Tor.com teams up with Barnes & Noble for Monthly Recommended Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading List.

Tor recently teamed up with NASA and now Tor.com are teaming up with Barnes & Noble for a Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading List affair. I wasn't too keen on the idea of the NASA 'team up' but this sounds more like it. Check out the announcement (from Tor.com)...

Tor.com is pleased to announce a joint collaboration with Barnes and Noble Booksellers to bring the best in genre fiction to fans and new readers alike.  Tor.com is partnering with Barnes & Noble for a series of appreciations, the “Barnes & Noble Bookseller’s Picks” a monthly recommended Science Fiction and Fantasy reading list.

The series will kick off with a focus on the opening volumes of various epic fantasy series. The recent release of George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons and the smash success of HBO’s Game of Thrones– not to mention bestselling author Terry Goodkind’s debut on the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list this week –have put interest in epic fantasy at an all-time high. Those just beginning to read this subgenre, may be wondering what to try next. Over the next nine days, Tor.com bloggers will take a look at Killen’s monthly picks and reassess first trips into worlds of dragons, swords, and magic. And as an added bonus, through September 30th, Tor.com will offer the ebook editions of Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World, Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon, and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn for only $2.99 each.


Join us in the upcoming two weeks while we discuss these great epic fantasy beginnings:

•Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
•The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
•The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
•Empire in Black and Gold: Shadows of the Apt. Book One by Adrian Tchaikovsky
•The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (with $2.99 ebook from Tor)
•The Fallen Blade: Act One of the Assassini by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
•Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (with $2.99 ebook from Tor)
•The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
•Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (with $2.99 ebook from Tor)


The introduction to this exciting venture will be posted on Tuesday, September 6th at 9am EST along with the first “Epic Fantasy Beginnings” essay, with posts following each weekday. “We are very excited about this new series,” says Irene Gallo of Tor.com. We’re constantly reminded of how engaged our readers are, and we can’t wait to see the conversations sparked by these knowledgeably-curated lists from our colleagues at B&N.”

 To be honest, if you read this blog regularly then you've probably read most of (if not all) of these books already. Some of the resulting discussion could be interesting though and the books are all good (haven't read 'The Fallen Blade' but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now...) How about pointing this link out to someone who's thinking about picking up some epic fantasy for the first time?