Free eBook, Sad Bangers, Butch Martyrs, and Dark Lords

To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Tor.com Newsletter]( [Forward to a Friend]( E-BOOK CLUB [Download Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame— Before March 26th!]( Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in the standalone fantasy, Middlegame. Snag your copy before 11:59 PM ET on March 25th! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( LOVE A GOOD BAD GUY [Five SFF Books About Not-So-Dark Lords]( Readers like dark stuff. They like jagged, towering castles carved of black stone guarded by swooping, poison-clawed dragons. They like Darth Vader. They like Sauron. They like Hela in Thor: Ragnorak. The reason being that these characters all kick ass. And we also love it when those baddies are allowed to be the main character of their own narrative—when it turns out that they are not so dark, after all. Cassandra Rose Clarke recommends five books about dark lords, with a twist. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( MARK AS READ [Crying in the Book Club: Can a Book Be a Sad Banger?]( What’s your favorite sad banger? We love the contradiction in these types of songs, the nuance, the two-to-five minutes of holding grief and fury, sadness and delight, loss and hope together in your head. So it stands to reason that books can fall under this category too. In a new Mark As Read column, Molly Templeton muses on the dichotomy of emotions in literature. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( DEAR READER [Eight Incredible Examples of Epistolary Horror]( The epistolary format weaves a powerful illusion of authenticity, framing fiction as real-life, firsthand surviving documentation. In the same way the warning “based on a true story…” sends a chill through the spine at the start of a scary movie, the voyueristic sense of realness sets the stage for epistolary horror to unfold. Emily Ruth Verona highlights eight compelling horror stories that employ the epistolary format to great effect. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( ONE FLESH, ONE END [The Crosses We Bear: The Butch Martyr in SFF]( We’re in the middle of a golden age of sapphic science fiction and fantasy and with this wave of books comes an interesting trend—the depiction of butch lesbians as sacrificial paladins. But where might this stem from historically? What are authors writing toward or against, and how does it impact readers? Author C.L. Clark considers the role of butch paladins in contemporary SFF. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( FOILED AGAIN! [Five SFF Stories In Which the Best-Laid Plans Are Thwarted]( Who among us has not been betrayed by the failure of a simple plan that should have worked? This seems to be a perverse tendency of the universe, as well as a popular theme in fiction. James Davis Nicoll shares five SFF tales in which clever plans are thwarted, foiled, and frustrated by circumstance. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( DONT YOU KNOW THAT YOU'RE TOXIC [Promising Young Woman Is the Gritty Superhero Movie I Always Wanted]( 2020’s Promising Young Woman’s bleak message seems to be that a tiny sliver of justice was only achieved after multiple deaths, the intervention of a high-status man, and the involvement of police—and this has proved understandably problematic for many viewers. It also sets the film up to be a fascinating commentary on the superhero genre. Leah Schnelbach dives into the film’s take on revenge, and what makes a vigilante. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( DISCOVER STAR TREK [“Let’s get to it”—Star Trek: Discovery Fourth Season Overview]( Where Picard, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds are all doing ten-episode seasons, the flagship show of this current wave of Trek shows, Discovery has given us a baker’s dozen of episodes (maybe a few more than we needed, considering the pacing). Keith R.A. DeCandido reviews the fourth season–let us know your thoughts in the comments! [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.