Books to Devour, Doctor Who, and Revisiting Penny Dreadful...

Hobbits, Wizards, and...John Mulaney?? To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Tor.com Newsletter]( [Forward to a Friend]( BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS! [Books That Grab You]( There are books you can pick up and put down and happily pick up again, and then there are books that seem to glue themselves to your brain, that utterly absorb you. Right now, the kind you can put down and the kind that are hard to get into don’t cut it, because they’re hard to focus on while fretting. Jo Walton shares thirty-plus favorite titles that will grab you right from the get-go, including fantasy and SF, mainstream, non-fiction, YA and children’s books, and more! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( CONCERNING HOBBITS [Asexuality and the Baggins Bachelors: Finding My Counterparts in Middle-earth]( For many lovers of fantasy, the characters we most strongly identify with help shape our sense of identity and how we see ourselves. Isobel Granby felt a special connection to Bilbo Baggins, and later Frodo, which helped define her identity before she had the vocabulary or understanding to fully describe it for herself. Granby details why the Bagginses and their relationships resonated with her, and how she came to better understand herself through their stories. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( INFINITY AND BEYOND [Five Stories Featuring Vast Beings From the Darkest Depths of Space]( Space, even the deep space between the stars, is not entirely empty. As far as we can tell at present, the matter scattered through interstellar space is lifeless. But…appearances can be deceiving. James Davis Nicoll recommends five books that feature beings that dwell in the cosmic depths, including favorites from Glen Cook and Nnedi Okorafor. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( REPRESENTATION MATTERS [Will Fantasy Ever Let Black Boys Like Me Be Magic?]( Stories we encounter in childhood have powerful effects on us. For Steven Underwood, A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin, was the pivotal moment he saw a Black character who was a wizard and also had a life beyond supporting the main character. But representation isn’t always perfect—Underwood looks at Black wizards in fantasy, and explores why feeling seen in fiction matters. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( WHAT'S IN A NAME? [The Power of Equine Names]( As every fantasy reader and writer knows, names are important. What an author calls her characters influences how her readers react to them—either overtly or more subtly. With horses, both in the real world and the fictional one, there are similar rules and traditions. There’s a clear distinction between Bill the pony and Shadowfax the King of the Mearas. Judith Tarr reflects on the power of equine names, with plenty of excellent examples along the way... [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( BRIGHTER THAN SUNFLOWERS [Amy’s Sunflowers: How Doctor Who’s “Vincent and the Doctor” Helps Me Mourn My Best Friend]( “Vincent and the Doctor” is an episode lauded for its touching look at mental illness through the eyes of one of the most famous painters in history, Vincent Van Gogh. For Rita Mock-Pike, the episode hit especially close to home, reminding her of a friend she had lost to schizophrenia just a few years prior. Mock-Pike shares her story, and how Doctor Who helped her reach a place of understanding. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( INTO THE MULANEY-VERSE [Five Fictional Universes That Might as Well Be Fantasy Worlds]( Here at Tor.com, we spend a lot of time thinking about fantasy, worldbuilding, sword lineages, how centaurs give birth—you know, the important stuff. But sometimes we just want to kick back with a movie or a TV show from a different genre. And yet genre elements always seem to creep in... The weird and wonderful brain of Leah Schnelbach brings you five favorite pop cultural artifacts that might actually be operating as fantasy worlds, despite their alternate genre labels! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( BEAUTY & DARKNESS [It’s Time to Reevaluate Penny Dreadful, a Misunderstood Gothic Masterpiece]( Penny Dreadful is a three-season fin-de-siècle drama that follows a deeply Catholic clairvoyant, a retired colonial-African explorer, and an American sharpshooter in a supernatural mystery that brings them into conflict and connection with a number of famous literary figures from 19th-century Gothic fiction. As we approach the release of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Tyler Dean takes a look back at some of the best things about the original series, in all its goth-y glory. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( ORIGINAL FICTION [“An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands” by Fran Wilde]( One can’t set a course without a map. A ship’s navigator seeks to map a world already inhabited in order to find a space for their ship’s passengers to settle. In doing so, they find their course altered as the world and their place in it changes. [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.