The Menace from Farside by Ian McDonald
Publisher: Tor.com Publishing
Publication Date: November 12, 2019
Edition: Paperback, 155 pages
Genre: Science Fiction, Novella
Rating: 3.5/5
Made me want to go read the full Luna series
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Tag Archives: tor.com publishing
Author Interview: Jeremy C. Shipp
Today I am interviewing Jeremy C. Shipp, author of the new horror novella, The Atrocities.
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DJ: Hi Jeremy! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
Jeremy: Hey DJ! Thanks for having me. I like what you’ve done with the place.
I am a professional geek, a yard gnome enthusiast, a spork collector, a cat whisperer, and a taqueria frequenter. My writing swirls together elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and magic realism. I’ve published over 10 books and baker’s dozens of short stories. I live in Southern California in a semi-haunted Victorian farmhouse alongside a few lackadaisical ghosts.
DJ: What is The Atrocities about?
Jeremy: Here’s what the back cover has to say:
When Isabella died, her parents were determined to ensure her education wouldn’t suffer.
But Isabella’s parents had not informed her new governess of Isabella’s… condition, and when Ms Valdez arrives at the estate, having forced herself through a surreal nightmare maze of twisted human-like statues, she discovers that there is no girl to tutor.
Or is there…?
In a recent review, Mallory Heart writes, “If Agatha Christie had fallen through a Lovecraftian Portal, and then penned a locked room mystery, with illustrations by William Blake, the result might resemble the vast estate, ‘The Atrocities,’ and its family, in this stunning Gothic panorama.” Continue reading
Author Interview: Kelly Robson
Today I am interviewing Kelly Robson, author of the new Science Fiction novella, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach.
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DJ: Hi Kelly! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
Kelly Robson: I grew up in Alberta, and lived in Vancouver for 22 years before moving to Toronto in 2013. Though I’ve been a writer all my life, I only started publishing fiction in 2015. And I owe it all to Toronto! It’s such a great city, with a terrific creative community.
DJ: What is Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach about?
Kelly: In 2267, to avoid the effects of ecological turmoil, most humans live underground in highly managed, dense urban habitats humanity. My main character Minh is a member of the generation first began re-colonizing the Earth’s surface and rehabilitating ecosystems. She’s an ecological scientist, and she’s angry because the work she’s dedicated her life to has been stalled by the invention of time travel. The banks simply aren’t interested in funding long-term projects any more. So when she gets the chance to time-travel to 2000 BCE to do a past state assessment on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, she jumps at the chance not only to do exciting work, but to have the chance to expose the shadowy think tank that controls time travel technology.
DJ: What were some of your influences for Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach?
Kelly: Connie Willis’ time travel stories and books, definitely — “Fire Watch,” Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout, and All Clear. Connie is a huge influence on my writing. Like Connie, I’m not interested in paradoxes, so I’ve designed my time travel to exclude that possibility. Basically, mine is time travel without consequences. Very powerful, but not of much practical use. I figure there’s enough drama to be had simply by time travel being possible! But unlike Connie Willis, I’m very interested in the economic consequences of time travel. Continue reading
Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Warrior Within by Angus McIntrye
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.
The Warrior Within by Angus Mcintyre
(March 8, 2018 by Tor.com Publishing)
Author Interview: Seanan McGuire
Today I am interviewing Seanan McGuire, author of the new urban fantasy novel, Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day.
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DJ: Hey Seanan! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
Seanan McGuire: I’m an American fantasy and science fiction author, living in the Pacific Northwest with a large collection of creepy dolls, My Little Ponies, and comic books. I do not get nearly enough sleep.
DJ: What is Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day about?
Seanan: Time. Sisters and debts and the need to stay when sometimes you really want to go, but most of all, time. It’s a ghost story and a love story and a story about the price we pay to stay ourselves.
DJ: What were some of your influences for Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day?
Seanan: The poetry of Martha Keller. We were fortunate enough to be able to reprint one of her poems at the front of the book.
DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them?
Seanan: I don’t understand this question. Continue reading
Author Interview: Ellen Klages
Today I am interviewing Ellen Klages, Nebula and World Fantasy Award winner, and author of a new novella from tor.com, Passing Strange.
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*Please note that this interview was originally done over Skype and was then transcribed and edit to what you are reading now. This was a spoken interview and thus does not necessarily represent the author’s prose.
DJ: Hey Ellen! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
Ellen Klages: I’ve been writing science fiction and fantasy for about 20 year now. I won a Nebula for the novelette, “Basement Magic,” and a World Fantasy Award for “Wakulla Springs,” a novella collaboration with Andy Duncan. I’ve written two historical children’s books, Green Glass Sea; and White Sands, Red Menace.
DJ: What is Passing Strange about?
Ellen: Passing Strange is set in San Francisco in 1940. It’s about the cities within the city, and six women who are all unconventional is one way or another. It’s set in the bohemian parts of the city: in the only gay women’s bar in San Francisco, and in a nightclub in Chinatown. The “hidden parts” of the city.
It was inspired by pulps, noir, screwball comedies, and historicals, with a little bit of magic thrown in! Some people call it “genre-bending”, but I think it’s more “genre-blending”. Like a good stew — a little of this, a little of that.
DJ: What were some of your influences for Passing Strange?
Ellen: I moved to San Francisco right out of college from the Midwest where the cities are not nearly as interesting. Forty years ago, in 1977, I started writing a short story about women in a gay bar during the World’s Fair in 1939/1940. I wrote about four scenes, and never did anything with it. But it’s stuck with me and I’ve always wanted to tell that story.
I came back to it a couple years ago and did a bunch of research on the city of the time and the Worlds Fair, and kept getting more and more excited. So finally, after 40 years, I wrote the whole story. Continue reading
Author Interview: Joe M. McDermott
Today I am interviewing Joe M. McDermott, author of the new science-fiction novel, The Fortress at the End of Time.
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DJ: Hey Joe! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
Joe M. McDermott: I am a pudgy, middle-aged white guy. My wife is cooler than I am.
DJ: What is The Fortress at the End of Time about?
Joe: In some ways, it is about the difference between what is sold to someone, and what is actually given. It is also about pride, and how it hardens as a survival mechanism. It is also about clones in deep space, at a miserable posting with very little hope for anything better.
DJ: What were some of your influences for The Fortress at the End of Time?
Joe: The book was born out of reading other books. The first book was recommended to me by Larry Nolen from OF Blog of the Fallen. He suggested I read Dino Buzzati’s The Tartar Steppe, and I loved it and found The Opposing Shore by Julian Graq on the same Amazon page. I loved that, too. I had been tinkering with ideas about clones as a method of space travel, inspired by such authors as James Patrick Kelly, and the sort of worlds created by Ursula K. LeGuin and Maureen McHugh.
DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them?
Joe: I don’t think my brain works the way yours does about characters. Quirks and habits are annoying, to me, as a reader. My characters are as human as I can possibly make them, and I push them into the prison-like pressure cooker of the Citadel. They do what I think any person would do, each in their way. If they have anything that can be described as a quirk, I’ve failed as an author attempting to create something true. Continue reading
Free Ebook Alert: Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2016 Edition
Tor.com is very excited to offer a free download of the 2016 edition of Some of the Best from Tor.com, an anthology of 25 of our favorite short stories and novelettes from the last year. Readers worldwide can download the ebook for free by signing up for the Tor.com Publishing newsletter from 12:00 P.M. EST on January 10th until 11:59 A.M. EST on January 17th.
Of course, you can always enjoy all of our free weekly short stories by visiting Tor.com’s fiction index. These stories were acquired and edited for Tor.com by Ellen Datlow, Ann VanderMeer, Carl Engle-Laird, Liz Gorinsky, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Justin Landon, Diana Pho, and Miriam Weinberg. Each story is accompanied by an original illustration.
Learn more below!
Table of Contents
- “Clover” Charlie Jane Anders
- “The Art of Space Travel” Nina Allan
- “The Destroyer” Tara Isabella Burton
- “Traumphysik” Monica Byrne
- “The High Lonesome Frontier” Rebecca Campbell
- “Lullaby for a Lost World” Aliette de Bodard
- “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” P. Djeli Clark
- “Breaking Water” Indrapramit Das
- “Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage” Alix E. Harrow
- “The City Born Great” N. K. Jemisin
- “Everything That Isn’t Winter” Margaret Killjoy
- “The Weight of Memories” Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
- “The Maiden Thief” Melissa Marr
- “The Caretakers” David Nickle
- “Your Orisons May Be Recorded” Laurie Penny
- “meat+drink” Daniel Polansky
- “The Three Lives of Sonata James” Lettie Prell
- “The Great Detective” Delia Sherman
- “Finnegan’s Field” Angela Slatter
- “The Weather” Caighlan Smith
- “Terminal” Lavie Tidhar
- “Her Scales Shine Like Music” Rajnar Vajra
- “La beauté sans vertu” Genevieve Valentine
- “That Game We Played During the War” Carrie Vaughn
- “A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers” Alyssa Wong
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About the Tor.com Publishing Newsletter:
This monthly newsletter includes the latest updates on Tor.com Publishing titles from authors like Nnedi Okorafor, Seanan McGuire, Malka Older, Charles Stross, and many more, including excerpts, sweepstakes, exclusive content, and author features.
How to Redeem:
To redeem the free ebook edition of Some of the Best from Tor.com: Visit this link between noon (12:00 P.M. EST) on Tuesday, January 10th, and 11:59 A.M. EST on Tuesday, January 17th to sign up for the Tor.com Publishing newsletter and download the DRM-free ebook. This offer is available globally.
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Free Ebook Alert: Infomancy by Malka Older
On Election Day, Tor.com Publishing is offering free digital copies of Malka Older’s Infomocracy, the acclaimed near-future political thriller where campaigns play out on a global scale, debates and advertisements are instantly annotated, and the manipulation of information has never been more sophisticated—or more powerful.
For 48 hours only, readers worldwide can download the ebook edition of Infomocracy for free by signing up for the Tor.com Publishing newsletter.
Learn more below!
About the Book:
“Kinetic and gripping, the plot hurtles toward an electoral climax that leaps off the page.” —NPR
It’s been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything’s on the line.
With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party andget a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?
Infomocracy is Malka Older’s debut novel and the first in The Centenal Cycle series, followed by the upcoming Null States.
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About the Tor.com Publishing newsletter:
This monthly newsletter includes the latest updates on Tor.com Publishing titles from authors like Nnedi Odorafor, Laurie Penny, Victor LaValle, Brian Evenson, and many more, including excerpts, sweepstakes, exclusive content, and author features.
How to redeem the free ebook edition of Infomocracy:
Visit http://giveaway.tor.com/ between midnight (12:00 AM EST) on Tuesday, November 8th, and 11:59 P.M. EST on Wednesday, November 9th to sign up for the Tor.com Publishing newsletter and download the DRM-free ebook. This offer is available globally.
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About the Author:
Malka Older is a writer, humanitarian worker, and PhD candidate at the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations studying governance and disasters. Named Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs for 2015, she has more than eight years of experience in humanitarian aid and development, and has responded to complex emergencies and natural disasters in Uganda, Darfur, Indonesia, Japan, and Mali.
New-Release Spotlight: A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
About the Book:
Long after the Towers left the world but before the dragons came to Daluça, the emperor brought his delegation of gods and diplomats to Olorum. As the royalty negotiates over trade routes and public services, the divinity seeks arcane assistance among the local gods.
Aqib bgm Sadiqi, fourth-cousin to the royal family and son of the Master of Beasts, has more mortal and pressing concerns. His heart has been captured for the first time by a handsome Daluçan soldier named Lucrio. in defiance of Saintly Canon, gossiping servants, and the furious disapproval of his father and brother, Aqib finds himself swept up in a whirlwind romance. But neither Aqib nor Lucrio know whether their love can survive all the hardships the world has to throw at them.
A Taste of Honey is a new novella in the world of Kai Ashante Wilson’s The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps.
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