Praise for The Circumference of the World

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New Scientist Best New Science Fiction Books of September 2023
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Los Angeles Public Library: Best Fiction and Literature of 2023
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Book and Film Globe Most Meta of 2023

[STARRED REVIEW] “World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar (Neom) wows with a mind-bending existential adventure that seeks to answer the age-old question of why humanity exists. In 2001 London, four characters converge around the lost science fiction book Lode Stars, written decades earlier by Eugene Charles Hartley. It’s rumored that Hartley, who also founded the sketchy Church of God’s All-Seeing Eyes, discovered the ‘true nature of reality’ and encoded it into the novel, which follows heroine Delia as she searches for her father. The novel also posits that humans are reconstructed memories swirling inside black holes, which are the eyes of God, and that alien ‘eaters’ feed on these reconstituted humans. Only possession of Lode Stars itself can ward off this danger. Albino mathematician Delia Welegtabit, who happens to have the same name as Lode Star’s heroine, is drawn into the hunt for the book by her husband, obsessive mathematician Levi. When Levi disappears, Delia turns to Daniel Chase, a rare book collector, to investigate—but then Daniel is himself kidnapped by mobster Oskar Lens, who believes in the book’s power and wants it to protect him from the eaters. Toggling between perspectives and the ethereal text of Lode Stars, Tidhar’s slippery metafictional tale lyrically entangles scientific fact, mysticism, and mental illness. This is a knockout.”
—Publishers Weekly

[STARRED REVIEW] “Black holes, new religions, and powerful stories ensnare orbiting beings with their intrigue and potentiality in Lavie Tidhar’s science fiction marvel…. Inquisitive, daring, and rich with possibilities, The Circumference of the World is a speculative masterpiece.”
—Foreword

“Inventive, thought-provoking, audacious and, as ever with Tidhar, superbly readable, this is where his genius lies.”
—UK Guardian

“Ingeniously constructed and stylistically protean, this seven-course banquet of a novel glistens with the Golden Age of science fiction, even as it nourishes our neurons with a marvelous thought experiment.”
—James Morrow, award-winning author of Shambling Towards Hiroshima

5/5 stars. “Tidhar does here for science fiction what Gene Wolfe did in his fantasy novel peak with the likes of Castleview, Free Live Free, There are Doors, Pandora by Holly Hollander, and The Sorceror’s House…. a fantastic mélange of a book.”
—Popular Science

“Maybe the universe’s energy really does get recycled, because this eclectic speculative novel manages to be simultaneously contemporary, nostalgic, and retro in a way that wouldn’t be unfamiliar to the SF icons to which it pays tribute…. Tidhar’s rich portrayal of the pulpy golden age of science fiction, distinctive characters, and nimble turns of phrase make for a cool confection.”
—Kirkus

“The Circumference of the World is an ambitious and ambiguous book showing Tidhar at top form.”
—Chicago Review of Books

“The author weaves rational thought, a bit of fanaticism, madness and mysticism into a tapestry that will fascinate contemporary readers and would have made the writers who came before him proud.”
—Los Angeles Public Library

“Tidhar wins it all with this magnificently original mind-bender of a novel about a missing husband and a mysterious book that disappears as soon as you read it. The Circumference of the World is two parts Philip K. Dick, two parts Brothers Strugatsky, and six parts blow your f**king mind.”
—Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“Brilliant and bizarre, Lavie Tidhar’s The Circumference of the World is many things—but fundamentally it is a love letter to the Golden Age of science fiction, whether or not it deserves it (it does), as well as a love letter to its writers, whether or not they deserve it.”
—Molly Tanzer, author of Vermilion and Creatures of Will and Temper

“Tidhar’s (Neom) novel begins with obsession over an infamous, possibly mythical book that disappears upon reading and leaves death in its wake. The book, Lode Stars, if it even exists, either brings a truth too terrible to bear to an unsuspecting world or is a great hoax perpetrated by an inveterate con man. A mathematician has lost her grip on reality, a criminal collector has killed himself, and an entire religion has been founded in pursuit of the truth that is supposed to lie within its pages. This novel is one wild ride, combining the purported text of the infamous book itself with a paean to the Golden Age of SF that produced it. Longtime SF readers will easily spot the real-world parallels, but that doesn’t stop Tidhar from telling a compelling story of obsession and greed that will make readers think about the nature of reality. VERDICT Readers who fell hard into the metafiction of The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge or the you-are-there gossip of Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee will likely be as obsessed with this book as the characters are with Lode Stars.”
—Library Journal

“Tidhar’s melancholy, beautiful and yet improbably light-touch narrative, meanwhile, is structured like a nesting doll.”
—New Scientist

“Lavie Tidhar is one of today’s most prolific SF writers, deeply embedded in the scene as writer, editor and anthologist, and who also has an encyclopedic knowledge of SF history. Circumference of the World puts all of these together in a novel that comprises a bewilderingly rich tapestry of SF allusion.”
—Book and Film Globe

“I always have been partial to dangerous books, and to fictions about dangerous books, and the one at the swirling center of this exhilarating tour de force is a doozy—just like every book by Lavie Tidhar.”
—Andy Duncan, three-time World Fantasy Award winner

“Reading a new Lavie Tidhar novel is always a treat. You can count on engaging prose paired with an inventive story and The Circumference of the World certainly fits that bill.”
—The Speculative Shelf

“Tidhar’s Circumference of the World (2023) is a genre-splitting poetic expression that pays homage to classic science fiction with call-outs and appearances by Campbell, Heinlein, and others.”
—Those Crazy Books

“An unabashed love letter to the Golden Age writers who, for all their flaws, insecurities, prejudices, and privilege, built the foundations of the genre we all love.”
—Locus

“It’s a wondrous and imaginative homage to classic and pulp science fiction, while also being a book about an elusive book. It’s enthralling, meta, and sure to surprise you in the best of ways.”
—Portalist

“[A] trippy, metafictional ode to the golden age of science fiction.”
—Literary Hub

“All in all, Lavie Tidhar is a rare story-teller, indeed, equally adept at pondering metaphysical questions, skewering cynics who exploit religious fanaticism for personal gain, and firing off bursts of intriguing ideas, reminiscent of Charles Stross. What a delight it was to let Tidhar’s entertaining exuberance sweep me away.”
—Analog

“This novel is a powerful work of meta-fiction, we can compare it to PKD, which is a compliment around here but it is a pure product of Lavie Tihar’s genius. His blend of imagination, genre history and ability to blend into thought experiments is what makes him one of my favorite modern writers.”
—Postcards From a Dying World News

“Like matter spiraling into a black hole—everything here simply lights up, bathing the reader with its intense radiation. An amazing read, strongly recommended.”
—Blue Book Balloon

“Tidhar has been compared to writers like Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut, but, with the story’s spiraling structure and novel-within-a-novel mystery, the writers that came to my mind the most while reading were Jorge Luis Borges and Michael Ende.”
—Ancillary Review of Books

5/5 stars. “Mr. Tidhar’s love of SF is real, y’all, and the total shift in styles and tone and voice just makes me want to clap with joy. Again, he shows me what a world-class talent he is.”
—Bradley Horner’s Book Corner

5/5 stars. “This is a gripping read, a blend of science fiction and fantasy with a little detective fiction thrown in.”
—The Book Lover’s Boudoir

“This book contains a memoir, a hard-boiled detective section, a prison journal, portions of a non-existent book from the pulp era of sci-fi, and the letters of writers. It’s brilliant.”
—PrimmLife

“Fascinating world building, questions and [an] excellent storytelling.”
—Scrapping and Playing