Photo: Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013

David Brin on his site CONTRARY BRIN praises Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION.

CENTRAL STATION, by Lavie Tidhar, is set amid the rundown neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, aswarm with masses of poor refugees, cyborgs, robotniks begging for spare parts… as well as data vampires, robot priests and digital entities known as ‘Others’. Rising above the center of the teeming city is the towering Central Station spaceport, a link to the interplanetary colonies where much of humanity has gone. Brain nodes connect nearly everyone to the incessant chatter of man, machine and AI in the vast memory stream — the ‘Conversation’. And certain genetically-modified children possess near magical powers to read minds and tap into the torrent of data streams. Tidhar presents a richly constructed future in this beautifully crafted world.

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Based half on Earth and half in Space, CENTRAL STATION revolves around an interplanetary hub of the same name that connects humans to their old world and the new one they’ve fled to after a diaspora away from the ravages of war and poverty. Intertwined with alien beings called “The Others,” the human race is at a point of fusion between what is real and what is virtual. Tel Aviv native Boris Chong is in the middle of it all.

Throw in intelligent machines, cheap data and a diminishing way of life, and you’ve arrived at a science fiction novel that will redefine the boundaries of the genre. This is gripping story of a human and synthetic world that is not only thriving, but evolving.

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

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton