Science fiction and fantasy by their very definitions should contain multitudes: Multitudes of stories and ideas and perspectives and authors. Tor is no stranger to “old school” science fiction, of course - one need only look as far as the Old Man’s War series for confirmation of that - but I like the fact that they don’t hold to the philosophy that science fiction is only that (or that fantasy should only be one way, for that matter). The leeway I’ve gotten from Tor in what they publish from me is a microcosm of how I think Tor approaches science fiction and fantasy in general, a philosophy of well, let’s try it and see what happens.

Cool, let’s see what happens! Take one of the oldest jokes in science fiction - hey, it’s not a great idea to be the dude in a red shirt! - make a whole novel out of it, and tack on three codas at the end, just for kicks? Why the hell not, we’ll run it up the flagpole and see who salutes! And so on. Write a book that starts with a chapter-long fart joke? Go for it! Rewrite a classic of the genre just to see what it’d be like. Part of it is that nearly all the time I’ve been with Tor, they’ve been willing to back what I did in fiction, even if it didn’t necessarily make great sense on paper. Tor is also one of the smartest publishers, too - it hasn’t been afraid of the digital world, and it trusts its readers, which is why their ebooks are DRM-free. Part of it has to do with the fact that Tor is Tor, the largest publisher of science fiction in North America and possibly the world (I’d have to check to see what’s up with China these days to be sure about that), and so being published by a company that has the talent and skill and reach of Tor is a nice thing indeed.

I’ve remarked on it before, but I’ll do it again now: I like that Tor is my publisher. It’s nice to be considered part of that history. I’m delighted to say I show up on the timeline twice, first in 2005, when it’s noted that I and Brandon Sanderson debuted in that year, and again in 2013, when Redshirts won the Hugo award. Tor.com is unveiling Tor’s new logo today - it looks like the old logo, only, you know, more modern - and offering a timeline of highlights from Tor’s now 35-year-long history.

Tor publishing logos