Heroic Hobbits, Evil Magicians, Space Patrols, and Wild Cards!

plus Original Fiction from Annalee Newitz To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Tor.com Newsletter]( [Forward to a Friend]( THE WORLD BETWEEN WORLDS [The Deplorable Word: Power, Magicians, and Evil in C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew]( C.S. Lewis didn’t care for magicians who sought to bend nature to their own will, who were selfish in their grabs for power. This is clear in The Magician’s Nephew, where we see Uncle Andrew as a minor magician who believes the rules don’t apply to him. Matt Mikalatos explores themes of magic, power, corruption, and human greed in Lewis’ work. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( CLASSIC SCI-FI [Classic SF in Which Humans Come From “Beyond the Stars”]( While it would be really cool if humanity was a recent visitor to this world and our true origins were on some distant exoplanet, thanks to the fossil record, we know that’s not the case. Still, no author in possession of a cool story idea ever hesitated merely because of firmly established science. James Davis Nicoll shares five examples of stories in which humans came from somewhere beyond the sky. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( DISCOVER MORE [WandaVision Plays With Reality and Sitcom History in Its Two-Part Premiere]( It’s strange to think that this is our first official Marvel Cinematic Universe story in roughly a year. After an empty 2020, Disney+ has arrived to alleviate that lack with their first television offering—WandaVision. And it started us off right, with two episodes to get fans hooked. Emmet Asher-Perrin takes a look at the beginning of WandaVision, and what might be ahead. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( TO THE OUTBACK [Six Stories for Fans of Beautiful Australian Gothic]( Like most Gothics, the Australian Gothic has acquired its own distinct aesthetic. It is also tangled up with the genre’s own past, and inextricably knotted into colonial and imperial histories. Yet there is a sense of great beauty, even amongst the horror. Kathleen Jennings looks at six iconic works of Australian Gothic. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( HIDE THE SPOONS [Exploring the People of Middle-earth: Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, an Unexpected Hero]( The Sackville-Bagginses only makes a few appearances in The Lord of the Rings, and in most of these Lobelia and her family are presented in a fairly unpleasant light. To many, she comes off as snobbish, snide, and generally rude. It’s impossible to deny that she’s a bit of a kleptomaniac. But she also is one of the few hobbit women in the series, and becomes an unlikely hero in her own way. Megan N. Fontenot illuminates the important lesson illustrated by Lobelia and her story. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( THE FINAL FRONTIER [Five Thrilling SF Stories About Patrolling Space]( Space is a vast and unexplored frontier, so it makes sense that there might be a system for patrolling and peacekeeping. James Davis Nicoll shares five stories about space patrols, including favorites from Alastair Reynolds, Helen S. Wright, and Tani Kōshū. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( PICK A CARD [Catching Up With George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards]( The Wild Cards saga is vast at this point, and may seem like an intimidating fictional milieu to attempt entering. A stack of 28 novels (and counting) is surely daunting. Good news is, longtime fan Jason Powell is here to break down everything you need to know about the series, from major plot points and characters to in-world jargon and locations. Get ready to jump into the Wild Cards universe! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( MOVIE MARATHON TIME [Ten of the Best Recent Horror and Sci-Fi Movies to Stream Right Now]( 2020 was a weird year for movies, but limitations on theater attendance not only pushed studios to experiment with their releases, but also allowed some smaller genre movies to attract attention that usually would have been monopolized by blockbuster franchise films. In other words, 2020 made room for some great new genre movies, and gave viewers more of an opportunity to watch them. Joe George recommends ten excellent sci-fi and horror movies of 2020 you can watch online right now. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( ORIGINAL FICTION [“#Selfcare” by Annalee Newitz]( In a near-future San Francisco where the gig economy has made work more precarious than ever, Edwina is an average twenty-something scrambling to hold down her job with a major skin care brand. Until her awful boss does something you should never do—angers the fae on social media—and the struggles of her job take on an even nastier shade. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( Follow Tor.com to get updates on all of our original fiction. FOLLOW US: [Follow Us on Facebook]( [Follow Us on Twitter]( [Follow Us on Tumblr]( [Follow Us on Pinterest]( This email was sent by: Macmillan 120 Broadway New York, NY, 10271, US We respect your right to privacy - [view our policy]( Macmillan believes piracy hurts writers, readers and everyone who loves books. Learn more and report suspicious activity [here.]( To subscribe to this or other email communications from Macmillan, please click [here](. Visit our [profile center]( to update your email address and/or other information. If you no longer wish to receive this email communication, click [here]( to unsubscribe.