Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor’s lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.Īt once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (112 Pages, $12.99 in paperback/$3.99 digital, March 24, 2020) - cover by Alyssa WinansĪ young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Jessica Wick at NPR called it “a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling,” and in a starred review Publishers Weekly labeled it “A stunning feminist fantasy… this masterfully told story is sure to impress.”

So let’s take a look at three of their most interesting releases from the past few months.Ĭovers by Alyssa Winans, uncredited, and David Curtisįirst up is a debut from Nghi Vo, easily one of the most acclaimed books of the spring: a Paste Most Anticipated Novel of 2020 a Library Journal Debut of the Month, and a Buzzfeed Must-Read Fantasy Novel of Spring 2020. Tor.com has been releasing a book a week for the past few months, and I can’t cover them all. My readers deserve to know about it all, damnit. In the last few months alone, they’ve released brand new books by Jeffrey Ford, Alex Irvine, Carrie Vaughn (two!), Zen Cho, Emily Tesh, Eddie Robson - plus a new Murderbotnovel by Martha Wells, and a New York Times bestseller by Tamsyn Muir. I’m just one guy, I can’t keep up with the tireless dynamo that is Tor.com Publishing. And the books kept coming, and piling up on my desk, and then on the office tables at Black Gate‘s rooftop headquarters, and then spilling onto the floor…. I love novellas, and got all excited when they launched back in 2015, covered the first 33 releases in detail as they arrived, and watched in satisfaction as they started getting Hugos and Nebula nominations - and then virtually sweeping the nominations in the Novella category, year after year. These are short little novellas, quick reads. I can’t keep up with all the cool stuff coming from Tor.com.

Just some of the Tor.com releases that have accumulated in the Black Gate reference library since 2015Īrrgh.

Tor publishing novellas