This year marks the 35th anniversary of Tor Books, and we’re celebrating with a look back at some of the many highlights of the last several decades, as well as unveiling a new logo: an update of the classic Tor mountain peaks that have graced many of our favorite books over the years. The timeline below serves to remind us of just a few of the wonderful moments we’ve experienced as part of the extended Tor family of readers, authors, editors, artists, and the legions of people working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring each new book to life, year in and year out—it would be impossible to list all of these milestones, but we hope you’ll share your own favorite Tor-inspired moments in the comments!

Even as we celebrate the past, however, our new logo serves as a reminder to always focus on the future, where there are always new mountains to scale, and uncharted worlds to explore. We’d like to offer our congratulations to Tom Doherty, our fearless leader who started this great adventure way back in 1980, and our sincere thanks to all of our fellow fans and readers who’ve joined together on this journey and make it all possible. Here’s to many more years of life-changing fantasy, science fiction, and shared stories!

Tor Timeline and History

1980 Tom Doherty founds Tor Books in New York City, with a staff of 12 people



1981 Tor’s first book—Forerunner, by Andre Norton—is published; shortly thereafter, Tor publishes The Psycho-Technic League, the first of several Poul Anderson collections published over the next few years



1982 Dominion, by Fred Saberhagen, is published



1983 Harry Harrison’s science fiction novel A Rebel in Time is published



1984 The Black Company by Glen Cook and Midas World by Frederik Pohl are published



1985 Ender’s Game, Tor’s first novel by Orson Scott Card, is published



1986 Ender’s Game becomes the first Tor novel to win the Nebula and Hugo Awards for best novel



1987 Soldier in the Mist, by Gene Wolfe, is the first Tor novel to be nominated for the World Fantasy Award Card’s Speaker for the Dead wins the Hugo and Nebula Awards Tor’s first George R. R. Martin novel, Nightflyers, is published



1988 The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy wins the Nebula Award Tor wins the Locus Award for Best Publisher; it has won every year since, through 2015



1989 Kelley Wilde’s The Suiting wins the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel



1990 The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, the first book in The Wheel of Time® series, and People of the Wolf, the first book in Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear’s North America’s Forgotten Past series are published



1991 Storm Constantine’s The Enchantments of Flesh And Spirit is the first Tor book to be nominated for a Lambda Literary Award Playgrounds of the Mind by Larry Niven is published



1992 Tor Books moves to NYC’s historic Flatiron Building in January Steven Gould’s debut novel, Jumper, is published The Magic of Recluce by L. E. Modesitt is published, launching the Saga of Recluce Tor’s Orb Books imprint is founded



1993 Forge Books imprint is founded Vernor Vinge’s Fire Upon the Deep wins the Hugo Award Tom Doherty wins the Skylark Award from NESFA (the New England Science Fiction Association)



1994 Wizard’s First Rule, the first book in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, and Anne McCaffrey’s The Girl Who Heard Dragons are published



1995 Jonathan Lethem’s debut novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, published in paperback for the first time Moving Mars by Greg Bear wins the Nebula Award Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is published Elmer Kelton is voted the greatest western writer of all time by the Western Writers of America (WWA)



1996 The Wood Wife by Terri Windling, winner of the Mythopoeic Award, is published



1997 Jonathan Lethem’s collection The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye and Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s original anthology Starlight 1 both win World Fantasy Awards Forge’s first Elmer Kelton novel, Bitter Trail, is published



1998 The Runelords, the first book in David Farland’s series of the same name, is published



1999 Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon, the first book in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, is published. Erikson and his collaborator Ian Cameron Esslemont have since published over 20 works set in the Malazan world.



2000 China Mieville’s US debut novel King Rat and The Return, by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes, are published A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge wins the Hugo Award



2001 Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, a lead author in Tor’s Women in Fantasy initiative, is published Tor’s Irene Gallo wins her first Chesley Award for Best Art Director



2002 Starscape, an imprint focused on publishing middle grade novels, is founded The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro wins the Nebula Award



2003 Tor UK and Tor Teen are founded Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer wins the Hugo Award Dune: the Butlerian Jihad, Tor’s first Dune novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, is published



2004 Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton becomes the first novel original to Tor to win the World Fantasy Award



2005 Brandon Sanderson’s debut novel Elantris and John Scalzi’s debut novel Old Man’s War are published Tom Doherty wins the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award



2006 Tor’s first Halo® novel in partnership with Microsoft, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx by Eric Nylund is published The mass market edition of Susanna Clarke’s Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is published Spin by Robert Charles Wilson wins the Hugo Award



2007 Off Armageddon Reef, the first book in David Weber’s Safehold series, is published Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge wins the Hugo Award Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe wins the World Fantasy Award Tom Doherty wins the Silver Bullet Award from International Thriller Writers, is honored by congressman Charles B. Rangel for his service to literacy programs, and receives the first Lariat Award presented to an individual from the WWA Tor sells over a million copies of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, the basis for the hit movie starring Will Smith



2008 Tor.com, a community site dedicated to publishing original fiction, art, and commentary on fantasy, science fiction, and related subjects, launches in July Jumper, the movie based on Steven Gould’s novel, is released Little Brother by Cory Doctorow wins the John W. Campbell Award



2009 Cherie Priest’s breakout steampunk novel, Boneshaker, and Tor’s first Dragon Age® novel in partnership with Bioware, Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne are published Tor editor David Hartwell wins his third Hugo for editorial work



2010 The Way of Kings is published, marking the start of The Stormlight Archive, a new epic fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson Forge’s last Elmer Kelton novel, Texas Standoff, is published Tom Doherty receives the SFWA Solstice Award



2011 Tor-Forge partners with NASA to create NASA-inspired Works of Fiction



2012 All Tor ebooks go DRM-free Jo Walton’s Among Others wins the Hugo and Nebula Awards



2013 A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson is published, completing The Wheel of Time series Ender’s Game, the movie based on Orson Scott Card’s novel, is released in theaters John Scalzi’s Redshirts wins the Hugo Award Tor editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden wins his third Hugo Award for editorial work



2014 Tor.com Publishing, an imprint dedicated to publishing novellas, shorter novels, and serializations, is founded, with Irene Gallo named as Associate Publisher Tom Doherty is honored with one of the first ever Harris Collection Literary Awards by the Brown University Library Tor publishes Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem, translated by Ken Liu—the first Chinese science fiction novel to be translated into English

