Fun with Fungus, Poison Apples, and The Thing

To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Tor.com Newsletter]( [Forward to a Friend]( FAIRY TALE FAVORITES [“Snow White” and the Seven Retellings]( This maiden sleeps, not in a tower covered with thorny roses, but in a coffin made of jewels and glass. Snow White has captivated our cultural imagination for centuries, which means there have been countless reimaginings of the story. Rachel Ayers shares seven essential retellings of the classic fairy tale. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS [Four Books About Living Gods Working in Mysterious Ways]( There are many reasons gods make for wonderful speculative storytelling—both because of their sheer power, and because they’re unpredictable. James Davis Nicoll highlights four very different SFF books that all feature active, interventionist deities working in mysterious ways (with many, many more examples discussed in the comments). [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( FOOD, CULTURE, & WORLDBUILDING [The Resonance of Hunger: Food, Family, and Colonialism in Trang Thanh Tran’s She Is A Haunting]( “This house eats and is eaten,” begins Trang Thanh Tran’s debut gothic horror novel She Is A Haunting . The book opens with Jade, a closeted Vietnamese American girl who reluctantly travels to Vietnam for the first time to spend the summer in the colonial house her estranged father is renovating as a B&B—only to find that the house has other ideas. Eating, hunger, and food take on many different forms in this novel, highlighting its cultural roots. Here, Wen-yi Lee looks at Tran’s novel and all the ways we are starved and nourished. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS [The Water That Divides: Announcing Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa]( Tordotcom Publishing is delighted to announce that Jonathan Strahan has acquired a standalone, near-future cli-fi novella from Nommo Award-winning author Suyi Davies Okungbowa titled Lost Ark Dreaming. Read more about the upcoming novella here! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( GROWING HORRORS [Science, Fiction, and Fungi: What The Last of Us Gets Right]( Fantasy and science fiction buffs know that fungi infiltrated literature long before The Last of Us. Fungi are excellent subjects for speculative and weird fiction for a good reason. In this non-spoiler essay, former fungi researcher Corrado Nai looks at what The Last of Us gets right about mycology and the study of fungal pathogens, and what that means for the real world… [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( THE THING ABOUT THE THING [I Watched All The Things So You Won’t Have To]( It started as a novella, one of the classics of the genre: John W. Campbell, Jr. (writing as Don A. Stuart)’s “Who Goes There?” Howard Hawks made a movie loosely based on it in 1951, The Thing From Another World. Then in 1982, John Carpenter made The Thing, a closer retelling of the original. And finally, in 2011, Eric Heisserer wrote and Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr. directed a prequel to the Carpenter film, also called The Thing . Over the years there have been many adaptations, so it’s confusing to know where to start. Luckily, Judith Tarr is here to watch all of The Thing—so you don’t have to. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [Jean-Luc Picard]( WASN'T TIME THAT DID IT [Ten Books to Chase Those The Last of Us Vibes]( If you’re anything like us, you have The Last of Us on the brain this week! Because who doesn’t love stories about the end of times and parasitic possession? Here, Alex Brown recommends ten fascinating science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels to keep fans going until season two. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [Coyote and Road Runner Looney Tunes]( WE LOVE THE PIEMAKER [Pushing Daisies: Death, Life, and The Pie Hole]( Pushing Daisies ran on ABC from 2007-2009, featuring the adventures of a Pie Maker named Ned (Lee Pace). Ned has a special gift—he is able to touch the dead and bring them back to life. At the heart of the show is The Pie Hole, where Ned bakes and sells his pies. In a new Close Read column, Alissa Burger revisits the Pie Hole as a liminal space and looks at the show’s use of vibrant color to make us feel at home. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [Coyote and Road Runner Looney Tunes]( SAVE WHO YOU CAN SAVE [Love Bludgeons All: The Ending of The Last of Us Still Stings]( There’s trouble ahead for Joel and Ellie as HBO’s mega-hit The Last of Us bring its first season to a close, but it doesn’t come from the infected. Just like its namesake video game, the story’s true final act is an emotional knife-twist. Theresa DeLucci reviews the final episode of The Last of Us. (Contains spoilers for the first season of the show and the 2013 video game; no spoilers for season two or the game’s sequel.) [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [Coyote and Road Runner Looney Tunes]( ORIGINAL FICTION [“The Dark House” by A.C. Wise]( A photographer’s obsession with an unsettled subject exposes two friends to a darkness that won’t be contained by frames… [Author’s note: This story contains fictional depictions of suicide and mention of harm to children.] [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.