★ 10/08/2018
This secondary world fantasy kicks off a new series by Jackson (the Thieftaker Chronicles) that tests the fabric of reality with several types of time travel. Tobias, 15, is the only novitiate at the time-traveling training temple who can go backward in time, a skill called Walking. Chosen to serve the sovereigns of Daerjen, he is sent back in time with nothing but a chronofor, the device that allows him to Walk, to try to stop two wars from happening. Unfortunately, mayhem breaks loose once he arrives in the alternate universe, and Tobias’s fellow novitiate, Mara, is the only human who can tell that something is wrong—even though she doesn’t remember Tobias at all. With the help of a time-eating demon who loves Tobias, she plunges into the past to help set things to rights. This novel wields dueling timelines like knives, keeping readers spellbound while Tobias tries to keep the world from becoming unhinged. Jackson creates two fascinating worlds that coalesce seamlessly into an un-put-downable fantasy narrative and seem likely to lead to an exciting sequel. Agent: Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Oct.)
We’re hungry for the rest of the story, and 2019 is set to deliver. Whether from well-established authors or relative newcomers, the sequels are coming—some of them long-awaited, some of them dreaded (because we don’t want the stories to end), and at least one that was wildly unexpected. Here are 35 science fiction and fantasy […]
For two decades, Jim Killen has served as the science fiction and fantasy book buyer for Barnes & Noble. Every month on Tor.com and the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Jim shares his curated list of the month’s best science fiction & fantasy books. What sci-fi or fantasy books are on your “must-buy” list for October?
In Time’s Children, D.B. Jackson (Thieftaker, and many more novels written under the name David B. Coe) accomplishes the feat of making the complex incredibly accessible. With a plot spanning three timelines and incorporating magical teleportation, time travel, and political scheming, this series-starter could quickly get lost inside of its own worldbuilding, but Jackson never […]