Out Now: Paul Cornell's Most Important Book

Plus new fantasy from Emma Newman and science fiction from Adam Christopher! To view this email as a webpage, go [here.]( [Tor.com Publishing]( [Forward to a Friend]( This Month from Tor.com Publishing: New Paul Cornell, Emma Newman, and Adam Christopher! We're proud to publish our books worldwide, and March features a superstar line-up of three of our U.K.-based authors. Paul Cornell digs deep into teenage trauma and its true cost in his dark fantasy novel Chalk , which he calls his “most important book.” Emma Newman kicks off a new gaslamp fantasy series with Brother's Ruin, set in an alternate Victorian England rife with magic, and Adam Christopher returns to the world of Ray Electromatic, everyone's favorite wisecracking robotic PI, with Standard Hollywood Depravity. As always, all of our titles are available globally in ebook and print, simultaneously and DRM free. [Standard Hollywood Depravity by Adam Christopher]( Standard Hollywood Depravity Adam Christopher INCLUDES SPECIAL BONUS NOVELLA BRISK MONEY BY ADAM CHRISTOPHER The moment Raymond Electromatic set eyes on her, he knew she was the dame marked in his optics, the woman that his boss had warned him about. Honey. As the band shook the hair out of their British faces, stomping and strumming, the go-go dancer's cage swung, and the events of that otherwise average night were set in motion. A shot, under the cover of darkness, a body bleeding out in a corner, and most of Los Angeles' population of hired guns hulking, sour-faced over un-drunk whiskey sours at the bar. But as Ray tries to track down the package he was dispatched to the club to retrieve, his own programming might be working against him, sending him down a long hall and straight into a mobster's paradise. Is Honey still the goal—or was she merely bait for a bigger catch? Just your standard bit of Hollywood depravity, as tracked by the memory tapes of a less-than-standard robot hitman. [📖][Read an excerpt]( Download Your Copy For Only $3.99! [kindle]( [kobo]( [iBooks]( [Google play]( [nook]( [Also available in paperback!]( [Brother's Ruin by Emma Newman]( Brother's Ruin Emma Newman The year is 1850 and Great Britain is flourishing, thanks to the Royal Society of the Esoteric Arts. When a new mage is discovered, Royal Society elites descend like buzzards to snatch up a new apprentice. Talented mages are bought from their families at a tremendous price, while weak mages are snapped up for a pittance. For a lower middle class family like the Gunns, the loss of a son can be disastrous, so when seemingly magical incidents begin cropping up at home, they fear for their Ben's life and their own livelihoods. But Benjamin Gunn isn't a talented mage. His sister Charlotte is, and to prevent her brother from being imprisoned for false reporting she combines her powers with his to make him seem a better prospect. When she discovers a nefarious plot by the sinister Doctor Ledbetter, Charlotte must use all her cunning and guile to protect her family, her secret and her city. Brother's Ruin is the first in a new gaslamp fantasy series by Emma Newman. [📖][Read an excerpt]( Download Your Copy for Only $3.99! [kindle]( [kobo]( [iBooks]( [Google play]( [nook]( [Also available in paperback!]( [Chalk by Paul Cornell]( Chalk Paul Cornell Paul Cornell plumbs the depths of magic and despair in Chalk, a brutal exploration of bullying in Margaret Thatcher's England. Andrew Waggoner has always hung around with his fellow losers at school, desperately hoping each day that the school bullies—led by Drake—will pass him by in search of other prey. But one day they force him into the woods, and the bullying escalates into something more; something unforgivable; something unthinkable. Broken, both physically and emotionally, something dies in Waggoner, and something else is born in its place. In the hills of the West Country a chalk horse stands vigil over a site of ancient power, and there Waggoner finds in himself a reflection of rage and vengeance, a power and persona to topple those who would bring him low. [📖][Read an excerpt]( Download Your Copy for Only $4.99! [kindle]( [kobo]( [iBooks]( [Google play]( [nook]( [Also available in paperback!]( [Nevertheless She Persisted] Your Afternoon Read This International Women's Day, we released a free online anthology of flash fiction inspired by women's struggles and triumphs from some of science fiction and fantasy's leading voices. “[Nevertheless She Persisted]( includes stories from Charlie Jane Anders, Maria Dahvana Headley, and Seanan McGuire, among many others. Read it now on Tor.com! [Every Heart a Doorway] Every Heart a Doorway Makes the Tiptree Honor List! Seanan McGuire's Every Heart a Doorway, the first book in the Wayward Children series, has been named to the 2016 James Tiptree, Jr. Honor List! [The Tiptree award winner and honorees were announced this month]( and we're excited that Tor authors Ada Palmer, Charlie Jane Anders, and Nisi Shawl also made the Honor and Worthy lists. Publishers Weekly also recommends that you get your hands on the next book in the Wayward Children series, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, when it comes out this June: read their starred review of Seanan's “exquisitely written fairy tale” [here](. [Runtime] Do Science Fiction Writers Predict the Future, or Observe the Present? Near-future fiction often features new worlds that can feel unrecognizable, but any speculative future must be rooted in our present. While S.B. Divya's Nebula Award-nominated novella Runtime takes immigration policy in the United States to the extreme, imagining a future in which even people born on U.S. soil must purchase an expensive birth license to access essential services, her heavily researched narrative reflects past and unfolding polices that actually exist. [She talks about the process of crafting plausible future laws and the way recent events have altered interpretations of Runtime]( at Tor.com. And many reviewers have called Malka Older's debut novel Infomocracy frighteningly prescient, but Malka explains that writing the book was less about projecting a possible future and more about examining our current political and technological realities. [She lays out the ways citizens can engage with our data-driven present]( and delves into the real-world struggles against misinformation that Infomocracy extrapolates upon. [The Ballad of Black Tom] Lovecraft and LaValle: A Continuing Conversation More than a year after its publication, Victor LaValle's [The Ballad of Black Tom]( still enthralls and unsettles with its subversive look at H.P. Lovecraft's literary universe. [This Is Horror recently named the book Novella of the Year]( and it's currently nominated for both the 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction. Bob Pastorella delves further into the appeal of Victor's subversive Lovecraftian reimagining in [his review at This is Horror]( and Tobias Carroll explores The Ballad of Black Tom, along with Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country and Paul LaFarge's The Night Ocean, in the [Genre in the Mainstream column]( on Tor.com. [Cold Counsel] Life-changing LARP and Sympathy for the Monster Our “[And Related Subjects]( feature on Tor.com gives authors a chance to talk about all the things they do when they aren't writing science fiction and fantasy, from ventriloquism to rock climbing to making stained glass. Emma Newman's contribution to the series focuses on [her love of Live Action Role Playing]( and how this hands-on hobby has bolstered her creative process as a writer and shaped her social life. Cold Counsel author Chris Sharp is also at Tor.com this month discussing “[Asgardpunk]( which he describes as an inversion of the old Norse tales that took it for granted that the gods are the good guys. His novel Cold Counsel shows us why you might side with the troll in these stories: [read it now]( [Agents of Dreamland] Listen to These Literary Playlists! In addition to being a compelling dark fantasy, Paul Cornell's Chalk is a love letter to '80s pop music. One character practices a form of magic based on the songs that are topping the charts, and musicians from David Bowie to Blondie to the Police get mentions from the British teens who are keenly aware of what's in and what's out at any given moment. We've put together [a playlist of the songs that appear in the book]( on our YouTube channel so that you can get the full auditory experience (and see some of the amazing vintage videos). And Caitlín R. Kiernan has put together [her own Spotify playlist of tunes]( to listen to while you read her Lovecraftian novella [Agents of Dreamland]( complete with selections from Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Dolly Parton. [Covers Collage] Photo of the Month We're proud to publish so many great books featuring women protagonists, like Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe and Marie Brennan's Cold-Forged Flame (and its forthcoming sequel, Lightning in the Blood ). We put together this collage of some of our covers starring complex, kick-ass women for International Women's Day: see more recent photos and art at our Instagram at @[TorDotComPub]( Follow Tor.com [f]( [t]( [g]( [t]( This email was sent by: Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY, 10010, USA 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.