Medusa Uploaded - Tor/Forge Blog

Music Uploaded: A Playlist for Medusa Uploaded

July 10, 2019May 17, 2024torforge

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Ever wish you had a music database in your head, where you could listen to whatever you wanted to, never having to worry about sharing a set of headphones with someone? If you answered yes to any of the above, then you’re sure to be jealous of Oichi in opens in a new windowMedusa Uploaded who’s got one implanted – even though it’s technically forbidden technology.

Emily Devenport’s interweaving of music (and movies!) throughout the plotline serve to enhance characterizations and ground this futuristic story in both past and present playlists. What constitutes an oldie centuries in the future?

Oichi’s list is sure to give you some beautiful new orchestral music, a country classic, and some notable Broadway tunes to read along with. What would your brain’s music database look like? (and no, we don’t mean your Spotify library)

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eBook Deals

$2.99 Ebook Deal: Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport

July 2, 2019July 1, 2019torforge

opens in a new windowThe ebook edition of opens in a new windowMedusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport is on sale now for only $2.99! This offer will only last for a limited time, so order your copy today before the sequel, opens in a new windowMedusa in the Graveyard becomes available on July 23.

About Medusa Uploaded:

My name is Oichi Angelis, and I am a worm.

They see me every day. They consider me harmless. And that’s the trick, isn’t it?

A generation starship can hide many secrets. When an Executive clan suspects Oichi of insurgency and discreetly shoves her out an airlock, one of those secrets finds and rescues her.

Officially dead, Oichi begins to rebalance power one assassination at a time and uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship and the Executive clans.

Order Your Copy

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This sale ends August 1.

Author Features

Spree Killers and Serial Killers: A Conversation

May 30, 2018May 2, 2024torforge1 Comment

Why are we so fascinated with fictional murder?

Maybe it’s our collective love of morbid humor, mysteries, assassins and most of all, real stakes. Whatever the reason, the fact remains: we love reading about killers. And thankfully, there are authors out there who love writing about them!

With Candice Fox’s new mystery Redemption Point this spring and Emily Devenport’s intense SF sequel Medusa in the Graveyard coming this summer, we thought it was high time to revisit their fascinating conversation on killers real and fictional.

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opens in a new windowCandice Fox is the author of opens in a new windowCrimson Lake (and its sequel opens in a new window Redemption Point!), a thriller set in Queensland Australia whose heroes have both been accused of terrible crimes. opens in a new windowEmily Devenport is the author of opens in a new windowMedusa Uploaded(and its sequel opens in a new windowMedusa In the Graveyard!), a science fiction tale of a woman correcting the social order on a generation ship—one murder at a time. So of course, we asked them to discuss some of the most intriguing types of killers: serial killers and spree killers!

Candice Fox: I’m going to put it out there: I think it’s harder to be a serial killer than a spree killer. Think about it. These guys (and yes, we’re primarily talking about guys with both spree and serial killers) are attempting the inconceivable—they want to accommodate their sadistic fantasies within their normal, everyday lives.

Emily Devenport: The serial killer can think circles around the spree killer.

Granted, this may be mostly hype. In fiction, serial killers are guys like Hannibal Lector—super smart, fearless, able to wage both psychological and physical war. Those fictional monsters are practically demigods. In real life, there have been some very smart serial killers, but few of them rise to the level of Francis Dolarhyde (from Red Dragon). I suspect most serial killers are successful because they’re so focused and single minded in their killing, while the rest of us are just trying to live our lives. They see opportunities to kill where we see opportunities to mow the lawn, visit the laundromat, or pick up a gallon of milk. They tend to watch for opportunities and plan carefully. And that’s what makes them so dangerous.

Candice Fox: But someone like Dennis Rader (BTK) managed, for seventeen years, to terrorize a city with his killing games while at the same time maintaining the appearance of a (relatively) normal family. How do you do that? You pretend. You develop incredible skills of deception. You learn how to hide your trophies in your picture-perfect, suburban home, and you smile for photos when your mind is filled with evil. Rader knocked off a whole family one morning while they were sitting down to breakfast and wasn’t even late for work. That’s gotta be tough, and it’s why sometimes serial killers do stupid things to get themselves caught. It’s probably because they’re exhausted.

Emily Devenport: Spree killers are people who have come unraveled. They tend to be young people with a poor grasp of consequences, and they also tend to be couples. Their spree generally begins because of some triggering event, and then they’re killing her parents and stealing the family car, killing his uncle for the cash, killing the gas station attendant because the uncle didn’t have enough cash, robbing the till, then driving to Vegas because they think they’re going to win a million dollars playing blackjack. They can end up hurting a lot of people, because they may not seem dangerous until they’re waving the gun in your face. But I think they’re easier to get away from, because they haven’t planned everything out. If you can think fast, you may be able to get out of their way.

Candice Fox: Most spree killers plans for an ending—either in a shootout with police, or by taking their own lives, and they’re usually successful in that. They only have to keep their secret as long as they plan for the act.

Emily Devenport: If a serial killer targets you, you’re in big trouble. That guy might be somewhat disorganized, someone who goes after a victim because of opportunity, but even under those circumstances he probably has good reason to feel confident you can’t get away, because he’s got the handcuffs, and the chloroform, and/or the secret, reinforced cellar he’s excavated for just this occasion. If I was going to be targeted by one or the other, I’d have to say I’d prefer the spree killer. They’re less likely to have a hypo full of etorphine handy.

Order Your Copy of Crimson Lake

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Order Your Copy of Medusa Uploaded

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New Releases

New Releases: 5/1/18

May 1, 2018May 10, 2024torforge

Happy New Release day! Here’s what went on sale today.

opens in a new windowA Dog’s Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron

Lucas Ray is shocked when an adorable puppy jumps out of an abandoned building and into his arms. Though the apartment he shares with his mother, a disabled veteran, doesn’t allow dogs, Lucas can’t resist taking Bella home.

Bella is inexplicably drawn to Lucas, even if she doesn’t understand the necessity of games like No Barks. As it becomes more difficult to hide her from the neighbors, Lucas begins to sneak Bella into the VA where he works. There, Bella brings joy and comfort where it is needed most.

opens in a new windowBan This Book by Alan Gratz

opens in a new window In Ban This Book by Alan Gratz, a fourth grader fights back when From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg is challenged by a well-meaning parent and taken off the shelves of her school library. Amy Anne is shy and soft-spoken, but don’t mess with her when it comes to her favorite book in the whole world. Amy Anne and her lieutenants wage a battle for the books that will make you laugh and pump your fists as they start a secret banned books locker library, make up ridiculous reasons to ban every single book in the library to make a point, and take a stand against censorship.

opens in a new windowMedusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport

opens in a new window My name is Oichi Angelis, and I am a worm.

A generation starship can hide many secrets. When an Executive clan suspects Oichi of insurgency and discreetly shoves her out an airlock, one of those secrets finds and rescues her. Officially dead, Oichi begins to rebalance power one assassination at a time and uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship and the Executive clans.

opens in a new windowThe Military Science of Star Wars by George Beahm

opens in a new window The first ever in-depth analysis of the tactics and equipment used by the heroes and villains of the Star Wars universe has arrived! Spanning all of the films, this comprehensive book goes in to detail about the various guerrilla tactics of the Rebel Alliance and the awe-inspiring might of the Grand Army of the Republic and Darth Vader’s Empire.

Including detailed examples from Earth’s military history, bestselling author George Beahm illustrates how a merciless empire managed to subdue a galaxy with the application of overwhelming force and technology, and how a ragtag group of rebels could cobble together enough of a punch to topple a seemingly-unbeatable enemy.

NEW FROM TOR.COM

Black Helicopters by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Just as the Signalman stood and faced the void in Agents of Dreamland, so it falls to Ptolema, a chess piece in her agency’s world-spanning game, to unravel what has become tangled and unknowable.

Something strange is happening on the shores of New England. Something stranger still is happening to the world itself, chaos unleashed, rational explanation slipped loose from the moorings of the known.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

opens in a new windowAnd Into the Fire by Robert Gleason

Give Your Heart to the Hawks by Win Blevins

opens in a new windowGone to Dust by Matt Goldman

opens in a new windowKing Rat by China Mieville

opens in a new windowPawn by Timothy Zahn

opens in a new windowTiassa by Steven Brust

NEW IN MANGA

opens in a new windowArifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest (Light Novel) Vol. 2 Story by Ryo Shirakome; Art by Takaya-ki

opens in a new windowIf It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord Vol. 1 Story by Chirolu, Art by Hota

opens in a new windowLord Marksman and Vanadis Vol. 7 Story by Tsukasa Kawaguchi; Art by Nobuhiko Yanai

opens in a new windowMiss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Vol. 6 Story and art by coolkyousinnjya

opens in a new windowNameless Asterism Vol. 2 Story and art by Kina Kobayashi

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Vol. 1

Author Features

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Sci-Fi

April 25, 2018May 2, 2024torforge2 Comments

opens in a new window Written by Emily Devenport

The point of mystery fiction is to see that actions have consequences. The point of science fiction is to change your perspective. Yet, the two genres have a lot in common, and they can both be useful to storytellers trying to illuminate the human condition.

A good mystery writer is going to get you to understand that justice usually doesn’t prevail. There’s damage, and good people try to cope with it. Some of the bad people have good qualities (which is what makes them so dangerous), and some good people have faults (which is what makes them so interesting). The imbalance seeks to find a new equilibrium, for better or for worse.

Science fiction addresses that truth with some odd permutations. Technology, time/space travel, alien psychology that truly is alien, create new cultures, settings, and political systems. But the characters still try to solve problems, and that’s the human interface. We’re the hunter-gatherers of the galaxy. If we meet other hunter-gatherers, we may learn a lot from them. If we meet people who aren’t wired that way at all, we may learn more. And that’s where the conflict gets interesting, because even among different human cultures, people who appear to be friends may not be. People who appear to be enemies may be allies, or at least frenemies. And aliens may not even perceive time the same way we do. Perhaps in their view, what goes around doesn’t come around. It happens all at once.

I’d like to tell you I had all of that in mind when I wrote Medusa Uploaded. Instead, my character, Oichi, showed up in one of my dreams. She was in a tough spot, but she also had a lot of useful attributes—and a powerful friend: Medusa. I could see that revenge wasn’t their motivation, but I admit—it was mine. Like any god, I had selfish impulses when I set my avatars in motion. I wanted revenge on the people who oppressed them, because these folks represented the same people who oppress the people in the world where I live—their greed, their rigid thinking, and their willingness to toss people away as if they were trash.

In real life, people who battle that sort of injustice are political activists, or journalists, or doctors—the sort of people who fight fair. We all know how that tends to end up. Not that these folks don’t do lasting good—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the world. But they’re looking at the big picture; ordinary people tend to fall by the wayside. Sometimes you just want to see Spider-man sock Dr. Doom right in the kisser (in such a way that doesn’t get you sued for defamation of character). That’s why characters like Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter are so popular. He isn’t restrained by compassion. He only worries about getting caught, and because he’s killing bad guys, he reinforces our delusion that the ends justify the means.

Oichi isn’t as pitiless as Dexter, but she’s close enough for government work. Her talents and her circumstances make her the perfect instrument of my revenge—possibly of yours, too.

So let’s enjoy some nice, cold sci-fi revenge. We’ve earned it.

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Follow Emily Devenport on opens in a new windowTwitter and on her opens in a new windowwebsite.

Lists

5 Science Fiction Tales of Revenge

April 17, 2018May 10, 2024torforge

Revenge is a dish best served cold—as cold as space, in fact. Maybe that’s one of the reasons revenge pairs so well with science fiction. Are you looking for a tale of vengeance in the cold, hard vacuum of space? We have some suggestions for you:

opens in a new windowMedusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport

opens in a new window Generation ships often seem to breed discontent and violence—take a large population, force them into a limited space, include the class barriers humanity just can’t seem to let go, and you have the perfect recipe for depraved acts—and the revenge that inevitably follows. In Emily Devenport’s sci-fi novel Medusa Uploaded, Oichi is one of the downtrodden, who is tossed out an airlock on suspicion of insurgency. Luckily, she’s rescued by a secret presence on the ship. And now that she’s officially dead, it’s time to fix the imbalance of power—one assassination at a time.

opens in a new windowThe Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

opens in a new window This classic 1950s novel has been called a science fiction retelling of one of the greatest revenge tales of all time: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. A poor, uneducated man is abandoned by the company that employs him, left stranded as the only survivor of an attack in deep space. Improbably, the man, Gully Foyle, survives, amasses a fortune, and educates himself all in order to pursue his singular goal: revenge against the company that wronged him, Presteign. Of course, nothing is that simple, and Gully’s journey includes many twists and turns. Is he the hero, or the villain? No one, especially Gully himself, can be entirely certain.

opens in a new windowAncillary Justice by Ann Leckie

opens in a new window In Ann Leckie’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel, great spaceships of the Radch Empire use artificial intelligence to control ancillaries, human bodies that can move and interact with people while containing the knowledge of the ship that controls them. When her ship, the Justice of Toren, is destroyed, Breq is the sole surviving ancillary. In her fragile body, Breq goes on a quest across the Empire, seeking vengeance for her own destruction.

opens in a new windowKilling Gravity by Corey J. White

opens in a new window Mariam Xi is a dangerous woman—a deadly voidwitch, a genetically-manipulated psychic super-soldier with a high body count. She escaped MEPHISTO, the group that experimented on her and made her into the weapon she is today, but soon enough, her past is going to catch up with her. When that finally happens, MEPHISTO better watch out. There are very, very few things in the universe more dangerous than an angry voidwitch.

opens in a new windowDune by Frank Herbert

opens in a new window There are many, many, many themes in Frank Herbert’s Dune—among them ecology, empires, gender dynamics, and more. And, of course, revenge. When the Emperor and the Harkonnens kill Paul’s father, Duke Leto, Paul and his surviving family must flee and join the Fremen in the desert. Later, when Paul Muad’Dib has the chance to remove the emperor and take his place, he does it not just to become one of the most powerful people in the universe, but also to take revenge for his father’s death.

What's New

Revealing the Cover for Medusa Uploaded

September 15, 2017May 7, 2024torforge

Revenge is a dish best served cold—like in the cold vacuum of space. And next year’s brand new sci-fi thriller from Emily Devenport dishes up plenty of revenge with a side of vicious power games onboard a generational starship. So we couldn’t be more excited to share the cover Devenport’s opens in a new windowMedusa Uploaded, complete with art by Sam Weber and a killer quote from Annalee Newitz.

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About Medusa Uploaded: The Executives control Oichi’s senses, her voice, her life. Until the day they kill her.

An executive clan gives the order to shoot Oichi out of an airlock on suspicion of being an insurgent. A sentient AI, a Medusa unit, rescues Oichi and begins to teach her the truth—the Executives are not who they think they are. Oichi, officially dead and now bonded to the Medusa unit, sees a chance to make a better life for everyone on board.

As she sets things right one assassination at a time, Oichi becomes the very insurgent the Executives feared, and in the process uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship that is their home.

Medusa Uploaded will be available May 1, 2018.

Pre-Order Your Copy

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