A Soviet political prisoner is ordered to use her unique talents to explore a strange scientific phenomenon. It could be a trap…or a way out.
Dislocation Space
Doctor Who Comes Back Shaken, Not Stirred, in “Spyfall, Part One”
Screenshot: BBC
The Doctor and fam are finally back with a spin on one of Britain’s favorite genres—it’s time to gather the gadgets and infiltrate in style as Doctor Who goes all in for spy craft.
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A Weapon With a Will of Its Own: How Tolkien Wrote the One Ring as a Character
Image: "The One Ring" by VincentXyooj
In September 1963, Tolkien drafted yet another of a number of letters responding to questions about Frodo’s “failure” at the Cracks of Doom. It’s easy to imagine that he was rather exasperated. Few, it seemed, had really understood the impossibility of Frodo’s situation in those last, crucial moments: “the pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum,” Tolkien explained; it was “impossible, I should have said, for any one to resist, certainly after long possession, months of increasing torment, and when starved and exhausted” (Letters 326). Even had someone of unmatched power, like Gandalf, claimed the Ring, there would have been no real victory, for “the Ring and all its works would have endured. It would have been the master in the end” (332).
It would have been the master.
The Tao of Sir Terry: Philosophy in Pratchett
Photo by Silverlutra
“Build a man a fire and he’s warm for a day,” I say. “But set a man on fire and he’s warm for the rest of his life. Tao of Pratchett. I live by it.” —Jim Butcher, Cold Days (2012)
That’s “Sir Terry” to you, Dresden… but other than that, the only wizard listed in the yellow pages is right on the money.
Terry Pratchett is best known for his incompetent wizards, dragon-wielding policemen, and anthropomorphic personifications who SPEAK LIKE THIS. And we love him for it. Once we’re done chuckling at Nanny Ogg’s not-so-subtle innuendos and the song about the knob on the end of the wizard’s staff, however, there’s so much more going on beneath the surface of a Pratchett novel. The real reason Pratchett’s work resonates so deeply with so many people around the world—and will continue to do so for decades to come—is that every one of his stories tugs at a deep, philosophical thread that sneaks up under the cover of action and punny dialogue to mug you faster than a denizen of the Shades.
Disney Moves WandaVision‘s Release Up To 2020
Disney announced what films and TV shows are coming to its streaming service in the coming year, and it included one surprise: we get to see its upcoming Marvel live-action series WandaVision a bit earlier than expected: sometime in 2020, rather than 2021 as previously announced.
Excellent Writing Advice from Erotica Author Chuck Tingle
You know how sometimes you’ll read a particular author and find that their cadences and word choices are creeping into your own head-voice? Or sometimes into your writing? I ask because I have spent these last few days reading a lot of Chuck Tingle, and my brain is currently a CAPSLOCK wonderland filled with buckaroos and sentient jet-skis.
The purpose, you ask? Well, aside from the sheer joy of proving love, I thought it might be a fun quest: is it possible that such an eccentric body of work could yield practical writing advice?
Is Living Corn handsome?
Do Space Raptors like to invade butts?
The answer, dear readers, is yes.
Trot down below the break, buckaroos, to find some classic Writing Ways.
Why Don’t SFF Characters Ever Read the Manual?
Overlay of mechanical blueprints (Public Domain images)
Every so often, I find it entertaining to muse about and lament the ill effects of missing or erroneous documentation. Or the ill effects of failing to read the manual… or, having read it, ignoring its wise advice.
Unsurprisingly, SFF authors have arrived at a consensus as far as technical documentation is concerned: For the most part, they’re against it, at least as part of the setting of the story. There is nothing more encouraging to thrills and spills, exciting disasters and pulse-quickening cliffhangers, than protagonists doing ill-advised things…that is, things that would have been ill-advised if anyone had bothered to write down useful advice. Or if the protagonists had bothered to read such advice.
Read Peter S. Beagle’s “The Story of Kao Yu”
“The Story of Kao Yu” is a new fantasy short story by the legendary Peter S. Beagle which tells of an aging judge traveling through rural China and of a criminal he encounters. Of the story, Beagle says it “comes out of a lifelong fascination with Asian legendry — Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Indonesian — all drawn from cultures where storytelling, in one form of another, remains a living art. As a young writer I loved everything from Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee mysteries to Lafcadio Hearn’s translations of Japanese fairytales and many lesser-known fantasies. Like my story ‘The Tale of Junko and Sayuri,’ ‘The Story of Kao Yu’ is a respectful imitation of an ancient style, and never pretends to be anything else. But I wrote it with great care and love, and I’m still proud of it.”
A Locus Awards Finalist, this short story was originally published on Tor.com in December 2016.
All the New Science Fiction Books Coming out in January!
It is up to you now, only you are in control of your future. You have never had to fight this hard before, you don’t know what you’re capable of. All you can do is gather all the power you’ve got. This month’s science fiction titles are all about accepting both the good and the bad. Find hope after the apocalypse in Mike Chen’s A Beginning at the End; embrace your gifts in Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez; and find power in anger in the new book from Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby.
Head below for the full list of science fiction titles heading your way in January!
Read Chapter Three of A.K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name
What if you knew how and when you will die?
Csorwe does—she will climb the mountain, 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.
A.K. Larkwood’s debut fantasy, The Unspoken Name, is available February 11, 2020 from Tor Books. Read chapter three below, or head back to the beginning with chapter one. Check back here for additional excerpts up until the book’s release.
Tim Burton Hides Stories of Powerful Women in Plain Sight
Screenshot: Warner Bros.
If you were a kid growing up in the U.S. during the ’80s and ’90s, entertainment had a certain shape. It was full of suburban lawns, the excitement of excess, gated communities, and nostalgia for the soda-fountained, saddle-shoed “simplicity” of post-WWII values. Flashy blockbusters were the rule of the day. In the face of reasserted homogeny, a specific set of subcultures flourished, grown out of punk movements and other anti-establishment groups. Which is a roundabout way of saying, if the mainstream didn’t float your boat (or only did part of the time), chances are, you were a Tim Burton kid.
Burton sidestepped his way into cinema juggernaut status, getting his start in Disney’s animation division before being fired and sweeping into feature films. He quickly made a name for himself by being “too dark” and “too creepy” for children (plenty of actual children who grew up on his films would dispute this claim), and for a distinct visual vernacular born of gothic sensibilities intertwined with a deep understanding of old monster movies, low-budget sci-fi films, and German Expressionism. But there is something even more fascinating about Tim Burton films, especially when looking back on the director’s career: They often seem to center male protagonists when they are plainly about women.
Tor.com Reviewers Pick the Best Books of 2019
2019 has been an amazing year of book releases in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, young adult, and beyond. The following highlights from the book reviewers on Tor.com take place in tomorrows both near and far, and in time wars both personal and catastrophic. Necromancers clawed for our attention in imaginative new ways and the number 9 came up a lot. Space opera nearly ran the table!
Below, Tor.com’s regular book reviewers talk about notable titles they read in 2019.
Reading the Wheel of Time: Rand Calls the Shots and Moiraine Hates It in Robert Jordan’s The Shadow Rising (Part 16)
Hello and welcome back after our little one week hiatus from Reading the Wheel of Time. I hope everyone had a wonderful week, and I have brought you a belated holiday gift of finally getting to the chapters I’ve been promising for two weeks now, “Into the Heart” (21) and “Out of the Stone” (22).
Series: Reading The Wheel of Time
Five Eye-Catching ’70s SF Covers That Actually Represent the Story
When it comes to book covers, sales departments have often had more clout than the poor beleaguered author. Covers are designed to catch the eye and spur sales; any resemblance to what is actually in the book may be coincidental. I think the publishing world (well, the reputable publishing world) has been getting somewhat better at producing covers that are handsome rather than garish and that do justice to the contents of the book. But in decades past… publishers plastered some really, really deceptive covers on their output. They had a notion of what would attract a stereotypical SF reader and that’s what they told the artist to paint. If old-time covers are any guide, SF fans were perceived as liking space ships, grim-faced men with guns, and naked women (as documented in the song “There’s a Bimbo on the Cover of My Book,” sung to the tune of “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain”). With the exception of the readers of Berkley SF, who, judging by all the Richard Powers covers, were seen as attracted mainly by blobs and lava lamps.
It would be easy (like shooting fish in a barrel) to offer examples of hilariously inappropriate cover art from the days of my youth. I could eke a compelling essay out of the covers that forced me to explain (yet again) to my teachers that no, I had not brought pornography to school.
I’ve decided to take the high road: Here are five covers that delivered exactly what they promised (even if that might seem unlikely…).
All The New Fantasy Books Coming Out in January!
The door creaks slowly open. You can feel warmth on the other side, you can hear the soft whisper of voices. But just how hot is the fire on the other side, and why are they calling for you? This month’s fantasy titles are all about open doors and the magic inside: swear loyalty to the Lady Knights in Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton; stop the onslaught of coming empire in Song of the Risen God by R.A. Salvatore; and read the next installment of the Wayward Children series with Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire.
Head below for the full list of fantasy titles heading your way in January!
Lost in Space Continues to Evolve in Season 2, Questioning a Future That Isn’t Built For Everyone
Screenshot: Netflix
It’s been over eighteen months (in realtime) since we last saw the Robinsons and their unintentionally adopted new crew members. Now they’re back, and in addition to family bonding time, we’re getting a whole new perspective on the world they’ve left behind and the future humanity is trying to build.
(Some spoilers for Lost in Space season 2.)
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