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$2.99 eBook Sale: June 2022

Hot! Hot! Hot! We’re talking about summer of course, because it’s June, but we’re also talking about eBook deals, because we’re serving up some sizzling discounts this month ⛱🌊🍦

Check it out!


Place holder  of - 51The House of Daniel by Harry Turtledove

Since the Big Bubble popped in 1929, life in the United States hasn’t been the same. Hotshot wizards will tell you nothing’s really changed, but then again, hotshot wizards aren’t looking for honest work in Enid, Oklahoma. Jack Spivey’s just another down-and-out trying to stay alive, doing a little of this and a little of that. Sometimes that means making a few bucks playing ball with the Enid Eagles, against teams from as many as two counties away. And sometimes it means roughing up rival thugs for Big Stu, the guy who calls the shots in Enid. But one day Jack knocks on the door of the person he’s supposed to “deal with”–and realizes that he’s not going to do any such thing to the young lady who answers.

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Placeholder of  -96The Affinity Bridge by George Mann

Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by unfamiliar inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, while ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers, policemen, and journalists. But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side….

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Image Placeholder of - 84The Sin in the Steel by Ryan Van Loan

Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few. It’s been weeks since ships last returned to the magnificent city of Servenza with bounty from the Shattered Coast. Disaster threatens not just the city’s trading companies but the empire itself. When Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen who sinks all who defy her. Now all Buc and Eld have to do is sink the Widowmaker’s ship….Unfortunately for Buc, the gods have other plans. Unfortunately for the gods, so does Buc.

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Image Place holder  of - 59The Sword of Midras by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott

Abandoned by the mighty Avatars and their Virtues, the people who remained were left defenseless in an untamed land. That is, until the Obsidians came. Through dark sorcery and overwhelming force the Obsidian Empire brought order to chaos, no matter the cost. Aren Benis is a Captain in the Obsidian Army who has seen enough of what a world without Virtue looks like and is willing to do whatever it takes to establish a lasting peace. But after finding a magical sword that only he can wield, a sword his trusted scout, Syenna, claims is a blade once used by the legendary Avatars, Aren is thrown into a far more unfamiliar battle. One fought with whispered words and betrayal instead of swords and arrows.

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Poster Placeholder of - 84My Real Children by Jo Walton

It’s 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. “Confused today,” read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know-what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don’t seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead. She remembers the bomb that killed President Kennedy in 1963, and she remembers Kennedy in 1964, declining to run again after the nuclear exchange that took out Miami and Kiev. Two lives, two worlds, two versions of modern history; each with their loves and losses, their sorrows and triumphs. Jo Walton’s My Real Children is the tale of both of Patricia Cowan’s lives…and of how every life means the entire world.

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The Trouble with Writing (Too) Smart Characters

Placeholder of  -3How do you write brilliant, Sherlockian characters? Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel and the upcoming sequel, The Justice in Revenge, knows the struggle, and talks about his experience writing super smart characters like his protagonist Buc.


By Ryan Van Loan

“I’m not like other people; I’m the oddity, but to my eyes it’s everyone else who’s strange.”

That’s the protagonist from my FALL OF THE GODS series, Sambucina ‘Buc’ Alhurra, prenatural genius and autodidact street rat convinced she can save the world. She’s a double-barreled blunderbuss of fun to read, but a lot harder to write. Genius-level protagonists often are. Sherlock Holmes. Hermione Granger. Locke Lamora.  Cas Russel. Kvothe. Some of the sharpest minds in genre fiction and every one of them a delight to read on the page…but how does one go about writing them? I suspect if you’re a genius it may not be all that difficult, but what about mere mortals like present company? Come take a look behind the page with me and I’ll show you some of the tips and tricks I use when writing characters who are far smarter than I am.

If books are full of magic (of course they are), then authors are the magicians (I know that sounds grand, but I also scoop up my dog’s poop, so). The base layer of our magic is this: by simply reading a line, the reader internalizes the words on the page. Once you’ve let those words burrow into you, they’re hard to get out. That’s why books are so powerful…and dangerous. They can slip thoughts, notions, ideas into your mind that you’d never have considered, let alone held closely before. This is one of my favorite feats of legerdemain when writing genius-level characters: call attention to their genius. There’s a myriad of ways to do that, from the blunt: have other characters name them a genius, to the subtle: show our would-be Einstein continually frustrated with the failure of others to keep up with their thoughts and plans. Sprinkle that in early and often and we the reader now believe, or at least are open to the belief, that this character is smarter than we are.

Now that we have the reader open to suggestion, we need to harden that belief into firm reality. A favorite trick of mine is to think about a current dilemma facing our protag (it could be something as simple as a discussion or as complex as the climactic Act 3 showdown) and list the ways they could solve the issue. Immediately discard the first several that come to mind (but don’t throw those away, we’ll come back to them) because those are what your normies would think of trying. Now comes the hard part…waiting for some really intriguing, unique solutions to surface in your mind. Be patient. Go for a walk, grab a hot shower, read a book. Eventually you’ll get one (or even two or three!) that make you sit up and chuckle to yourself. Those are the ones you want to have your genius set into motion.

Remember those earlier solutions? Those are great for feeding through the mouths of secondary characters who are just like us. They’re also wonderful to have your protag pick apart early in the story to further establish their bonafides in the brains department. Okay, so now we know what our protag wants to do, but we all know ideas are one thing, execution another. Sticking with our magician angle, when I’m putting our genius’ solution into action, I like to use misdirection whenever possible. Show just enough of the solution that the reader thinks they know where our main character is taking this and then spring the reveal on them at the climactic moment. They’ll connect the dots, get that wonderful surprising-yet-inevitable feeling, and our protagonist’s genius will be forever cemented in their mind.

Talking about or showing our character’s genius and coming up with unfathomable solutions are two great ways to create smart(er) characters. What else? Vocabulary and speech are two obvious ones. Some feel that using fewer contractions can show intelligence, which is true, but you have to watch for stilted language at that point. I do like to sprinkle in some complex words and even have another character ask what they mean, but typically I rely upon syntax and contextual clues within the speech to demonstrate smarts. Research is always your friend, both in understanding particularly erudite pieces of science that you want to use and also in looking at what historically genius-level folks have gotten up to that you can then steal *ahem* borrow, and fit into your story.

I’ll wrap this up by reminding you that the author has as long as they need to practice their sleight of hand. Especially if you’re the type of author that likes to write by the seat of your pants…revision is your friend. Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed (or worse, underwhelmed) with creating a genius protagonist, I find it comforting to remind myself I can fix this all in post. You can go back and tweak language, adjust scenes, tailor the set up so that your reveal is THAT much cooler. You’re the creator, so use your power to your advantage and hold the reveal close to your vest until you’ve got it down pat.

Those are some of my tips, what are some that you’ve seen other authors do or tried yourself?

RYAN VAN LOAN (he/him) served six years in the US Army Infantry, on the front lines of Afghanistan. He now works in healthcare innovation. The Sin in the Steel was his debut novel. Van Loan and his wife live in Pennsylvania.

Pre-order The Justice in Revenge here:

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VIDEO: In conversation with Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

We can’t wait for The Justice in Revenge by Ryan Van Loan to hit shelves on 7/13, so we’re doing a throwback to pre-COVID times when Ryan visited the Tor Books office and answered alllllll our burning questions about The Sin in the Steel. Check it out here!

 

Transcript of Video:

In conversation with Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

What is your favorite location in the book?

RVL: You know, I think my favorite location is the port, it’s this pirate’s shanty town and in the book they talk about the fact that it’s named because of the glint of gold in the sun. But at the same time, one of the other characters brings up the fact that blood glints the same way, and I think that’s a pretty good representation of it. It’s a place where there’s always a good time lurking around every corner, but some of those good times might involve a blade or two so you really have got to keep your eyes sharp.

Who would you rather have your back in a fight, Buc or Eld?

RVL: I love Buc, but she has a really strong sense of self-preservation, and she’s pretty small, so I think I’m going to go with Eld. He’s not going to run away, and he’s a pretty beefy dude, bigger than me, so he’s going to be a good bullet catcher for me, I think.

If The Sin in the Steel was a game, what type of game would it be?

RVL: You know, I love those sprawling single RPG player games, like Skyrim or The Witcher 3 or the Assassin’s Creed ones, they even have a pirates one in there that’s a lot of fun to play, so I think The Sin in the Steel would definite be some sprawling, single player RPG where the real hook is what’s over the next horizon, and sometimes what’s over the next horizon might be a pirate ship, or a hoard of undead, or 30-50 feral hogs, you never know.

Where do you draw inspiration from in the world you created here?

RVL: Yeah, that’s a good question. You know, I started with a character and so I knew that I wanted to tell a story about a young woman who was breaking chains in her world, but I didn’t know what those chains were right away. And then I realized that I really wanted to play with the concept of empire and trading companies and capitalism, and so then I started thinking about different settings and age of sale, and mercantilism really came into play. So then I started thinking about where are these melting pots of culture, because I always think that’s really interesting, different cultures meeting together. So I think Venice and the Mediterranean, the Umayyad Empire in Córdoba, Spain back in the day, the South China Sea, the Caribbean, all these different places. I’ve been fortunate to visit a few of them, and so that really gave me this idea of this island empire and this Mediterranean, quasi-Caribbean feel that I don’t think I’ve seen a lot of in fantasy lately, and that’s what got me really excited and where I drew my inspiration from.

What is your favorite city that you’ve visited?

RVL: I think my favorite city is Paris; I love Paris. The first time I went, I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did, and then I just fell in love with France, so I’ve become a bit of a Francophile. But I think the most beautiful place I’ve been is Thailand. We got to spend time with this elephant rescue park. It was me, my wife, and the guide and just these two elephants in the middle of the jungle, it was magical and the people were so nice. Thailand, France, Mexico is another one, Puerto Rico, those are some of my favorite places for sure.

Did you always know you wanted to write a pirate story?

RVL: So I always loved pirates, as a little kid I would make my mom draw on me with magic marker, skulls and crossbones and anchors, and wear bandanas and climb trees, yell ‘ahoy.’ I think I read Treasure Island at an impressionable age, so that’s where that bit came from, and maybe I regret that a little bit. I know my mom regrets drawing on me now, because then I went and got a bunch of tattoos. But I don’t know if I set out to write a pirate story, I set out to write a story that had ships in it and sailing and canons and swords, so that kind of brought pirates into it.

What is the strangest thing you had to research for The Sin in the Steel?

RVL: So I got to do some cool things, there are some gear-powered ships in the world that go faster than what wind and sail allow, and so I had to figure out the physics of that and the engineering. There’s magic involved so you can kind of ‘wink wink’ a little bit. But I think strange wise, figuring out if a slingshot is powerful enough to sever a brainstem is one, and then probably the effects of urine on hemp rope, that’s probably the strangest.

HEROES FOR HIRE. IF YOU CAN PAY.

Order The Sin in the Steel here!

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Order The Justice in Revenge here!

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VIDEO: Rapid-fire Questions with Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

We are OBSESSED with Ryan Van Loan’s debut The Sin in the Steel. Who wouldn’t love a fantasy world filled with dead gods, a pirate queen, and SHAPESHIFTERS! Before COVID-19 had us all working from home, we sat down with Ryan for some super important, very professional rapid-fire questions to get to know him a little better. Check out his responses here!

Excited for the book? Order The Sin in the Steel here!

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Transcript of Video:

Rapid-fire Questions with Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel 

Question: Pirates or Mages?

RVL: Uh, mages.

Question: Magic or science?

RVL: Science is magic!

Question: Cannons or swords?

RVL: Cannons is probably the smarter answer, but I love swords and how it feels in your hand so I’m going to go with the sword.

Question: Buc or Eld?

RVL: Ahhh, both.

Question: Blood or Gold?

RVL: I’m going to go with gold.

Question: Sin or steel?

RVL: Sin sounds a lot more fun.

Question: Waffles or pancakes?

RVL: I don’t think waffles are a real thing so I’m going to go with pancakes.

Question: Cats or dogs?

RVL: I’m a huge dog person. If you follow me on social media, you’ll see, I think I post my pittie and my boxer about 1 million times throughout the course of the month, so sorry to the cat people but I really love dogs.

Question: Sidekicks or heroes?

RVL: I think it depends on who the sidekick or hero is, but it’s hard to beat a good hero. I’m thinking Storm, Wolverine, Captain America, so I think I’m going to have to go with heroes.

Question: Which is a better reward, money or rare books?

RVL: I think money so I can hire someone to translate the rare books that I won’t be able to read.

Question: Would you rather face 30-50 wild hogs, or a horde of undead?

RVL: Oooo, uh, the undead are pretty scary but the idea of 30-50 wild animals that are 400 pounds chasing after me, I think I could stand a chance against the undead a little bit better.

Question: What’s the best pirate ship?

RVL: Oh, so that’s easy! The best pirate ship is in the Princess Bride, Dread Pirate Roberts’ the Revenge.

HEROES FOR HIRE. IF YOU CAN PAY.

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Chaos and Cosmos: Bookish Horoscopes!

We’ve been giving our Chaos and Cosmos authors a run for their money with all these delightfully chaotic questions, but today we’ve given them their most daunting task yet…WRITING HOROSCOPES! From meeting handsome strangers to fleeing vengeful pigs, check out what our authors predicted here.

Write a horoscope based on your book

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Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

Today you will face an obstacle and an opening. Keep your temper in check. Charge right in.

May Robinette Kowal, author of The Relentless Moon

Today watch out for accidents. You will find yourself in close quarters, far from loved ones. Trust your friends to be there for you.

Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

Remember that harissa-rubbed pork shoulder you enjoyed? Today, the porcine will have their revenge.

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Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of Trouble the Saints

Someone has committed a great wrong against you and your people. It’s your choice: fight alone, or fight together. The truth, and the power, is in your hands.

Jenn Lyons, author of The Memory of Souls

Change is in the air, and you know what they say: adapt or die! It’s a tough world out there, and it’s not always easy to see the dragons in your path until they fly right into you. With Kimeron in retrograde, be careful of family gatherings, as it’s going to be especially easy to say the wrong thing to a loved one. You may find such reunions to be a little disagreeable, even cut-throat. Remember not to take what people say at face value — everyone had their own motives.

Most of all, be prepared to make sacrifices to get what you want.

Kit Rocha, author of Deal with the Devil

Today, a tall, handsome stranger will ask you to team up. You can’t trust him. Do it anyway.

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Andrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

Today everything will be upside down and inside out, unpredictable, dangerous. If you work together with folks you love and folks you can’t stand, you might make it to tomorrow.

Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Today you will encounter adventure, tentacles, and cosmic wonder. Today dreams and nightmares will find unity.

S. A. Hunt, author of I Come With Knives

Don’t feed the wildlife today. Embrace your nature and let your impulsive side take over for a little while. Don’t attend any dinner parties your neighbors might be throwing. A new challenge will present itself in the form of a Mesopotamian death-goddess.

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S. L. Huang, author of Burning Roses

You’re going to have to decide whether you can kill your friend’s son today. Also, it turns out gods and monsters exist, and you might be the monster.

Stay tuned for even more Chaos and Cosmos!

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The *Best* Dynamic Duos in SFF by Ryan Van Loan

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Legolas and Gimli. Ripley and her giant space gun. SFF has some of the best dynamic duos. To name a few, we asked The Sin in the Steel (home to chaotic Sherlock & Watson style duo Buc and Eld) author Ryan Van Loan to join us and round up some of the best.


By Ryan Van Loan

Dynamic duos. 

They’re found everywhere in fiction and while they’re a little less (in)famous in science fiction and fantasy, Dear Reader, we have some of the best of the lot. There’s something about a pair of characters thrust together by chance or choice that pulls us in. Whether it’s opposites with a healthy dose of will they/won’t they like Katniss and Peeta or sympaticos like Fred and George Weasely, the options are endless and endlessly fascinating. Below are some of my timeless faves.

Fitz and the Fool from Robin Hobb’s ongoing Elderling’s Series are a longtime favorite of mine. Specifically, The Tawny Man Trilogy where we get a slightly older Fitz and a Fool who has transformed from court jester to a seemingly flippant noble, Lord Golden. 

I love that we have two old friends whose relationships with one another have to navigate multiple changes in each set of trilogies from age to power dynamics and yet the throughline that anchors both them and the trilogy is their friendship and trust for one another. 

This one really puts it to the test, with the Fool standing against everyone else Fitz cares for and forcing him to choose.

Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen are literally our gentleman thieves (bastards) in Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards Series. While our introduction to the pair in The Lies of Locke Lamora is really in the form of a small gang of thieves, these two stand apart from the beginning. I really enjoy that throughout the series we see their friendship, but their flaws too. This isn’t a perfect buds relationship…it’s messy and they both have to put in the work to keep their friendship, but at the end of it all, when the chips are down, there’s never any doubt that they have each other’s backs. Quite literally. 

My favorite moments in the first book are when Locke, who is small and not the best fighter, is getting his ass handed to him, and he notes he doesn’t have to beat the asskicker, he just has to hold their attention until Jean (the much bigger, much better asskicker) arrives on scene. And wow, does he ever!

There’s Moiraine and Lan from The Wheel of Timehonestly, we could spend an entire post exploring the duos there (Elayne and Nynaeve, Siuan and Leane, etc. etc.)—and Kell and Lila from V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic fame and many more, but the last one I’ll mention is of the quieter sort. It may be my favorite, because it’s intimate, poignant, and involves the highest of stakes, not just life and death, but the fate of worlds. 

The pair I’m thinking of are aeronaut Lee Scoresby and his daemon, an arctic hare named Hester from The Subtle Knife (Book 2 of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series). A daemon is essentially a person’s soul given shape and thought and speech in the same way that person is the daemon’s (soul’s) embodiment. They are two sides of the same coin and here, we get to see what that really means. Lee and Hester are helping a shaman escape from agents of the Magisterium (the Big Bad) to help the heroine of the story, Lyra, a girl, who Lee says he, “…love(s) that little child like a daughter. If I’d had a child of my own, I couldn’t love her more.” When they become trapped by a zeppelin full of Tartar soldiers, Lee and Hester choose to make a final stand at the entrance to the gulch that provides their only chance of escape…selling their lives that this shaman might use his to aid Lyra in her quest to defeat the Magisterium. Outnumbered twenty five to two, they look like they’ll defeat the odds, with Hester blending into the rocks and able to prove spotter to Lee’s sniper. 

Throughout the series to this point, this pair have been an anchor, much like the rocks hiding them now, they’ve been dependable for both Lyra and the reader. We’ve also seen the quiet, reserved friendship the pair share. Before the shooting starts, we see Hester through Lee’s eyes, his admiration for his lifelong friend and everything they’ve been through together. All too soon, that friendship is put to the test. Reader, I thought they were going to pull it off. Lee’s head gets grazed by a bullet, but the Tartar’s numbers are dwindling. Then Lee gets shot and this time it’s no glancing blow. He’s fumbling to reload and we get this beautiful pause amidst all that ugliness when Hester presses her tear-faced head against him, giving him her support in their final hour. They know they’re going to die, knew that was likely to happen when this all started, but they stood their ground because it had to be done. Now it’s all over, save the last. 

When it ends as it so cruelly, inevitably must, Lee Scoresby lies on his back, body bullet-ridden, Hester pressed close beside him. The ground is littered with dead soldiers, the zeppelin is plunging to the earth in flames, and Hester whispers her last to Lee, reminding him what they did: helped the child they love like a daughter. That’s it.

That Dear Reader, is why I love duos so much…we are none of us an island, we all need someone at some time, some point in our lives and when we do and that someone is there? That’s everything.  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Thelma and Louise. Roland and Jake. Ka, Stephen King said, is a circle, and (I say, but I think he’d agree) at its center is friendship. 

Friendship.

Another word for magic.

Buy The Sin in the Steel Here:

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Hello, Beautiful: New Series from Tor that Began in 2020!

The end of 2020 is approaching (YAY) and we’re looking back on this incredibly chaotic year for some of the bright spots. So, how about we celebrate all of our amazing new series that kicked off in 2020 (At least, these are the books we know have sequels planned, but if we’ve learned anything in 2020 it’s to expect the unexpected)? Check out the full list below!


Image Place holder  of - 53Burn the Dark (The Malus Domestica series) by S. A. Hunt

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets Stranger Things in award-winning author S. A. Hunt’s Burn the Dark, first in the Malus Domestica horror action-adventure series about a punk YouTuber on a mission to bring down witches, one vid at a time.

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Place holder  of - 15A Queen in Hiding (The Nine Realms series) by Sarah Kozloff

Orphaned, exiled and hunted, Cerulia, Princess of Weirandale, must master the magic that is her birthright, become a ruthless guerilla fighter, and transform into the queen she is destined to be. But to do it she must win the favor of the spirits who play in mortal affairs, assemble an unlikely group of rebels, and wrest the throne from a corrupt aristocracy whose rot has spread throughout her kingdom.

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Image Placeholder of - 2The Bard’s Blade (The Sorcerer’s Song series) by Brian D. Anderson

Mariyah enjoys a simple life in Vylari, a land magically sealed off from the outside world, where fear and hatred are all but unknown. There she’s a renowned wine maker and her betrothed, Lem, is a musician of rare talent. Then a stranger crosses the wards into Vylari for the first time in centuries, bringing a dark prophecy that forces Lem and Mariyah down separate paths. How far will they have to go to stop a rising darkness and save their home? And how much of themselves will they have to give up along the way?

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Placeholder of  -69The Unspoken Name (The Serpent’s Gate series) by A. K. Larkwood

Csorwe knows when and how she’ll die. She’ll enter the Shrine of the Unspoken and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power. But Csorwe will soon learn—gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

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Unconquerable Sun (The Sun Chronicles) by Kate Elliott

Princess Sun has finally come of age. Growing up in the shadow of her mother, Eirene, has been no easy task. The legendary queen-marshal did what everyone thought impossible: expel the invaders and build Chaonia into a magnificent republic, one to be respected—and feared. But the cutthroat ambassador corps and conniving noble houses have never ceased to scheme—and they have plans that need Sun to be removed as heir, or better yet, dead.

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The Sin in the Steel (The Fall of the Gods series) by Ryan Van Loan

Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few. It’s been weeks since ships last returned to the magnificent city of Servenza with bounty from the Shattered Coast. When Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen who sinks all who defy her.

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Deal with the Devil (The Mercenary Librarians series) by Kit Rocha

Nina is an information broker with a mission—she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America. Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. They’re on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process, or they could do the impossible: team up.

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Architects of Memory (The Memory War series) by Karen Osborne

Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she’ll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When her crew salvages a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.

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What Would You Keep in a Bag of Holding? (Chaotic Answers Only)

The Chaos and Cosmos continues!

We asked our Chaos and Cosmos authors: What would you keep in a bag of holding? And then we just sat back and embraced the chaos.

We have some ideas of our own of course: A lightsaber. Two-hundred and seven cheese wheels. A dragon egg maybe.

Let us know what you’d keep in yours in the comments!


What would you keep in your bag of holding?

Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

A trans-dimensional gateway, and an unending supply of freshly baked cookies.

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Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Relentless Moon

Fountain pens, paper, books, crochet, my laptop, and a blanket for a cozy nap. Also, my cat Elsie would probably be in there, because it is a thing that she can get inside that she should not be inside.

S. A. Hunt, author of I Come With Knives

Definitely not a portable hole, or another bag of holding. That’s a good way to rip a hole in space and time, and get sucked into the Astral Plane. What I would keep in my bag of holding? Probably a sword, my wallet, and chargers for my devices. Maybe a pack of soft-baked cookies and a water bottle.

Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of Trouble the Saints

Futon mattress, green tea, electric kettle, pens, ink, notebooks, towel, a lot of conditioner and a hair pick.

Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

Oh! Can I say another bag of holding whose destruction results in opening a gate to the Astral Plane? No? Hmm…well I imagine it’d probably be pretty similar to the contents of the bag Hermione has in The Deathly Hallows. Books and glamping tents and more books and potions and wands and quills and ink and…have I mentioned books?

Kit Rocha, author of Deal with the Devil

A bowling alley (complete with skunky beer), fifty pounds of hot smoked salmon, and a 1961 Thunderbird.

Jenn Lyons, author of The Memory of Souls

If my backpack is anything to go by: fountain pens, journals, and watercolor supplies.

Andrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

  • Portals to other worlds
  • A bike that never rusts or needs air in the tire
  • Dark chocolate bonbons with caramel filling
  • A truth serum

Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Survival equipment and writing supplies.

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S. L. Huang, author of Burning Roses

Toilet paper. (Too real?)

Also a sword, my TI-92 graphing calculator, and a whole lot of tea.

Cory Doctorow, author of Attack Surface

A wet bar, an espresso machine, a burr grinder, well, I already have the bag I take on planes that has a sleeping bag, good pajamas, a hot water bottle, an ice pack, footie slippers, an eye mask…I’m the most comfortable man in the sky, so I’ll definitely carry all of that, some really good pens, more spare batteries than is wise, I could go on.

 Us: How many spare batteries is wise?

Like, if there was a lithium fire, you’d want it to be terrible but not catastrophic, that’s the wise level.

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

Dark chocolate and really good English Breakfast tea, at all times.

_

Relatable, right?

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Chaos and Cosmos: Choose. Your. Weapon.

Everyone knows that when challenged to a duel, it’s on you to pick the weapon. Fisticuffs? Fencing at dawn? Compliments? In order to be prepared to defend your honor, you should really have a weapon of choice.

Relatedly, in the event of an unfortunate fencing-at-dawn accident, what would you replace your hand with if it were chopped off?

We ask our authors the important questions.

What is your weapon of choice?
Or, if your hand was cut off what would you replace it with? 

Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

If my hand was cut off I would replace it with a Swiss Army knife multi-tool prosthetic with additional sensitive claw grip.

Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Relentless Moon

Weapon of choice: Namiki pilot fountain pen with Noodler Ink’s Black Swans in English Roses. 

S. A. Hunt, author of I Come With Knives

Chainsaw, of course. Barring that, a short-sword. Something agile, but still has a little reach. No! No! A hookshot! A claw-hand that shoots out on a cable!

Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of Trouble the Saints

Nothing beats a well-aimed throwing knife.

Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

Can this be an ‘and’ question? Weapon of choice would be a Colt .45 (God made people, Sam Colt made them all equal right?) The truth is, I have a fascination with a double-edged broadsword with a basket-hilt and red leather lining (think Scottish sword), but I haven’t put my 10,000 hours in and would die…but if I could replace my hand with a badass sword AND have the Colt .45? Possibilities, friends, possibilities.

Kit Rocha, author of Deal with the Devil

A PS4 controller.

Jenn Lyons, author of The Memory of Souls

My weapon of choice would be vast cosmic powers. Because hell yes.

Andrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

The pen! (For both.)

Christopher Paolini, author of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Pistol-caliber carbine with armor-piercing rounds. If my hand was cut off . . . a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

S. L. Huang, author of Burning Roses

A laser. Because I could both cut through diamond AND entertain a posse of playful cats.

Cory Doctorow, author of Attack Surface

The Content Management System.

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

Definitely a really old-fashioned dagger.

 

Stay tuned for even more Chaos and Cosmos!

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The Great Debate: Is Godzilla a Dragon? And What Traits Make a Dragon a Dragon?

Welcome to Dragon Week 2020, a celebration of all things Dragon! 

During last year’s inaugural Dragon Week, we sparked a grand debate by dying on the hill that Godzilla is a Dragon. We’ll be staying on that hill, but we asked some of our authors—IS Godzilla a Dragon? And what traits really make a Dragon a Dragon? Check out their answers here!


Place holder  of - 43Brian Naslund, author of Sorcery of a Queen 

Is Godzilla a Dragon?

My initial instinct was to say no, figuring that aquatic beasts who symbolize nuclear proliferation (and other human vices) really belong in their own category of creature, given all the layers at work. But there are no easy answers here. Ultimately, if Godzilla feels like a dragon, then Godzilla’s a dragon in my book.

What makes a Dragon a Dragon?

I’ve been following the “what makes a dragon?” debate with great interest for the last year. While I was originally tempted to adhere to a more stringent definition of a dragon, I’ve ultimately come to believe that being a dragon isn’t about scales, anatomy, or size. It’s about the level of “dragon-ness” that resides in your heart, on either a permanent or temporary basis.

I, for one, believe that we all have the capacity to be dragons at some point in our lives. I often start each day in the form of a Morning Dragon (i.e. filled with wrath, hunger, and a burning desire to consume both coffee and the bones of my enemies).

Placeholder of  -58Marie Brennan, author of A Natural History of Dragons

Is Godzilla a Dragon?

Excellent question! I feel like he’s not a very *good* dragon — the proportions of his body and his bipedal posture just don’t ring right for me — but reptilian, breathes something dangerous, sure, I can see it if I squint.

What makes a Dragon a Dragon?

I think a generally serpentine body shape is the key starting point for me, and scales more often than not. I like dragons with wings, but obviously not all things we class as dragons have those. And they need to be extraordinary in some fashion; they need to be able to do something ordinary, non-draconic creatures can’t.

Image Placeholder of - 51Ryan Van Loan, author of The Sin in the Steel

Is Godzilla a Dragon? And what makes a Dragon a Dragon?

Godzilla isn’t a dragon (although I love Godzilla movies! Especially the ones where Godzilla is awoken/discovered and bad things happen). Dragons have wings (vestigial or practical), scales that are not easily penetrable, are capable of producing some sort of stream that is bad news for any who come in contact with it (e.g., fire, ice, poison), and often, but not always are given to hoarding. Essentially, dragons have more in common with avian species while Godzilla to my mind is more reptilian?

Image Place holder  of - 37Kevin J. Anderson, author of Spine of the Dragon

Is Godzilla a Dragon?

The original instigator of the Godzilla argument, Kevin J. Anderson, wrote us a WHOLE ARTICLE arguing about what makes a Dragon a Dragon, and he stands by his stance that Godzilla makes the cut. Check out his Dragon Week 2020 article here, and his deadliest dragons piece from last year here!

Poster Placeholder of - 36Jenn Lyons, author of The Ruin of Kings

Oh. ITSTHISAGAIN.

Really, we’re doing this? Is Godzilla a dragon?

Okay, fine. We’re doing this.

But first, we need to talk about definitions, because like many things, the answer is ‘no.’

And also ‘yes.’

Let me explain:

From a taxonomy perspective, wherein a dragon has a very distinct set of qualities depending on the cultural origins of the mythologies involved, at best his qualifications are deeply suspect. He has no wings. He isn’t serpent-like. He isn’t associated with rivers or lakes. He hoards nothing. (Of all of these, the ‘isn’t serpent-like’ is probably the most damning.) Can the argument be made that he’s reptilian? Sure. Is that enough to qualify him for dragon status?

In my opinion, no.

But that isn’t the only definition of dragon, is it? The problem with definitions come into play when we consider the social, cultural, and mythological reasons why dragons exist. In most of the west, dragons are typically forces of evil, the worst elements of human nature made flesh, the embodiment of our sins. And by many eastern traditions, dragons aren’t evil at all, but rather forces of nature, outside of human control. Dragons make the world a little easier to understand, even if it’s just condensing the world’s anxieties and fears into a more relatable, approachable avatar.

So. What if the ‘sin’ of humanity and the force of nature outside of our ability to control is, in both cases, the splitting of the atom?

Then he very much meets the definition of dragon, doesn’t he? Because from that definition, what he looks like, what form he takes, doesn’t actually matter. What’s important is that he’s a chimeric avatar of our hubris, a stark rebuttal to our beliefs that we can or have any right to meddle with these forces. If we want to play god, we must be prepared to create our own devils. And yet, any defeat of Godzilla is temporary. Slaying this dragon never works, because he is outside of our ability to control. We can only pacify and mitigate or, in later stories, entreat for help.

So there you have it. My definitive answer on whether or not Godzilla is a dragon: kindasortamaybe. From a certain point of view.

One thing that cannot be debated? Much like most more traditional dragons, nobody wants him (or her, depending on your Godzilla movie preferences) visiting their town.

Hope that helps and GO GO GODZILLA.

Unconquerable-SunKate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

Is Godzilla a Dragon? 

Godzilla is a kaiju. So my answer would be to ask if a dragon is a kaiju.

 

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