A genre-splitting poetic expression, Lavie Tidhar’s THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE WORLD is one wild ride

Though not publishing until September, the Campbell, Xingyun, and Neukom Award winning-author Lavie Tidhar’s new science fiction novel THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE WORLD continues to elicit effusive praise from Marlene Harris at Library Journal and Those Crazy Books. Meanwhile in the July/August 2023 Analog, Rosemary Claire Smith praises NEOM, Lavie Tidhar’s return to the universe of the John W. Campbell Award Winner CENTRAL STATION.

Cover of The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar
Cover by Elizabeth Story

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.

Library Journal

Tidhar’s THE 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. There are several rather loosely-connected sections to the book, which is actually a book about a book, a book that disappears as it is read and which few even believe ever existed.

Those Crazy Books
Neom by Lavie Tidhar
Cover by Elizabeth Story

If you are not familiar with the work of the award-winning Lavie Tidhar, this is a great place to start. Before picking up NEOM, I had not read his CENTRAL STATION, which makes use of the same extensive future history. Hence, I must warn you: immediately upon finishing NEOM, you may find yourself smitten with the need to plunge into the idea-dense milieu of CENTRAL STATION. Here’s hoping Tidhar will treat us to more visits to absolutely anywhere in his astounding future, whether that’s on or off our home planet.

Analog