Earlier this year, Tor.com debuted as an imprint independent from Tor Books by publishing Year’s Best Fantasy 9, David G. Hartwell’s and Kathryn Cramer’s definitive anthology of fantastical stories.
While YBF9 is still available as a print-on demand edition, and you can buy your very own print copy at the Tor.com Print Book Store, starting today, and once a week for the following eight weeks, we’ll be posting segments of the anthology on Tor.com as a PDF, for your reading pleasure.
Each of these segments will feature three or four stories from the anthology, and will be available to all registered users of Tor.com. It’s a great way to sample some of the content in the book before deciding to part with your hard-earned cash, or of simply getting a shorter dose of wonder and the fantastical.
Our first segment features the following stories:
“Dalthree” by Jeffrey Ford
“The Salting and Canning of Benevolence D.” by Al Michaud
“Reader’s Guide” by Lisa Goldstein
Registered users, download it here!
Pablo Defendini likes salty and canned things. He doesn’t expect to live past 50.
Hey all you Neal Stephenson fans, we’ve got a treat for you! Our friends at Macmillan Audio have just released two classic Stephenson novels, Cryptonomicon and Zodiac, which were previously unavailable as unabridged audio. They were produced years ago, but were heavily abridged. These new editions feature the complete work. You can buy these audiobooks at Audible.com (Cryptonomicon, Zodiac) and on iTunes (Cryptonomicon, Zodiac). In the meantime, you can check out samples of both audiobooks using the player widget beyond the cut:
We’re getting closer and closer! I’m happy to announce that the Makers Tile Game, developed by Malloc Media, has been updated today to its 7 x 7-tile iteration. Additionally, the saving mechanism has been upgraded so that you can now download a larger version of the compositions you create! You can reach the game by either hitting the in-line link in the previous sentence, or by clicking on the Makers Tile Game graphic on our “Featured on Tor.com” sidebar to the right. Happy remixing!
Pablo Defendini has been sucked into a clicktrance on the Makers Tile Game more times than he’d like to remember.
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan was released on DVD and on iTunes last week, and in keeping with Tor.com tradition, we’ve put together a round table from a couple of BSG Round Table regulars, and a newcomer. Is it a glorified clip show? An excuse to show some boobies in the tubs o’ goo? Does it even add anything to the show, or does it put a sour bookmark on the series? Read on to find out....
As previously announced, Tor Books has started publishing electronic editions of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books, timed to coincide with the publication of the antepenultimate volume in the series, The Gathering Storm, written by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.
These electronic editions are being created from original page layout files, and are being updated with the latest copyedits and corrections from Robert Jordan and later, from Team Jordan. They also boast all-new covers featuring art from a variety of illustrators, including David Grove, Donato Giancola, Sam Weber, and Ketai Kotaki, all commissioned by Tor Books (and Tor.com) Art Director Irene Gallo.
In my inbox this week, a note from Tony C. Smith, host extraordinaire of The Sofanauts, the inimitable weekly SF podcast:
The Sofanauts hosted a fascinating discussion, centered on the SF magazine, Asimov’s. Guests included both Editor and Managing Editor, Sheila Williams and Brian Bieniowski. Writers, Jeff VanderMeer and Jeremy Tolbert also joined host Tony C Smith. Contrary to growing opinion in the SF community, things are not all doom and gloom for the magazine. Digital sales are up and new methods of delivery are being explored. Yet some things, like website and digital submissions continue to be touchy subjects. Don't miss this frank and engaging roundtable focusing on one of the most established magazines in SF!
Listen in for an engrossing conversation, as usual!
Pablo Defendini lives in stereo, where available.
In my inbox today, a neat note from Tor.com Steampunk Month collaborators Jeff VanderMeer and S.J. Chambers:
Noted Archivist Seeks Steampunks to Index
World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer’s The Steampunk Bible, published by Abrams Image, will provide a comprehensive and lavish overview of all aspects of Steampunk, in text and pictures. Research for this momentous and globe-spanning project includes the compilation of a comprehensive Archive of, and Index to, everything and everyone Steampunk and Steampunk-Related. This Archive will be made public online, and you also might be contacted about appearing in the book.
If you would like a website or blog link, book or brick-and-mortar establishment, to be considered for the archive, please send the relevant information to Master Archivist S.J. Chambers (steampunkbible at gmail.com) or to The Steampunk Bible, c/o Jeff VanderMeer, POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315 USA. Make sure to include a short paragraph describing your submission and your complete contact information. Although the Master Archivist’s extensive list of ongoing clockwork projects makes it impossible to guarantee a reply, you may be sure she will give each missive intense scrutiny. As part of a Larger Study, please consider including Your Personal Definition of Steampunk with your email message or snail mail parcel. Rest assured, the Master Archivist and her minions are also out in the World, actively seeking Steampunks for the greater glory of the Archive.
(Image courtesy of John Coulthart.)
Pablo Defendini has Steampunk on the brain. And on his fingers. Alas, the month is almost over.
I’m happy to announce that the Makers Tile Game, developed by Malloc Media, has been updated today to its 6 x 6-tile iteration. You can reach it by either hitting the in-line link in the previous sentence, or by clicking on the Makers Tile Game graphic on our “Featured on Tor.com” sidebar, to the right. Happy remixing!
Pablo Defendini likes to remix expectations.
In celebration of Steampunk Month here on Tor.com, we’ve decided to kick off our discounting program on the Tor.com Store with a selection of steampunk titles from all publishers. This list of books and comics was compiled by our resident steampunk expert, Tor Books editor Liz Gorinsky, and while certainly not comprehensive, represents some of the best of the form, including classics like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine and newer fare, like Warren Ellis and paul Duffield’s Freakangels. All the books on this list are discounted at 30% in the Tor.com Store, which isn’t a bad deal, and comparable to what you’ll find at other online book retailers. They will remain at 30% until 31 October. Look for the nifty badge on the book covers (shown here); that’s how you'll know the book is eligible.
Why should you buy from us, rather than your old online standbys? Well, this is what my corporate overlords are calling a pilot program—one that, if it’s successful, we’ll be able to do more of, hopefully culminating in full discounts across the board. If you like what Tor.com is doing now, and our curated picks of books are making you excited, but the pricing is not, now is your chance to demonstrate that. The more you buy, the better the chances that we’ll see more of this type of thing. Below is the full list, with links to each book in the Tor.com Store. Additionally, all the books are on the featured spot of the Tor.com Store homepage, and collected in a list, as special picks. Enjoy, and happy reading!
Hi all, just a quick note: a scheduled maintenance upgrade has gone slightly awry today (we seem to have crossed our streams), so comments functionality and some sections of the site are currently unavailable. We're working hard to be back up to full fighting strength, so please, bear with us! Keep an eye on our Twitter feed, where we'll let you all know when we're all clear.
UPDATE 2:52 EST: We're back, and comments are functioning (although you won't see them counted on the front page just yet), as are most of the other things that were broken.
Pablo Defendini kept telling Venkman to watch it with his power pack. But did he listen? Nooooo....
In my inbox this morning, from the good folks at Crown Publishing:
In celebration of the publication of his new book Frostbite (in stores Oct. 6), horror author David Wellington has a gift for you. In fact, thirty little gifts, one a day for thirty days, sure to delight and enthrall. That is, if you dare to read them... The author of Monster Island, the 13 Bullets series, and the upcoming Frostbite made his mark reinventing the classic monsters for the 21st century—zombies, vampires, and now werewolves. He got his start serializing his novels on the web in short, bite-sized installments. Now he’s got something really special in mind. For the next thirty days, every single day, David Wellington will release a complete short story. Some are terrifying—some are hilarious—and some are just downright bizarre. They all have one thing in common, though: they’re absolutely free to read and share. Just click this link. If you enjoy the stories, or want to read more of Wellington’s work, you may wish to check out his website too.
The stories started being posted yesterday, and are Creative Commons-licensed. Happy reading!
Makers just keeps getting better and bigger and funner! I’m happy to announce that the Makers Tile Game has been updated today to its 5 x 5-tile iteration. You can reach it by either hitting the in-line link in the previous sentence, or by clicking on the Makers Tile Game graphic on our “Featured on Tor.com” sidebar, to the right. Happy remixing!
Pablo Defendini has a sudden urge to drop everything and play.
Tor.com is proud to announce the immediate availability of David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer’s definitive anthology, Year’s Best Fantasy 9.
This highly anticipated release also marks something we’re particularly proud of: Tor.com’s debut as a publishing entity, distinct from Tor Books and as a separate imprint under our shared corporate overlords at Macmillan.
YBF 9 is available only as a print-on-demand book, in keeping with our mission of always exploring alternative forms of publishing. Similar to the launch of the Tor.com Store, this title is one of our various publishing projects that seek to experiment with the available alternatives to publishing’s traditional sales, distribution, and delivery mechanisms.
Year’s Best Fantasy 9 is available in the Tor.com Store, of course, as well as via online retailers such as Amazon, B&N, and more. As you’d expect with multiple Hugo Award-nominated (and recent winner) editors like David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, the Table of Contents for YBF 9 is impressive (and I’m not just saying that because there’s a Tor.com story in there, which you can read in its entirety here); see for yourselves:
Hey Dragon*Con attendees! We’ll be throwing together a Tor.com meetup this weekend in Atlanta, so if you’re around on Saturday night, and want to grab some drinks with us (and maybe pick our brains—not literally!—about the supa sekrit WoT stuff we’ll be talking about the previous night at the Winespring party), drop by Max Lager’s Brewery, on 320 Peachtree Street (it’s one block north of the Hyatt Regency—about a five-minute walk). You can check out all the details and let us know if you’re attending by visiting our handy events calendar.
We’ll be hanging out in the upstairs area of the bar—just look for the Tor.com buttons! And just to be extra nice to our peoples, we’ll be buying the first ten people to show up a round. After the meetup, we can head off to the Parsec Awards (or whatever other evening con plans you may have) together.
Novel, comics, and TV writer extraordinaire Paul Cornell (yes, he of Doctor Who fame) is jumping ahead of the game. Fresh from WorldCon in Montréal and presenting some of the 2008 Hugo Awards, he’s compiled a fantastic and relatively comprehensive list of thirty comics worth considering for the newly minted Best Graphic Story category for next year’s Hugo award (this year’s award went to the steampunk webcomic Girl Genius).
The Hugo Awards for 2009 are going to be presented at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne in September next year. The Best Graphic Story category is only a year old, and I think SF fans might benefit from a broad brush introduction to some of the many comics out there that they might consider nominating. I'd like this to be the first of many such articles, from many people.
His suggestions are solid, including personal faves such as Ex Machina, Scott Pilgrim and DMZ, as well as titles I've been meaning to pick up, such as Terry Moore’s ECHO and Jeff Smith’s Rasl. He’s also taken a rather firm (yet to my mind completely correct) line in regards to tie-in or adaptation work: no-go (which, coincidentally, disqualifies both Doctor Who and Torchwood comics, which goes to show just how much of a gentleman Mr. Cornell is). He goes on to explain that he’s by no means an expert in certain categories of comics, such as Manga or webcomics, so he’s asking you, dear readers, to chime in and suggest additional titles worthy of nomination. So what are you waiting for? Get over there and let Paul Cornell know about more good comics to read!
Pablo Defendini is the producer of Tor.com, a printmaker, a bookmaker, and a general rabble-rouser. He was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the most SFnal places on Earth. He is secretly a Cylon.
According to Hollywoodreporter.com:
In its biggest development deal to date, AMC has acquired the rights to Robert Kirkman’s popular comic book “The Walking Dead” for a potential series.
Having AMC take home the rights to this seems like a good sign: they already produce the excellent Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Add Kirkman’s über-depressing (but so. damn. good) zombie epic to AMC’s development of the classic “The Prisioner,” and its previous acquisition of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars, and we could be looking at a network that’s positioning itself to give ol’ SyFy a run for its money! (via The AV Club)
Attention Makers fans! The Makers Tile Game has been updated today to its 4 x 4-tile iteration. You can reach it by either hitting the in-line link in the previous sentence, or by clicking on the Makers Tile Game graphic on our “Featured on Tor.com” sidebar, to the right. Happy remixing!
Congratulations to all the winners, now on to the parties! (Thanks to Torie Atkinson for assistance in live-blogging this event).
9:43pm: And lastly, the Best Novel category:
* Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
* The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK) (Winner)
* Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
* Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
* Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)
As we ramp up for Anticipation ’09, or the 67th World Science Fiction Convention starting this week in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, I thought I’d give everyone a heads-up about Convention Reporter, a new site created by Cheryl Morgan and Kevin Standlee designed to aggregate up-to-the-nanosecond news about he goings on at the Palais de Congrès.
ConReporter is a mashup aggregator of people’s social media links, including blog posts, tweets, Flickr images, and any other type of content they generate during Worldcon. The idea is to create a central place where you can see all the disparate reports from the different people attending in one centralized location. As such, Ms. Morgan and Mr. Standlee have been reaching out to attendees in order to have them opt in to being listed on the site. Ms. Morgan says: “Worldcon is so busy that no one person can keep track of everything, but with all of the ‘citizen journalists’ we’ll have there it is possible to get some sense of how much is happening.”
I think it’s a great idea, which is why I’ve signed up. Others already on the site include: Lou Anders, editorial director for Pyr Books (and Tor.com contributor), who says: “ConReporter is a brilliant idea. Cheryl and crew are spot on when it comes to dragging SF&F into the 21st century where it has always belonged. I’m thrilled to be part of ConReporter and can’t wait to start tweeting the minute I hit the ground in Montreal”; John Joseph Adams (badass anthologist, assistant editor at F&SF, Rock Band god, and also a Tor.com contributor); John Picacio; Jay Lake; Catherynne M. Valente; Elizabeth Bear; Worldcon GOH Neil Gaiman; Tobias S. Buckell; Tor Books associate editor Liz Gorinsky; and Tor Books senior editor and Tor.com fiction editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden.
The really cool thing is that it’s not limited to pros—if you’re going to the con, head on over to the site and sign up. So far, there are over 30 people from over 30 9 countries, including Ireland, Brazil, France, Italy, Greece, and Israel, covering the con in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew (I myself will be doing a lot of Tweeting in Spanish, for the hispanoparlantes listening in).
I’m happy to announce that the Makers Tile Game has been updated today to its 3 x 3-tile iteration. You can reach it by either hitting the in-line link int he previous sentence, or by clicking on the Makers Tile Game graphic on our “Featured on Tor.com” sidebar, to the right.
