Deadlands: Boneyard - Tor/Forge Blog

opens in a new windowDark Signal by Shannon Baker

opens in a new window Reeling from her recent divorce, Kate Fox has just been sworn in as Grand County, Nebraska Sheriff when tragedy strikes. A railroad accident has left engineer Chad Mills dead, his conductor Bobby Jenkins in shock. Kate soon realizes that the accident was likely murder.

Who would want to kill Chad Mills?

opens in a new windowDeadlands: Boneyard by Seanan McGuire

opens in a new window Step right up to see the oddities and marvels of The Blackstone Family Circus and Travelling Wonder Show! Gasp at pit wasps the size of a man’s forearm. Beware the pumpkin-headed corn stalker, lest it plant its roots in you!

Annie Pearl is the keeper of oddities, the mistress of monsters. Her unique collection of creatures is one of the circus’s star attractions, drawing wide-eyed crowds at every small frontier town they visit. But Annie is also a woman running from her past…and the mother of a mute young daughter, Adeline, whom she will do anything to protect.

opens in a new windowEdgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

opens in a new window Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older–a wish she believed was granted. Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one. Although the young Azish emperor granted her safe haven from an executioner she knows only as Darkness, court life is suffocating the free-spirited Lift, who can’t help heading to Yeddaw when she hears the relentless Darkness is there hunting people like her with budding powers. The downtrodden in Yeddaw have no champion, and Lift knows she must seize this awesome responsibility.

opens in a new windowEnder’s Game by Orson Scott Card

opens in a new window Once again, Earth is under attack. An alien species is poised for a final assault. The survival of humanity depends on a military genius who can defeat the aliens. But who?

Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child.

opens in a new windowEnhanced by Carrie Jones

opens in a new window Seventeen-year-old Mana has found and rescued her mother, but her work isn’t done yet. Her mother may be out of alien hands, but she’s in a coma, unable to tell anyone what she knows.

Mana is ready to take action. The only problem? Nobody will let her. Lyle, her best friend and almost-boyfriend (for a minute there, anyway), seems to want nothing to do with hunting aliens, despite his love of Doctor Who. Bestie Seppie is so desperate to stay out of it, she’s actually leaving town. And her mom’s hot but arrogant alien-hunting partner, China, is ignoring Mana’s texts, cutting her out of the mission entirely.

opens in a new windowFrom the Two Rivers by Robert Jordan

opens in a new window Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters. From the Two Rivers is a special edition that contains Part 1 of The Eye of the World, Jordan’s internationally bestselling epic fantasy saga, and is a perfect gift for old fans and new.

opens in a new windowLast Chance by Gregg Hurwitz

opens in a new window The New York Times bestselling author of Orphan X, Gregg Hurwitz, returns to Creek’s Cause to follow the Rains brothers as they fight an alien threat that has transformed everyone over the age of 18 into ferocious, zombie-like beings, in this thrilling sequel to The Rains.

Battling an enemy not of this earth, Chance and Patrick become humanity’s only hope for salvation.

opens in a new windowOld Man’s War by John Scalzi

opens in a new window John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.

The good news is that humanity finally made it to the stars. The bad news is that, out there, planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common.

opens in a new windowThe Rains by Gregg Hurwitz

opens in a new window In one terrifying night, the peaceful community of Creek’s Cause turns into a war zone. No one under the age of eighteen is safe. Chance Rain and his older brother, Patrick, have already fended off multiple attacks from infected adults by the time they arrive at the school where other young survivors are hiding.

Most of the kids they know have been dragged away by once-trusted adults who are now ferocious, inhuman beings. The parasite that transformed them takes hold after people turn eighteen–and Patrick’s birthday is only a few days away.

opens in a new windowSix Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders

opens in a new window Before the success of her debut SF-and-fantasy novel All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders was a rising star in SF and fantasy short fiction. Collected in a mini-book format, here—for the first time in print—are six of her quirky, wry, engaging best.

opens in a new windowVallista by Steven Brust

opens in a new window Vlad Taltos is an Easterner—an underprivileged human in an Empire of tall, powerful, long-lived Dragaerans. He made a career for himself in House Jhereg, the Dragaeran clan in charge of the Empire’s organized crime. But the day came when the Jhereg wanted Vlad dead, and he’s been on the run ever since. He has plenty of friends among the Dragaeran highborn, including an undead wizard and a god or two. But as long as the Jhereg have a price on his head, Vlad’s life is…messy.

opens in a new windowWild Cards I by George R.R. Martin & Wild Cards Trust

opens in a new window There is a secret history of the world—a history in which an alien virus struck the Earth in the aftermath of World War II, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Some were called Aces—those with superhuman mental and physical abilities. Others were termed Jokers—cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. Some turned their talents to the service of humanity. Others used their powers for evil. Wild Cards is their story.

NEW FROM TOR.COM

opens in a new windowWeaver’s Lament by Emma Newman

opens in a new window Charlotte is learning to control her emerging magical powers under the secret tutelage of Magus Hopkins. Her first covert mission takes her to a textile mill where the disgruntled workers are apparently destroying expensive equipment.

And if she can’t identify the culprits before it’s too late, her brother will be exiled, and her family dishonoured…

NEW IN MANGA:

opens in a new windowAlice & Zoroku Vol. 2 Story and art by Tetsuya Imai

opens in a new windowBeasts of Abigaile Vol. 2 Story and art by Aoki Spica

opens in a new windowDevilman Grimoire Vol. 1 Story by Go Nagai; Art by Rui Takatou

opens in a new windowGhost Diary Vol. 3 Story and art by Seiju Natsumegu

opens in a new windowHatsune Miku Presents: Hachune Miku’s Everyday Vocaloid Paradise Vol. 1 Story and art by Ontama

opens in a new windowWritten by opens in a new windowSeanan McGuire

One of the great things about games, and role-playing games in particular, is having a blank canvas. Essentially they are plays in which all the plots and beats are written, except, of course, for the characters. Players are allowed to fill these fantastic worlds with whomever, or whatever, they choose. It’s the ultimate game of “what if?”. Over the past few years we’ve had the pleasure of diving into some of these great worlds, both digital and print, and few have been as fun as the Deadlands.

Built around every Weird West trope you can imagine, Deadlands is the perfect blend of horror, steampunk, fantasy, and good ol’ Americana. An added feature of the books is that, like any proper campaign, they each standalone, focusing on a different aspect of this grand Western. That’s where author Seanan McGuire comes in. Combining a love of games with the ability to subvert expectations, she’s written a novel with monsters and madmen and maestros. A novel that ties in perfectly with her own love of games. Here, she counts down her favorite video games.

I do not play a great many video games, but the ones I play, I play whole-heartedly and with a horrifying intensity of focus that sometimes unnerves my teammates. I have been known to buy a console for a single game and feel that I got my money’s worth, because I’ve managed to log so many hours on whatever it was I wanted to play. So these are my three current obsessions.

opens in a new windowSPLATOON 2: Remember that comment about buying a console for a single game? Well, that was me and the Wii U, bought entirely for Splatoon. There was really no way I was going to let the sequel pass me by. In this cartoony first-person shooter, you play an Inkling, aka, a kid who is also a squid, and you do your very best to paint as much of the world as possible in the color of your team. Whoever wins the paintball war gets money that can be spent on new clothes and better weapons, thus improving your ability to lay down the ink and represent for your side. I loved the first game; the second is more of the same.

opens in a new windowPOKEMON SUN/MOON: The Ultra versions of these games are probably going to come out before I can complete my Pokemon journey, and I’m okay with that: I have long since accepted that the road to Pokemon mastery is long and winding and doesn’t necessarily respect the fact that I am not eleven years old with a monofocus on this specific adventure. This isn’t my favorite Pokemon game—that honor is reserved for X and Y, which were a stunning elevation of the form, and which may not be matched for a very long time. Still, Sun and Moon take some risks and make some changes to the format, freshening something that could easily grow stale.

opens in a new windowOVERWATCH: And then there is Overwatch. It is difficult to describe how much time I spend playing Overwatch, mostly because if I stopped to think about it, I would probably be deeply horrified. This superheroic FPS allows you to take on the role of one of more than two dozen heroes (and villains) and fight for a better future. The character roster is diverse and engaging; every character plays differently, forcing you to up your game if you want to get good and be an asset to your team; the game itself rewards good team composition and thoughtful choices. Every time I think I couldn’t love this game more, it adds something new and forces me to learn it all over again. It’s so good. (I play on PS4; my handle is “SeananM”; we’re always looking for new folks to roll with us.)