Star Wars, The Witcher, and Movies for 2020!

plus all of our books and short fiction from 2019! To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Tor.com Newsletter]( [Forward to a Friend]( I KNOW [The Rise of Skywalker Wants You to Know That Consent Is Necessary (and Also Very Sexy)]( It’s the classic romantic moment of Star Wars, arguably one of the best-known on-screen kisses of all time. Han Solo has been arguing with Princess Leia for a third of film over whether or not she’s into him, and when she protests, he kisses her. It’s hot, but looking back, we can see that consent is kind of an issue here. Fortunately, The Rise of Skywalker takes a different approach to consent and physical contact. Em Asher-Perrin guides us through several key moments in the film, and explores why respectfully asking for permission is so sexy. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( AN EXCUSE TO GO TO THE BOOKSTORE [12 Excellent SFF Books You Might Have Missed in 2019]( It’s the time of year that hard-working book reviewers have all published lists declaring the “Best of 2019!”, which only makes us realize how many amazing books were published in the last twelve months: It’s impossible to keep up with everything! Good news: James Davis Nicoll highlights twelve titles you may have missed, including gems by Kacen Callender, Saad Z. Hossain, Naomi Kritzer, and more. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( TOSS A COIN [The Witcher: It’s Not Easy Adapting a Beloved Series]( Adaptations are difficult. Whenever a novel becomes a film or a TV series, artistic minds are set on a collision course. Netflix’s new Witcher series is no exception to this rule. Like all other television adaptations, the series deviates from the books--in the case of The Witcher, however, not all of these changes work. Teo Bileta, who grew up on Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, takes a look at The Witcher’s characters and timeline, and the differences between the show and its source material. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( NOTHIN BUT STAR WARS [The Rise of Skywalker’s Weakest Narrative Choice Nearly Sinks the Story — Until It Works]( “There’s a moment, in the first half of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, upon which the final film in the Skywalker saga hinges. Regardless of your feelings by the end of the film, I think we can all agree that this no-turning-back point, which seems to set the tone for Rey’s journey of self-discovery as a Jedi, is unanimously devastating.” Natalie Zutter takes a deeper look at a key plot point in The Rise of Skywalker and its ripple effects throughout the film. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( GET SOME POPCORN [Movies We’re Looking Forward to in 2020]( It’s the start of a new year, and we wanted to take a moment to get excited for what’s ahead—here are just some of the upcoming films that we can’t stop thinking about, including Wonder Woman 1984, Birds of Prey, Artemis Fowl, Black Widow, and more! Check out the list, and let us know which movies you can’t wait to see in 2020... [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( MEXICAN GOTHIC [Bittersweet, Multilayered, and Brilliant: Celebrating the Work of Silvia Moreno-Garcia]( No matter where you start reading her work—with Signal to Noise, The Beautiful Ones, Certain Dark Things, Gods of Jade and Shadow, or with her shorter fiction—Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s stories are multifaceted, surprising, and constantly challenge the reader to redefine their own preconceived notions of what they think speculative fiction is and can be. Andrea Gomez discusses the elements that set Moreno-Garcia’s work apart, and what makes her fiction so unforgettable. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( WIBBLEY-WOBBLEY [Doctor Who Prepares Us For Major Revelations in “Spyfall, Part Two”]( The Doctor is about to team up with a few good women to stop her favorite megalomaniac. Can’t be too hard, right? Just an ordinary Sunday. Em Asher-Perrin catches up with our favorite two-hearted, time-traveling alien’s latest adventure, featuring appearances by Ada Lovelace, the Eiffel Tower, and an old frienemy. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( A VERY GOOD YEAR [All of Tor.com Publishing’s 2019 Titles]( In 2019, Tor.com Publishing published over 30 novels, novellas, anthologies, and collections, including the finale of Myke Cole’s The Sacred Throne trilogy, the follow-up to the Nommo Award-winning novella The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson, the necromantic science fiction sensation Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir featuring everyone’s favorite galactic dirtbag, and so much more! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( FOR YOUR COMMUTE [All of Tor.com Publishing’s 2019 Titles]( Since launching in 2008, Tor.com’s short fiction program has been producing touching, funny, and thought-provoking stories, and this year was no different. In 2019, we published 14 original novelettes and 22 short stories that ran the gamut from hard science fiction to epic fantasy, from horror to steampunk, from fairy tales to space opera. We’ve rounded them all up here in one place, where you can also find Tor.com Publishing’s impressive output of novellas and novels, as well! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( ORIGINAL FICTION [Three New Harry Turtledove Stories]( We are delighted to start off a brand-new year of Tor.com short fiction with three original stories written by Harry Turtledove, featuring everyone’s favorite sasquatch governor of the Pacific Northwest state of Jefferson, Bill Williamson: “Something Fishy,” “Always Something New,” and “Tie a Yellow Ribbon.” All three stories can be found at the link--enjoy! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( Follow Tor.com to get updates on all of our original fiction. 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