Lavie Tidhar’s wonderful THE VIOLENT CENTURY lingers in the mind long after the reading
The first US paperback edition of Lavie Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY excites reviewers and fans.
Bill Capossere’s 5 star review for FANTASY LITERATURE:
THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a wonderfully constructed, crafted work that bears a great emotional weight even as it raises more intellectual questions. It’s the kind of work that lingers in the mind long after the reading and leaves the reader unsettled as they roll ideas over and over in their head. Just as good fiction should do.
The Spanish site DREAMS OF ELVEX:
In short: a fantastic superhero story, with a very comiquera structure, with a lot of rhythm and with very original situations. Too bad that some of the story arcs are not as good as others and the rhythm suffers. I see the structure as ideal for an audiovisual adaptation, and I hope that some editorial will consider its translation. For my part I will continue pending the work of this fantastic writer.
(Translation courtesy of Google)
World Fantasy Award-winner Lavie Tidhar blends the superhero and spy genres in this dark, high-energy epic of alternate 20th century history, originally released in 2015.
Andrew Wheeler at his THE ANITCK MUSINGS OF G.B.H. HORNSWOGGLER, GENT. praises the Sarah Anne Langton cover.
As a bonus, for those of you who suffer massive anxiety, like a certain former New York Times SF reviewer, about reading garishly-covered genre fiction on the train, THE VIOLENT CENTURY has an exceptionally classy cover that only just hints at the fantastic elements inside.
At FACTOR DAILY, Gautham Shenoy lists 5 superhero novels for people who love comics (or don’t).
Grim, melancholy and brilliantly written, THE VIOLENT CENTURY – filled with clever cameos and replete with keen observations on humanity and heroes – is not an easy read. Yet, it is a book that rewards the reader for sticking with it till the end.
Lavie participated in a VIOLENT CENTURY-centric REDDIT AMA.
PristineEnthusiasm
I loved The Violent Century – who were your favorite superheros, and will you write more about my favorite, Spit?Lavie_wuz_here
AMA Author
Everyone likes Spit the best!I have this loosely planned semi-sequel that does focus on Spit, and there’s a handful of short stories so far. She’s so much fun to write – I like kind of falling back into that world from time to time. Oh, there’s one here: Heroes. But I have so much on and I never seem to quite get around to doing the rest of them. There’s a fun one about these really horrible British supermen that I started recently, that makes me laugh. So hopefully one day…
(and yeah, I guess I like Spit the most, too! It’s such a ridiculous superpower).
And finally an unexpected mention of Lavie’s most recent original novel UNHOLY LAND, courtesy of THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS (reported by Lucas Adams) coverage of “As If: Alternative Histories From Then to Now,” an exhibition at the Drawing Center.
Beyond the accompanying zine, the exhibit doesn’t have a catalog, but outside the Drawing Center it’s easier than ever to find authors plumbing the depths of imagined paths, with new thoughts on the ways we’ve lived and continue to: Lavie Tidhar’s UNHOLY LAND, which envisions a Zionist homeland in Uganda, and K. Chess’s Famous Men Who Never Lived, about a community of refugees forced to flee from their dimension to ours after a cataclysm, both capture the uncertainty and sorrow of our moment.
For more info about THE VIOLENT CENTURY, visit the Tachyon page.
For more info on UNHOLY LAND, visit the Tachyon page.
Covers by Sarah Anne Langton
