Tor Minis
Miniature Hardcover Series
Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders
Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson
From the Two Rivers by Robert Jordan
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Wild Cards I: Volume One edited by George R. R. Martin
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: October 17, 2017

Nothing says Happy Holidays at my house like receiving books as a gift. In this same spirit, Tor Books has seen fit to create smaller format editions of some great science fiction and fantasy stories.

I am going to give you a quick run down of the six books already available in the Tor Minis series. Hang on tight, there is a lot to take in!

Children Of The Fleet
Fleet School Series
Hardcover | Kindle
By Orson Scott Card
Audiobook narrated by Stefan Rudnicki from Macmillan Audio
Publisher: Tor Books | Macmillan
Release Date: October 10, 2017

Just when you thought you would never see another book from the Enderverse, author Orson Scott Card surprises us all with not just a new book, but one with a definitive twist. Children of the Fleet is more than a spin-off or a sequel, it is a completely different perspective of events that unfolded in a previous novel.

The similarities are still there, of course that is to be expected. An exceptional child displaced, but amazing. This one, however, takes a turn for the unexpected, again and again. Our new protagonist is Dabeet Ochoa. He’s a headstrong boy of about ten who is exceptional in every way, including his massive ego. And while the Battle School from previous stories, beginning with 1985’s Ender’s Game, has morphed into the newly minted Fleet School, much has remained the same, including having one Hyrum Graff involved at every level.

Stuck in traffic? Doing the dishes? Working out? Doing something else that requires your hands and eyes to be otherwise occupied? Sure, you could listen to the new Judas Priest again, but why not switch it up with some knowledge, a bit of romance, a smidgen of mystery, or terrorizing horror? Put down the book you can’t put down, and press play.

Below are some featured excerpts from titles such as Ender’s Game, The Walking Dead, and more, with descriptions from Macmillan Audio and some of the best audiobook narration I have ever heard. The publisher will be at this weekend’s Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Ender’s Game
Director: Gavin Hood
Screenwriter: Gavin Hood
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Moisés Arias
Summit Entertainment
Rated PG-13 | 114 Minutes
Release Date: November 1, 2013

Written and directed by Gavid Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Ender’s Game is based on the 1985 science-fiction novel by Orson Scott Card.

After an alien species attacks Earth, the International Fleet prepares for an inevitable second strike by training the best and brightest children to find a commander who can fill the shoes of the legendary war hero Mazer Rackham.

Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the International Fleet and attend Battle School. Located in Earth’s orbit, Battle School is a military academy where young cadets participate in competitive war simulations in zero gravity.

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game is a sci-fi classic, hailed for its prescient vision in foreshadowing technologies such as internet forums, push-button warfare, and youth in the military. However, it has often been described as an “unfilmable” property, due to its controversial subject matter and the high expectations of its fans, so I was intensely curious to see the film’s panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con panel.

The panelists in attendance today at Hall H were stars Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, and Hailee Steinfeld, along with director Gavin Hood and producer Roberto Orci. The Nerdist’s Chris Hardwick moderated (continuing a long SDCC tradition).

After a clip was shown featuring new footage, Orci noted that the challenge of adapting a classic novel is finding the right writer, and not loving the book so much as to not be able to make an entertaining film out of it. Steinfeld said it was the first time she’s had to physically train for a movie; her training included Space Camp and military boot camp. Ford was drawn to the film by the moral complexity of the story’s push-button warfare aspects and the manipulation of youth for their motor skill capacities and conceptual freedom. Hood loved bringing the environment of the book to life and again, its complexity. Having characters that wrestle with their own good and evil and finding such great actors as Butterfield and Steinfeld made him feel blessed to direct. Butterfield had to get over the fact that he was acting against Han Solo.