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TOR.COM


SCIENCE FICTION. FANTASY. THE UNIVERSE. AND RELATED SUBJECTS.


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 * Original Fiction


PORGEE’S BOAR

Jonathan Carroll
Wed Aug 10, 2022 9:00am 7 comments 16 Favorites [+]

An artist’s work attracts the eye of Andrey Porgee, a notorious gangster, who
becomes her best customer.
But when he commissions a painting based on a childhood photograph, the artist
fears his reaction to the final product.

[Read more]

 * Original Fiction


THIS PLACE IS BEST SHUNNED

David Erik Nelson
Wed Jul 27, 2022 9:00am 4 comments 25 Favorites [+]

Allie and Rooster are heading down to Asheville for Rooster’s new gig, a cushy
stint as artist-in-residence at UNC. Rooster is more of a con artist than maker
of art, but Allie doesn’t mind, because he’s good-looking, charming, and values
what she is: a girl with a keen eye for abandoned places and a knack for getting
into them. But when they stumble upon an old backcountry church—the perfect
backdrop for Rooster’s latest project—they discover that some “abandoned” places
have a knack for keeping themselves occupied.

[Read more]

 * Original Fiction


IN MERCY, RAIN

Seanan McGuire
Mon Jul 18, 2022 12:00pm 18 comments 57 Favorites [+]

Jack Wolcott was only twelve years old when she and her twin sister Jill,
descended the impossible staircase and found herself in the Moors, a world of
drowned gods and repugnant royals.
After abandoning her sister to a vampire lord, and under the tutelage of a mad
scientist who can do impossible things with flesh and living lightning, Jack
quickly learns that in the Moors, death is merely a suggestion.

[Read more]

 * Original Fiction


GROW

Carrie Vaughn
Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:00am 12 comments 23 Favorites [+]

For over 35 years, the Wild Cards universe has been entertaining readers with
stories of superpowered people in an alternate history. In Carrie Vaughn’s
“Grow”, ace Maryam Shahidi makes a big splash in the news after one of her
“experiments” goes awry.

[Read more]


SERIES: WILD CARDS ON TOR.COM

 * Original Fiction


THE SISTERS OF SAINT NICOLA OF THE ALMOST PERPETUAL MOTION VS THE LURCH

Garth Nix
Wed Jul 13, 2022 9:00am 7 comments 49 Favorites [+]

In this raucous, steampunk tale a sacred order of scientist nuns battle against
vicious Invaders from Mars and their murderous machines in an ongoing conflict
that has lasted centuries.

[Read more]

 * Original Fiction


AS YET UNSENT

Tamsyn Muir
Wed Jun 8, 2022 9:00am 7 comments 39 Favorites [+]

Culled from Judith Deuteros’ secret report on Blood of Eden activities, this
story was originally published in the trade paperback edition of Harrow the
Ninth.

[Read more]


HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BLOG

 * five books


FIVE DARK YA FANTASIES ABOUT THE FAE

Cyla Panin
Thu Aug 11, 2022 12:00pm 16 comments 2 Favorites [+]

The first house I lived in was a bi-level with a long, straight-shot hallway
from the kitchen to the living room. Full length mirrors were set into the
walls, in very 1980s fashion. My brother and I would turn off all the lights in
the house and run up and down that hallway, catching ghostly glimpses of
ourselves in the mirrors, playing “Night Faeries.”

A foreboding kind of rush would prickle through me as I held my arms out wide,
making them wings, and swooping along in search of night flowers and glowing
fruits (I think we were watching a lot of FernGully at the time). There was
something illicit to the whole thing—being in the dark, transforming ourselves
into something human but not quite. I couldn’t have recognized it at six years
old, but there was a whiff of the uncanny to our game, and it was laced with
“what if.” What if we were us, but we could fly? What if we were us, but magic?

That, I think, is one of the reasons fae stories are so enduring. They could be
us. Fae are often portrayed as looking human, speaking like humans, interacting
with humans, but they’re more. Immortal, bearers of powers that inspire both awe
and fear. We want to get closer.

[Read more]


SERIES: FIVE BOOKS ABOUT…

 * Mark as Read


SOMETIMES, ONLY THE MOST HEART-CRUSHING BOOK WILL DO

Molly Templeton
Thu Aug 11, 2022 11:00am 21 comments 3 Favorites [+]

The first time I read a book that made me sob—great choking sobs that I
desperately did not want anyone to hear me making—I was on a Greyhound bus,
reading Where the Red Fern Grows. I was not yet old enough to have learned the
painful lesson that, often, when there are loyal or exceptional or loving or
generally wonderful animals in a book, bad things are likely to happen to them.

Sobbing on a Greyhound is a memorable experience. But then, so is the experience
of reading any book that can reduce you to a puddle, no matter where you are.
There is much to be said for books that do the opposite—the ones that light a
fire, that lift you up and remind you what matters, that inspire and brighten
and gleam. For triumph and the thrill of success, for the books full of
excitement and drama, the ones that make you feel like you ought to lean forward
in your seat while you read them, to get somehow closer to the action. 

But let’s talk about the absolute heartbreakers for a minute.

[Read more]

 * worldbuilding


DAMN, THAT’S GOOD: PSEUDO-PROFANITY AS SFF WORLDBUILDING

Cole Rush
Mon Aug 15, 2022 10:00am 23 comments 4 Favorites [+]

You’re reading your latest SFF obsession and you hit a string of back-to-back
profanities: “Fuck! Shit! Damn!” The rogue stubbed her toe during a challenging
stretch of a treacherous climb. 

I see segments like this and I chuckle. There’s an odd, intangible pleasure in
seeing a swear word taking up space on a page. “Hey, I say that when I stub my
toe, too!” (Of course, I’m not climbing cliffs or buildings. I last stubbed my
toe chasing my cat, who refuses to swallow his pill.)

SFF authors have proven time and again that profanity can be an art form. I look
to Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard sequence as the gold standard, here—the
series elevates swearing to the realm of artistic achievement. But for every
book blending the familiar profanities we know and love with magical lands and
spacefaring civilizations, there’s a work that substitutes new terms that take
the place of common expletives to great effect. 

[Read more]


 * Excerpts


READ AN EXCERPT FROM SECOND SPEAR

Kerstin Hall
Mon Aug 15, 2022 2:00pm Post a comment Favorite This

When an old enemy returns wielding an unstoppable weapon, Tyn is swept up in the
path of destruction…

We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Kerstin Hall’s Second Spear, the
follow-up to the author’s vivid fantasy The Border Keeper—out from Tordotcom
Publishing on August 16th.

[Read more]

 * Star Trek: Enterprise


STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE REWATCH: “VANISHING POINT”

Keith R.A. DeCandido
Mon Aug 15, 2022 1:00pm 9 comments Favorite This
Screenshot: CBS

“Vanishing Point”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
Directed by David Straiton
Season 2, Episode 10
Production episode 036
Original air date: November 27, 2002
Date: unknown

Captain’s star log. Tucker and Sato are checking out ruins on a planet, but a
diamagnetic storm is moving in faster than expected, so they have to risk taking
the transporter. Tucker beams up first at Sato’s insistence, as she doesn’t want
to beam up until she knows Tucker made it through safely.

Sato feels out of sorts after her first time through the transporter, and Archer
gives her the rest of the day off. She’s the subject of some good-natured
teasing in the mess hall, with Reed, Tucker, and Mayweather telling her the
story of Cyrus Ramsey, who was lost in an early transporter test and who is now
the subject of dozens of ghost stories. Sato has never heard of Ramsey, and is
sorry to have heard of him now.

[That’s a pretty big jigsaw puzzle…]


SERIES: STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE REWATCH

 * news


GUILLERMO DEL TORO OFFERS A PEEK INTO HIS CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

Molly Templeton
Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:49pm 1 Favorite [+]


“Each of the episodes has a whole world,” Guillermo del Toro says in the new
teaser for Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, the upcoming Netflix
anthology series that boasts an astonishing lineup of directors, writers, and
performers. This trailer isn’t so much a look at the show itself as a glimpse
into its backstory: why del Toro wanted to make it, what he wants to say, and
how cool (and horrifying) the practical effects look.

[Read more]

 * The Sandman


THE SANDMAN’S STANDOUT EPISODE IS A GREAT WORK OF ADAPTATION

Leah Schnelbach
Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:00pm 2 comments 7 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: Netflix

There’s a lot of pressure on the (hopefully) first season of The Sandman. The
show had to cover the first two major arcs of an iconic comics series, introduce
dozens of new characters, and multiple fantasy realms, all while finding a
consistent tone in a story that starts as a series of episodic chapters before
turning epic, and starts as horror before turning into fantasy. (They also had
to ditch a bunch of DC Comics continuity.) And, just as the comics had to do
back in the ‘80s, the show needed to find a way to keep people invested after
the bloody meatgrinder of John Dee’s visit to the 24-hour diner.

In the comics run, Issue #8, “The Sound of Her Wings”, is when The Sandman
becomes The Sandman. It reestablishes the story’s theme, gives us new empathy
for Dream, and introduces Dream’s sister, Death. It’s also a nigh-perfect issue,
a compact jewel of a story that feels enormous. So in the midst of the pressure
to get The Sandman as a whole right, the episode that adapted “The Sound of Her
Wings” needed to capture a certain spirit to lead viewers onto solid ground, and
send them off into the second half of the season.

I think Episode Six does this beautifully well, and it does it through tiny
choices in adaptation.

[Read more]

 * SFF Bestiary


THE ULTIMATE FANTASY BEAST: THE DRAGON

Judith Tarr
Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:00am 6 comments Favorite This
Illustration by Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch, 1806

When it comes to fantastic beasts, the one, the only, the genuine original, is
the dragon. Dragons are fantasy. So much so that one of the most popular
examples of all, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragons of Pern, despite its origins in good
old-fashioned spacefaring science fiction, not only carries the label of
fantasy, it’s inspired numerous younger authors.

Dragons are everywhere. Just about everyone has a version. Many are based on the
Western dragon: scaled, winged, breathes fire. Some incline toward the Eastern
variety: sinuous, often wingless, allied with air and water. They’re magical,
mystical, and immensely powerful.

[Read more]

 * worldbuilding


DAMN, THAT’S GOOD: PSEUDO-PROFANITY AS SFF WORLDBUILDING

Cole Rush
Mon Aug 15, 2022 10:00am 23 comments 4 Favorites [+]

You’re reading your latest SFF obsession and you hit a string of back-to-back
profanities: “Fuck! Shit! Damn!” The rogue stubbed her toe during a challenging
stretch of a treacherous climb. 

I see segments like this and I chuckle. There’s an odd, intangible pleasure in
seeing a swear word taking up space on a page. “Hey, I say that when I stub my
toe, too!” (Of course, I’m not climbing cliffs or buildings. I last stubbed my
toe chasing my cat, who refuses to swallow his pill.)

SFF authors have proven time and again that profanity can be an art form. I look
to Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard sequence as the gold standard, here—the
series elevates swearing to the realm of artistic achievement. But for every
book blending the familiar profanities we know and love with magical lands and
spacefaring civilizations, there’s a work that substitutes new terms that take
the place of common expletives to great effect. 

[Read more]

 * cover reveals


REVEALING THE INFINITE BY ADA HOFFMANN

Tor.com
Mon Aug 15, 2022 9:00am Post a comment Favorite This
Photo credit: Brett Tucker

Time is running out for the planet Jai…

We’re thrilled to share the cover for Ada Hoffmann’s The Infinite, the third
installment in the Philip K Dick Award- and Compton Crook Award-nominated series
that began with The Outside. The Infinite will be released on January 24th, 2023
from Angry Robot Books.

[Read more]

 * news


LISA FRANKENSTEIN FEATURES COLE SPROUSE AS A VICTORIAN CORPSE AND THAT’S REALLY
ALL WE NEED TO KNOW

Molly Templeton
Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:10pm 1 Favorite [+]
Screenshot: The CW

Lisa Frankenstein, the feature debut of director Zelda Williams, has a lot going
for it, but this one detail is just too good: Cole Sprouse (Riverdale’s Jughead
Jones, above) plays a “handsome Victorian corpse” who is reanimated by an
unpopular high school student in 1989. Important question: Can we have him in
lacy collars and velvet? Please? (Note: I do not care if this is historically
accurate. The heart wants what the heart wants.)

The very loose take on Frankenstein is written by Diablo Cody, who knows her way
around teen horror (Jennifer’s Body).

[Read more]

 * The Lord of the Rings


EXPLORING THE DEPTHS OF MIDDLE-EARTH WITH ARTIST KIP RASMUSSEN

Jeff LaSala
Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:00pm 4 comments 7 Favorites [+]

From "Varda of the Stars" by Kip Rasmussen (Used with permission of the artist)

When I first came across Kip Rasmussen’s work, I knew it was exceptional, and
that I’d probably like everything he made. His paintings present all the best
components of high fantasy: long hair flowing from beneath helms, brazen swords,
gleaming spears, fire-breathing dragons, primordial godlike beings, imposing
pinnacles of rock, and an insanely huge spider. Yup—these were scenes right out
of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium, instantly recognizable as features of
Middle-earth. But curiously, only a few of them depict characters in The Lord of
the Rings itself. Here was a Silmarillion-leaning artist. Oh, hell yeah.

When I contacted Kip to ask permission to use some of his work in my
Silmarillion Primer, he just happened to be mulling over three ideas in his
mental queue and he was quick to ask me to choose which subject he’d tackle
next. I chose “Tulkas Chaining Morgoth,” so when he finished it later, it was
right on time for the War of Wrath segment of the Primer. That made me very
happy. And now, once again, I’m debuting a new painting in this article: Kip’s
take on that legendary conflict between a certain lionhearted shield-maiden and
a certain overconfident lord of carrion.

[Read more]

 * news


BRETT GOLDSTEIN HAD VERY LITTLE TIME TO PREPARE FOR HIS MARVEL DEBUT

Molly Templeton
Fri Aug 12, 2022 11:31am Favorite This
Screenshot: Apple TV

Imagine you’ve been cast in a Marvel movie. Not just any Marvel movie—one full
of totally jacked gods and other super-beings. You might want some time to
prepare, no? To get yourself in fighting trim?

Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein had about two weeks.

[Read more]

 * Terry Pratchett Book Club


TERRY PRATCHETT BOOK CLUB: HOGFATHER, PART IV

Emmet Asher-Perrin
Fri Aug 12, 2022 11:00am 16 comments 2 Favorites [+]

If we don’t fix this soon, the sun’s not coming up. So let’s get to it.

[Read more]


SERIES: TERRY PRATCHETT BOOK CLUB

 * book reviews


A VERY METAPHYSICAL TECHNO-SATIRE: ADAM ROBERTS’ THE THIS

Tobias Carroll
Fri Aug 12, 2022 10:30am 6 comments 1 Favorite [+]

In the years before social media turned into an outright nightmare most of the
time and the algorithm powering YouTube veered past the uncanny valley and into
something monstrous, there was a moment when random things would come up online
that had the power to delight. Among them: people coming up with attack ad-style
videos about 19th century philosophers. I have no idea what the context behind
these was, but the Kierkegaard and Kant ones were and are hilarious. (There was
also an attack ad directed at Nietzsche which seems to be lost to history.) You
wouldn’t necessarily think that this combination would work, but it does.

Such is the case, too, with Adam Roberts’ memorably-titled The This. In his
notes following the novel, Roberts writes that the writings of Hegel were a
primary source of inspiration for him, and that this novel “follows, and is in
some respects in dialogue with, an earlier Kant-novel of mine called The Thing
Itself.” But while that novel was set in the recent past, The This is largely
set in the near future—except, of course, for the scenes set in the bardo.

[Read more]

 * news


YELLOWJACKETS CONTINUES ITS EXCELLENT CASTING, ADDING LAUREN AMBROSE FOR SEASON
2

Molly Templeton
Fri Aug 12, 2022 10:14am Favorite This
Screenshot: Apple TV

There’s a new adult in the Yellowjackets cast—which means at least one more of
the ’90s teens survived their harrowing crash in the wilderness. Lauren Ambrose
(Six Feet Under) has been cast as an adult version of one character, and fans of
the show can probably guess who. But in the interest of spoiler protocol, you’ll
have to read on to find out!

[Read more]

 * Short Fiction Spotlight


MUST-READ SPECULATIVE SHORT FICTION FOR JULY 2022

Alex Brown
Fri Aug 12, 2022 10:00am Post a comment 1 Favorite [+]

Dragons and masquerades, baking witches and stick dancers, futuristic soldiers
and stranded archivists, and so much death. The stories in this July 2022 short
speculative spotlight blend genres and concepts with clever results.

[Read more]

 * new releases


ALL THE NEW HORROR AND GENRE-BENDING BOOKS ARRIVING IN AUGUST!

Tor.com
Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:00pm Favorite This

Head below for a list of genre-bending titles—horror, mystery, short fiction
collections, and more—heading your way in August!

[Read more]

More Posts


NEW IN SERIES

 * Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vanishing Point”
 * Terry Pratchett Book Club: Hogfather, Part IV
 * Five Dark YA Fantasies About the Fae
 * Rhythm of War Reread: Chapter Eighty-Nine
 * Understatement of the Space-Time Continuum: N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became
   (Part 5)
 * The Pursuit of Happyness — Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
 * How to Paint With Words: 6 Descriptive Works of SFF

all series


RECENT COMMENTS

 * zdrakec on The Sandman’s Standout Episode Is a Great Work of Adaptation 3
   seconds ago
 * ChristopherLBennett on Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vanishing Point” 51
   seconds ago
 * garreth on Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vanishing Point” 4 mins ago
 * gene on Five Dark YA Fantasies About the Fae 5 mins ago
 * Rowan Tommins on Damn, That’s Good: Pseudo-Profanity as SFF Worldbuilding 5
   mins ago
 * Charles Rosenberg on Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vanishing Point” 8 mins
   ago
 * sheepdot on Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vanishing Point” 12 mins ago
 * hammerlock on The Sandman’s Standout Episode Is a Great Work of Adaptation 18
   mins ago
 * noblehunter on The Ultimate Fantasy Beast: The Dragon 22 mins ago
 * Dr. Thanatos on Damn, That’s Good: Pseudo-Profanity as SFF Worldbuilding 25
   mins ago

more comments

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