeying for power, Vel and Cae must use all the skills at their disposal to not only survive, but thrive. Because thereā€™s more than one way to end an alliance, and more than one person who wants to see them failā€¦and they will resort to murder if needed.

October 01

 

9781250799067Starling HouseĀ by Alix E. Harrow

Opal has been obsessed withĀ The Underland since she was a child. When she gets the chance to step inside Starling Houseā€”and make some extra cash for her brother’s escape fundā€”she can’t resist. But sinister forces are digging deeper into the buried secrets of Starling House, and Arthurā€™s own nightmares have become far too real. As Eden itself seems to be drowning in its own ghosts, Opal realizes that she might finally have found a reason to stick around. And now sheā€™ll have to fight. Welcome to Starling House: enter, if you dare.Ā 

9781250879394Starter VillainĀ by John Scalzi

A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all Charlie wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

9781250899705Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Yumi has spent her entire life in strict obedience, granting her the power to summon the spirits that bestow vital aid upon her societyā€”but she longs for even a single day as a normal person. Painter patrols the dark streets dreaming of being a heroā€”a goal that has led to nothing but heartache and isolation, leaving him always on the outside looking in. In their own ways, both of them face the world alone. Suddenly flung together, Yumi and Painter must strive to right the wrongs in both their lives, reconciling their past and present while maintaining the precarious balance of each of their worlds. If they cannot unravel the mystery of what brought them together before itā€™s too late, they risk forever losing not only the bond growing between them, but the very worlds theyā€™ve always struggled to protect.

9781250323330From the Forest by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. continues the Saga of Recluce, the long-running, best-selling epic fantasy series. In a new story arc,Ā From the Forest follows the early life of a man known by many names depending on who you askā€”hero, tyrant, emperor. Alayiakal, who will one day be known by many names ā€”not all of them flatteringā€”has to climb the ranks of Cyadorā€™s Mirror Lancers, fighting against unforeseen weapons and ancient technology. Alayiakal, however, has secrets of his own to protect: his ties to the Great Forest and his magus abilities. He must silently pretend to be a conventional soldier favored by fateā€”until that very same fate forces him to choose.

October 15

 

9781250343642To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust; With an Introduction by Roger Zelazny

Originally published in 1984, Steven Brust’s To Reign in Hell is a retelling of Satan’s revolt against Heaven with much more sympathy for Lucifer and his allies. Heaven is threatened by the reemergence of a cataclysmic event, a wave of energy that can destroy life and result in the loss of many angels. In preparation for this Fourth Wave, the angel Yaweh consults the angel Satan. A plan to build Earth, a new and larger Heaven that would be equipped to withstand the disaster, is constructed. Satan questions the plan because doing so will sacrifice the lives of other angels, much like the Fourth Wave itself threatens to do. Charged with convincing their fellow angels to lay down their lives, Satan has reservations about their right to ask for such a sacrifice. This doubt, and the questioning of ethics, opens the door for a devious figure to manipulate Satan, developing a heavenly war.

9781250811752Traitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

Traitor of RedwinterĀ is the second in Ed McDonaldā€™s Redwinter Chronicles, full of shady politics, militant monks, ancient powers… and a young woman navigating a world in which no one is quite what they seem. The power of the Sixth Gate grows stronger within Raine each dayā€”to control it, she needs lessons no living Draoihn can teach her. Thereā€™s only one chance to turn the tide of power surging within herā€”to learn the secrets the Draoihn themselves purged from the world. The book can teach her. Amidst threats old and new, Raine must learn the secrets promised by the book and magic promised by a queen with a crown of feathers. A queen to whom Raine has promised more than she can afford to giveā€¦

9781250906298Princess of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. Now of marriageable age, Princess Irulan sees the machinations of the many factions vying for powerā€”the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, the Imperial throne, and a ruthless rebellion in the Imperial military. The young woman has a wise and independent streak and is determined to become much more than a pawn to be moved about on anyoneā€™s gameboard. Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Chani is trained in the Fremen mystical ways by an ancient Reverend Mother. Brought up to believe in her fatherā€™s ecological dream of a green Arrakis, she follows Liet around to Imperial testing stations, surviving the many hazards of desert life. Chani soon learns the harsh cost of Fremen dreams and obligations under the oppressive boot heel of the long Harkonnen occupation.

October 22

 

9781250846228The Wolfe at the DoorĀ by Gene Wolfe

The circus comes to townā€¦ and a man gets to go to the stars. A young girl on a vacation at the sea meets the man of her dreams. Who just happens to be dead. And an immortal pirate. A swordfighter pens his memoirsā€¦ and finds his pen is in fact mightier than the sword. Welcome to Gene Wolfeā€™s playground, a place where genres blend and a geniusā€™s imagination straps you in for the ride of your life.

9781250877352Monstrous Nights by Genoveva Dimova

With her magic reclaimed and her role in the community of Chernograd restored, Kosaraā€™s life should finally be back to normalā€”but, of course, things canā€™t possibly be that simple. She is now in possession of twelve witchā€™s shadows. Holding them may grant her unprecedented power, but that doesnā€™t mean theyā€™re always willing to do her bidding. Across the wall in Belograd, Asen chases his only lead on the latest witch murder case. He follows the trail of smuggling kingpin Konstantin Karaivanov to an underground monster auctionā€”which leads him right back to Chernograd. There, sinister events follow one after another: snow falls in midsummer, a witch with two shadows is found dead, and monsters that should only appear during the Foul Days are sighted. The barrier between worlds thins… and Kosara is certain it’s her faultā€”and her job to fix.

November 12

 

9781250851253The Relentless Legion by J. S. Dewes

J. S. Dewes is back with her acclaimed and action packed Divide series (The Last Watch,Ā The Exiled Fleet)Ā whereĀ The ExpanseĀ meets the Night’s Watch. The Sentinels have rallied under the leadership of Adequin Rake, and Cavalon Mercer has uncovered the horrifying genetic solution his grandfather is about to unleash on the unsuspecting outer colonies. Both Rake and Cavalon race against time to save the universe once again. They’ll need every resource, every ally who might answer the call. It might not be enough.

 

December 03

 

9781250890429Heartsong by TJ Klune

All Robbie Fontaine ever wanted was a place to belong. After the death of his mother, he has bounced around from pack to pack, forming temporary bonds to keep from turning feral. Itā€™s enoughā€”until he receives a summons from the wolf stronghold in Caswell, Maine. Life as the trusted second to Michelle Hughesā€”the Alpha of allā€”and the cherished friend of a gentle old witch teaches Robbie what it means to be pack, to have a home. But when a mission from Michelle sends Robbie into the field, he finds himself questioning where he belongs and everything heā€™s been told. Whispers of traitorous wolves and wild magic aboundā€”but who are the traitors and who the betrayed? More than anything, Robbie hungers for answers, because one of those alleged traitors is Kelly Bennett, the wolf who may be his mate. The truth has a way of coming out. And when it does, Robbie will learn that packs and homes can disappear in an instant. The paperback edition features beautiful red sprayed edges, holographic cover and a bonus short story.

 

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Every Paperback Coming From Tor This Summer

Looking for the ultimate summer reads? This year’s selection from Tor Books is absolutely scorching! Explore the must-have paperbacks hitting the shelves this season.


June 25

 

9781250877314Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova

As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice treating lycanthrope bites, bargaining with kikimoras, and slaying bloodsucking upirs. Thereā€™s only one monster she canā€™t defeat: her ex, the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. Sheā€™s defied him one too many times and now heā€™s hunting her. Betrayed by someone close to her, Kosaraā€™s only choice is to trade her shadowā€”the source of her powersā€”for a quick escape. Unfortunately, Kosara soon develops the deadly sickness that plagues shadowless witchesā€”and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To find it, sheā€™s forced to team up with a suspiciously honorable detective. Even worse, all the clues point in a single direction: To get her shadow back, Kosara will have to face the Foul Daysā€™ biggest threats without it. And sheā€™s only got twelve days. But in a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the biggest monster from her past?

July 2

 

9781250208347Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey

The lush epic fantasy that inspired a generation with a single precept: ā€œLove As Thou Wilt.” Returning to the realm of Terre dā€™Ange which captured an entire generation of fantasy readers, New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Carey brings us a heroā€™s journey for a new era. In Kushielā€™s Dart, a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the heart that lived it. Cassielā€™s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushielā€™s Dart from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of PhĆØdre nĆ³ Delaunay. Heā€™s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as sheā€™s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive. From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with PhĆØdre to avert the conquest of Terre Dā€™Ange shatters body and mindā€¦ and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep. Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.

9781250890368Ravensong by TJ Klune (new edition)

Gordo Livingstone never forgot the lessons carved into his skin. Hardened by the betrayal of a pack that left him behind, he sought solace in the garage in his tiny mountain town, vowing never again to involve himself in the affairs of wolves. It should have been enough. It was, until the wolves came back, and with them, Mark Bennett. And when his town is caught in the jaws of a beast, Gordo is summoned back into the life that left him. ā€œGordo, you must rise. For your pack. For us. I must ask you to become the witch to the wolves.ā€ Now, a year later, Gordo has once again found himself the witch of the Bennett pack. Green Creek has settled after the death of Richard Collins, and Gordo constantly struggles to ignore Mark and the song that howls between them. But time is running out. Something is coming. And this time, itā€™s coming from within.

The paperback edition features beautiful orange sprayed edges, holographic cover and a bonus short story.

July 16

 

9781250621849 (1)He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

How much would you give to win the world?

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor. But Zhu isnā€™t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husbandā€”and sheā€™s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his fatherā€™s killer, the Great Khan. Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in historyā€”and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him. All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bearā€¦

 

July 23

 

9781250871282Gravity Lost by L. M. Sagas

After thwarting a space station disaster and planetary destruction, theĀ Ambit crew thought turning Isaiah Drestyn over to the Union would be the end of their troubles. Turns out, itā€™s only the start. Drestyn is a walking encyclopedia of dirty secrets, and everyone wants a piece of himā€”the Trust, the Union, even the Guild. Someone wants him bad enough to kill, and with the life of one of their own on the line, the AmbitĀ crew must jail-break the very man they helped capture and expose some of the secrets heā€™s been keeping before itā€™s too late. In the Spiral, everything has a price. In their fight to protect what they love, Eoan, Nash, Saint, and Jal will confront some ugly truths about their enemies, and even uglier truths about their friends. But nothing will come close to the truths theyā€™ll learn about themselves. You canā€™t always fix whatā€™s broken ā€¦ and sometimes, itā€™s better that way.

July 30

 

9781250884879Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the mansion has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on. Fox Dā€™Mora is a medium, and though he is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isnā€™t entirely without his usesā€”seeing as heā€™s actually the godson of Death. When Viola seeks out Fox to help her with the ghost infestation, he becomes inextricably involved in a quest that neither he nor Vi expects (or wants). But with the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few mindfulness-practicing creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover that the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isnā€™t nearly as distinct as they thought.

This paperback edition includes a special bonus story and beautiful purple sprayed edges.

August 6

 

9781250269362Devil’s GunĀ by Cat Rambo

Lifeā€™s hard when youā€™re on the run from a vengeful pirate-kingā€¦

When Niko and her crew find that the intergalactic Gate they’re planning on escaping through is out of commission, they make the most of things, creating a pop-up restaurant to serve the dozens of other stranded ships. But when an archaeologist shows up claiming to be able to fix the problem, Niko smells something suspicious cooking. Nonetheless, they canā€™t pass up the chance to find the weapon that could stop Tubal Last before he can take his revenge. There, in one of the most dangerous places in the Known Universe, each of them will face ghosts from their past. Meanwhile, the ship, You Sexy Thing, contemplates what it wants from lifeā€”which may be very different from Niko and the rest of the crew.

August 13

 

9781250326690The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed

Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure. On its first publication in 1996, The Fortunate Fall was hailed as an SF novel of a wired future on par with the debuts of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. Now it returns to print, as one of the great underground classics of the last several decades in SF. Maya Andreyeva is a “camera,” a reporter with virtual-reality-broadcasting equipment implanted in her brain. What she sees, millions see; what she feels, millions share. And what Maya is seeing is the cover-up of a massacre. As she probes into the covert political power plays of a radically strange near-future Russia, she comes upon secrets that have been hidden from the world…and memories that AI-controlled thought police have forced her to hide from herself. Because in a world where no thought or desire is safe, the price of survival is betrayal – of your lover, your ideals, and yourself.

August 27

 

9781250852496After the Forest by Kell Woods

Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war. Greta has a secret, though: the witch’s grimoire, hidden away and whispering in Greta’s ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you’ve ever tasted. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat. But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her mysteriously addictive gingerbread, not to mention the rumors about her childhood misadventures, is a source of gossip and suspicion. And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta’s magicā€”magic she is still trying to understandā€”may be the only thing that can save her. If it doesn’t kill her first.

September 3

 

9781250319722Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

It is 83 years after the last thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler took the name of Corrino and established himself as the first Emperor of a new Imperium. The war hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on politics and Salusa Secundus. The descendants of the disgraced Abulurd Harkonnen have sworn vengeance against Vor, blaming him for the downfall of their noble family. Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School and, through a terrible ordeal, has become the first Reverend Mother. The descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva use mutated, spice-saturated Navigators who fly precursors of Heighliners. And Gilbertus Albans, ward of the hated thinking machine Erasmus, is teaching humans to become Mentatsā€¦while hiding an unbelievable secret. Led by the fanatic Manford Torondo, the Butlerian movement, fiercely opposed to all forms of “dangerous technology,” sweeps across the known universe in mobs, millions strong, destroying everything in its path.

9781250865946The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow

Itā€™s thirty years from now. Weā€™re making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry old people who canā€™t let go? For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn’t controversial. It’s just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks. But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their “alternative” news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that “climate change” is just a giant scam. And they’re your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they’re not going anywhere. And theyā€™re armed to the teeth. The Lost CauseĀ asks: What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they’re often the elders that we love?

9781250907066TJ Klune Trade Paperback Collection by TJ Klune

New York TimesĀ bestselling author TJ Klune invites you to a magical island in a cerulean sea, a cozy teahouse for both the living and the dead, and into the heart of a peculiar forest in this three-book trade paperback boxed collection.

The House in the Cerulean Sea:Ā Linus Baker is a by-the-book caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He’s tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world. Arthur Parnassus is the headmaster of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light.

Under the Whispering Door:Ā When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides heā€™s definitely dead. But even in death heā€™s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

In the Lives of Puppets:Ā In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, lives an unlikely family of robots and Vic, a human. When an unfamiliar android named Hap unwittingly alerts the City of Electric Dreams of the familyā€™s whereabouts, the fatherly inventor android is captured and taken back to his old laboratory to serve. So together, the rest of the family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to save their fatherā€”and amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

September 10

 

sandymancer
sandymancer

Sandymancer by David Edison

A wild girl with sand magic in her bones and a mad god who is trying to fix the world he broke come together in SANDYMANCER, a genre-warping mashup of weird fantasy and hard science fiction.

All Caralee Vinnet has ever known is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. A privileged few control what elements remain. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost.

Caralee has a secretā€”she has magic in her bones and can draw up power from the sand beneath her feet to do her bidding. But when she does she winds up summoning a monster: the former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and has stolen the body of her best friend.

Caralee will risk the whole world to take back what sheā€™s lost. If her new companion doesnā€™t kill her first.

September 17

 

9780765387509The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

A new door opens…

Once there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London.

After a desperate attempt to prevent corruption and ruin in the four Londons, there are only three:
ā— Grey London, thriving but barely able to remember its magical heritage
ā— Red London, ruled lately by the Maresh family, flourishing and powerful
ā— White London, left to brutality and decay

Now the worlds are going to collide anewā€”brought to a dangerous precipice by the discoveries of three remarkable magicians. There’s Kosika, the child queen of White London, who has nourished her city on blood and dreamsā€”and whose growing devotion to both is leading her down a dangerous path. Then there’s Delilah Bard, born a thief in Grey London, who crossed the worlds to become a legend far from there. She’s an infamous magician, a devious heroine, and a risk-taking rogue, all rolled into one unforgettable package. Having disappeared to seek new adventure, an old favor now calls Lila back to a dangerous port, to join some old friends who need more help than they realize. Last there is Tes, a young runaway with an unusual and powerful ability, hiding out in Red London while trying to stay out of the limelight. Tes is the only one who can keep all the worlds from unravelingā€”if she manages to stay alive first.

September 24

 

9781250829320All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

With the plot against them foiled and the city of Qi-Katai in safe hands, newlywed and tentative lovers Velasin and Caethari have just begun to test the waters of their relationship. But the wider political ramifications of their marriage are still playing out across two nations, and all too soon, theyā€™re summoned north to Tithenaā€™s capital city, Qi-Xihan, to present themselves to its monarch. With Caethari newly invested as his grandmotherā€™s heir and Velasinā€™s old ghosts gnawing at his heels, what little peace theyā€™ve managed to find is swiftly put to the test. Caeā€™s recent losses have left him racked with grief and guilt, while Vel struggles with the disconnect between instincts that have kept him safe in secrecy and what an open life requires of him now. Pursued by unknown assailants and with Qi-Xihanā€™s court factions jockeying for power, Vel and Cae must use all the skills at their disposal to not only survive, but thrive. Because thereā€™s more than one way to end an alliance, and more than one person who wants to see them failā€¦and they will resort to murder if needed.

 

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Every Book Coming from Tor This Summer 2024

Ready to discover the hottest reads of summer? Get ready, because this year, our list is SMOKIN’. Check out everything coming from Tor Books in Summer 2024 here!


June 25

 

The Daughter's WarThe Daughter’s War by Christopher Buehlman

Galva ā€”Ā Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill ā€” has defied her familyā€™s wishes and joined the armyā€™s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind. The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted ā€” not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.

9781250877314Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova

As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice treating lycanthrope bites, bargaining with kikimoras, and slaying bloodsucking upirs. Thereā€™s only one monster she canā€™t defeat: her ex, the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. Sheā€™s defied him one too many times and now heā€™s hunting her. Betrayed by someone close to her, Kosaraā€™s only choice is to trade her shadowā€”the source of her powersā€”for a quick escape. Unfortunately, Kosara soon develops the deadly sickness that plagues shadowless witchesā€”and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To find it, sheā€™s forced to team up with a suspiciously honorable detective. Even worse, all the clues point in a single direction: To get her shadow back, Kosara will have to face the Foul Daysā€™ biggest threats without it. And sheā€™s only got twelve days. But in a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the biggest monster from her past?

July 9

 

The Sky on FireĀ by Jenn LyonsThe Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons

Anahrod lives only for survival, forging her own way through the harsh jungles of the Deep with her titan drake by her side. Even when an adventuring party saves her from capture by a local warlord, she is eager to return to her solitary life. But this is no ordinary rescue. Itā€™s Anahrodā€™s past catching up with her. These cunning misfitsā€”and their frustratingly appealing dragonrider ringleaderā€”intend to spirit her away to the dragon-ruled sky cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragonā€™s hoard. Thereā€™s only one problem: the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimasā€”and she wants Anahrod dead.

9781250344458A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab (new edition)

Londons fall and kingdoms rise while darkness sweeps the Maresh Empireā€”and the fraught balance of magic blossoms into dangerous territory while heroes and foes struggle alike. The direct sequel to A Gathering of Shadows, and the final book in the Shades of Magic epic fantasy series,Ā A Conjuring of LightĀ sees Schwab reach a thrilling culmination concerning the fate of beloved protagonistsā€”and old enemies.

July 16

 

9781250837929Blood Jade by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle

Emiko Soong, newly minted Sentinel of San Francisco, just can’t catch a break. Just after she becomes the guardian for a sentient city, a murder strikes close to home. Called by the city and one of the most powerful clans to investigate, she traces the killer whose scent signature bears a haunting similarity to her motherā€™s talent. The trail will lead her back to Tokyo where the thread she pulls threatens to unravel her whole world and bring dark family secrets to light. Meanwhile, the General rises in the East and Emiko must fight the hidden enemies of his growing army who are amped up on Blood Jade, while keeping her promises to her brother Tatsuya as he prepares for his tourney. Her duties as Sentinel and her loyalties collide when she must choose between hiding her deepest shame or stopping the Generalā€™s relentless march.

July 23

 

9781250871282Gravity Lost by L. M. Sagas

After thwarting a space station disaster and planetary destruction, theĀ Ambit crew thought turning Isaiah Drestyn over to the Union would be the end of their troubles. Turns out, itā€™s only the start. Drestyn is a walking encyclopedia of dirty secrets, and everyone wants a piece of himā€”the Trust, the Union, even the Guild. Someone wants him bad enough to kill, and with the life of one of their own on the line, the AmbitĀ crew must jail-break the very man they helped capture and expose some of the secrets heā€™s been keeping before itā€™s too late. In the Spiral, everything has a price. In their fight to protect what they love, Eoan, Nash, Saint, and Jal will confront some ugly truths about their enemies, and even uglier truths about their friends. But nothing will come close to the truths theyā€™ll learn about themselves. You canā€™t always fix whatā€™s broken ā€¦ and sometimes, itā€™s better that way.

July 30

 

9781250890375BrothersongĀ by TJ Klune

In the ruins of Caswell, Maine, Carter Bennett learned the truth of what had been right in front of him the entire time. And then itā€”heā€”was gone. Desperate for answers, Carter takes to the road, leaving family and the safety of his pack behind, all in the name of a man he only knows as a feral wolf. But therein lies the danger: wolves are pack animals, and the longer Carter is on his own, the more his mind slips toward the endless void of Omega insanity. But he pushes on, following the trail left by Gavin. Gavin, the son of Robert Livingstone. The half-brother of Gordo Livingstone. What Carter finds will change the course of the wolves forever. Because Gavinā€™s history with the Bennett pack goes back further than anyone knows, a secret kept hidden by Carterā€™s father, Thomas Bennett. And with this knowledge comes a price: the sins of the fathers now rest upon the shoulders of their sons.

August 6

 

A Sorceress Comes to CallA Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesnā€™t have any doors between roomsā€”there are no secrets in this houseā€”and her mother doesn’t allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother’s beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers donā€™t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers arenā€™t evil sorcerers. When her mother unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming pair are to be her mother’s next victims. But Cordelia feels at home for the very first time among these people, and as her mother’s plans darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the people who have become like family.

9781250269362Devil’s GunĀ by Cat Rambo

Lifeā€™s hard when youā€™re on the run from a vengeful pirate-kingā€¦

When Niko and her crew find that the intergalactic Gate they’re planning on escaping through is out of commission, they make the most of things, creating a pop-up restaurant to serve the dozens of other stranded ships. But when an archaeologist shows up claiming to be able to fix the problem, Niko smells something suspicious cooking. Nonetheless, they canā€™t pass up the chance to find the weapon that could stop Tubal Last before he can take his revenge. There, in one of the most dangerous places in the Known Universe, each of them will face ghosts from their past. Meanwhile, the ship, You Sexy Thing, contemplates what it wants from lifeā€”which may be very different from Niko and the rest of the crew.

August 13

 

9780765382924Glass HousesĀ by Madeline Ashby

Luckily, those who survived have found a beautiful, fully-stocked private palace, with all the latest technological updates (though one without connection to the outside world). The house, however, has more secrets than anyone might have guessed, and a much darker reason for having been built and left behind. Kristen, the hyper-competent “chief emotional manager” (a position created by her eccentric, boyish billionaire boss, Sumter) is trying to keep her colleagues stable throughout this new challenge, but staying sane seems to be as much of a challenge as staying alive. Being a woman in tech has always meant having to be smarter than anyone expects–and Kristen’s knack for out-of-the-box problem-solving and quick thinking has gotten her to the top of her field. But will a killer instinct be enough to survive the island?

The Doors of MidnightThe Doors of Midnight by R.R. Virdi

Some stories are hidden for a reason. All tales have a price. And every debt must be paid.

I killed three men as a child and earned the name Bloodletter. Then I set fire to the fabled Ashram. I’ve been a bird and robbed a merchant king of a ransom of gold. And I have crossed desert sands and cutthroat alleys to repay my debt. Iā€™ve stood before the eyes of god, faced his judgement, and cast aside the thousand arrows that came with it. And I have passed through the Doors of Midnight and lived to tell the tale. I have traded one hundred and one stories with a creature as old as time, and survived with only my cleverness, a candle, and a broken promise. And most recently of all, I have killed a prince, though the stories say I have killed more than one. My name is Ari. These are my legends. And these are my lies.

September 3

 

9781250319722Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

It is 83 years after the last thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler took the name of Corrino and established himself as the first Emperor of a new Imperium. The war hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on politics and Salusa Secundus. The descendants of the disgraced Abulurd Harkonnen have sworn vengeance against Vor, blaming him for the downfall of their noble family. Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School and, through a terrible ordeal, has become the first Reverend Mother. The descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva use mutated, spice-saturated Navigators who fly precursors of Heighliners. And Gilbertus Albans, ward of the hated thinking machine Erasmus, is teaching humans to become Mentatsā€¦while hiding an unbelievable secret. Led by the fanatic Manford Torondo, the Butlerian movement, fiercely opposed to all forms of “dangerous technology,” sweeps across the known universe in mobs, millions strong, destroying everything in its path.

September 10

 

9781250357243The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (new edition)

A beautiful new hardcover edition of one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade,Ā New York TimesĀ bestselling author TJ Kluneā€™sĀ The House in the Cerulean Sea,Ā featuring aqua sprayed edges!

9781250881205Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

Featuring gorgeous golden yellow sprayed edges!Ā Somewhere Beyond the SeaĀ is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune’sĀ The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade.

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life, built on the ashes of a bad one. Heā€™s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six magical and so-called dangerous children who live there.
Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. And he is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth; Zoe Chapelwhite, the islandā€™s sprite; and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children. But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve. And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island homeā€”one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name Arthur worked so hard to protect his children fromā€”Arthur knows theyā€™re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthurā€™s story.

September 24

 

9781250269393Rumor Has It by Cat Rambo

The crew of the You Sexy Thing have laid a course for Coralind Station, hoping the station’s famed gardens will provide an opportunity to regroup, recoup, and mourn their losses while while finding a way to track down their enemy, pirate king Tubal Last. All Niko wants to do is pry their insurance money from the bank and see if an old friend might be able to help them find Last. Unfortunately, old friends and enemies aren’t the only unreliable elements awaiting her and the crew at Coralind. Each will have to face themselvesā€”the good and the badā€”in order to come together before they lose everything.

 

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Cory Doctorow: The Swerve

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the lost cause by cory doctorowby Cory Doctorow

Dystopia isnā€™t a setting ā€“ itā€™s a vibe. Thereā€™s nothing dystopian about depicting a world where things are breaking down. Things break down. Assuming things wonā€™t break down doesnā€™t make you an optimist ā€“ it makes you a dangerous asshole. ā€œThings wonā€™t break downā€ is the thinking that leads to ā€œso the Titanic doesnā€™t need lifeboats.ā€

Dystopia is a society where things are breaking down ā€“ and no one will lift a finger to fix it.

My next novel, The Lost Cause, is set in the midst of a spiraling climate crisis punctuated by mass death from zoonitic plagues, floods, wildfires, and drought. Tens of millions of Americans have become internal refugees, their hometowns wiped off the map.

It is a utopian novel.

What makes this novel of a world in worsening calamity, attended by unimaginable human suffering, ā€œutopian?ā€

Simple: theyā€™re doing something about it.

In July 2022, I wrote the following for my column in Locus magazine:

ā”ā” Ė–Ā°Ė– ā˜¾ā˜†ā˜½ Ė–Ā°Ė– ā”ā”ā”ā”ā”ā”ā”

Weā€™re all trapped on a bus.

The bus is barreling towards a cliff.

Beyond the cliff is a canyon plunge any of us will be lucky to survive.

Even if we survive, none of us know how weā€™ll climb out of that deep canyon.

Some of us want to yank the wheel.

The bus is going so fast that yanking the wheel could cause the bus to roll.

There might be some broken bones.

There might be worse than broken bones.

The driver wonā€™t yank the wheel.

The people in expensive front row seats agree.

ā€œYank the wheel? Are you crazy? Someone could break a leg!ā€

We say, ā€œBut thereā€™s a cliff! Weā€™re going to go over the cliff! Weā€™re going to die!ā€

ā€œNonsense,ā€ they say. ā€œLong before we go over the cliff, weā€™ll have figured out how to put wings on this bus.ā€

We argue.

They add, ā€œBesides, whoā€™s to say weā€™ll fall off the cliff? Maybe weā€™ll be going so fast that we leap the canyon. Fonzie did it! Calm down. Hey! Keep your hands off the wheel? What are you, a terrorist? Donā€™t you dare do that again. Someone could get really badly hurt.ā€

The climate emergency is real and we are living through it. As I write this, Iā€™ve emailed some writer friends in the southwest to ask if the fires threaten them or their homes. One hasnā€™t answered yet. The other wrote back to say theyā€™re fine, but what about the wildfires near my house?

Oh, I wrote. Weā€™re fine. So far. California is in for a hell of a wildfire season. Itā€™s dry out there. Itā€™s an emergency. Officially.

(It was an emergency before, but that was unofficial)

Weā€™re not acting like itā€™s an emergency. In mid-May, The Guardian reported a bombshell: a series of planned ā€œcarbon bombsā€ ā€“ large-scale oil and gas projects that will ā€œshatter the 1.5C climate goal.ā€ The war in Ukraine has the world scrambling for winter heat ā€“ for sources of oil and gas, that is, not renewable alternatives.

Of course not. The only way for renewables to replace Russian oil and gas this coming winter is for Europe to have retooled around sustainable heating: a mix of beefed up insulation, heat pumps, and mass power storage. Those are long projects. We knew weā€™d need them decades ago, but we kicked the can down the road, and further down the road, and further.

Incredibly, climate denial still festers. ā€œThereā€™s no cliff,ā€ they insist. ā€œThis bus is on a smooth road that goes all the way to the promised land. Only a fool would swerve now.ā€

The good news is: climate denial is on the wane. The bad news is: deniers have pivoted to incrementalism: ā€œWeā€™ll fix the climate. Give us a couple decades to phase out oil and gas. Give us a couple decades to replace the cars and retrofit the houses. Give us a couple decades to invent cool direct-air carbon capture systems, or hydrogen cars that work just like gas cars, or to replace our overland aviation routes with high speed rail, or to increase our urban density and swap out cars for subways and buses. Give us a couple decades to keep making money. Weā€™ll get there.ā€

In other words: ā€œWeā€™re pretty sure we can get some wings on this bus before it goes over the cliff. Keep your hands off the wheel. Someone could get really badly hurt.ā€

People are already getting really badly hurt, and itā€™s only going to get worse. Weā€™re poised to break through key planetary boundaries ā€“ loss of biosphere diversity, ocean acidification, land poisoning ā€“ whose damage will be global, profound and sustained. Once we rupture these boundaries, we have no idea how to repair them. None of our current technologies will suffice, nor will any of the technologies we think we know how to make or might know how to make.

These boundaries are the point of no return, the point at which it wonā€™t matĀ­ter if we yank the wheel, because the bus is going over the cliff, swerve or no.

Focus on the swerve.

Believe it or not, the swerve is a happy ending. This is a hopeful article. Hereā€™s what I hope we can do: I hope we can swerve.

A couple decades ago, the swerve might have been avoidĀ­able. It was 1977 when Exxonā€™s own scientists concluded that their products would render the planet uninhabitable for humans. Exxon knew. They buried the research and paid for denial.

George H.W. Bush came into office in 1988 as the ā€œEnvironĀ­mental President.ā€ He campaigned on ā€œconven[ing] a global conference on the environment at the White House. It will include the Soviets, the Chineseā€¦ The agenda will be clear. We will talk about global warming.ā€ By 1992, he abandoned the idea of the US retooling to avert the catastrophe. ā€œThe American way of life,ā€ he told the Rio Earth Summit, ā€œis not up for negotiations. Period.ā€

If weā€™d started in 1977, we might have paid some civil engineers to build a bridge over the cliff. In 1988, it was still entirely possible. In 1992, the option was still there.

Today, time has run out for bridges.

All weā€™ve got left is the swerve.

Weā€™ve got to seize the wheel of the bus. Weā€™ve got to plunge past the first-class passengers in the front rows of the bus, and we have to yank the wheel. We have to swerve.

The bus will roll over. It wonā€™t be nice. We will probably have to abandon some of our most beautiful coastal cities and towns. We will probably have to retool our industries in haste, and commandeer our factories to build new energy tech instead of consumer tchotchkes ā€“ the way we ordered factories to produce vaccines and PPE last year.

I donā€™t know what the first-class passengers were thinking. Some of them will be dead of natural causes before the bus goes over the cliff, and they didnā€™t want to sacrifice any of their material comforts to ensure that the rest of us continued to live once they passed on, I suppose.

Others are just ideologically committed to traveling in a straight line. The swerve is morally bankrupt. Itā€™s communism. The only way to get over the cliff ā€“ if such a thing exists ā€“ is to floor the bus. Go as fast as possible. Leap the gorge! The Fonz did it, right?

The swerve is our hopeful future. Our happy ending isnā€™t averting the disasĀ­ter. Our happy ending is surviving the disaster. Managed retreat. Emergency measures.

In the swerve, weā€™ll still have refugee crises, but weā€™ll address them huĀ­manely, rather than building gulags and guard-towers.

Weā€™ll still have wildfires, but weā€™ll evacuate cities ahead of them, and weā€™ll commit billions to controlled burns.

Weā€™ll still have floods, but weā€™ll relocate our cities out of floodplains.

Weā€™ll still have zoonotic plagues as animals flee their disappearing habitat, but weā€™ll apply the lessons of COVID to them.

Weā€™ll still have mass extinctions, but weā€™ll save the species we can, and weā€™ll prioritize habitat restoration as a way of preserving our horizontal brothĀ­ers and sisters (as Muir called animals) and as a way of putting the climate back in balance.

Weā€™ll swerve. The bus will roll. It will hurt. It will be terrible.

But we wonā€™t be dead on canyon floor.

Weā€™ll fix the bus. Weā€™ll make it better. Weā€™ll get it back on its wheels. Weā€™ll get a better driver, and a better destination.

Thatā€™s our happy ending. Thatā€™s our hopeful future.

We gotta get ahold of that wheel first. You ready?

Letā€™s roll.

ā”ā” Ė–Ā°Ė– ā˜¾ā˜†ā˜½ Ė–Ā°Ė– ā”ā”ā”ā”ā”ā”ā”

Thatā€™s what the people of The Lost Cause are doing. Through hard work and hard fighting, they create the historical contingency that allows them to call themselves ā€œthe first generation in a century that does not fear the future.ā€

They have embraced a muscular Green New Deal that treats the emergency with the gravitas and urgency it demands. They have embarked upon a 300-year project to relocate coastal cities inland, above the rising seasā€™ new level. They infill their cities, making space for refugees, who are welcomed as more hands and more minds to turn to surviving the crisis. They have grabbed the wheel and theyā€™re swerving.

Of course, not everyone is happy about this. Those first class passengers, the ones who insisted that there was no cliff, that theyā€™d figure out how to attach wings to the bus, that if the bus went fast enough it could leap the gorge? Theyā€™re furious ā€“ and theyā€™re rich, and they have an army of followers who see things getting worse and blame the people who are working to make them better.

This counter-revolution is a powerful alliance of domestic white nationalist militias and seagoing anarcho-capitalist wreckers, determined to snatch defeat from victoryā€™s jaws.

The Lost Cause is a novel about what we do with the losers of a just revolution. It is a story about fierce comradeship on both sides, and the special problems of winning the fight.


Cory DoctorowĀ is a regular contributor to theĀ Guardian,Ā Locus, and many other publications. He is a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an MIT Media Lab Research Associate and a visiting professor of Computer Science at the Open University. His award-winning novelĀ Little Brother and its sequelĀ Homeland wereĀ New York TimesĀ bestsellers. His novella collectionĀ RadicalizedĀ was a CBC Best Fiction of 2019 selection. Born and raised in Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.


Pre-order The Lost Cause Here!

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Every Tor Book Coming in Fall 2023

Hey. Hey, you. Letā€™s talk about autumn. Letā€™s talk about all the awesome books releasing this autumn!

Theyā€™re all here in this rundown, and you are too, so get scrolling!Ā 


September 5

Exadelic by Jon EvansExadelic by Jon Evans

When an unconventional offshoot of the US military trains an artificial intelligence in the dark arts that humanity calls “black magic,” it learns how to hack the fabric of reality itself. It can teleport matter. It can confer immunity to bullets. And it decides that obscure Silicon Valley middle manager Adrian Ross is the primary threat to its existence. Soon Adrian is on the run, wanted by every authority, with no idea how or why he could be a threat. His predicament seems hopeless; his future, nonexistent. But when he investigates the AI and its creators, he discovers his problems are even stranger than they seem…and unearths revelations that will propel him on a journeyā€”and a love storyā€”across worlds, eras, and everything, everywhere, all at once.


September 19

sandymancer by david edisonSandymancer by David EdisonĀ 

All Caralee Vinnet has ever known is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. A privileged few control what elements remain. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost. Caralee has a secretā€”she has magic in her bones and can draw up power from the sand beneath her feet to do her bidding. But when she does she winds up summoning a monster: the former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and has stolen the body of her best friend. Caralee will risk the whole world to take back what sheā€™s lost. If her new companion doesnā€™t kill her first.

starter villain by john scalziStarter Villain by John Scalzi

Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.


September 26

The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. SchwabThe Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

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 memoryā€”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 yearsā€”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 ownā€”but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown it instead.


October 3

starling house by alix e. harrowStarling House by Alix E. Harrow

Opal is a lot of things–orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier–but above all, she’s determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago. All she left behind were dark rumors–and her home. Everyone agrees that itā€™s best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur. Almost everyone, anyway. Welcome to Starling House: enter, if you dare.

Place holder  of - 82After the Forest by Kell Woods

Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war. Greta has a secret, though: the witch’s grimoire, hidden away and whispering in Greta’s ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you’ve ever tasted. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat. But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her mysteriously addictive gingerbread, not to mention the rumors about her childhood misadventures, is a source of gossip and suspicion. And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta’s magicā€”magic she is still trying to understandā€”may be the only thing that can save her. If it doesn’t kill her first.

princess of dune by brian herbert & kevin j. andersonPrincess of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. As Princess Royal, she also learned important lessons from her fatherā€”the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Now of marriageable age, Princess Irulan sees the machinations of the many factions vying for powerā€”the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, the Imperial throne, and a ruthless rebellion in the Imperial military. The young woman has a wise and independent streak and is determined to become much more than a pawn to be moved about on anyoneā€™s gameboard.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon SandersonYumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Yumi has spent her entire life in strict obedience, granting her the power to summon the spirits that bestow vital aid upon her societyā€”but she longs for even a single day as a normal person. Painter patrols the dark streets dreaming of being a heroā€”a goal that has led to nothing but heartache and isolation, leaving him always on the outside looking in. In their own ways, both of them face the world alone. Suddenly flung together, Yumi and Painter must strive to right the wrongs in both their lives, reconciling their past and present while maintaining the precarious balance of each of their worlds. If they cannot unravel the mystery of what brought them together before itā€™s too late, they risk forever losing not only the bond growing between them, but the very worlds theyā€™ve always struggled to protect.

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor VingeA Deepness In the Sky by Vernor Vinge

This new Tor Essentials edition of Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness In the Sky includes an introduction by the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning Jo Walton, author of Among Others.

After thousands of years of searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free, innovative traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds. The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens’ very doorstep, for their strange star to relight and for the alien planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifteen years…


October 24

traitor of redwinter by ed mcdonaldTraitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

The power of the Sixth Gate grows stronger within Raine each dayā€”to control it, she needs lessons no living Draoihn can teach her. Her fledgling friendships are tested to a breaking point as she tries to face what she has become, and her master Ulovar is struck by a mysterious sickness that slowly saps the vitality from his body, leaving Raine to face her growing darkness alone. Thereā€™s only one chance to turn the tide of power surging within herā€”to learn the secrets the Draoihn themselves purged from the world.

malarkoi by alex phebyMalarkoi by Alex Pheby

Nathan Treeves is dead, murdered by the Master of Mordew, his remains used to create the powerful occult weapon known as the Tinderbox. His companions are scattered, making for Malarkoi, the city of the Mistress, the Masterā€™s enemy. They are hoping to find welcome there, or at least safety. They find neitherā€”and instead become embroiled in a life and death struggle against assassins, demi-gods, and the cunning plans of the Mistress. Only Sirius, Nathanā€™s faithful magical dog, has not forgotten the boy. Bent on revenge, he returns to the shattered remains of Mordewā€”only to find the city morphed into an impossible mountain, swarming with monsters. The stage is set for battle, sacrifice, magic and treachery in the stunning sequel to Mordew. Welcome to Malarkoi.


October 31

the wolfe at the door by gene wolfeThe Wolfe at the Door by Gene Wolfe

The circus comes to townā€¦ and a man gets to go to the stars. A young girl on a vacation at the sea meets the man of her dreams. Who just happens to be dead. And an immortal pirate. A swordfighter pens his memoirsā€¦ and finds his pen is in fact mightier than the sword. Welcome to Gene Wolfeā€™s playground, a place where genres blend and a geniusā€™s imagination straps you in for the ride of your life. The Wolfe at the Door is a brand new collection from one of Americaā€™s premiere literary giants, showcasing some material thatā€™s never been seen before. Short stories, yes, but also poems, essays, and ephemera that gives us a window into the mind of a literary powerhouse whose world view changed generations of readers in their perception of the universe.


November 7

Placeholder of  -13Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murkā€”so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine. Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.


November 14

the lost cause by cory doctorowThe Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow

Itā€™s thirty years from now. Weā€™re making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry old people who canā€™t let go? For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn’t controversial. It’s just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks. But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their “alternative” news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that “climate change” is just a giant scam. And they’re your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they’re not going anywhere. And theyā€™re armed to the teeth.


December 5

All the Hidden Paths by Foz MeadowsAll the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

With the plot against them foiled and the city of Qi-Katai in safe hands, newlywed and tentative lovers Velasin and Caethari have just begun to test the waters of their relationship. But the wider political ramifications of their marriage are still playing out across two nations, and all too soon, theyā€™re summoned north to Tithenaā€™s capital city, Qi-Xihan, to present themselves to its monarch. With Caethari newly invested as his grandmotherā€™s heir and Velasinā€™s old ghosts gnawing at his heels, what little peace theyā€™ve managed to find is swiftly put to the test. Caeā€™s recent losses have left him racked with grief and guilt, while Vel struggles with the disconnect between instincts that have kept him safe in secrecy and what an open life requires of him now. Pursued by unknown assailants and with Qi-Xihanā€™s court factions jockeying for power, Vel and Cae must use all the skills at their disposal to not only survive, but thrive.Ā 

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Excerpt Reveal: The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow

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the lost cause by cory doctorow

Itā€™s thirty years from now. Weā€™re making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry old people who canā€™t let go?

For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn’t controversial. It’s just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.

But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their “alternative” news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that “climate change” is just a giant scam.

And they’re your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they’re not going anywhere. And theyā€™re armed to the teeth.

The Lost CauseĀ asks: What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they’re often the elders that we love?

Please enjoy this free excerpt of The Lost CauseĀ by Cory Doctorow, on sale 11/14/23


Chapter 1

gramps’s secret

I love Burbank City Hall. Itā€™s the perfect marriage of everything I love about this town: a WPA building celebrating solidarity with beautiful murals and frescoes, but also a theatrical building, with an art deco facade thatā€™s got this Disneyland-grade forced perspective thing going on that makes it seem twice as tall as it really is. Someone really good at set design had planned the building, and it was impossible to take a bad picture in front of it, whether it was the mayor at her podium giving a presser, or a group of protesters holding signsā€”it always came out looking like you were starring in some kind of movie.

The first time Iā€™d gone there was in the ninth grade, on a civics evening field trip when weā€™d all dressed up in our bar mitzvah and confirmation suits to sit in the gallery during a council meeting. The meeting had been boring af, but the building made an impression.

I didnā€™t go back inside for years, but every time I passed it, I got a little squirt of civic pride, so the field trip had done its job. Then in junior year I started hanging out with kids whose parents were in the Democratic Socialists of America and going out with them to the annual Federal Jobs review meetings or other high-stakes council sittings, and I gained a new appreciation for the place, all the old brass and the beautiful wood paneling in the council chamber. I even liked the ground-floor overflow chamber.

But the first time I went back after Gramps died, it was different. I was used to seeing people from his Maga Club there, speaking about why they should get their Jobs Guarantee allocations, and I knew that theyā€™d rat me out to him afterward. But with Gramps dead, I had this feeling like maybe theyā€™d ambush me on the way home, squirt me with acid or put a bullet in my brain.

But I wasnā€™t gonna let them scare me off. I went with a big group of friendsā€”thirty of us, all recent grads from Burroughsā€”and we met up with a bunch of other groups on those dramatic steps and hung out together on our side, while the Maga Club stood on their side, glowering at us from under their red trucker
caps, frayed and faded like badges of honor. Like old battlefield ribbons.

The city held these Jobs Guarantee reviews every year, and every year the Maga Club organized a huge crowd of old white dudes to show up and argue that the Federal Jobs Guarantee should fund organizations devoted to dismantling the Federal Jobs Guarantee (and every other Green New Deal program). At first it had just been a troll, but now they scooped up a third of the Jobs Guarantee positions and it was hurting the cityā€™s ability to fund positions for things we really needed, including (ironically) the home helpers that cleaned these old dudesā€™ houses and gave them sponge baths and trimmed their hedges.

When they let us in, we went up the stairs in our separate groups but a lot of the Magas took the elevators and emerged in our midst, so we were all mixed up together by the time we got to the metal detectors, which were always a mess anyway. The old guys started it, shoving and elbowing in the way they did, and then some of our side pushed back and before you knew it, everyone was trash-talking and shouting, and then one of the Maga guys called someone a ā€œwetbackā€ and suddenly the rotunda was a roar of voices.

I was toward the back of the line behind a skinny redheaded guy who had a little notepad that he kept making additions and scribbles on with a golf pencil. When the noise level peaked he looked up from his pad and made eye contact with me.

ā€œWhatā€™s going on?ā€ he said, craning to see. He was short and had a kind of weird, awkward affect, and he had a huge lapel pin with @DAWGFARTZZZ@LAFFLAND that I wished Iā€™d noticed before Iā€™d caught his eye.

ā€œPolitics,ā€ I said with a shrug, loud enough to be heard over the roar of voices. ā€œItā€™s Jobs Guarantee night.ā€

He looked puzzled, then he worked out what I was talking about and shrugged. ā€œI donā€™t pay attention to any of that stuff. Just here for the mic. Are you doing a set?ā€

ā€œNo,ā€ I said. ā€œIā€™m here for the politics.ā€

He snorted and went back to his notepad.

The Burbank city charter required that every council meeting include an open comment period where anyone could stand up and speak for up to five minutes. And the city had settled a public records lawsuit decades before by promising to livestream and archive its meetings, originally to YouTube and these days to GovTube, one of the tubes left over from the breakup.

No one knows which of the would-be comedians of the world first got the idea to use these public comment periods as an open mic to work out new material, but the rumors were that half the comedians working today were ā€œdiscoveredā€ on city-hall cams and boosted over social into fame and fortune.

It was catnip for anyone who thought they were funny, and city councilors and mayors were such a tough audienceā€”to say nothing of the people stuck in the chamber, waiting for a chance to speak about zoning or school funding while some asshole tried to be funny at the podiumā€”that any laughs they got were worth a thousand times more than a laugh in a club.

Thatā€™s what this little redheaded guy was here for, and why he had his twitter handle on his chest in giant block letters. I had no idea if heā€™d be funny, but DAWGFARTZZZ with three zā€™s didnā€™t bode well.

The shouting up ahead died down and a couple of Magas stormed past me, evidently ejected for bad behavior, and then a couple of people from our group that I knew by sight, but couldnā€™t name. They went to Burbank High, and Iā€™d seen them at varsity matches and the odd party.

ā€œEverything okay?ā€ I asked a young-looking Latina girl, whose face was set in grim fury.

ā€œWhat?ā€ She looked at me, seemed to recognize me. ā€œOh. Yeah. I guess. Those assholesā€ā€”she jutted her chin at the backs of the departing Magasā€”ā€œstarted shoving at the security checkpoint and so I dropped one of them on his ass.ā€ She grinned suddenly, revealing neat, small, very white teeth. ā€œGuess all those years of jiujitsu were worth something.ā€

I low-fived her and she chucked me on the shoulder on her way out, a bounce in her step that hadnā€™t been there before, which I felt good about. It would suck to get kicked out even before the meeting started. Sheā€™d taken one for the team.

The redheaded guy gave me a little more space, like he was starting to understand that ā€œpoliticsā€ wouldnā€™t be the boring part of the night.

We filled both sides of the gallery and lined the back walls and then the security guards closed the room and started shouting at the people still outside to go back downstairs to the overflow room. The councilors were already seated, along with the mayor and deputy mayor, the city attorney, and the secretary. The big screens showed the streaming view of the room and let us watch as the overflow room filled up. Because we were split in two rooms it was hard to tell whether the Magas were outnumbered by the good guys, but I thought we might have had an edge.”

ā€œI guess they were right about demographic replacement,ā€ said the person sitting next to me. I knew her name, but it took me a second to place her. Milena. Sheā€™d been a couple of years ahead of me at Burroughs and Iā€™d seen her around doing Jobs Guarantee work in the years since she graduatedā€”doing efficiency upgrades to old peopleā€™s houses, working the shelters during the flood-rains that washed out a couple of the hillside streets.

ā€œWhat do you mean?ā€

ā€œWell, they keep getting older and dying off, and no oneā€™s making any new Magas, at least not fast enough to replace the ones that are kicking the bucket. Meanwhile, people like you keep on graduating from high school and showing up here. Demographics are destiny.ā€ She shrugged and smiled. ā€œLike maybe if we just waited a couple years, these guysā€™d take care of themselves. Theyā€™re awfully fond of shooting each other, too.ā€

I must have grimaced.

ā€œSorry, I donā€™t mean to be flippant. Obviously that stuff is terrible, butā€”ā€

ā€œItā€™s okay,ā€ I said. ā€œI knew that guy who got shot.ā€

ā€œOh, shit. Dude, Iā€™m so sorryā€”ā€

ā€œNo, itā€™s okay, really. He tried to kill me right before they killed him.ā€

ā€œWaitā€”ā€ I saw her putting it together. ā€œDude, wow. Iā€™m so sorry. I just hadnā€™t made the connection. Thatā€™s such a fucked-up thing that happened to you. Are you okay? Like emotionally?ā€

I felt myself grimace again. ā€œSort of. I guess. Itā€™s a long story.ā€ She gestured at the front of the room, where the councilors and the secretary and the attorney were all conferring.

ā€œWe got time. If you want someone to talk to. If not, thatā€™s cool too.ā€

She and I hadnā€™t really crossed paths much in schoolā€”and weā€™d seen each other even less since, but Iā€™d always liked her and to tell the truth, Iā€™d been pretty isolated since graduation.

ā€œWell, you know. Itā€™s just.ā€ I took a breath. ā€œMy grandfather died right around then, too. He was all the family I had and I didnā€™t actually like him very much but now Iā€™m the last of the family line and Iā€™m all alone in the house full of his stuff, trying to figure out what to do with myself. Iā€™d planned to go down to Capistrano to do a Green New Deal year after grad, but I gotta do something with the house first, and itā€™s just such a big, stupid project that I donā€™t know where to start.ā€

ā€œOh, man. That sounds intense. Are you okay for money and stuff?ā€

I shrugged. ā€œI think so. The credit union had just upgraded to comply with the new probate rules, so they let me into Grampsā€™s checking account after he died to pay for expenses and the funeral. Whenever I need a bag or two of groceries I just do some Green New Deal stuff around town, but itā€™s just a holding pattern. I just canā€™t seem to get anything startedā€”not the house, not going down the coast, not getting to university.ā€

ā€œMaybe you should see a counselor. It sounds like youā€™ve been through a lot.ā€

ā€œI did some online counseling, and it helped a little, but maybe I should do some more.ā€

ā€œMaybe you should.ā€ She gripped my shoulder and gave it a friendly shake. ā€œMaybe you just need a little perspective, you know? Like, Iā€™m still living with my family and I love them and all, but they drive me crazy. And that Green New Deal work youā€™re doing? I know it can feel like shitwork, but remember that youā€™re making an actual difference. Youā€™re literally saving our cityā€”our civilizationā€”our species!ā€

I laughed. ā€œYou sound like Hartounian.ā€ She laughed too. Hartounian was Burroughsā€™s GND teacher, and her classes were always like sermons. You could sometimes hear them from the next classroom over. Gramps had invoked ā€œfreedom of conscienceā€ to keep me out of GND classes in elementary and middle school, but he couldnā€™t keep me out of them in high school and Iā€™d loved ā€™em.

Evidently Milena shared my enthusiasm, because she busted out a pitch-perfect Hartounian impression: ā€œYours is the first generation in a century that did not grow up fearing for your future. Do you have any idea how incredible that is?ā€

I laughed. It was the most Hartounian of all possible quotes and she was perfect at it.

ā€œI miss her. Her class was the best.ā€

She shook her head. ā€œSheā€™s over there, dude,ā€ and yeah, she was, sitting a couple of rows ahead and off to one side. ā€œMs. H!ā€ Milena called, and she turned around and recognized both of us and beamed, then blew us both kisses.

ā€œItā€™s so weird seeing teachers outside of school,ā€ I said.

ā€œGet used to it, you gonna stay in Burbank. Itā€™s a small town.ā€ The mayor called the meeting to order and we all settled in.

Copyright Ā© 2023 from Cory Doctorow

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