#cloudbound

[torpublishinggroup]

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

[torpublishinggroup]

Making All Those Gears Spin: Engineering in Science Fiction and Fantasy Roundtable

A fair number of my stories feature science or technology, even when they’re fantasy. About my first novel, Updraft, my friend Max Gladstone said, “There’s no magic in this book. It’s all engineering.” He was right… and a little wrong (sorry, Max!). There is magic in Updraft, and it’s all engineering. Because the Bone Universe series — which began with Updraft in 2015 — concludes with Horizon this September, I’m thinking a lot about engineering and how it appears in science fiction and fantasy. For Tor.com, I assembled a roundtable of SF author-engineers and analysts. I also pulled one of the engineering consultants for the Bone Universe series into the discussion. Today, Hugo-Award winner John Chu, Nebula- and Locus-award winner Aliette de Bodard, short story author A.T. Greenblatt, and short story author, editor, and 2017 debut novelist Nicky Drayden join New Zealand-based naval architect and marine engineer (aka: my sister) Susan Lake for a roundtable on engineering in science fiction and fantasy.

[torpublishinggroup]

Bone Universe author Fran Wilde on messing with your perspective.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Cloudbound | Author: Fran Wilde | Publisher: Tor (2016)

[marlakeownphotography-blog]

Cloud bound. See you soon Texas. . . . . . . . #cloudbound #southwestairlines #havecamerawilltravel #skyhigh #flyingsouthwest (at Liberia International Airport LIR)

[franwilde]

How To Build a Monster

Over at Chuck Wendig's #terribleminds recently, I shared Questionable Answers' tips on How to Build a Monster.

Kicking it Tumblrwards in time for Halloween...

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2017/09/26/fran-wilde-how-to-build-a-monster/. @torbooks @tordotcom

[a-scorpio-king]

Cloudbound, by Fran Wilde

Life in the sky means always looking upwards, always being ready to take flight; the greatest danger is falling, the greatest fear being weighted down.  But as Nat and Kirit discover, always moving up can also mean leaving things behind.  Life in the City is ruled by tradition, with everyone following the Laws for the betterment of the City.  But now the Spire is cracked, the Singers cast down, and the lore that they carefully guarded for generations is at risk of being forgotten in the name of progress.

In Cloudbound, Wilde builds upon the culture and history she only hinted at in Updraft.  Before, Kirit and Nat were revolutionaries, bent on revealing a horrible secret.  Now they must try to put the City back together after cracking open the Spire to reveal all the horrors it has held to itself, in the name of law and order.  But they are finding that heroes can be forgotten, when those seeking power come up with another truth that fits, or when the truths those heroes had to tell become inconvenient.

Cloudbound takes all the wonder of new and strange worlds expressed in Golden Age science fiction and breathes new life into it with a story of love, friendship, and community.  Living bone towers climb through sky meadows, stretch their way through the clouds themselves, illuminated in the foggy darkness by bioluminescent creatures.  But instead of Earth explorers coming to a new planet, the people of the City have their own story of exploration, revolution, and discovery. 

Readers who enjoy second world fantasy that is just as smart as it is imaginative will love Wilde’s mysterious and skybound world.  Anyone looking for a novel that picks up the pieces of revolution and builds an entirely new narrative should dive straight into Updraft and then into Cloudbound.  Wilde has achieved the ambitions of Golden Age science fiction in blending science, exploration, and story in a way that will fascinate and excite.

[torpublishinggroup]

The Updraft sequel gets darker. Ilana C. Myer chats with Fran Wilde about politics and monsters.