Are you as excited as we are for The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer? Find out what it’s all about and join us in the Gilded Age New Yorker spirit with this playlist celebrating The Glass Magician‘s release below!
Reminiscent of The Golem and the Jinni, The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer is a magical and romantic tale set in New York’s Gilded Age.
New York 1905—The Vanderbilts. The Astors. The Morgans. They are the cream of society—and they own the nation on the cusp of a new century.
Thalia Cutler doesn’t have any of those family connections. What she does know is stage magic and she dazzles audiences with an act that takes your breath away.
That is, until one night when a trick goes horribly awry. In surviving she discovers that she can shapeshift, and has the potential to take her place among the rich and powerful.
But first, she’ll have to learn to control that power…before the real monsters descend to feast.
With an aesthetic like this, you might have some songs of your own in mind. Too bad. Tor editor Chris Morgan has already curated a badass list of tunes to get you in the right mood for Nick Mamatas’ “blood-spattered epic”* Sabbath.
Check out the summary and listen below:
The infamous eleventh-century warrior Hexen Sabbath is plucked from death and certain damnation by a being claiming to be an angel of the Lord, and finds himself dropped into contemporary Manhattan with no clothes, no weapons, no resources, and one mission—to track down and kill the living personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins before they bring about Armageddon.
With time running out and his only ally a destitute art gallery owner, Sabbath must fight his way through New York’s elite and challenge the world’s most powerful man, or an eternity of suffering will be his, and our, only reward.
Max Gladstone (Empress of Forever, This Is How You Lose the Time War)
I spent most of last month thinking about important women… women in the news and in my life. I thought about my favorite women in literature and how their characters have evolved over time to become more complex… and how far yet we have to go. Tor author (whose debut novel, ZERO SUM GAME, is out this month) SL Huang (@sl_huang) wrote a killer essay for the blog called “Sharp Edges.” Here’s what she had to say on fictional characters who aren’t cis men:
“I want women with sharp edges. Female characters who are risky, extreme, gross, strange…Female characters you remember even if you don’t like them.”
Don’t get me wrong; princesses are great. But you know what’s more impactful than a princess? A sword-wielding power hungry antiheroine princess who readers can just as easily despise as they can adore. Know why? Because little girls regardless of race, class, or assigned gender at birth should know that it’s okay not to be perfect, inoffensive, and morally righteous all the damn time. They should know that those traits aren’t qualifications they need to be the heroine of their own stories. So, I present the first half of Tor’s October playlist: Sharp-Edged Women from the Future.
But, on a completely different note, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention epic space battles this month, right? Don’t worry, I have some shiny, space operatic tunes, too. If you haven’t read Jason Heller’s (@jason_m_heller) Strange Stars yet, I highly recommend it for all fans of speculative fiction, especially those who delight in the crossover of their favorite books into film and music and vice versa. Heller’s book heavily influenced my soundtrack to space opera. But, while my love of Bowie, Rush, Led Zeppelin, and Hawkwind is well-documented (check my Xanga) and long-enduring, I was entirely ignorant of Afrofuturism before reading his book. And, honestly, I was a little horrified at how whitewashed my knowledge and taste in sci-fi music was. So, here exists my on-the-record shout out of thanks to Heller for expanding my horizons and giving me a mind-blowing new subgenre to learn about and love. And here I present the second half of my playlist: Subwoofers in Space.
And, of course, what’s an October playlist without one Halloween song? Enjoy and #stayspooky.
Reminiscent of The Golem and the Jinni, The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer is a magical and romantic tale set in New York’s Gilded Age.
Check out the summary and listen below: