Michael R. Underwood

Clerks meets Buffy the Vampire the Slayer in this original urban fantasy ebook about Geekomancers—humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture. Ree Reyes’s life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comic shop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter. When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic “BOOM!” echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town’s magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props. Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?

Geekomancy

Max is a cheery xeno-archeologist from Earth, stranded and trying to find a way home. Lahra is a stern warrior of a nearly extinct race searching for her people's heir. Wheel is the couple's cybernetic pilot running from her past and toward an unknown future. On Wheel's ship, the Kettle, the trio traverses the galaxy, dodging Imperial patrols and searching ancient temples and ruins for anything they can sell. Back on the Wreck, their home and base of operations, the crew of the Kettle are deeply in debt to the drifting's city's most powerful gangster, and she wants her money back. So when a dangerous but promising job comes their way, Max, Lahra, and Wheel have little choice but to take it if they have any hope of keeping their ship, and themselves, afloat. But the crew of the Kettle gets more than they bargained for when they find themselves in possession of a powerful artifact, one that puts them in the crosshairs of the Vsenk, the galaxy's ruthless and oppressive imperial overlords. Before they know it, Max, Lahra, and Wheel are pulled into a web of galactic subterfuge, ancient alien weaponry, a secret resistance force, lost civilizations, and giant space turtles. The Vsenk will stop at nothing to recover what the crew of the Kettle has found and Max's brains, Lahra's muscle, and Wheel's skills may be all that stand between entire planets and annihilation. Can they evade space fascists, kick-start a rebellion, and save the galaxy, all while they each try to find their own way home?

Book One of the Space Operas

Annihilation Aria

When Stories Break, You Send in the Genrenauts. Struggling stand-up comic Leah Tang is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join the Genrenauts, a secret organization of dimensional travelers. Leah learns that our world is just one of many, and every other world is the home of a story genre — Science Fiction or Romance, Fantasy or Western — populated by archetypal characters and constantly playing out familiar stories. The Genrenauts’ mission: find and fix broken stories. If they fail, the ripples from the story worlds will cause havoc and devastation on their home world. Leah joins the team as they travel to Western World to stop a bandit posse on the rampage. But the Western's hero isn't interested in winning, and the safety of Earth hangs in the balance... The first episode of the exciting science fiction novella series. If you like Leverage, Redshirts, or Quantum Leap, check out Genrenauts for a brand-new adventure. PRAISE FOR THE SHOOTOUT SOLUTION "If you like the TV show Leverage or the books of Jasper Fforde, Genrenauts is absolutely the series for you. Exploring genre tropes while saving the world has never been more fun." — Between the Covers "Who hasn't wanted to imagine themselves parachuting into a story gone wrong and putting it back on track? It's storytelling as heroism, genre savviness as power. Endless fun. Catnip for genre geeks." — Marie Brennan, World Fantasy nominated author of A Natural History of Dragons “A clever, exciting, and seriously fun twist on portal fantasy that sends a geeky stand-up comedian into the Wild West. Sign me up to be a Genrenaut, too!” —Delilah S. Dawson, author of the Blud series and Hit

Genrenauts Episode 1

The Shootout Solution

Fame has a magic all its own in the no-gossip-barred follow-up to Geekomancy. Ree Reyes gets her big screenwriting break, only to discover just how broken Hollywood actually is. Things are looking up for urban fantasista Ree Reyes. She’s using her love of pop culture to fight monsters and protect her hometown as a Geekomancer, and now a real-live production company is shooting her television pilot script. But nothing is easy in show business. When an invisible figure attacks the leading lady of the show, former child-star-turned-current-hot-mess Jane Konrad, Ree begins a school-of-hard-knocks education in the power of Celebromancy. Attempting to help Jane Geekomancy-style with Jedi mind tricks and X-Men infiltration techniques, Ree learns more about movie magic than she ever intended. She also learns that real life has the craziest plots: not only must she lift a Hollywood-strength curse, but she needs to save her pilot, negotiate a bizarre love rhombus, and fight monsters straight out of the silver screen. All this without anyone getting killed or, worse, banished to the D-List.

Celebromancy

A side-quest novella in the bestselling Geekomancy urban fantasy series—when D&D-style adventures go from the tabletop to real life, look out! Ree Reyes, urban fantasista and Geekomancer extraordinaire, is working her regular drink-slinger shift at Grognard’s bar-and-gaming salon when everything goes wrong. The assorted magic wielders of the city’s underground have come to test their battle skills via RPGs like D&D, V:TES, White Wolf, and the like. All the usuals are there: her ex-mentor Eastwood, Drake (the man-out-of-time adventurer), and, of course, Grognard himself (her boss and a brewer of beer that act as magic potions). However, it’s the presence of these and other “usuals” that makes all the trouble. For, a nemesis from Eastwood and Ree’s past decides to finally take her revenge not just on those two, but on every self-styled “hero” in the city who happens to have crossed her at one point or another. When wave after wave of monsters besiege Grogrnard’s store, if Ree & Co. are going to survive, they’re going to have to work together. And avoid the minotaur. That’s always a good rule of thumb.

A Ree Reyes Side-Quest

Attack the Geek

In a city built among the bones of a fallen giant, a small group of heroes looks to reclaim their home from the five criminal tyrants who control it. The city of Audec-Hal sits among the bones of a Titan. For decades it has suffered under the dominance of five tyrants, all with their own agendas. Their infighting is nothing, though, compared to the mysterious “Spark-storms” that alternate between razing the land and bestowing the citizens with wild, unpredictable abilities. It was one of these storms that gave First Sentinel, leader of the revolutionaries known as the Shields of Audec-Hal, power to control the emotional connections between people—a power that cost him the love of his life. Now, with nothing left to lose, First Sentinel and the Shields are the only resistance against the city's overlords as they strive to free themselves from the clutches of evil. The only thing they have going for them is that the crime lords are fighting each other as well—that is, until the tyrants agree to a summit that will permanently divide the city and cement their rule of Audec-Hal. It's one thing to take a stand against oppression, but with the odds stacked against the Shields, it's another thing to actually triumph. In this stunning, original tale of magic and revolution, Michael R. Underwood creates a cityscape that rivals Ambergris and New Crobuzon in its depth and populates it with heroes and villains that will stay with you forever.

Shield and Crocus

Fan-favorite urban fantasista Ree Reyes and her crew of Geekomancers—humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture—take on their biggest foes yet in this fourth book of the Geekomancy series. When Ree’s long time nemesis Lucretia is finally brought to trial and found guilty for the deadly attack on Grognard’s, the Geekomancer community breathes a collective sigh of relief. But Ree and her crew soon discover that Lucretia has three very angry, very dangerous sisters who won’t rest until Eastwood—a fellow Geekomancer—is killed. What follows is an adventure packed with epic battles, a bit of romance, and enough geeky W00t moments to fill your monthly quota of adventure and fun.

Hexomancy

The first in a new series from the author of Geekomancy (pop culture urban fantasy) and Shield and Crocus (New Weird superhero fantasy). Jacob Greene was a sweet boy raised by a loving, tight-knit family…of cultists. He always obeyed, and was so trusted by them that he was the one they sent out on their monthly supply run (food, medicine, pig fetuses, etc.). Finding himself betrayed by them, he flees the family’s sequestered compound and enters the true unknown: college in New York City. It’s a very foreign place, the normal world and St. Mark’s University. But Jacob’s looking for a purpose in life, a way to understand people, and a future that breaks from his less-than-perfect past. However, when his estranged sister arrives in town to kick off the apocalypse, Jacob realizes that if he doesn’t gather allies and stop the family’s prophecy of destruction from coming true, nobody else will…

The Younger Gods

Paul Cornell

K. J. Parker

Daniel Polansky

Kai Ashante Wilson

Nnedi Okorafor

Angela Slatter

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

She’s a Wacky Comedian. He’s a Gruff Detective. They Fight Crime!It was supposed to be a simple training mission in the Police Procedural region of Crime World. But there’s always a twist – when the precinct’s favorite wacky private eye is shot, Leah and King must fill the shoes of Odd Couple Detectives to investigate a pair of nested mysteries.Leah and King work against the clock to fix the breach before falling too deep into their respective roles and losing themselves to the story. And there's more going on here than a simple crime of passion...The fourth episode the trope-twisting Genrenauts series. If you like Leverage, Quantum Leap, Redshirts, and The A-Team, then buy The Substitute Sleuth for an energetic romp through the worlds of story!

The Substitute Sleuth

The chosen one is dead. A new hero must rise. The team travels to Traditional Fantasy-land where the prophesied hero has died just before his moment of triumph. The Genrenauts have to take on the roles of Wizard, Paladin, Bard, and more. They'll need to find a new MacGuffin in order to defeat the Night-Lord before his arcane power brings about an eternal night of terror. In Episode 5, the heroes arrive in the story world and seek the new MacGuffin. In Episode 6, they confront the Night-Lord and uncover a secret with implications across the multiverse.The two-part season finale, for all fans of epic fantasy and genre-bending adventure.

The Failed Fellowship

Victor LaValle

Andy Remic

Tor.com Publishing's fifth ebook bundle contains all our novellas published in February 2016: A Song for No Man’s Land by Andy Remic, The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, and The Absconded Ambassador by Michael R. Underwood. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tor.com Bundle 5 - February 2016

Tor.com Publishing's third ebook bundle contains all of our novellas published in November 2015: The Builders by Daniel Polansky, Domnall and the Borrowed Child by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, and The Shootout Solution by Michael R. Underwood. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tor.com Bundle 3 - November 2015

Happily Ever After or Bust!Wounded Genrenaut Mallery York returns to active duty just in time for the team to be deployed to the Rom-Com region of the Romance world. There, everyone is beautiful, office workers can afford palatial midtown apartments, and hearts are won and broken on every corner. But before they can fix the broken love story, they have to find it. Mallery takes the lead, bringing her expertise to bear and leading Leah to wonder whether there’s a space for her on the team now that Mallery is back. The team scours dating sites, cocktail bars, and jogging paths looking for the right pair of lovers to reconnect before time runs out and the ripples from the story breach lay waste to romance back on Earth. This third episode of Genrenauts is a great jumping-on point for new readers. If you like Leverage, Quantum Leap, Redshirts, and The A-Team, buy now and start an exciting romp through the worlds of story!

The Cupid Reconciliation

A hero is missing. The post-apocalyptic wasteland is awash with violence and injustice. The Genrenauts’ own Angstrom King has to step into legendary role to defend the innocent and finish a story gone awry. A stand-alone short story in the Genrenauts series. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A Tor.com Original

There Will Always Be a Max (A Genrenauts story)

Last Week, She Was Working Open Mics. Now She’s Headed to Outer Space. Rookie Genrenaut Leah Tang gets her first taste of space flight when the team scrambles to fix a story breach in Science Fiction World, the domain of starships, weird aliens, and galactic intrigue. On the space station Ahura-3, Ambassador Kaylin Reed is on the verge of securing a peace treaty to guarantee the end of hostilities between some of the galaxy's most ferocious races. When Ambassador Reed is kidnapped the morning before the signing, it throws the station into chaos. So now it’s up to Leah and her team to save the day and put the story to rights. At any cost. The second episode of Genrenauts, a science fiction series in novellas. If you like Leverage, Redshirts, or Quantum Leap, check out Genrenauts for a brand-new adventure. "If you like the TV show Leverage or the books of Jasper Fforde, Genrenauts is absolutely the series for you. Exploring genre tropes while saving the world has never been more fun." — Between the Covers At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genrenauts Episode 2

The Absconded Ambassador

When a story breaks, the multiverse is thrown into chaos. It's up to the Genrenauts to put the narrative back on track...at any cost. Contains all six novellas from Genrenauts Season One!

The Complete Season One Collection

Genrenauts

When Stories Break, You Send in the Genrenauts. Struggling stand-up comic Leah Tang is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join the Genrenauts, a secret organization of dimensional travelers. Leah learns that our world is just one of many, and every other world is the home of a story genre — Science Fiction or Romance, Fantasy or Western — populated by archetypal characters and constantly playing out familiar stories. The Genrenauts’ mission: find and fix broken stories. If they fail, the ripples from the story worlds will cause havoc and devastation on their home world. Leah joins the team as they travel to Western World to stop a bandit posse on the rampage. But the Western's hero isn't interested in winning, and the safety of Earth hangs in the balance... The first episode of the exciting science fiction novella series. If you like Leverage, Redshirts, or Quantum Leap, check out Genrenauts for a brand-new adventure. PRAISE FOR THE SHOOTOUT SOLUTION "If you like the TV show Leverage or the books of Jasper Fforde, Genrenauts is absolutely the series for you. Exploring genre tropes while saving the world has never been more fun." — Between the Covers "Who hasn't wanted to imagine themselves parachuting into a story gone wrong and putting it back on track? It's storytelling as heroism, genre savviness as power. Endless fun. Catnip for genre geeks." — Marie Brennan, World Fantasy nominated author of A Natural History of Dragons “A clever, exciting, and seriously fun twist on portal fantasy that sends a geeky stand-up comedian into the Wild West. Sign me up to be a Genrenaut, too!” —Delilah S. Dawson, author of the Blud series and Hit At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Michael R. Underwood

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