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067

December 28, 2016

Amazing CENTRAL STATION is the future of SF, not the other way round

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized 067, b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, best of 2016, book depository, bulgaria, central station, china mieville, lavie tidhar, petr koubsky, review, sarah anne langton, science fiction, the des lewis gestalt real-time reviews, this census-taker, zeno literary agency, Бард, Централна станция

Photo: Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013

THE DES LEWIS GESTALT REAL-TIME REVIEWS finished the real time review of Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION.

The politics ans today’s history seep for me into this wondrous text of the future, as we explore, trough Boris, the Jaffa part of the installation…

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It is a strange fascinating world we are visiting, paradoxically accessible and inaccessible at the same time. A sort of intertextual, interpersonal, multi-nemonymous ablution by Lavie?

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This book is the future of SF, not the other way round.

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This book, despite its paper and it non-visual, non-illuminated real-time words of today, somehow becomes a miracle of tomorrow’s nodal virtual-reality in itself.

For STRANGE HORIZONS, Christina Scholz reviews the complex book.

Apart from the amazing world-building, it’s all about the meeting, intermingling, and interacting of many cultures (human and non-human is a purely science-fictional distinction). And in chronicling the place, Tidhar acknowledges that the concept of culture, especially seen over time, is really fluid and diverse: “[Zhong Weiwei] knew his children would be different, and their children different in their turn” (p. 45). Via the Weiwei family’s shared virtual family history we get to watch generations increasingly grow up in a blend of physical and virtual spaces: migrating, changing the spelling of their surname, adopting new languages and religions.

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However, lots of isolated passages and sentences can be read totally decontextualized from both the genre Tidhar is writing in and from fiction itself. They illustrate what science fiction does best—give a vivid impression of actual people’s lives in places and/or situations that often leave them at a loss for words. The writer’s task, to paraphrase Ursula K. Le Guin, is to say in words what cannot be said in words. Tidhar is giving us glimpses into the lives of people between cultures—people who sometimes feel lost, who sometimes find each other before they lose each other again. Everything is transient, and “[t]he only rule of the universe, child, is change” (p. 224).

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From story to story, the perspective shifts between various characters of various genders, nationalities, and religions, but we keep encountering the same places and characters, whose lives in and around Central Station are interwoven. And recognising them from a new position adds layers to them, sometimes criticising them, and/but always rendering them more complex, more human. CENTRAL STATION moves all the way from soap opera to mythology (visiting other genres in between), but it is still most enjoyable when a clear plotline has yet to develop, and it’s just people’s daily lives and routines and chance encounters, meandering and briefly touching and then separating again for a while, until they touch again.

At the Czech 067, Petr Koubský discusses the novel in his yearly recap.

Israeli author Lavie
Tidhar from letoška also known Czech readers with his novel THE MAN
LIES DREAMING, which is also the story of an alternate world – and
unfortunately the worst thing I’ve read from him. I invite you
something else from him, almost sci-fi purebred CENTRAL STATION set
in the future in Tel Aviv, the bus station you Tidhar remade the
space. Sterling is clearly inspired SCHISMATRIX but Tidhar this
burden done better than most. In addition, the originality of his
ideas passed much local color. If you were to Tidhara was reading, I
recommend still HEBREWPUNK and other alt-real opus OSAMA (in
chandlerovském style!).

BOOK DEPOSITORY names the novel as one of the best books of the year.

Since his CENTRAL STATION was named as one of their best books of the year, Tidhar participated in The Authors of the Year’s Best SF&F Share Their Favorite Books of 2016 at B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG

This Census-Taker, by China Miéville
“I’ve not read a whole lot this year, but by far my favourite has to be China Miéville’s
THIS
CENSUS-TAKER, which I suspect might be the best thing he’s yet done. It isn’t exactly pleasant—I’d be tempted to describe it as a misery memoir set in fantasyland—but this is also where much of its power lies. It is subtle, unsettling and mysterious, and elevates Mieville’s writing to a whole new level. I know it’s divided readers, but it gets a whole-hearted recommendation from me.”

The Zeno Literary Agency is reporting that CENTRAL STATION is now available in Bulgaria as Централна станция from Бард.

For more info about CENTRAL STATION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

December 27, 2016

PIRATE UTOPIA is an artistic triumph

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized 067, bruce sterling, czech, flogging babel, michael swanwick, petr koubsky, pirate utopia, seeing the elephant, william grabowski

Three fresh reviews of Bruce Sterling’s brilliant PIRATE UTOPIA.

At SEEING THE ELEPHANT, William Grabowski lauds the book.

Some reviewers are
disappointed with the book’s “lightness,” and say it would fare
better as a graphic novel. I disagree, and perceive Sterling’s
effort as implicitly aligned with Michael Moorcock’s underrated
alternate histories THE LAND LEVIATHAN (1974), and THE STEEL TSAR
(1981), wherein large sociopolitical ideas and war are explored
without moral judgment.

With an Introduction
by Warren Ellis, Rick Klaw’s interview with the author, and John
Coulthart’s awe-inspiring illustrations based on the work of
designer and Futurist manifesto co-author Fortunato Depero, PIRATE
UTOPIA is an artistic triumph.

Michael Swanwick on his FLOGGING BABEL blog, praises the work.

The novella explores this strange phenomenon through the lens of the single worst member of the new government, exposing along the way the seductively poisonous appeal of fascism. At the end, after the inevitable has played out, Harry Houdini appears with two alt-historical pulp writers to implicate science fiction and fantasy literature in the in the whole mess.

It really is quite brilliant.

Tachyon has packaged this story with an introduction by Warren Ellis, a Cast of Characters explaining the historical figures behind the story, an afterword by Christopher Brown, an interview with Sterling himself (by Rick Klaw), and notes on the book’s design by John Coulthart. Taken all together, they raise the book to the status of Event.

Coulthart’s cover and illustrations must be singled out for particular praise. Based on Fortunato Depero’s graphics, they capture the energy and zest of Futurist art and the dangerous appeal that the movement had. I can’t think of a better marriage of image and text than here.

At the Czech 067, Petr Koubský discusses the volume in his yearly recap.

As is tradition, once again, I made a list of books that I have taken this year and could also be interested in you. Of jednasedmdesáti titles will surely choose something to read. Thematic range extends from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan through a human brain into a robot scanned after telling English professor who decided to become a leisure professional fighter. And much more.

In the alternate history that we have two very nice pieces. Veteran sci-fi Bruce Sterling shear Adriatic pun PIRATE UTOPIA : What if after the First World War, D’Annunzio futurists occupied Istria successfully? Develops real bizarre story , but which in reality took a quick end. Sterling has long lived in Belgrade and moved to the former Yugoslavia, so the mood of the place did not have to invent, it has experienced. Very nice! Loosely reminded me Hvorecký Bratislava escapade Wilson’s (literary, not the movie): same time, same circumstances, when Europe was dismantled for parts and began to assemble all kinds of ways.

(Translation courtesy of Google)

For more info on PIRATE UTOPIA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover and illustrations by John Coulthart