lavie tidhar

July 5, 2016

CENTRAL STATION is one of the Best New Science Fiction Books of the Year (So Far)

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, best of 2016, central station, chicago nerd social club, joel cunnigham, lavie tidhar, positron chicago, rachel esserman, review, sarah anne langton, the reporter group

Photo: Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013

Joel Cunningham on the B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG includes Lavie Tidhar’s dazzling, unsettling vision of the future CENTRAL STATION in his listing of The Best New Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of the Year (So Far).

Tidhar’s second novel out in the U.S. this year, following the pitch-black Adolf Hitler satire A MAN LIES DREAMING, couldn’t be more different: this strange take on space opera is a classic “fix-up,” strung together from a double-handful of previously published short stories exploring the lives of the inhabitants of a slum situated below Central Station, the hub of humanity’s future and a gateway to contact with the Others, an alien force that is changing the future of humanity. On the ground, in a border town between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, genetically engineered children experience a different sort of reality, cyborg couriers deliver drugs, and robotic priests speak to the faithful. It’s a dazzling, unsettling vision of the future from one of the most consistently interesting—and challenging—voices in the genre.

For THE REPORTER GROUP, Rabbi Rachel Esserman praises the book.

Some novels straddle the line between fantasy and science fiction. That’s true of Lavie Tidhar’s “Central Station” (Tachyon Publications), which is set in a Tel Aviv of the future. In this world, most of the universe’s population is connected into “the conversation” – a type of Internet that interfaces with people’s brains. Cyborg robotiks, who were created from dying soldiers, now have few memories of the humans they once were. There is also a group of children whose existence is part magic and part science.

“Central Station” works best as a collection of interrelated stories rather than a cohesive novel. One reoccurring character is Boris Chang, who has returned from space after years of trying to escape a family curse. Once in Tel Aviv, he meets an ex-lover, now known as Mama Jones, who runs a type of café/bar and has adopted an orphan with an unusual gift. Other characters include Motl, a robotik who has fallen in love with a human, and Carmel, a data vampire whose bite drains people of their memories and their lives. Parts of the overarching plot focus on why Carmel has been allowed to settle on Earth, a place vampires are forbidden entry.

While “Central Station” is a fantasy, Tidhar seems less concerned with creating a cohesive alternative world than with telling the stories of the humans and almost humans who populate it. All his characters are searching for something beyond themselves, whether it’s spiritual satisfaction or love. Although the narrative doesn’t answer all of the questions it raises, those who enjoy pondering metaphysical mysteries will lose themselves in its pages.

POSITRON CHICAGO offers notes from the Chicago Nerd Social Club June reading of CENTRAL STATION.

Lots of praise for the writing in “Central Station”, perhaps the more so after slogging through last month’s selection. We really liked the characterization here, and the way that Tidhar conveys really human stories and a deep sense of place by making these sort of thin slices of description across an interwoven cast.

<snip>

However, a lot of us liked the “let’s just see how life is like there” approach. We were fascinated by each character and segment, from the religious robots and data-vampires to the very human inheritors of Weiwei’s Folly. We particularly liked that ethnic history feels realized here–characters’ cultural heritages are actually fleshed out. We talked for a bit about how, in addition to not having some save-the-universe plot, it’s also neither a utopia nor a dystopia, it’s just a place with people living their lives, which is unusually realistic. And we wondered why SF has generally been uncomfortable with examining the “small lives of quite desperation” of normal folks–why that tends to be left to “literary” fiction.

It’s also pretty impressive how Tidhar layers SF references without hanging textual impact on them (unlike something like “Ready Player One”, for instance). You don’t need to know that Carmel’s story is an homage to C.L. Moore’s “Shambleau” for it to work…but it’s a nice extra if you do. Likewise the Burroughs-inspired Martians, or the use of “ubik” as a verb. Even the sneaky inclusion of Scientologists as “Elronites” seems like a reminder of the kind of pulpy SF L. Ron Hubbard wrote.

<snip>

Really a delightful discussion, and personally I can’t suggest “Central Station” enough. A change of pace, a change of place, with a real mix of styles here–horror, SF, comedy, pastoral. The overall impression I get from the book is a surprising kind of gentleness that is all too rare in SF/F–gentle without being precious–and acts as a kind of framing to highlight some really nice moments of wonder.

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

Cover and poster by Sarah Anne Langton

June 30, 2016

Poetic CENTRAL STATION is one of the Best Sci-Fi Books of 2016 So Far

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized a man lies dreaming, central station, flavorwire, jonathan sturgeon, lavie tidhar, review, sarah anne langton, science fiction, vbpl recommends, virginia beach public library, woody haut

At FLAVORWIRE, Jonathon Sturgeon included Lavie Tidhar’s moving, lyrical, and insightful CENTRAL STATION among The 10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2016 So Far.

Tidhar, another World Fantasy Award winner, sets this novel-of-stories in the wake of a diaspora that brings thousands of immigrants to a spaceport. Robotniks, virtual reality, cheap data. It’s by some measure the most interesting world presented in SF/F this year.

Woody Haut on his eponymous blog praises the novel.

And most recently CENTRAL STATION, a novel that’s appeared in bits and pieces in various magazines over the last few years. Likewise, it’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle of book that reads like a prose poem based perhaps on some barely recognisable or remembered mythology. Perhaps something along the lines of a 21st century version of Theodore Sturgeon’s MORE THAN HUMAN crossed with Tanith Lee poetic-realism. Based on the four Tidhar novels I’ve read over the past couple years, his work seems to get better and better. And even though I’ve come to expect a certain range and unexpectedness, CENTRAL STATION was still full of surprises. But, then, that’s been the case since his 2011 novel OSAMA (I’ve yet to read his daunting but no doubt readable steampunk trilogy THE BOOKMAN HISTORIES), the title alone demonstrating the author’s willingness to go places few others would dare. One gets the feeling that Tidhar, who grew up on a socialist kibbutz in Israel, followed by long spells in South Africa and elsewhere before ending up in London where he now resides, couldn’t be dull if he tried.

As with A MAN LIES DREAMING, Tidhar has created a poetic, dream-like, even nostalgic, world that, however foreign, is all too imaginable. Which might well be the hallmark of any good science fiction story. Beneath it all CENTRAL STATION yearns for a place that once was, or maybe never was save for someplace deep within the author imagination… And like a disturbing and complicated dream, it’s a novel that, like A MAN LIES DREAMING, will haunt any appreciative reader long after he or she has turned its final page.

For VBPL (Virginia Beach Public Library) RECOMMENDS, Tracy V. reviews the book.

This world has made advances with cyber tech, AI, and genetic engineering, humanity has spread far into space, and the definitions of human and living have become more fluid. It is a future where everything is online, and everyone is connected to the data stream (the Conversation) with their virtual lives taking on their own existence. Tidhar is not afraid to think outside of the box for this imaginary future and explore interesting ideas. The definition of humans have stretched with cyborgs, modified humans, robots, AIs, and alien presence. Same with the definition of living, there are virtual-only existences and some hybrid of virtual and physical. Just the way they think of themselves and what they worry about is so different and intriguing and, at the heart of it, still something human that readers can relate to.

Tidhar’s writing establishes a strong sense of place with Central Station. He draws strongly on Tel Aviv’s present-day heritage and culture and its mingling of other peoples to build this imaginative version. There is a strong international flavor, with cultural foods, sights, language, and even religion. The writing is literary and poetic. His prose grounds the story and ties all these elements together into one convincing and believable package. His writing establishes the feel of this world better than any technical details. He writes with conviction and captures the way the different characters experience their world, their interactions, and their dialogue–all as insiders rather than an outsider looking in–adding to that immersive experience.

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

June 22, 2016

CENTRAL STATION is one of the highlights of the year

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized booklist, central station, lavie tidhar, lynndee wathen, review, sarah anne langton, science fiction, the future fire, thierstein.net, wendy bousfield

A trio of reviews for Lavie Tidhar’s moving, lyrical, and insightful CENTRAL STATION.

THIERSTEIN.NET praises the novel.

The entire environment is brought beautifully to life for the reader – not with long descriptions, but with evocative moments and little key points thrown in. It positively brims with ideas and concepts, painting with sights and smells a believable, tangible future world which you can taste and feel, and containing a sparkling cast of characters, each with their own life and drives.

The structure of the book is a series of short stories, which on the one hand can stand on their own (all but 2 were previously published individually), but which loosely connect on tangents and topics, intertwine, and trace a picture of something bigger. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is, but overall this is the story of a beginning, or a change.

Overall the set-up greatly reminded me of Ian McDonald’s CYBERABAD DAYS, whilst CENTRAL STATION itself is more than a little reminiscent of Somtow Sucharitkul’s MALLWORLD – both are classics as touchstones, and I think he does a very good job living up to them!

The book is full of references to other, frequently ‘classic’ SF. As an example – there is a mention from a Robotnik about someone using Sand Worms as weapons in the Middle East; never mind the robot priest R. Brother Patch-It praying: “Our maker who art in the zero point field, hallowed be thy nine billion names…”

The individual stories and strands are told from numerous viewpoints, and follow a variety of protagonists – we see the movers, we see the reacting ones, and in-between those who live in the moment. The strands themselves are winding around each other, touching, parting. Like a tapestry, where no single strand tells the story, but together they draw a picture.

The book starts with a Prologue placing this – for us – future story into a different frame; we are being told and shown history, a key point in the development of humanity on its way to the stars, a documentary. And I felt that, in the end, it didn’t fully deliver on this, it stopped short and left me hanging with part of that story untold.

But this is a minor quibble, and might just be me… overall I think this is a great book, most likely one of the highlights of the year, and comes highly recommended for everyone who enjoys modern, intelligent Science Fiction in an unusual setting.

Wendy Bousfield at THE FUTURE FIRE really enjoyed the book.

Lavie Tidhar’s moving, lyrical, insightful work of speculative fiction, CENTRAL STATION, extrapolates a future in which humanity is entering a new evolutionary stage, triggered by growing immersion in the Internet. In Tidhar’s world, “nodes,” implanted at conception in “birthing clinics” (there are no natural births), provide direct access to the “Conversation”: “a hundred thousand… voices, channels, music, languages, the high-bandwidth indecipherable toktok of Others, weather reports, confessionals, off-world broadcasts time-lagged from Lunar Port and Tong Yun and the Belt…” (23). Akin to Arthur C. Clarke’s
CHILDHOOD’S
END, CENTRAL STATION traces the emergence of children psychically linked to one another and to other minds, both human and mechanical.

<snip>

Tidhar is not merely an astute social critic, but also a gifted stylist. Woven into the text are allusions to classic works of science fiction, especially those of Philip K. Dick and Cordwainer Smith: characters are “ubicked”; refuse is “kipple”; spacers travel into the “Up and Out”; “C’Mell” is worshipped as a saint. Tidhar’s writing is lyrical and startlingly metaphoric. Crippled by information overload (his father’s memories have been implanted in his brain), Vlad forgets his wife’s name: “Her name disappeared, the way keys or socks do. Misplaced and, later, could not be found” (242). Tidhar outdoes Anthony Burgess (
CLOCKWORK
ORANGE) in constructing not one, but TWO syntactically consistent future languages. The Robotniks speak Battle Yiddish, developed “like the Navajo of Code Talkers” for a “long-gone war” (114). Asteroid Pidgin is “the near-universal language of space.” Here is Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in Asteroid Pidgin: “Blong stap o no blong stap / Hemi wan gudfala kwesjen ia…” (106). The droll, allusive, poetic, polyglot language of CENTRAL STATION is one of its greatest joys.

Though Tidhar is a prolific novelist and winner of the World Fantasy Award (OSAMA, 2012), many readers of mainstream fiction may well have never heard of him. Though CENTRAL STATION is in every way a literary masterpiece, it will not, alas, appear on the best seller lists. While the public embraces space operas like Star Wars and medieval fantasies like Game of Thrones, true speculative fiction remains a niche market. The ghettoizing of speculative fiction is unfortunate, since its mission is to bring to imaginative life the potential futures toward which we are blindly rushing.

For BOOKLIST, LynnDee Wathen reviews CENTRAL STATION.

Still, the novel is thought-provoking about the future of reality and our constant need for data. Fans of Tidhar and other thought-provoking science fiction may enjoy this highly intellectual novel.

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

June 16, 2016

CENTRAL STATION delivers a complex and elaborate vision

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized carl slaughter, central station, file 770, interzone, jason sanford, kalireads, lavie tidhar, osama, review, sarah anne langton, sci-fi strange, science fiction, the semiotic standard

KALIREADS praises Lavie Tidhar’s smart CENTRAL STATION.

All of these characters weave in and out of Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION, a complex and elaborate vision of a future directly extrapolated from our present. Close your eyes, take two deep breaths forward into technology’s advancement, and you are there–with the towering, bustling space port of Central Station bursting through the atmosphere above you, its height creating its own miniature weather systems.

Central Station is Tel Aviv, or was Tel Aviv, but is now a bustling space port, a cultural mecca where creatures human and other have met, bounced off of each other, merged, fought, loved, and formed some sort of life together. Those looking for a plot-driven novel will only find hints of one here, but those seeking a world built from scratch will appreciate the strong foundations and smart implications of this future vision.

I loved Lavie Tidhar’s OSAMA, and sometimes I wonder if Tidhar is trying to see just how unpopular he can become. He is a talented writer who doesn’t seem to make his projects more digestible for a mainstream audience, which is fine, but I would love to see him make it big with something more easily to consume one day. I also need to find a copy of his MAN LIES DREAMING next, which like OSAMA, sounds almost a bit too meta and brilliant for its own good. But Tidhar is one of the few authors who can take these big, uncomfortable ideas and story tropes and pull something brilliant and beautiful and fresh out of them.

My last post was on Berkeley’s Bay Area Book Festival, and this book received a shoutout from the authors on the Subversive Speculative Science Fiction Panel. If you are looking for something simple, look elsewhere. If you want something to make your mind and heart expand and ache, you’ve found your author.

At THE SEMIOTIC STANDARD, Lavie Tidhar participated in the round table discussion The Collective: Books We Did Not Finish.

The author Tim Parks had a wonderful essay in the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS a while back that really resonated with me, about not finishing books without necessarily taking away from the value of what you’ve read. A sort of exoneration, if you will: that it’s fine not to finish even very good books, and still value what you have read.

I find that my reading habits have changed a lot in recent years, a function of time and availability. I am no longer able, nor desire to read big books, and so when I can, I am drawn to shorter works, which have always been my favourite, to novellas or short novels. I tend to read a lot of first, second, sometimes even third chapters of books and put them down. Just enough to get an idea of what the author is doing, what people are talking about, but a lot of the time, I won’t pursue the book further. I look for something very specific, a certain literariness or playfulness—I get turned off by plain language or info-dumping or anything that doesn’t feel to me to be new in some way. I look for a voice.

So in a given year, I might read thirty to forty books if I’m lucky, many of them short, but chances are I would have picked up many more books and followed them a short while into the text, and put them down, and not feel worse for doing so.

In the reprinted INTERZONE interview at FILE 770, Jason Sanford discusses sci-fi strange.

CARL SLAUGHTER: Define “sci-fi strange.”

JASON SANFORD: I started using the term a few years ago after David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer described one of my stories as “new weird SF.” That comment tickled me since I’ve long been a fan of the New Weird movement, with authors like Jeff VanderMeer and China Miéville ranking among my favorite fantasy writers. But the comment also set me to thinking about the science fiction authors who excited me the most. I wondered if there was a trend here, decided there was, and eventually started calling it sci-fi strange.

To me, sci-fi strange stories exhibit well-crafted language, a strong sense of wonder, and reflect the truth of our multicultural world. Sci-fi strange stories cross back and forth across the boundaries of what is scientifically and realistically possible, often flirting with the fantasy genre. But these stories aren’t fantasy. Instead, they’re an updated version of the “literature of ideas” theme within the science fiction genre. I see sci-fi strange as science fiction for a world where the frontiers of scientific possibility are almost philosophical in nature.

CS: What are the genre, story, and author influences for sci-fi strange?

JS: A number of authors I love create what I’d call sci-fi strange, including Paolo Bacigalupi, Aliette de Bodard, N.K. Jemisin, Ted Chiang, Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, Nnedi Okorafor, Rachel Swirsky, Lavie Tidhar and Caroline M. Yoachim, among many others.

I’d say Paolo Bacigalupi is the prototypical sci-fi strange author, as exhibited by many of his short stories along with novels like THE WINDUP GIRL. Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya continuity of short fiction is also very much sci-fi strange (there are many great stories in this series, including her novella On a Red Station, Drifting). Most of Ted Chiang’s fiction feels like sci-fi strange, as does Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station stories. I’d also place within sci-fi strange Nnedi Okorafor’s novella “Binti,” which is pure SF, and WHO FEARS DEATH, which actively blurs the lines between fantasy and SF in very exciting ways.

WHO FEARS DEATH actually ties in with an interesting point, which is that many of the authors I’ve named go back and forth between the science fiction and fantasy genres. For example, some of Ken Liu’s best short fiction is pure science fiction, yet his first novel is an epic fantasy. Makes me wonder if authors who defy being pegged down to a single genre with their writings are also people willing to defy the accepted tropes of science fiction.

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

June 14, 2016

With the ambitious CENTRAL STATION, Lavie Tidhar spins the ultimate storytelling silk

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alvaro zinos-amaro, another dimension, central station, elsa bouet, intergalactic medicine show, lavie tidhar, prick of the spindle, review, sarah anne langton, shoreline of infinity, the little red reviewer

The acclaim for Lavie Tidhar’s interesting and intelligent CENTRAL STATION keeps coming.

In his Another Dimension column at the INTERGALACTIC MEDICINE SHOW, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro praises the book.

A small sampling of the many wonders you’ll encounter in these pages: alien symbionts reverse-engineered from ancient microscopic Martian life, religion as addiction and addiction as religion in the form of Crucifixation, the endless chattering Conversation of virtual voices from those who have become digital and those who have transcended even such a state, data vampirism in the form of stringoi, robotic war veterans who have become priests, an entire gamesworld—singularity-mines included—called the Guilds of Ashkelon, the Urbonas Ride, high-density data encoded in the smoke particles of ubiq cigarettes, adaptoplant neighborhoods in which houses sprout like trees, and a collector of ancient pulp magazines, memories of orange groves, paprika, turmeric and sumac, potted mint plants, and one suspended raindrop.

If you’re looking for a strong plot anchored by one or two point-of-view characters, this tapestry novel, threaded together from mostly previously-published short stories, isn’t for you. But if you’re open to a wonderfully inventive set of interconnected tales, brimming with sensory detail and paying tribute to a plethora of science-fiction tropes, there are few works to rivalCentral Station. In one of the many glowing recommendations in the front pages, Maxim Jakubowski cites the works of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, C. L. Moore, China Miéville and Larry Niven in connection to this book. Add to the list George Alec Effinger, C. J. Cherryh, Frank Herbert, Ian McDonald, Harry Harrison and even Ray Bradbury, as well as pop culture shows like Babylon 5.

Central Station is both a “liminal place” and a hub from which radiate the novel’s thirteen narrative spokes. And while there is a bracketing story of keeping vigil and facing death, it is really the novel’s themes—like bridging the real with the unreal, the past with the future—that provide cohesion.

Oh, and those spiders.

I count references to spiders in at least nine of the thirteen chapters. Exoskeleton crews climb the spaceport walls like metallic spiders; suborbital craft glide down to the station’s roof like parachuting spiders; shadows of moving spiders flicker on the surface of the moon, and so on. Of course, it’s Lavie Tidhar himself who spins the ultimate storytelling silk.

In SHORELINE OF
INFINITY 3, Elsa Bouet reviews CENTRAL STATION.

“Life wasn’t like that neat
classifcation system,” is perhaps
the sentence that encapsulates
this whole novel. Lavie Tidhar’s
Central Station creates a world in
which lines are blurred, boundaries
crossed, and new identities
are created and evolve rapidly.
Refectively, the story blends
different genres; from ‘everyday
life’, a genre that chronicles the
lives of people as they are lived,
cyberpunk, the detective narrative,
gothic and horror, and perhaps
even fairy tales. It is a novel
reminiscent of the science fction
by Philip K. Dick, William Gibson,
Octavia Butler or more recently
China Miéville, and it makes for an
interesting and intelligent read.

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE enjoyed the novel.

Lavie Tidhar, in his ambitious novel CENTRAL STATION, certainly follows the traditional stricture of science fiction. His future world is cluttered with our trepidations on the role of technology. In the world of CENTRAL STATION are creatures who are conjoined human flesh and robotic parts; there are entities called Others, who are wholly virtual, inhabiting a liminal zone between reality and a hazy, digital world. People across the world, and on human colonies in the solar system, communicate through a type of free-floating internet called the Conversation, which is a noisy, distracting, and vibrant “space” of competing voices.

<snip>

Above and beyond this, the success of Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION ultimately rests on the reader’s comfort with solid, unadulterated science fiction. Tidhar has written a novel with an ambitious agenda. CENTRAL STATION boldly and unapologetically sticks to its genre with resolute determinism. In the end, he has produced a vibrant work with a strong imaginative strain and fearless drive to create a new world.

CENTRAL STATION exceeds THE LITTLE RED
REVIEWER expectations.

But . . good news! By the 2nd chapter of CENTRAL STATION I was hooked, by the middle I was grinning every time I learned about another character’s back story, and on the morning of Memorial Day I had either the best timing in the world or the worst, as I read about the robotnik soldier beggars of the future.

I don’t know why, but I shy away from using the term “mosaic novel” to describe CENTRAL STATION . Yes, the novel does fit the definition of a mosaic novel, and it also fits the definition of a “fix up” novel… and the problem is that both of those terms feel too flat and too small to encompass this book.Central Station has the overwhelming sensory overload of an Ian McDonald, the fantastical descriptions and bio-technology of a China Mieville, and the each story is a foundation of the next of Cat Valente’s Orphan’s Tales. With nods to scifi greats like Cordwainer Smith, Philip K. Dick, and Isaac Asimov (and was that a Burroughs reference I saw?), Tidhar touches on history, culture, and socio-economics to tell a story about how we’re all stuck together and should really make the best of things because these kids need a village to raise them. Reading this book was like being a bartender at bar frequented by locals – Everyone has a different story to tell, but all their stories are interrelated and interconnected. The further I got into this novel, the more I enjoyed myself.

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

Cover and poster by Sarah Anne Langton

June 8, 2016

Tachyon artists nominated for Chesley and British Fantasy Awards

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized asfa, bfsa, british fantasy award, central station, chelsey awards, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, hannu rajaniemi, hannu rajaniemi: collected fiction, John Picacio, julie dillon, kate elliot, lavie tidhar, lius lasahido, reiko murakami, sarah anne langton, the very best of kate elliott

Both the Chesley and British Fantasy Awards announced their nominations with Tachyon artists Julie Dillon, Sarah Anne Langton, Lius Lasahido, Reiko Murakami, and John Picacio, not to mention editor Ellen Datlow all receiving recognition.

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Best Cover
Illustration: Hardcover Book

Richard
Anderson THE DINOSAUR LORDS by Victor Milan (Tor, July 2015)
Lius
Lasahido HANNU RAJANIEMI: COLLECTED FICTION by Hannu Rajaniemi
(Tachycon, May 2015)
Todd
Lockwood VOYAGE OF THE BASILISK by Marie Brennan (Tor, March 2015)
Cynthia
Sheppard KAREN MEMORY by Elizabeth Bear (Tor, February 2015)
Sam Weber DUNE
by Frank Herbert (The Folio Society, April 2015)

Best Cover
Illustration: Paperback Book

Julie Dillon THE
VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT by Kate Elliott (Tachycon, February
2015)
Tyler
Jacobson BEYOND THE POOL OF STARS by Howard Andrew Jones (Tor,
October 2015)
Jeffery Alan
Love WOLFHOUND CENTURY by Peter Higgins (Gollancz, May 2015)
David
Palumbo BINTI by Nnedi Okorafer (Tor, September 2015)
John
Picacio INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS by Jack Finney (Simon &
Schuster, October 2015)

Best Cover
Illustration: Magazine

Maurizio
Manzieri ASIMOV’S, Oct/Nov 2015
Reiko
Murakami LIGHTSPEED #63, August 2015
Tran
Nguyen UNCANNY #4, May/June 2015
Greg
Ruth ALABASTER: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BIRD #1, Dark Horse
Comics, Dec. 2015
shichigoro-shingo CLARKESWORLD #109, October 2015

Best Interior
Illustration

Galen
Dara “Tuesdays with Molakesh The Destroyer” by Megan Grey
(FIRESIDE MAGAZINE #19)
Marcel
Mercado SOUTHLANDS RPG (Kobold Press, July 2015)
Peter
Mohrbacher ANGELARIUM: BOOK OF EMANATIONS by Peter Mohrbacher &
Eli Minaya
Tran
Nguyen “Transition Management Survey” (CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER,
September 2015)
Sam Weber DUNE
by Frank Herbert (The Folio Society, July 2015)

Best Color Work:
Unpublished

Joseph
Bellofatto STAR SHIP, Oil
Donato
Giancola BERON AND LUTHIEN IN THE COURT OF THINGAL AND MELIAN, Oil
Wayne
Haag DESERT WRECK, Oil
Jessica TC
Lee ENCHANTED, Digital
Elizabeth
Leggett AFTER HOURS, Digital
Mark
Poole MEMORIES, Oil
Eric
Velhagen FELINES, Oil

Best Monochrome
Work: Unpublished

Rovina Cai COLD
WIND
Jeremy
Enecio PROGENY, Graphite on Moleskin
Travis
Lewis SYMBIOSIS, Graphite
Mark
Molchan RETURN, Graphite
Ruth
Sanderson INVOKING THE DRAGON, Ink/Scratchboard
Chris
Seaman FAMILY PORTRAITHAUSEN, Acrylic
Allen
Williams BOUND, Graphite & Gold leaf accent

Best
Three-Dimensional Art

Devon
Dorrity FLIGHT OF THE MERROW, Clay & Bronze
Thomas
Kuebler ADELPHA AND HER SISTER, Mixed
Stelios
Mousarris INCEPTION COFFEE TABLE, Wood
Forest Rogers THE
MORRIGAN, Mixed
Virginie
Ropars OKUNOSHIMA, Mixed
Vincent
Villafranca DARK DAY FOR THE METAL HEADS, Bronze

Best Product
Illustration

Linda
Adair ADOLESCENCE – Promo art for IlluXcon 2016
Mitchell
Bentley MITCHELL DAVIDSON BENTLEY 2015 CALENDAR – Albon Lake &
Atomic Fly Studios
Rovina Cai BLACK
HOLE – card for COSMOS TAROT & ORACLE DECK, The Light Grey Art
Lab
Jacob Murray A
GAME OF THRONES: THE CARD Game – 2nd edition box art, Fantasy
Flight Games
John Picacio EL
ARBOL – Loteria card, Lone Boy
Magali
Villeneuve GEORGE R.R. MARTIN: SONG OF ICE AND FIRE – 2016
calendar, Bantam

Best Gaming –
Related Illustration

Clint
Cearley MIND ROT – Dragons of Tarkir Magic Card, WotC
Vincent
Proce GUARDIAN AUTOMATON – Magic Origins Magic Card, WotC
Anna
Steinbauer BLESSED SPIRITS – Magic Origins Magic Card, WotC
Ryan Yee FRUIT
OF THE FIRST TREE – Fate Reforged Magic Card, WotC
Min Yum
SANDBLAST – Fate Reforged Magic Card, WotC

Best Art Director

Neil
Clarke CLARKESWORLD magazine
Irene Gallo Tor
Books & Tor.com
Jeremy
Jarvis Wizards of the Coast
Elizabeth
Leggett LIGHTSPEED magazine
Lauren
Panepinto Orbit Books & Muddy Colors contributor
Betsy Wolheim &
Shelia Gilbert DAW Books

Lifetime Artistic
Achievement

Kinuko Y. Craft
David A. Hardy
Greg Manchess
Iain McCaig
Wendy Pini
Drew Struzan

Best anthology

AFRICAN MONSTERS,
ed. Margrét Helgadóttir and Jo Thomas (Fox Spirit Books)
AICKMAN’S HEIRS,
ed. Simon Strantzas (Undertow Publications)
BEST BRITISH HORROR
2015, ed. Johnny Mains (Salt Publishing)
THE DOLL COLLECTION,
ed. Ellen Datlow (Tor Books)
THE 2ND SPECTRAL
BOOK OF HORROR STORIES, ed. Mark Morris (Spectral Press)

Best artist

Ben Baldwin
Vincent Chong
Julie Dillon
Evelinn Enoksen
Sarah Anne
Langton
Jeffrey Alan Love

Best collection

GHOST SUMMER:
STORIES, Tananarive Due (Prime Books)
MONSTERS, Paul Kane
(The Alchemy Press)
PROBABLY MONSTERS,
Ray Cluley (ChiZine Publications)
SCAR CITY, Joel Lane
(Eibonvale Press)
SKEIN AND BONE, V.H.
Leslie (Undertow Publications)
THE STARS SEEM SO
FAR AWAY, Margrét Helgadóttir (Fox Spirit Books)

Best
comic/graphic novel

BITCH PLANET, Kelly
Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, Robert Wilson IV and Cris Peter
(Image Comics) (#2–5)
MS. MARVEL, VOL. 2:
GENERATION WHY, G. Willow Wilson, Jacob Wyatt and Adrian Alphona
(Marvel)
NIMONA, Noelle
Stevenson (HarperTeen)
RED SONJA, Gail
Simone and Walter Geovani (Dynamite Entertainment) (#14–18)
SAGA, Brian K.
Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics) (#25–32)
THE SANDMAN:
OVERTURE, Neil Gaiman, J.H. Williams III and Dave Stewart (Vertigo)

Best fantasy
novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)

GUNS OF THE DAWN,
Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)
HALF A WAR, Joe
Abercrombie (HarperVoyager)
THE IRON GHOST, Jen
Williams (Headline)
SIGNAL TO NOISE,
Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Solaris)
SORCERER TO THE
CROWN, Zen Cho (Macmillan)
UPROOTED, Naomi
Novik (Macmillan)

Best
film/television production

INSIDE NO. 9: THE
TRIAL OF ELIZABETH GADGE, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton (BBC
Two)
JESSICA JONES: AKA
WWJD?, Scott Reynolds (Netflix)
JONATHAN STRANGE &
MR NORRELL, Peter Harness (BBC One)
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD,
George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris (Warner Bros.
Pictures et al.)
MIDWINTER OF THE
SPIRIT, Stephen Volk (ITV Studios)
STAR WARS: THE FORCE
AWAKENS, by Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt (Lucasfilm
et al.)

Best horror novel
(the August Derleth Award)

A COLD SILENCE,
Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books)
THE DEATH HOUSe,
Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)
LOST GIRL, Adam
Nevill (Pan Books)
RAWBLOOD, Catriona
Ward (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
THE SILENCE, Tim
Lebbon (Titan Books)
WELCOME TO NIGHT
VALE, Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Orbit)

Best independent
press

The Alchemy Press
(Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards)
Angry Robot (Marc
Gascoigne)
Fox Spirit Books
(Adele Wearing)
Newcon Press (Ian
Whates)

Best
magazine/periodical

BENEATH CEASELESS
SKIES, ed. Scott H. Andrews (Firkin Press)
BLACK STATIC, ed.
Andy Cox (TTA Press)
HOLDFAST MAGAZINE,
ed. Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee (Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee)
INTERZONE, ed. Andy
Cox (TTA Press)
STRANGE HORIZONS,
ed. Niall Harrison (Strange Horizons)

Best newcomer
(the Sydney J. Bounds Award)

Becky Chambers, for
THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET (Hodder & Stoughton)
Zen Cho, for
SORCERER TO THE CROWN (Macmillan)
Peter Newman, for
THE VAGRANT (HarperVoyager)
Steven Poore, for
THE HEIR TO THE NORTH (Kristell Ink)
Marc Turner, for
WHEN THE HEAVENS FALL (Titan Books)

Best non-fiction

THE ART OF HORROR:
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, ed. Stephen Jones (Applause Theatre &
Cinema Books)
FANTASY-FACTION, ed.
Marc Aplin and Jennie Ivins (Fantasy-Faction)
GINGER NUTS OF
HORROR, ed. Jim Mcleod (Jim McLeod)
KING FOR A YEAR, ed.
Mark West (Mark West)
LETTERS TO TIPTREE,
ed. Alexandra Pierce and Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
MATRILINES, Kari
Sperring (Strange Horizons)

Best novella

Albion Fay, Mark
Morris (Spectral Press)
Binti, Nnedi
Okorafor (Tor.com)
The Bureau of Them,
Cate Gardner (Spectral Press)
The Pauper Prince
and the Eucalyptus Jinn, Usman T. Malik (Tor.com)
Witches of
Lytchford, Paul Cornell (Tor.com)

Best short
fiction

The Blue Room, V.H.
Leslie (SKEIN AND BONE)
Dirt Land, Ralph
Robert Moore (BLACK STATIC #49)
Fabulous Beasts,
Priya Sharma (Tor.com)
Hippocampus, Adam
Nevill (TERROR TALES OF THE OCEAN)
Strange Creation,
Frances Kay (TENEBRIS NYXIES)
When The Moon Man
Knocks, Cate Gardner (BLACK STATIC #48)

For more information on HANNU RAJANIEMI: COLLECTED FICTION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Lius Lasahido

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more information on THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOTT, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Julie Dillon

Design by Elizabeth Story

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

June 7, 2016

CENTRAL STATION is a wondrous thought-provoking book

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized central station, Fantasy Book Review, final blow joe, lavie tidhar, niall alexander, review, Ryan Lawler, sarah anne langton, the speculative scotsman, youtube

Photo: Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013

For FANTASY BOOK REVIEW, Ryan Lawler awards Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION an 8.5/10.

CENTRAL STATION by Lavie Tidhar is a far future sci-fi that imagines a space-faring humanity, a vastly changed earth, and the full integration of technology into society. It is a collection of short stories that are all tied together with an overarching plot, and it touches on things like faith, evolution, discrimination, and more.

<snip>

The characters here have a lot of depth, flowing back and forth between multiple shades of grey. You get the feeling that for a lot of the population they are simply existing, going through the motions of life in a guarded way so they don’t get too hurt. It’s quite a clever mechanic as it makes the scenes of high emotion all the more powerful by contrast. Tidhar even introduces nodes and symbiotic attachments that allow people to express themselves using digital means along with their biological senses, allowing robots and digital beings to interact emotionally with biological beings. There is so much creativity and original thought here being used to tell a story on multiple levels, which is highly impressive.

<snip>

CENTRAL STATION is a wondrous thought-provoking book, as you would expect from someone as highly credentialed as Lavie Tidhar. This is a book that asks you to question what you think humanity is, what you think consciousness is, and what you think faith is. It is not a book for everyone, but for those who like literary-style sci-fi that explores complex themes in depth, I think you will love this book.

FinalBlowJoe reviews the book on YouTube.

Here’s an excerpt from his review:

All the stories are interconnecting to greater and lesser degrees with various others. They also work on their own, they were published that way originally, but together they form something much greater than the sum of their parts. May sound cliche but still true here. The stories are wide ranging in scope and ideas but they all manage to create a very personal feel which is something you don’t come across often but it’s remarkable when you do.

Humanity has spread to the stars and technology is suitably advanced. Most people have nodes implanted in them which allows them access to what is essentially universal Wi-Fi Internet; among other things. The world feels alien in some ways due to the technological and sociological changes but still manages to feel very familiar and everyday.

In Summary:

I’d say this is a book with great characters, setting, ideas with a remarkable emotional and intellectual connection.

At THE SPECULATIVE SCOTSMAN, Niall Alexander reviews CENTRAL STATION.

World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar rewrites the rules of the short story collection in CENTRAL STATION, an ambitious assemblage of thirteen tales tall but indubitably true that are all the more remarkable when read together.

<snip>

Fulfilling that awesome promise—leaving Neve Sha’anan at last—is not nearly so easy for our unfortunate few; nor, indeed, was bidding goodbye to this exceptional collection an elementary experience for me. With each transmuted tale “a node linking the whole into something greater than its parts,” (p.64) CENTRAL STATION is without question the best assemblage of short stories I’ve read in recent memory.

Sublimely sensual, emotionally moreish, and composed with crystalline clarity irrespective of its incredible complexity, if this is “what SF is going to look like in the next decade,” as editor extraordinaire Gardner Dozois declares, then readers: the next ten years will be olsem diffren indeed—which is to say the same, but different, in asteroid pidgin.

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

June 3, 2016

Cue crazy aliens, Nazis and zeppelins!: An interview with artist Sarah Anne Langton

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized artist, central station, comics, cover, interview, jews versus zombies, lavie tidhar, new swabia, Rick Klaw, sarah anne langton, the apex book of world sf, the tel aviv dossier

The
brainchild behind the gorgeous cover to Lavie Tidhar’s acclaimed
novel CENTRAL STATION, Sarah Anne Langton has worked as an
Illustrator for EA Games, Hodder & Stoughton, Forbidden Planet,
The Cartoon Network, Sony, Apple, Marvel Comics, Apex Publications,
Angry Robot, Jurassic London, Fox Spirit, NewCon Press, Hachette,
“The Fizzy Pop Vampire” series, and a wide variety of music
events. She created the Hodderscape dodo publisher logo and serves
as a judge for the Kitschies Inky Tentacle for best cover art. When
not bound to her computer, Sarah daylights as Web Mistress for the
worlds largest sci-fi and fantasy website.

Tachyon’s
resident social media maven and sometimes editor Rick Klaw sat down
with the extraordinary Sarah to discuss working with Lavie Tidhar,
the
creative process, comics,
and
British Pop Art.

The cover for
CENTRAL STATION is one of many projects you’ve done with Lavie
Tidhar. How’d you first get involved with his work?

It was some terrible
accident *lol* No, we both worked with Jurassic London publisher
Jared Shurin. Lavie had seen my illustrations and wanted a cover
redesign for THE TEL AVIV DOSSIER. An email popped up up asking
“would I be interested.” I already knew his work and thought
“Hey, this is going to be interesting.” At least, I’m not going
to be designing anything dull! Cue crazy aliens, Nazis and zeppelins!
Sign me up!

You’re creations
seem to perfectly mimic Tidhar’s eclectic, manic nature. How much do
you confer with him? How do you work together?

Oh, constant,
constant emailing. As a starting point Lavie mails out some kinda
loose brief and a selection of images, to give me a feel for the type
of design he’s after. Then I’lll potter off and get a little
imagery down visually, so we have something to work with. Lavie’ll
mail over a section of the book I’m illustrating, googled images,
old posters – all sorts of stuff to give me some context to the
design that’s under way. There’s always a lot of ping, ping, ping
exchange of ideas and alterations to the original illustration until
we have some artwork that we’re both happy with. Quiet often then
“first pass” design looks absolutely nothing like the finished
artwork! THE CENTRAL STATION roughs are unrecognisable from the
finished book cover but, I think, we both always want the most
stunning finished imagery possible… so keep making changes until
I’ve ‘got it’ rather than ever leave anything at the “okay”
stage.

We both have very
similar tastes in visual imagery so it all becomes more of an organic
process with the content, to try and capture Lavie’s ideas on
paper, as opposed to any discussion about fonts or colour selections.
And if it something looks a bit rubbish we both aren’t afraid to
say so…. which I’m sure helps!

You’ve got a
comic book short story written by Lavie coming out soon, Was that you
first foray into graphic storytelling? Did you approach the work
differently?

Yes, this a my comic
book first. I actually work in the comics industry but I hadn’t
ever illustrated any graphic work before. Weirdly. Designing New
Swabia made me really appreciate how many hours go into any comic
book – a whole bunch! Drawing a series of illustrations that work
sequentially and the telling of a narrative through both words and
pictures brings up a lot of purely practical illustration issues –
from making sure your zeppelin design remains consistent to making
sure speech bubbles can be read instinctively, in the correct order.
We approach the design process in a very similar way to, say, a
poster or a book jacket. You can probably tell as the end result
doesn’t look very much like ‘standard’ comic book fare but I
prefer to be involved in something a little more experimental and
‘left of field’. Very kindly the whole story was written bearing
in mind that I was going to be on illustration, so the imagery is
tweaked to suit my graphic style rather than using any more
traditional techniques.

We have another
comic book tale on-the-go involving me drawing a lot of arctic
wilderness and alien lurking horror. Well, this is Lavie, what do you
expect? But that’ll be a while in the making even though Mr Tidhar
will not stop having amazing ideas 🙂

Many of your
striking images are reminiscent of the advertising/proganda posters
of mid-20th century. What attracts you to this style? What artists
influenced your works?

I love the clean
graphic simplicity of retro poster design and 1950’s advertising.
The simplicity of line, shape and colour always makes me want to
emulate that type of illustration and give it a contemporary twist.
The flat, block colours and minimal nature of the design work I feel
alway gives it such visual impact – always very striking – something
which is never a bad idea if you’re designing a book cover! I used
to do a lot silk screen printing so I love breaking down photographic
imagery into single, stunning shapes. The contrast of the four colour
screen prints used with mid-20th century advertising and propaganda
are so powerful and bold it’s something I try to mimic. Basically I
take the technical process of how, say, an art deco poster would have
been produced then replicate it virtually with photoshop. There’s
something is visually very compelling about this style printed
imagery, the balance of space and form is always so pleasing.

I particularly like
the work of Eduardo Paolozzi, one of the early British Pop Art guys.
His artwork mixes pop culture references and technological imagery,
man-machine stuff – I love the décollage mix! Warhol, Jamie Reed’s
punk masterpieces and the Russian Constructivist movement are a
favourite – super-clean, simple typography, something I always,
well, try to do. And the work of artist Bill Sienkiewicz – as
somebody who totally ignored how traditional comic book illustration
“should” look and brought in a healthy dose of fine art. Ignoring
how something is traditionally “supposed” to look is always a
plan. I’m basically a pop culture junkie – and probably shouldn’t
ever have been given access to the Internet – so I love anything
from 1950’s advertising to pulp to comics.

What is your work
process?

The design process
for everything is usually something like… google images, tea,
google images, tea… flap about for several hours, then make tea.
Eventually I’ll find the killer image to actually use for the
project but I do quite a lot of pottering about the internets for
inspiration. I hoard a huge amounts of photographic reference work
but will sometimes spend a day just trying to find exactly the right
photographic image I want to use. And only then start making the
“screen print” process to create a design from it. Virtually all
of my work is entirely digital, regardless of the medium, I design
straight into photoshop. Very easy to just keep fiddling about with
composition until it looks “right.” My main problem is people
writing interesting books, hence fascinating imagery, so I then get
distracted reading about Antarctic ice flows online or something. I
work full time, in addition to the illustration, so a lot of the
“process” is me just trying to keep myself awake at two in the
morning and draw!

What’s coming up
for you?

I think this new
comic book/graphic novel with Lavie is going to keep me occupied for
a fare while. I may never get to leave a Mac every again! I also have
some illustration work about evil nuns coming out for Jurassic London
and at the moment am designing branding and content for a new Steam
game. Conspiracy and dubious governmental goings on. Pretty exciting
as it’s a new medium for me to work in. And I always live in hope of
some more Central Station appearing! That’s all keeping me pretty
busy, which is probably a good thing… idle hands an’ all that 🙂

See more of Sarah’s amazing work at http://www.secretarcticbase.com/

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

June 1, 2016

CENTRAL STATION paints an intriguing picture

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized bookmunch, books bones and buffy, carolyn juris, central station, daniel carpenter, lavie tidhar, Publishers Weekly, review, science ficton, tammy sparks

The reviews for Lavie Tidhar’s clever CENTRAL STATION keep rolling in.

Carolyn Juris selected the novel as a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY staff pick.

Tidhar introduces the science fictional elements of his world deftly, with just enough information to keep the reader eager to learn more. There are robots and cyborgs, tentacle junkies and a data vampire, and the Others, evolved from digital intelligence. The so-called children of the station were, as an in-the-know doctor puts it, “labbed, right here, hacked together out of public property genomes and bits of black market nodes,” and they exist simultaneously in the real and virtual worlds.

At the mall-like Central Station’s faith bazaar, one may visit a Catholic church, a mosque—or the Elronite Centre for the Advancement of Humankind. The book is rife with such real-world winks, as well as nods to a library’s worth of science fiction greats. Recognizing the book’s literary references is half the fun; as a dabbler in rather than a devoted reader of SF, I have a new reading list and a lot of catching up to do.

But more important than the in-jokes and flights of imagination that make the novel a wild, heady ride, Central Station is populated by characters, not all of them entirely human, that feel recognizable and real. The non-Western setting and cast—descendents of immigrants to Tel Aviv from China, Nigeria, the Philippines, and elsewhere—is notable and refreshing, and completely uncontrived.

This slender book, less than 300 pages, spans generations without compromising character development. Estranged lovers reunite; elders contemplate, even long for, mortality; and adoptive parents care for their weird, weird lab-grown children. I don’t know whether Tidhar has more stories about Central Station planned, but I’d love to find out what happens to those children when they grow up.

On her BOOKS BONES & BUFFY, Tammy Sparks lauds the title.

The nitty-gritty: Intricate and otherworldly, emotional and thought provoking, Tidhar’s vision of the future is both familiar and alien at the same time.

I went into CENTRAL STATION completely blind, which is sometimes the best way to experience a book. So after a few chapters of seemingly unrelated characters and events, I finally caught on that this novel is a series of interconnected stories whose characters circle around each other, now and then crossing paths, each one unexpectedly connected to the next. As the story unfolds, the reader is introduced to the people who live in Central Station, a buzzing, hub-like city that reaches high into the clouds, a place of arrivals and departures, as people leave from the spaceports to Mars or Titan. My initial puzzlement in the beginning soon turned into delighted amazement as Tidhar’s unusual world began to unfold. If you’re looking for an action-packed adventure, heavy on plot, then CENTRAL STATION will disappoint you. There is very little plot to be found here, although there is a central mystery that threads its way through the chapters. What you will get, though, is just as good: incredible world-building, beautiful writing, and emotional moments between characters that celebrate what it means to be human.

<snip>

Surrounding the characters is Tidhar’s wonderfully unique vision of the future (or perhaps a warning of where we may be headed!). Humans grow up “noded,” with a sort of built in access to the Conversation, an internet-like construct that allows constant access to all information, like plugging our minds directly into the internet and never being able to escape the constant rush of information. People smoke ubiq cigarettes that have high density data encoded into the smoke, which delivers instant knowledge to the smoker. Those searching for religion can take a drug called Crucifixation, a pill that makes you see God. (Best name for a futuristic drug ever!) Gamers can strap themselves into pods and spend hours immersed in fantastical worlds (OK, maybe that idea’s been done before, but still. Cool!)

And describing all of this is Lavie Tidhar’s poetic and flowing prose, something that I don’t see enough of in speculative fiction. He revels in the senses, evoking smells and tastes so vivid that I knew exactly what he was talking about.

<snip>

In fact, each chapter in CENTRAL STATION was first published as a short story, and Tidhar has gone back and reworked them into a collection that paints an intriguing picture of a group of diverse people who are simply trying to survive. In other words, it’s sort of like real life, but with robotniks and tentacle junkies and Martian parasites. Tidhar shows us through his characters how important—and inescapable—history can be. I hope he writes more stories set in Central Station, because there is so much more I want to know.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Daniel Carpenter at BOOKMUNCH praises CENTRAL STATION.

One of the hardest jobs a genre writer, or really any writer for that matter has, is creating a believable world. It’s especially tough in science fiction, where your imagination can run wild, but the limits of what’s required for the story have to keep you grounded. I can only really think of a handful of times where a world feels real, breathable, and explorable. Mieville does it with aplomb in Perdido Street Station, Aliya Whiteley nailed it in The Beauty, and Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast is stunningly realised. These places stick in our minds because of the sense of place they establish. The worlds the writers play with are worlds that you can map out, walk the streets of and understand the geography. And now? Now you can add Lavie Tidhar’s Central STATION to the list.

<snip>

Tidhar has always been the kind of writer who succeeded in playing with established tropes – such as The Man in the High Castle influenced Osama, and here is no different. Again, we’re firmly in Dick territory, with stories rooted in concepts from authors like Asimov or Bradbury. It’s in taking these classic (and often rote) tropes from the annals of genre fiction, and using them to tell a much more modern story, that Tidhar succeeds so admirably. So whilst Central Station wears its influences on its sleeve, it never feels worn or tired.

Any Cop?: This is a deeply personal novel and yet it manages to have a huge scope. It’s a really great piece of fiction, and one of the most interesting science-fiction novels of recent years.

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

May 27, 2016

CENTRAL STATION distills all of science fiction into a single book

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized a man lies dreaming, b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, central station, ceridwen christensen, elan samuel, fantasy literature, lavie tidhar, orbital operations, review, sarah anne langton, skye walker, the warbler, warren ellis

A quartet of reviews of Lavie Tidhar’s thoughtful and poignant CENTRAL STATION.

Lavie Tidhar

In his ORBITAL OPERATIONS newsletter, Warren Ellis offers his take.

CENTRAL STATION. Lavie Tidhar. Now this is a thing. This is a science fiction novel written in an episodic style, where, in fact, it seems to me, each episode is also a little study of science fiction. Old science fiction. It’s like Tidhar is enacting a cold restart of the genre in the Middle East. References to old science fiction abounds – I came across the Louis Wu reference and was suddenly wait, what? And then Shambleau, and a chapter that was in large part a set-up for a bit about sandworms, and damn. A spaceport that’s Jewish on one side and Arab on the other and the seat of the project of science fiction.

“Our maker who art in the zero point field, hallowed be thy nine billion names …”

The Nine Billion Names Of God. Short story by Arthur C Clarke. Tidhar does this all the way through the book. Central Station is the locus of science fiction. Defining it as the source of global stories. There is one single American in the book that I noticed, and even he is noted as having lost his accent.

And, yes, it does tell its own story, one that is as much myth and legend as sf. Interrupted love, the culture of abandoned robots, designer babies with imaginary friends and released AI as wild djinni. The book is bigger than it seems, and I’m still thinking about it, unpacking the layers of it. I recommend it highly. It’ll stay with you for days, because every idea in it has more ideas under it. It’s all of science fiction distilled into a single book.

Skye Walker of FANTASY LITERATURE reviews the book.

CENTRAL STATION is a thoughtful, poignant, human take on a possible future. For the most part CENTRAL STATION occurs at the titular port on planet earth. This space resides in what we know today as Tel Aviv, but in the distant future it has gone through many names and many people. Everything seems to begin in earnest when Boris Chong arrives in Central Station after spending a great deal of time away — some of which on Mars. Central Station, the place, is a half-thought meeting of a variety of worlds. CENTRAL STATION the book is more thoughtful than I think I know how to express, but I’ll give it a try.

<snip>

CENTRAL STATION is about humanity in every form it may take. It’s about yearning and hopes and frustrations. Its intricate design of life, love, and happenstance in a distant future isn’t so much grounded in a forced humanity as revelling in it. It’s also about mysteries never to be solved. There are a fair few things in CENTRAL STATION that I continue to wonder about. In most stories without a foreseeable continuation these kinds of loose ends would bother me. In the case of CENTRAL STATION they lend to the idea that what I read was just a moment. There was time in the lives of the characters before the story began, and there is life after. CENTRAL STATION is written like a segment of history, except that it’s set in the future.

If you’re looking for a plot-heavy sci-fi narrative you may want to look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a deeply complex comment on humanity in a future where many lines are blurred, this is the right pick for you.

On the B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG, Ceridwen Christensen writes about the vibrant novel.

This is the second of Tidhar’s novels I’ve read in as many months, and I have to say, I’m incredibly impressed with his range of style and voice. A MAN LIES DREAMING was pulp snarl, a book both thoughtful and lewd, nasty and pointed. But CENTRAL STATION, now this is something different: amiable, shifting, slow, and stealthy. There’s nothing particularly urgent about it, no main arc that drives you from here to there. This is not to say there aren’t stakes for the people who live in the shadow of the station. This Tel Aviv is a vibrant, textured place. Tidhar has the knack of detailing his beautiful, worn city with the specificity of pop songs and cultural detritus only known to its people, the kind of tossed off knowledge that cements a people to a place, and is ultimately unknowable to outsiders.

He had me leaning in, listening, to this conversation. You should take a listen too, on your way from here to there.

Elan Samuel on THE WARBLER praises CENTRAL STATION.

I thought it would be difficult to find a book at good as Hannu Rajaniemi’s COLLECTED FICTION this year, but Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION, also published by Tachyon, has overtaken it for the top spot in my list this year. By a tiny margin.

For me, CENTRAL STATION was more than a good—or even great—book. It was an important book, for several reasons. The first is that it is some advanced science fiction that breaks through a number of barriers in the genre, which I’ll dig into below. The second is that it was written by an Israeli author and takes place in Tel Aviv.

<snip>

Beyond its significance to me for personal reasons, CENTRAL STATION is an excellent book that pushes at the boundaries of science fiction, while maintaining a deliberately sci-fi core. It was not a story of adventure, or of love, or of horror, though at points it had elements of of all of these. It is a human story. It offers glimpses into the lives of people living their lives, and shows us that no matter how sophisticated our technology becomes or how the world may change, to be human is to struggle, to connect, to love, to fear, to believe and disbelieve. It is absolutely science fiction, and it is also a literary exploration of the human condition through the lenses of family, death, evolution, technology, and religion.

CENTRAL STATION is told almost in vignettes, which makes sense given that Tidhar wrote and published each chapter separately over the course of several years before compiling them into a book with Tachyon. The cast sometimes feel disconnected from each other, but then you realize their connection is their home. Tel Aviv. Central Station. The writing is superb, sometimes eschewing superficial imagery for abstraction, but always returns to a place of clarity. It flows beautifully throughout the read, and though it is short, it is full.

CENTRAL STATION blew me away. I hope it will do the same for you.

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

Cover and poster by Sarah Anne Langton

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