Daniel Polansky

Hugo Award finalist Daniel Polansky crafts an innovative, mind-bending fantasy mystery in The Seventh Perfection When a woman with perfect memory sets out to solve a riddle, the threads she tugs on could bring a whole city crashing down. The God-King who made her is at risk, and his other servants will do anything to stop her. To become the God-King's Amanuensis, Manet had to master all seven perfections, developing her body and mind to the peak of human performance. She remembers everything that has happened to her, in absolute clarity, a gift that will surely drive her mad. But before she goes, Manet must unravel a secret which threatens not only the carefully prepared myths of the God-King's ascent, but her own identity and the nature of truth itself.

The Seventh Perfection

A missing eye. A broken wing. A stolen country. The last job didn't end well. Years go by, and scars fade, but memories only fester. For the animals of the Captain's company, survival has meant keeping a low profile, building a new life, and trying to forget the war they lost. But now the Captain's whiskers are twitching at the idea of evening the score. PRAISE FOR THE BUILDERS "A living, breathing world of vivid, winsome characters hellbent on their blaze of glory and as unforgiving as a runaway train carrying all your friends over a cliff. I haven't cared about animals this much since Watership Down." — Delilah S. Dawson, author of Hit and Wicked as They Come "Nobody does dark like Polansky. The Builders is Redwall meets Unforgiven, combining the endearing wit of Disney's Robin Hood with all the grit and violence of a spaghetti western." — Myke Cole, author of the Shadow Ops series "If Sam Peckinpah and Brian Jacques had a strange peyote ritual and shared a collective dream, it might look something liek this. Brutish, nasty, short — much like life — Polansky's The Builders is also funny, exciting, and extremely original. The Wild Bunch meets Watership Down." — John Hornor Jacobs, author of The Incorruptibles At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Builders

Leading a life of crime in a back-alley region of the Thirteen Lands's finest city, the Warden discovers a murdered child and is catapulted back to his former life as a secret police agent before embarking on a dangerous game of deception between his former supervisor and dangerous underworld bosses. A first novel. 40,000 first printing.

A Novel

Low Town

They enslaved humanity three thousand years ago. Tall, strong, perfect, superhuman and near immortal they rule from their glittering palaces in the eternal city in the centre of the world. They are called Those Above by their subjects. They enforce their will with fire and sword. Twenty five years ago mankind mustered an army and rose up against them, only to be slaughtered in a terrible battle. Hope died that day, but hatred survived. Whispers of another revolt are beginning to stir in the hearts of the oppressed: a woman, widowed in the war, who has dedicated her life to revenge; the general, the only man to ever defeat one of Those Above in single combat, summoned forth to raise a new legion; and a boy killer who rises from the gutter to lead an uprising in the capital. Those Above is the first of an extraordinary new fantasy epic by the author of the acclaimed Low Town series that will sweep the reader into a wholly alien, wholly recognizable world of rebellion and revenge, of love and of death, of intrigue and pitiless war.

Those Above

Once he was a hero of the Great War, and then a member of the dreaded Black House. Now he is the criminal linchpin of Low Town. His name is Warden. He thought he had left the war behind him, but a summons from up above brings the past sharply, uncomfortably, back into focus. General Montgomery's daughter is missing somewhere in Low Town, searching for clues about her brother's murder. The General wants her found, before the stinking streets can lay claim to her, too. Dark, violent, and shot through with corruption, TOMORROW, THE KILLING is a fantastic successor to one of the most heralded fantasy debuts of recent times.

Tomorrow, the Killing

M is a drifter with a sharp tongue, few scruples, and limited magical ability, who would prefer drinking artisanal beer to involving himself in the politics of the city. Alas, in the infinite nexus of the universe which is New York, trouble is a hard thing to avoid, and now a rivalry between the city's two queens threatens to make the Big Apple go the way of Atlantis. To stop it, M will have to call in every favor, waste every charm, and blow every spell he's ever acquired - he might even have to get out of bed before noon. Enter a world of wall street wolves, slumming scenesters, desperate artists, drug-induced divinities, pocket steam-punk universes, and hipster zombies. Because the city never sleeps, but is always dreaming.

A City Dreaming

Low Town: the worst ghetto in the worst city in the Thirteen Lands. Good only for depravity and death. And Warden, long ago a respected agent in the formidable Black House, is now the most depraved Low Town denizen of them all. As a younger man, Warden carried out more than his fair share of terrible deeds, and never as many as when he worked for the Black House. But Warden's growing older, and the vultures are circling. Low Town is changing, faster than even he can control, and Warden knows that if he doesn't get out soon, he may never get out at all. But Warden must finally reckon with his terrible past if he can ever hope to escape it. A hospital full of lunatics, a conspiracy against the corrupt new king, and a ghetto full of thieves and murderers stand between him and his slim hope for the future. And behind them all waits the one person whose betrayal Warden never expected. The one person who left him, broken and bitter, to become the man he is today. The one woman he ever loved. She who waits behind all things.

She who waits

Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found. Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You'd struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his. But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley. And then another. With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he's the only man with a hope of finding the killer. If the killer doesn't find him first. WINNER OF THE PRIX IMAGINALES AWARD FOR BEST FOREIGN NOVEL IN 2012.

The Straight Razor Cure

In Daniel Polansky's latest Tor.com Original short story "Baby Teeth," a forlorn teenager's monotonous life is interrupted when a stranger draws him into the hunt for a vampiric serial killer. He will learn that while monsters are much more real than he thought, there is no such thing as heroes. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A Tor.com Original

Baby Teeth

The Straight Razor Cure Low Town 1

Sevda Ertaş

Kurucular

Annalee Newitz

Elizabeth Bear

Sam J. Miller

Catherynne M. Valente

Usman T. Malik

Sarah Pinsker

E. Lily Yu

Lavie Tidhar

Peng Shepherd

Kate Elliott

Matthew Kressel

Carrie Vaughn

Kathleen Jennings

G. V. Anderson

Cheri Kamei

Glen Hirshberg

'Pemi Aguda

Jasmin Kirkbride

A. T. Greenblatt

Cooper Shrivastava

A collection of some of the best original science fiction and fantasy short fiction published on Tor.com in 2021. Includes stories by: 'Pemi Aguda G. V. Anderson Elizabeth Bear Kate Elliott Aliza Greenblatt Glen Hirshberg Elsie Kathleen Jennings Cheri Kamei Jasmin Kirkbride Matthew Kressel Usman T. Malik Sam J. Miller Annalee Newitz noc Sarah Pinsker Daniel Polansky Peng Shepherd Cooper Shrivastava Lavie Tidhar Catherynne M. Valente Carrie Vaughn E. Lily Yu At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Some of the Best of Tor.com 2021

Baltimore isn't safe. Not even for the predatory meat that stalks its nights. Searching for victims who won't be missed, meat doesn't feel regret or pain—only thirst. But the meat remembers something more... doesn't it? is there more to eternal life than finding another drink? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

meat+drink

Caighlan Smith

David Nickle

Aliette de Bodard

Tara Isabella Burton

N. K. Jemisin

Alix E. Harrow

Rebecca Campbell

Indrapramit Das

Nina Allan

Melissa Marr

Charlie Jane Anders

Alyssa Wong

Laurie Penny

Liu Cixin

P. Djèlí Clark

Margaret Killjoy

Genevieve Valentine

Monica Byrne

Angela Slatter

Delia Sherman

Lettie Prell

Rajnar Vajra

A collection of some of the best original science fiction and fantasy short fiction published on Tor.com in 2016. Includes stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Nina Allan, Tara Isabella Burton, Monica Byrne, Rebecca Campbell, P. Djèlí Clark, Indrapramit Das, Alix E. Harrow, N. K. Jemisin, Margaret Killjoy, Cixin Liu, Melissa Marr, David Nickle, Laurie Penny, Daniel Polansky, Lettie Prell, Delia Sherman, Angela Slatter, Caighlan Smith, Lavie Tidhar, Rajnar Vajra, Genevieve Valentine, Carrie Vaughn, and Alyssa Wong. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2016

Tomorrow's Children

A Drink Before We Die

The Harrows are a typical suburban family who, since time immemorial, have borne a sacred and terrible charge. In the daylight they are teachers, doctors, bartenders and vagrants, but at night they are the rulers and protectors of the March, a fantastical secondary world populated with animate antiquated toys and sentient lichen, a panorama of the impossible where cities are carried on the backs of giant snails, and thunderstorms can be subdued with song.

But beneath this dreamlike exterior lie dark secrets, and for generation after generation the Harrows have defended the March from the perils that wait outside its borders – when they are not consumed in their own bitter internecine quarrels.

In the modern day the Harrow clan are composed of Sophia, the High Queen of the March, a brilliant, calculating matriarch, and her three children – noble Constance, visionary, rebellious Mary Ann, and clever, amoral Will. Moving back and forth between their youth, adolescence, and adulthood, we watch as this family fractures, then reconciles in the face of a conflict endangering not only the existence of the March, but of the ‘real world’ itself.

March's End

Naomi Alderman

Sarah Lotz

Rachel Swirsky

Now collected into a single volume, editors Lavie Tidhar and Rebecca Levene bring you the groundbreaking anthologies Jews vs Zombies and Jews vs Aliens, which pose the two most important questions asked in the past 2000 years: what happens when the Chosen People meet aliens... or the living dead? With authors ranging from Orange Prize winner Naomi Alderman to The Big Bang Theory's writer/producer Eric Kaplan, and from BSFA Award winner Adam Roberts to BFS Best Newcomer Sarah Lotz, the stories range from the light-hearted to the profound. "If you will it, it is no dream!" as Theodor Herzl said: and no doubt he had just these anthologies in mind. Jews vs Aliens and Jews vs Zombies are the must have anthologies of the year.

Jews Vs Aliens and Jews Vs Zombies

Jews Vs Omnibus

For centuries beyond counting, humanity has served the Others, god-like Eternals who rule from their cloud-capped mountain-city, building a civilization of unimagined beauty and unchecked viciousness. But all that is about to change. Bas Alyates, grizzled general of a thousand battles, has assembled a vast army with which to contend with the might of Those Above. Eudokia, Machiavellian matriarch and the power behind the Empty Throne, travels to the Roost, nominally to play peacemaker - but in fact to inspire the human population toward revolt. Deep in the dark byways of the mountain's lower tiers, the urchin Pyre leads a band of fanatical revolutionaries in acts of terrorism against their inhuman oppressors. Against them, Calla, handmaiden of the Eternals' king, fights desperately to stave off the rising tide of violence which threatens to destroy her beloved city. The story begun in Those Above comes to a stunning conclusion in this unforgettable battle for the hearts and minds of the human race, making The Empty Throne the most exciting epic fantasies of recent times.

Those Below

Paul Cornell

K. J. Parker

Kai Ashante Wilson

Nnedi Okorafor

Michael R. Underwood

Matt Wallace

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

Alter S. Reiss

Enjoy samples from Tor.com Publishing's first ten novellas in the Fall 2015 sampler! Featuring Kai Ashante Wilson, Nnedi Okorafor, K. J. Parker, Daniel Polansky, and many more, this sampler contains exciting new fantasy worlds, harrowing science fiction adventures, stolen memories, edible angels, and talking salamanders. The novellas these chapters are taken from are available in ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tor.com Publishing Fall 2015 Sampler

Daniel Polansky

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