Port of Shadows - Tor/Forge Blog

New Releases: 9/3

September 3, 2019January 23, 2024torforge

Happy New Releases Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

opens in a new windowThe Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt

opens in a new windowAlice Wyndham has been plagued by visions of birds her whole life…until the mysterious Crowley reveals that Alice is an ‘aviarist’: capable of seeing nightjars, magical birds that guard human souls. When her best friend is hit by a car, only Alice can find and save her nightjar.

With Crowley’s help, Alice travels to the Rookery, a hidden, magical alternate London to hone her newfound talents. But a faction intent on annihilating magic users will stop at nothing to destroy the new aviarist. And is Crowley really working with her, or against her? Alice must risk everything to save her best friend—and uncover the strange truth about herself.

opens in a new windowTeeny Weenies: My Favorite President by David Lubar

opens in a new windowDavid Lubar is the master of the short story for kids. Now he’s back with his fourth collection of Teeny Weenies stories, just in time for the winter holidays! Young chapter book readers ages 7 to 10, reluctant readers, and fans of very short stories will be entertained and delighted by these twelve zany tales. Wacky comic book style illustrations by Bill Mayer add to the fun.

opens in a new windowTeeny Weenies: The Boy Who Cried Wool by David Lubar

opens in a new windowDavid Lubar is the master of the short story for kids. Now he’s back with his third collection of Teeny Weenies stories, just in time for Halloween! Young chapter book readers ages 7 to 10, reluctant readers, and fans of very short stories will be entertained and delighted by these twelve zany tales. Wacky comic book style illustrations by Bill Mayer add to the fun.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

opens in a new windowCheck Out the Library Weenies by David Lubar

opens in a new windowMaster of the macabre David Lubar is back with Check Out the Library Weenies, his ninth collection of Weenies Stories. Here are thirty more scary stories for the middle grade audience–perfect for both avid and reluctant young readers who like a few chills and a lot of laughs.

opens in a new windowPort of Shadows by Glen Cook

opens in a new windowThe soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being “The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs–and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all.

The one person who was taken into The Lady’s Tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as The Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn’t trust any of the Taken, especially not ones that look so much like The Lady and her sister…

New Releases

New Releases: 9/11/18

September 11, 2018May 1, 2024torforge

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

opens in a new windowThe Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse

opens in a new window The only thing worse than being locked in is facing what you locked out.

Rett Ward knows how to hide. He’s had six years of practice at Walling Home, the state-run boarding school where he learned how to keep his head down to survive.

But when Rett wakes up locked in a small depot with no memory of how he got there, he can’t hide. Not from the stranger in the next room. Or from the fact that there’s someone else’s blood on his jumpsuit.

opens in a new windowNomad by James Swallow

opens in a new window Marc Dane is a MI6 field agent at home behind a computer screen, one step away from the action. But when a brutal attack on his team leaves Dane the only survivor—and with the shocking knowledge that there are traitors inside MI6—he’s forced into the front line.

Matters spiral out of control when the evidence points toward Dane as the perpetrator of the attack. Accused of betraying his country, he must race against time to clear his name.

opens in a new windowPort of Shadows by Glen Cook

opens in a new window The soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being “The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs–and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all.

opens in a new windowState Tectonics by Malka Older

opens in a new window The future of democracy must evolve or die.

The last time Information held an election, a global network outage, two counts of sabotage by major world governments, and a devastating earthquake almost shook micro-democracy apart. Five years later, it’s time to vote again, and the system that has ensured global peace for 25 years is more vulnerable than ever.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

opens in a new windowThe Beginning Place by Ursula K. Le Guin

opens in a new window Fleeing from the monotony of his life, Hugh Rogers finds his way to “the beginning place”—a gateway to Tembreabrezi, an idyllic, unchanging world of eternal twilight. Irena Pannis was thirteen when she first found the beginning place. Now, seven years later, she has grown to know and love the gentle inhabitants of Tembreabrezi, or Mountaintown, and she sees Hugh as a trespasser.

But then a monstrous shadow threatens to destroy Mountaintown, and Hugh and Irena join forces to seek it out. Along the way, they begin to fall in love. Are they on their way to a new beginning…or a fateful end?

opens in a new windowThe Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin

opens in a new window In Victoria on a former prison colony, two exiled groups—the farmers of Shantih and the City dwellers—live in apparent harmony. All is not as it seems, however. While the peace-loving farmers labor endlessly to provide food for the City, the City Bosses rule the Shantih with an iron fist. When a group of farmers decide to form a new settlement further away, the Bosses retaliate by threatening to crush the “rebellion.”

NEW IN MANGA

opens in a new windowThe Ancient Magus’ Bride Vol. 9 Story and art by Kore Yamazaki

opens in a new windowDidn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! (Light Novel) Vol. 3 Story by FUNA; Art by Itsuki Akata

opens in a new windowDragon Goes House-Hunting Vol. 1 Story by Kawo Tanuki; Art by Choco Aya

opens in a new windowThe Testament of Sister New Devil STORM! Vol. 4 Story by Tetsuto Uesu; Art by Fumihiro Kiso

opens in a new windowToradora! Vol. 8 Story by Yuyuko Takemiya; Art by Zekkyo

Excerpts / What's New

Excerpt: Port of Shadows by Glen Cook

August 5, 2018March 20, 2024torforge28 Comments

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opens in a new window The soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being “The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs, and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all.

The one person who was taken into The Lady’s Tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as The Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn’t trust any ofthe Taken, especially not ones that look so much like The Lady and her sister…

The newest novel of the Black Company, opens in a new windowPort of Shadows, will be available on September 11th. Please enjoy this excerpt.

1 Once Upon a Time, in Dusk

The night was silent but for the clop of hooves on wet cobblestones. A sliver of moon winked at the world from behind straggler wisps of cloud, silhouetting the grim spires of Grendirft. No light shone anywhere from that fortress.

The air was still and nearly chill now that the rain had gone away. A hint of corrupting flesh tainted the air of imperial Dusk.

It was not yet late enough in the season for many insects.

The black coach stopped, its right side wheels a yard from an unguarded drop-off into a moatlike canal that existed to carry off wastes rather than to present a defensive barrier. A waste chute debouched into the canal just yards upstream from the coach.

The driver tied off his reins. He climbed down. He assumed a stiff parade rest at the canal’s edge, but after a brief wait he turned, opened the coach door, and retrieved a boat hook. He now held that tool like it was a pole arm.

A corpse made a small plop as it hit the water. Momentum brought it to the surface where the coachman waited. He did not have to use the boat hook.

He pulled the girl from the canal carefully. She was slippery. The rain had freshened the water, so her brief immersion did not gift her with the sewer perfume she might have acquired on another night. She wore nothing. Any abuse she had suffered was not obvious. She was fifteen at the oldest. She did not weigh much. The coachman had no trouble getting her into his vehicle. He wrapped her in blankets and propped her in a corner. She looked like she was sick or drunk asleep when he finished.

“You down there! What are you doing?”

That demand came down from eighty feet above.

The coachman’s heart, thumping already, now hammered although he knew no one could get down from there in time to identify or stop him. He had gone through this in dry runs a half dozen times. This was the first time he had been noticed.

He kept the coach moving sedately departing the area. It was unlikely that anyone would check why a coach had been standing beside the waste canal, despite it being about the time when the Dominator’s henchmen disposed of the used-up virgin of the night.

Dusk’s gates never closed. What fool would invade the capital of the Domination, especially when the dread lord of the empire was in residence? No one living owned that much audacity.

The coachman was remarkable in having shown the daring he had.

There was no cause for the guards at the Jade Gate to disrupt his departure. A small donative did, however, change hands. That was customary. In return the soldiers were entirely cursory in their inspection.

The coachmen explained, “That’s my daughter. Fourteen and blind drunk, to my shame. But you can’t help loving them, whatever they do.”

The younger soldier chuckled. “See what you got to look forward to, Jink?” he told his companion, then said, “Jink’s got him three daughters coming up.”

Jink said, “They hit eleven, they go into a cage until I get them married. You probably ought to put yours on a chain,” he told the coachman. “Go on, now.”

The coachman climbed back up, snapped his reins, heaved a sigh of relief, and got his team moving.

He was racing time.

The girl would not last long.

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Extras / Lists

Where to Start with the Chronicles of the Black Company Series

July 31, 2018April 8, 2024torforge5 Comments

A genre-defining series like opens in a new windowThe Chronicles of the Black Company can be intimidating. It might seem hard to know where to get started. There are plenty of places to begin (though we recommend book #1 or the upcoming Port of Shadows as entry points), but we’ve made it easy for you with the official chronological order!

Discover the original grimdark fantasy series with the dark and epic tale of the mercenary group The Black Company.

Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead.

Until the prophecy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her…

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