Tor.com content by

Stefan Raets

Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:00pm 2 comments 3 Favorites [+]

Exciting news: Richard K. Morgan is writing science fiction again! Morgan burst onto the scene about fifteen years ago with a handful of dark, gritty SF novels. His debut Altered Carbon won a well-deserved Philip K. Dick Award and has since been adapted as a TV series on Netflix. It was followed by two more novels focused on protagonist Takeshi Kovacs, as well as the standalones Market Forces and Black Man (alternatively titled Thirteen or Th1rt3en in the United States), all published in a five year period.

Then, Morgan’s career took a surprising turn towards fantasy, albeit fantasy that was just as dark and gritty as the author’s prior SF output. The trilogy A Land Fit for Heroes is a stunning achievement (and very high on my personal to-be-reread-if-I-ever-find-the-time list) but its popularity may have suffered a bit because of 1) the overwhelming amount of dark, gritty fantasy crowding the shelves in those years and 2) the three year gap before the release of the second installment, followed by another three year gap before we got the third one.

And now, eleven years after the release of his last science fiction novel, Richard K. Morgan returns to the genre in grand form with Thin Air, a (yes, dark and gritty) novel set in the same universe as Black Man/Thirteen. (More about this shared universe later!)

book reviews

Cast No Shadow: The Future Will Be BS Free by Will McIntosh

Stefan Raets

Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:00pm 2 comments Favorite This

What would the world look like if a completely foolproof and almost undetectable lie detector existed? How would the inability to get away with lying about anything, no matter how insignificant or life-changing, affect politics? Or business? Or relationships? These are the questions Will McIntosh tackles in his new YA novel The Future Will Be BS Free.

A few decades from now, the U.S. is recovering from the recent Sino-Russian war, in which major metropolitan areas were bombed to ruins and the West Coast was occupied by foreign aggressors. The country is now controlled by President Vitnik, an authoritarian demagogue who’s not averse to enriching herself by selling ubiquitous (and tax-free) Vitnik-branded products. Income inequality has skyrocketed, law enforcement is corrupt, and life for the average citizen is nightmarishly close to something you’d find in a post-apocalyptic novel.

Janny Wurts

An Appreciation of the Works of Janny Wurts

Stefan Raets

Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:00am 14 comments 18 Favorites [+]

Destiny’s Conflict, the tenth and penultimate novel in Janny Wurts’ stunning Wars of Light and Shadows series, has just been released, making this an excellent time to take a look at the career of one of the great (and, in my opinion, most under-appreciated) novelists working in fantasy. Wurts has published nearly 20 novels with major publishers over the course of her three decade career, but still, somehow her name rarely comes up whenever someone asks for epic fantasy recommendations. Since I happen to believe that, once it’s completed, her Wars of Light and Shadow series will be counted among the great enduring classics of epic fantasy, I thought I’d take this opportunity to spread the word a bit.

Vlad Taltos

Not Just Another Fantasy Assassin: the Vlad Taltos Novels by Steven Brust

Stefan Raets

Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:00pm 44 comments 22 Favorites [+]

When someone asks me for my personal favorite fantasy series, I usually hem and haw for a while and try to sneak at least two or three extra series into my answer. But if you were to force me, under threat of violence, to trim it down to just one, it would be Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series. Vallista, the fifteenth novel in the long-running series, is due out on October 17th, making this an excellent time to try and convert some new readers to the Gospel of Taltos.

Explaining what exactly is so wonderful about this series is tricky, partly because it’s so unique and partly because it’s hard to do without including huge spoilers, but at its heart it’s the story of Vlad Taltos, a human assassin living in the Dragaeran Empire, as well as the story of the Dragaeran Empire itself.

Cory Doctorow

Hackers, Amusement Parks, and Activism: Where to Start with Cory Doctorow

Stefan Raets

Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:00am 8 comments 1 Favorite [+]

The first novel by Cory Doctorow I read, some time in the early 2000s, was Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. I read it, believe it or not, on a PalmPilot. I’m not bringing this up because that was Singularity-level technology for me at the time (even though it was!) but rather to illustrate just one of the reasons why Doctorow gained a loyal fan base early on in his career: he’s been releasing his books under Creative Commons licenses since the very beginning, meaning you can head to his website right now and download one or more of his novels or collections.

It’s also an illustration of what may be Doctorow’s most defining characteristic as an author: he wears his politics on his sleeve. Fiction or non-fiction, long form or short, Doctorow will work his opinions about copyright law or digital privacy or economic injustice into the text. For better or worse, whether you like it or not, these books come with a message, and Doctorow will make 100% sure that you get that message and then some. (It’s one of the main reasons why some readers don’t click with his fiction; I’ve heard people say they may as well read his Boing Boing columns, which often deal with the exact same issues.)

To each their own: I’ve always enjoyed Doctorow’s novels, because they’re fast-paced, funny, and full of interesting (if occasionally somewhat interchangeable) characters. Even if you happen to disagree with his opinions, at least they’re expressed clearly, intelligently, and out in the open, rather than hidden in the subtext. (They’re about as far removed from hidden in the subtext as possible, actually.)

Tor.com eBook Club

Tor’s Best- and Worst-Selling Author: A Conversation Between Tom Doherty and L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Stefan Raets

Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:00pm 4 comments 2 Favorites [+]

Welcome back to the Tor.com eBook Club! December’s pick is The Towers of the Sunset, the second book in L.E. Modesitt, Jr.’s epic fantasy series The Saga of Recluse. Below, please enjoy a conversation between Modesitt and Tor publisher Tom Doherty, originally published in December 2012.

Who better to interview a living legend than another living legend? In our “Talking with Tom” series, Tor publisher Tom Doherty chats with some of the many authors whose careers he helped launch and shape. Please enjoy this fascinating conversation between Tom and L.E. Modesitt Jr., two of the biggest names in science fiction and fantasy, each with multiple decades of experience in the field. Or, as Tom says at one point: “Boy, we go back a ways, don’t we?”

book reviews

The Future’s So Bright: Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson

Stefan Raets

Tue Dec 6, 2016 11:30am 3 comments Favorite This

In the near future, time travel technology allows a wealthy real estate magnate to open a huge passageway to the 19th century. Five stories tall, the “Mirror” can be used to transfer not only people but even heavy equipment to the past. The result is the city of Futurity, an outpost of the 21st century on the plains of 1876 Illinois. Equal parts colony and tourist destination for curious visitors from the future, Futurity is the crossroads where two versions of America meet.

Jesse Cullum works security in Futurity’s Tower Two, which is the part of the city open to 19th century “locals” who want to experience 21st century wonders like air conditioning and heated swimming pools or get a look at the dioramas giving a carefully edited glimpse of the future world. After Jesse foils an attempt to assassinate the visiting U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant, Futurity’s management asks him to help in the subsequent investigation. The would-be assassin’s weapon was a Glock, which could only have come from the future. Jesse and his partner Elizabeth, a 21st century woman, must work together to figure out how a gun from the future ended up in the hands of a 19th century assassin…

Tor.com eBook Club

Going Through the Spin Cycle: Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson

Stefan Raets

Wed Nov 16, 2016 3:00pm 1 comment Favorite This

Welcome back to the Tor.com eBook Club! November’s pick is Spin, the first book in a sci-fi trilogy from Robert Charles Wilson. The following essay, originally published August 2011, is a review of Vortex, book three in the trilogy, so beware of possible spoilers! You can also head back and read Stefan’s thoughts on Spin.

Vortex is the long-awaited third novel in Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin Cycle. The first book, Spin, won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Its sequel Axis met with a much cooler reception. So, is Vortex as good as Spin? Well, not quite, but it’s considerably better than Axis. All in all, Vortex is a great novel, a worthy closer to the Spin Cycle, and a book you’ll definitely want to read if you enjoyed the previous two volumes.

Tor.com eBook Club

Going Through the Spin Cycle: Axis by Robert Charles Wilson

Stefan Raets

Tue Nov 15, 2016 10:00am 1 comment Favorite This

Welcome back to the Tor.com eBook Club! November’s pick is Spin, the first book in a sci-fi trilogy from Robert Charles Wilson. The following essay, originally published July 2011, is an in-depth reread of Axis, book two in the trilogy, so beware of major spoilers! You can also head back and read Stefan’s thoughts on Spin.

Many readers expressed disappointment about the long-awaited sequel to Spin. Looking back now, it’s understandable that people felt let down. Expecting a better novel than Spin was probably unrealistic. Even expecting something just as good was, in retrospect, on the hopeful side, given how high Robert Charles Wilson set the bar with the first novel. Regardless, I feel that Axis is a good—if not great—novel that adds a new dimension to the Spin universe and builds a solid bridge to the third volume, Vortex.

What follows contains huge spoilers for Spin and Axis, but nothing about Vortex.

Tor.com eBook Club

Going through the Spin Cycle: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

Stefan Raets

Mon Nov 14, 2016 9:00am 2 comments Favorite This

With the recent publication of Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson, I decided to re-read the first two books in the trilogy, Spin and Axis, to warm up for the long-awaited new novel and to refresh my memory. Like every truly excellent novel, it turns out that Spin is better and more rewarding on the second read-through. What follows below contains huge spoilers for Spin, but nothing about Axis or Vortex. Seriously, don’t read this if you haven’t read Spin yet.

The Company Reread

Rereading Kage Baker’s Company Series: The Graveyard Game, Part 5

Stefan Raets

Tue Nov 8, 2016 5:00pm 12 comments 3 Favorites [+]

In this week’s installment of the Kage Baker Company Series Reread, we’ll finish up the final sections of The Graveyard Game, from the end of last week’s post up until the very end of the novel.

As always, previous posts in the reread can be found on our lovely index page. Also as always, please be aware that this reread contains spoilers for the entire Company series, so be careful if you haven’t read all the books yet!

And with that we’re off for our final post about The Graveyard Game!

The Company Reread

Rereading Kage Baker’s Company Series: The Graveyard Game, Part 4

Stefan Raets

Tue Nov 1, 2016 4:00pm 3 comments Favorite This

Welcome back to the Kage Baker Company Series reread at Tor.com! I was planning to get through the rest of The Graveyard Game in this post, but in the end there was too much to discuss in the chapters set in 2225, so that’s what we’ll cover today, saving the final set of chapters for next week.

As always, you can find all previous posts in the reread on our index page, a document of such rare and surpassing beauty that small children in distant lands have been known to memorize and recite it while at play. Also as always, please be aware that this reread contains spoilers for the entire series, so be careful if you haven’t read all the books yet!

book reviews

The Only Way Is Down: Faller by Will McIntosh

Stefan Raets

Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:30am 1 comment 1 Favorite [+]

At the start of Faller, the new SF novel by Will McIntosh, a man regains consciousness lying on a city street. He doesn’t remember his name, the name of the city, or how he got there. In fact, his mind is almost completely blank, just like all the other people who are waking up in complete confusion around him. What’s even stranger, the world appears to end a few city blocks from where the man woke up. Rather than more streets and buildings, there’s just a chasm looking out over empty sky, as if this fragment of a city was torn from a larger whole and then tossed into the air. This feels odd to the man, somehow, even though he has no recollection of what a city is supposed to look like.

The man finds three objects in his pockets: a toy soldier with a plastic parachute, a mysterious map drawn in blood (and since his finger is cut, he assumes he drew the map with his own blood, suggesting it must be important), and a photograph of himself with a woman he doesn’t recognize. Since clues are the only thing he has, and he doesn’t recall his name, he decides to go by the name Clue.

Eventually, inspired by the toy soldier in his pocket, Clue decides to construct a parachute. That’s how he discovers that the floating city fragment on which he regained consciousness isn’t the only one. Taking the new name Faller, he embarks on a quest to find the mysterious woman on the photograph…

The Company Reread

Rereading Kage Baker’s Company Series: The Graveyard Game, Part 3

Stefan Raets

Tue Oct 25, 2016 5:00pm Favorite This

The Temporal Concordance for October 25, 2016 tells us that a new post in the Kage Baker Company Series Reread should appear on Tor.com today, and we all know history cannot be changed so… Here we go! In today’s post, we’ll go back to The Graveyard Game, covering the chapters set in 2142 and 2143, so from the end of last week’s post and ending on the chapter set in Regent’s Park.

As always, you can find the previous posts in the reread on our lovely index page. Also as always, please be aware that this reread contains spoilers for the entire series, so be careful if you haven’t read all the books yet!

The Company Reread

Rereading Kage Baker’s Company Series: The Graveyard Game, Part 2

Stefan Raets

Tue Oct 18, 2016 5:00pm 4 comments 1 Favorite [+]

Welcome back to the Kage Baker Company Series reread! In this week’s post we’ll cover the section of The Graveyard Game that’s set in 2025 and 2026, so from the end of last week’s post to the end of the second Yorkshire chapter.

As always, you can find all previous posts in this reread on our wonderful index page. Also as always, please be aware that this reread contains spoilers for the entire series, so be careful if you haven’t read all the books yet!

Tor.com

Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects.

Stefan Raets

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Series: Rereading Kage Baker

Series: Rereading Kage Baker

Series: Rereading Kage Baker

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