Tag: Lavie Tidhar

Next Month: Lavie Tidhar’s THE BIG BLIND in eBook

Posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2021

We’re very happy to announce that Lavie Tidhar‘s latest novella, THE BIG BLIND, is getting a wider release as an eBook next month! Due to be published by JABberwocky on April 6th, here’s the synopsis…

The daughter of a legendary card player with skills of her own, Claire doesn’t want to go into the family business. She’s heard the call, and she desperately wants to become a nun. But when her convent comes under financial threat, Claire must leave what she loves to save what she loves — and enter an international poker tournament.

Both a poker novella and a meditation on faith, The Big Blind is a taut, heartfelt and compelling new book from multiple award winner Lavie Tidhar.

The eBook will be available from most major eBook retailers. Here are some links:

The novella was first published by PS Publishing as a limited edition.

‘Tidhar changes genres with every outing, but his astounding talents guarantee something new and compelling no matter the story he tells.’ —Library Journal

‘Lavie Tidhar is one of the great writers of my generation.’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic

‘An utterly original voice in contemporary fiction.’ — Daniel Polansky, author of The Seventh Perfection

‘In a genre entirely of his own, and quite possibly a warped genius.’ — Ian McDonald, author of TIME WAS

‘Tidhar has long taken a kind of perverse glee in his own unpredictability, sometimes blurring the line between pointed literary allusiveness and simple attention deficit…. So while the question of what Tidhar might come up with next is a perfectly reasonable one, I have to admit that the last thing I’d have expected is a sweet-natured tale that, with almost no changes, would work just fine as a 1950s Audrey Hepburn comedy about a young poker-playing Irish nun trying to save her convent from foreclosure… touching… the story unfolds like a Hollywood playbook… a feel-good ending.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘A really enjoyable book, different from anything I’d read by Tidhar before (but then, I think that every time I open one of his books). Recommended.’ — Blue Book Balloon

Three Weeks: Collected Edition of Lavie Tidhar’s ADLER!

Posted on Monday, March 8th, 2021

In three weeks (March 30th), Titan Comics are due to publish the complete edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed ADLER! Collecting all five issues of the comic series, here’s the synopsis…

“Women are never to be entirely trusted — not the best of them.” — Arthur Conan Doyle.

It’s 1902. Wounded in the Boer War, Jane Eyre returns to a London transmogrified by emerging modernity. An old friend, the glamorous inventor Lady Havisham, introduces her to the American adventuress Irene Adler, and the two seek lodging together. But Adler is engaged in a brutal secret war against a mortal enemy of the British Empire: Ayesh. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, who seeks revenge against the colonisers who destroyed her country.

As Queen Victoria holds on to her throne with the help of experimental new medicine, Adler and Ayesha both fight for the secret weapon developed by the scientist Madame Curie. And as Ayesha and her amazons (not to mention her pet assassin Carmilla) take over the London underworld, Adler must form a team of determined women to stop them — before the Empire is destroyed.

From World Fantasy Award winning author Lavie Tidhar (The Violent Century, Central Station) and artist Paul McCaffrey (Anno Dracula) comes a pulse-pounding, gorgeously-illustrated graphic novel of Victorian menace, excitement and humour in Tidhar’s inimitable style.

Fans of the series should also check out this blog post over on Titan Comics’ website, about the real-world places in the comic.

The comic series was very well-received during its run, and here are just a few of the great reviews it received…

‘Tidhar (By Force Alone) propels an ensemble of historical figures and literary characters through a knotty and thrilling plot packed with intrigue and visceral action, illustrated with a keen eye for historical detail by McCaffrey’ — Library Journal

‘[T]his thrilling comic bursts with reimagined period characters and features… keeps a constant breathless pace of chases that are swashbuckling… The art by McCaffrey (Anno Dracula) complements the script with vigorous fight sequences and sharp character design… the mash-up offers solid light entertainment with strong crossover appeal, as well as twists and derring-do aplenty.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘The story is starting to pay off in really thrilling ways, especially if you’re a fan of big, pulpy adventure story high concepts. From the beginning of the series, writer Lavie Tidhar and artist Paul McCaffrey clearly sought to replicate that pulp adventure feel, and the book reads a bit like a Saturday matinee serial in that way, leaving every issue on the edge of something thrilling that’s waiting for you just behind the cover of the next installment… There’s something massive at work behind the mash-up hook of this story, and the more you read the deeper into that sense of scale you get. It’s an addictive feeling, and it makes me want to know what happens next.’ — Syfy.com

‘Some brilliant artwork… The writing in this comic is wonderful.’ — SciFi Pulse

‘At its core, Tidhar’s approach to ADLER reminds me of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but doing away with the boys’ club attitude and aiming to showcase what the girls of history & classic literature can do on their own… [artist Paul McCaffrey] does a great job in setting the mood of any given scene. Villains lurk in the shadows, street lights glow through the London fog, and there’s hardly a panel I can find on a second look-through that doesn’t have something going on in the background to keep the eye moving… If the goal of a creative team is to wrap up the first issue leaving readers hungry for more, I think we can call ADLER a win.’ — thePullBox.com

Lavie is the author of many award-winning and -nominated novels, novellas and short stories. His most recent novel is BY FORCE ALONE, published by Head of Zeus (UK) and Tor Books (North America). He is also the author of CANDY, his first book for younger readers (Scholastic in the UK; Peachtree Publishing in North America).

His next books include THE LUNACY COMMISSION (JABberwocky), THE HOOD (Head of Zeus), and THE ESCAPEMENT (Tachyon).

Next Month: THE BEST OF WORLD SF, edited by Lavie Tidhar

Posted on Friday, March 5th, 2021

Today, we just want to remind you all that Head of Zeus (via its Ad Astra imprint) is due to publish THE BEST OF WORLD SF, VOLUME 1 next month (April 1st)! Edited and curated by Lavie Tidhar, it’s a superb anthology of 26 short stories by SFF authors from around the world. Here’s the synopsis…

Twenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction, selected by Lavie Tidhar.

The Best of World SF draws together stories from across the spectrum of science fiction – expect robots, spaceships and time travel, as well as some really weird stuff – representing twenty-one countries and five continents.

Lavie Tidhar has selected stories that range from never-before-seen originals to award winners; from authors at every stage of their career; and a number of translations, including a story translated from Hebrew by Tidhar himself.

And here’s the substantial table of contents…

  • ‘Immersion’ by Aliette de Bodard
  • ‘Debtless’ by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks)
  • ‘Fandom for Robots’ by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • ‘Virtual Snapshots’ by Tlotlo Tsamaase
  • ‘What The Dead Man Said’ by Chinelo Onwualu
  • ‘Delhi’ by Vandana Singh
  • ‘The Wheel of Samsara’ by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author)
  • ‘Xingzhou’ by Yi-Sheng Ng
  • ‘Prayer’ by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski)
  • ‘The Green Ship’ by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert)
  • ‘Eyes of the Crocodile’ by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei)
  • ‘Bootblack’ by Tade Thompson
  • ‘The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things’ by Fabio Fernandes
  • ‘The Sun From Both Sides’ by R.S.A. Garcia
  • ‘Dump’ by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood)
  • ‘Rue Chair’ by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author)
  • ‘His Master’s Voice’ by Hannu Rajaniemi
  • ‘Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys’ by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar)
  • ‘The Cryptid’ by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author)
  • ‘The Bank of Burkina Faso’ by Ekaterina Sedia
  • ‘An Incomplete Guide…’ by Kuzhali Manickavel
  • ‘The Old Man with The Third Hand’ by Kofi Nyameye
  • ‘The Green’ by Lauren Beukes
  • ‘The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir’ by Karin Tidbeck
  • ‘Prime Meridian’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • ‘If At First You Don’t Succeed’ by Zen Cho

Lavie’s latest novels is BY FORCE ALONE, published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Tor Books in North America. His first novel for younger readers, CANDY, was recently published by Scholastic in the UK and Peachtree Publishing in North America (as THE CANDY MAFIA).

Lavie is also the author of the critically-acclaimed, award-winning CENTRAL STATION, UNHOLY LAND, THE VIOLENT CENTURY (published by Tachyon Publications), and A MAN LIES DREAMING (published in eBook by JABberwocky).

Head of Zeus are due to re-issue two of Lavie’s classic novels in the UK, next year: the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING. (We’ll share more details — including cover art — on here as soon as we have them.)

Lavie Tidhar’s BY FORCE ALONE out now in UK Paperback!

Posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2021

Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed BY FORCE ALONE — a gritty, superb retelling of the King Arthur myth — is out today in a new UK paperback edition! Published by Head of Zeus, here’s the synopsis…

There is a legend…

Britannia, AD 535

The Romans have gone. While their libraries smoulder, roads decay and cities crumble, men with swords pick over civilisation’s carcass, slaughtering and being slaughtered in turn.

This is the story of just such a man. Like the others, he had a sword. He slew until slain. Unlike the others, we remember him. We remember King Arthur.

This is the story of a land neither green nor pleasant. An eldritch isle of deep forest and dark fell haunted by swaithes, boggarts and tod-lowries, Robin-Goodfellows and Jenny Greenteeths, and predators of rarer appetite yet.

This is the story of a legend forged from a pack of self-serving, turd-gilding, weasel-worded lies told to justify foul deeds and ill-gotten gains.

This is the story – viscerally entertaining, ominously subversive and poetically profane – of a Dark Age myth that shaped a nation.

Here are just a few of the (many) great reviews the novel has received so far…

‘Uther is a chancer and a shagger… [Arthur] is ruthless in pursuit of power… His Lancelot… is a ninja warrior, his Guinevere a killer — the writer is clearly having fun… Tidhar never lands direct political punches… but the very tone and shape of the book are a reminder that we need to treat national myths with caution… this is a novel that demands your attention and proves that sometimes when a writer has the audacity to revisit stories that others would avoid for fear of over-familiarity, they can steal the power of the oldest tales.’ — SFX (4.5*/5)

‘The novel is a bloody, bravura performance, which Tidhar pulls off with graphic imagery and modern vernacular… a salutary antidote to the more romantic glossings of recent modern fantasy.’ — Guardian

‘Tidhar’s previous work is filled to the brim with new and interesting takes on history and myth, and the results are always mesmerising. And of course, he’s taken something that’s been done way too many times and found a way to make it look new and interesting while still keeping its classic appeal… some truly staggering writing… if you’re looking for a new take on King Arthur and chums, then check this out.’ — Starburst

‘Sometimes while reading a Lavie Tidhar novel, there comes a point when you feel like he’s grabbed the wheel, grinning as he drives you aggressively into oncoming traffic and somehow pulls off moves that by all rights ought to be fatal… BY FORCE ALONE – a phrase that recurs like a mantra throughout the narrative, reminding us that power is never really a matter of heritage or destiny – serves as a reminder that Arthur is a moveable feast, infinitely adaptable even to the era of Brexit and Trump. If Tidhar’s version seems pretty bleak, even as its endless inventiveness makes it undeniably exhilarating, that may simply be a reflection of where we all find ourselves these days.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘Tidhar saturates this epic adventure with profanity, dark humor, sword-sharp twists, and unexpected moments of pathos. Readers who hold King Arthur dear to their hearts will be gratified by Tidhar’s attention to detail amidst the innovation. This dark, imaginative take on a classic is sure to impress.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘… with his latest novel, BY FORCE ALONE, Tidhar takes a mythology the English hold dear, the legend of King Arthur, and goes to town with it… BY FORCE ALONE is a jolt of pure entertainment, a brilliant, revisionist blend of magic, crime syndicates and Kung-fu knights.’ — Locus (Ian Mond)

‘Lavie Tidhar’s BY FORCE ALONE gives us an Arthur for the Brexit era: A tyrant in lieu of a king, brute violence in lieu of gallant feats, undisguised venality in lieu of chivalric ideals. This is the Matter of Britain become the Matter with Britain… For all the bleakness and cynicism of his story, Tidhar’s profligate invention makes BY FORCE ALONE a joy… Lavie Tidhar’s joke on the Matter of Britain is a great one. And if the laughter catches in your throat, that just means you’ve been paying attention to the book, and to the world.’ — Tor.com

‘BY FORCE ALONE is a joyous rush of a novel, sweeping up everything from grimdark to gangster films to kung fu to Russian science fiction in its wake, and somehow pulling them together into a coherent whole that critiques Britain’s toxic self-image and the lineage of the Fantasy genre itself… BY FORCE ALONE shows the power and playfulness of Tidhar’s imagination, as he uses pop culture to make us confront grim political reality, all whilst having a whale of a time. It is this that makes him one of today’s most essential and unpredictable writers.’ — Fantasy Hive

‘[An] extraordinary and vivid retelling of our national myth. Gritty revisionism is supercharged by the supernatural… rich and breakneck narrative… As eclectic as the Sword In The Stone and as ruthless as A Game Of Thrones, this retelling of the whole Arthurian Legend stands alongside the very best.’ — Daily Mail

‘Tidhar’s latest fantasy is a ferocious and often very funny reinvention of the King Arthur myth, taking in references from Tolkien to Brexit.’ — I News

‘BY FORCE ALONE does … bold things with genre, rewriting the King Arthur legend through a mash up of horror, fantasy, history and black comedy. The narrative voice is deadly serious but there’s a strong undercurrent of gleefulness to the profanity, violence and otherworldly magic that makes BY FORCE ALONE a whole lot of fun to dive into.’ — Spectator (Five Unmissable Summer Reads)

‘Drawing on everything from wushu movies to The Wire by way of Tarkovsky and Tarantino, BY FORCE ALONE is wild, surprising and entertaining, and a hugely immersive read.’ — M.R. Carey

‘A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious, funny, Peaky Blinders of the Round Table.’ — Adrian Tchaikovsky

‘Profane, hilarious, brutal… kills as both sheer entertainment and canny political statement. To my fellow writers: the Arthurian Revision category is now closed. Take your ball and go home.’ — Daryl Gregory

‘Tidhar turns King Arthur’s court into a gangster’s paradise, full of wheelings and dealings, and true grit. If the tale didn’t go down like this, it should have.’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The novel is published in North America by Tor Books (hardcover edition out now, paperback due in May).

Coming Soon: Lavie Tidhar’s THE LUNACY COMMISSION

Posted on Friday, February 19th, 2021

On April 13th, JABberwocky are due to publish a new collection of stories by Lavie Tidhar: THE LUNACY COMMISSION. Starring Wolf, from Tidhar’s award-winning, critically-acclaimed A MAN LIES DREAMING, here’s the synopsis…

Lavie Tidhar’s ground-breaking, award winning novel A Man Lies Dreaming introduced Adolf Hitler as a down-at-heels private detective, forced to eke out a miserable living in 1930s London. Forgotten by history, the man now calling himself Wolf is the lowest of the low, suffering fresh humiliations at every turn.

Now Wolf is back, in five darkly comic new stories that see him take on blackmail, murder, and theft – not to mention his old comrades.

A brilliant alternate history noir with a heart, these stories are in turn shocking, horrifying and comic, as could only come from the mind of World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar.

A MAN LIES DREAMING is also published by JABberwocky in North America. The novel will soon be re-issued in the UK by Head of Zeus — we’ll share more information about this upcoming edition soon.

Both of these covers are by the superbly talented Sarah Anne Langton.

THE LUNACY COMMISSION is already up for pre-order, from the following eBook retailers:

JUDGE DEE Returns!

Posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2021

Judge Dee, Lavie Tidhar‘s vampire detective, returns! A new short story starring the character, JUDGE DEE AND THE THREE DEATHS OF COUNT WERDENFELS is out now! Available to read on Tor.com’s website, and also as an eBook, it’s another great detective story with a horror twist.

Judge Dee is back to solve a brand-new case involving the mysterious death of the vampire Count Werdenfels. The mystery? Who killed him. The twist? Three different people are proudly proclaiming to have committed the crime.

The first story, JUDGE DEE AND THE LIMITS OF THE LAW is also still available, on Tor.com and as an eBook.

Lavie’s latest full-length novel, the acclaimed BY FORCE ALONE is also out now, published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Tor Books in North America.

‘Profane, hilarious, brutal… kills as both sheer entertainment and canny political statement. To my fellow writers: the Arthurian Revision category is now closed. Take your ball and go home.’ — Daryl Gregory

‘BY FORCE ALONE is a highly original take on Arthurian legend featuring aliens, a radioactive no-go area, a dragon sighting and the hunt for the Grail. Lancelot’s a ninja warrior, Merlin a fey creature, and Arthur a street kid… Sometimes when a writer has the audacity to revisit stories that others would avoid for fear of over-familiarity, they can steal the power of the oldest tales.’ — SFX

‘Tidhar saturates this epic adventure with profanity, dark humor, sword-sharp twists, and unexpected moments of pathos. Readers who hold King Arthur dear to their hearts will be gratified by Tidhar’s attention to detail amidst the innovation. This dark, imaginative take on a classic is sure to impress.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘One of the most purely enjoyable novels of the year, Lavie Tidhar’s BY FORCE ALONE, which reads very much like an Arthurian fantasy by someone who’s lost patience with Arthurian fantasies. With its punk, post-Brexit sensibility, its cavalier anachronisms, and genre-hopping that takes us everywhere from kung fu movies to Beowulf to the Strugatskys’ Roadside Picnic, it might well upset Arthurian purists, but is marvelous example of the anarchic possibilities of post-postmodern fantasy.’ — Locus

‘The novel is a bloody, bravura performance, which Tidhar pulls off with graphic imagery and modern vernacular… a salutary antidote to the more romantic glossings of recent modern fantasy.’ — Guardian

Lavie Tidhar’s UNHOLY LAND Out Tomorrow in France!

Posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2021

We’re very happy to report that Lavie Tidhar‘s highly acclaimed novel UNHOLY LAND will be available in a new French edition from tomorrow! Published by Continent Mu as AUCUNE TERRE N’EST PROMISE, here’s the synopsis…

… aucune destinée n’est manifeste.

Berlin. Lior Tirosh, écrivain de seconde zone, embarque pour la Palestina, fuyant une existence minée d’échecs.

Il espère retrouver à Ararat City la chaleur du foyer, mais rien ne se passe comme prévu : la ville est ceinturée par un mur immense, et sa nièce, Déborah, a disparu dans les camps de réfugiés africains.

Traqué, soupçonné de meurtre, offert en pâture à un promoteur véreux, Lior est entraîné malgré lui dans les dédales d’une histoire qu’il contribue pourtant à écrire.

Lavie Tidhar questionne nos identités, et le prix qui leur est attaché. Aucune terre n’est promise est un roman d’une incroyable lucidité sur les enjeux d’Israël, microcosme du monde. Il n’en cède pourtant rien à la poésie, seule utopie capable encore d’incarner la paix.

UNHOLY LAND is published in English by Tachyon Publications, who also publish Lavie’s other acclaimed, award-winning novels CENTRAL STATION and THE VIOLENT CENTURY. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Lior Tirosh is a semi-successful author of pulp fiction, an inadvertent time traveler, and an ongoing source of disappointment to his father.

Tirosh has returned to his homeland in East Africa. But Palestina — a Jewish state founded in the early 20th century — has grown dangerous. The government is building a vast border wall to keep out African refugees. Unrest in Ararat City is growing. And Tirosh’s childhood friend, trying to deliver a warning, has turned up dead in his hotel room. A state security officer has identified Tirosh as a suspect in a string of murders, and a rogue agent is stalking Tirosh through transdimensional rifts — possible futures that can only be prevented by avoiding the mistakes of the past.

From the bestselling author of Central Station comes an extraordinary new novel recalling China Miéville and Michael Chabon, entertaining and subversive in equal measures.

(Each of these covers was designed and produced by Sarah Anne Langton.)

Here are just a few of the great reviews the novel has received…

‘… will leave readers’ heads spinning with this disorienting and gripping alternate history… Readers of all kinds, and particularly fans of detective stories and puzzles, will enjoy grappling with the numerous questions raised by this stellar work.’ — Publishers Weekly (PW Picks: Books of the Week, October 15, 2018)

‘Lavie Tidhar is a genius at conjuring realities that are just two steps to the left of our own — places that look and smell and feel real, if just a bit hauntingly alien. UNHOLY LAND develops slowly. It begins with banal strangeness (this Palestinia, so like and unlike modern-day Israel) and leans gently into it… This is a story that gets weirder the deeper you get into it; that cultivates strangeness like something precious. It has three narrators: Investigator Bloom, Tirosh and a woman, Nur, who works as a field agent for the Border Agency. There are echoes of Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union in it, wild strains of P.K. Dick and Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber. But UNHOLY LAND is its own thing. Something that no one but Tidhar could’ve written. Gorgeous in its alienness, comfortingly gray in its banality, and disquieting throughout.’ — NPR

‘UNHOLY LAND starts out hard-boiled and comes at you sideways with the speculative elements. Tidhar has blended alternative history with murder in hotel rooms, missing women, an honest-to-god Fedora and mysterious borders in a tale that evokes Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Cassablanca and Mieville’s The City & the City. Political and pulpy, with distinct metafictional elements, Tidhar adroitly pulls off this fantastical tale of an occupied territory.’ — Tade Thompson

‘… adventurous readers will appreciate this well-written and ambitious book. It should find a place at any library that offers high-quality literary fiction.’ — Booklist

‘Tidhar has turned a suspenseful adventure tale into a complex meditation on the possible paths of modern Jewish history.’ — Chicago Tribune

‘We are in that kind of novel, the kind that doubles back and dodges sideways. Keeping up provides its own kind of pleasure… the various points of view meet up, and the result is an altogether dizzying and masterful use of narrative voice. The clashing narrative perspectives produce something like parallax—looking out of one eye, and then the other, and then both focused together on a third point. Which is the operative metaphor of UNHOLY LAND: one of partition and perspective, the same thing seen over and over and over again through different eyes… UNHOLY LAND plays in the strange, uncomfortable DMZ between the national founding myth and the uninterrogated childhood, between the person who leaves the homeland and the one who returns.’ — Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

‘By extending Tidhar’s exploration of multiple and metafictional realities in even more sophis­ticated and assured ways than his earlier novels, UNHOLY LAND is quite an irritated oyster.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘… provocative and brash… UNHOLY LAND is a wildly inventive and entertaining novel that moves at a breathless gallop… [Tidhar has] staked a claim as the genre’s most interesting, most bold, and most accomplished writer.’ — Locus (Ian Mond)

Lavie’s latest novel, BY FORCE ALONE, is out now — published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Tor Books in North America.

New UK Paperback Edition of Lavie Tidhar’s BY FORCE ALONE out in March!

Posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2021

On March 4th, Head of Zeus are due to publish a new UK paperback edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed BY FORCE ALONE — a gritty, superb retelling of the King Arthur myth. Here’s the synopsis…

There is a legend…

Britannia, AD 535

The Romans have gone. While their libraries smoulder, roads decay and cities crumble, men with swords pick over civilisation’s carcass, slaughtering and being slaughtered in turn.

This is the story of just such a man. Like the others, he had a sword. He slew until slain. Unlike the others, we remember him. We remember King Arthur.

This is the story of a land neither green nor pleasant. An eldritch isle of deep forest and dark fell haunted by swaithes, boggarts and tod-lowries, Robin-Goodfellows and Jenny Greenteeths, and predators of rarer appetite yet.

This is the story of a legend forged from a pack of self-serving, turd-gilding, weasel-worded lies told to justify foul deeds and ill-gotten gains.

This is the story – viscerally entertaining, ominously subversive and poetically profane – of a Dark Age myth that shaped a nation.

The novel is published in North America by Tor Books (hardcover edition out now, paperback due in May — cover below).

Here are just a few of the (many) great reviews the novel has received so far…

‘Uther is a chancer and a shagger… [Arthur] is ruthless in pursuit of power… His Lancelot… is a ninja warrior, his Guinevere a killer — the writer is clearly having fun… Tidhar never lands direct political punches… but the very tone and shape of the book are a reminder that we need to treat national myths with caution… this is a novel that demands your attention and proves that sometimes when a writer has the audacity to revisit stories that others would avoid for fear of over-familiarity, they can steal the power of the oldest tales.’ — SFX (4.5*/5)

‘Tidhar saturates this epic adventure with profanity, dark humor, sword-sharp twists, and unexpected moments of pathos. Readers who hold King Arthur dear to their hearts will be gratified by Tidhar’s attention to detail amidst the innovation. This dark, imaginative take on a classic is sure to impress.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘The novel is a bloody, bravura performance, which Tidhar pulls off with graphic imagery and modern vernacular… a salutary antidote to the more romantic glossings of recent modern fantasy.’ — Guardian

‘Tidhar’s previous work is filled to the brim with new and interesting takes on history and myth, and the results are always mesmerising. And of course, he’s taken something that’s been done way too many times and found a way to make it look new and interesting while still keeping its classic appeal… some truly staggering writing… if you’re looking for a new take on King Arthur and chums, then check this out.’ — Starburst

‘Lavie Tidhar has built a career out of not playing it safe. Over the last decade he has written bold, provocative novels… with a flair for metafiction and inspired by the pulps (both hard-boiled and genre)… given the political nature of his work, it’s not entirely surprising that he would shift his focus to the question of nationalism and Brexit… with his latest novel, BY FORCE ALONE, Tidhar takes a mythology the English hold dear, the legend of King Arthur, and goes to town with it… For all its foul language and radical deconstruction, of which I’ve provided only a taste (you should see what Tidhar does with the Holy Grail), BY FORCE ALONE isn’t a desecration of the Arthurian romances. Instead, he pays homage to the writers and poets – Robert Wace, Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Thomas Mallory (just to name a few) – who took their turn in adapting and refining Monmouth’s text… BY FORCE ALONE is a jolt of pure entertainment, a brilliant, revisionist blend of magic, crime syndicates and Kung-fu knights.’ — Locus (Ian Mond)

‘Sometimes while reading a Lavie Tidhar novel, there comes a point when you feel like he’s grabbed the wheel, grinning as he drives you aggressively into oncoming traffic and somehow pulls off moves that by all rights ought to be fatal… BY FORCE ALONE – a phrase that recurs like a mantra throughout the narrative, reminding us that power is never really a matter of heritage or destiny – serves as a reminder that Arthur is a moveable feast, infinitely adaptable even to the era of Brexit and Trump. If Tidhar’s version seems pretty bleak, even as its endless inventiveness makes it undeniably exhilarating, that may simply be a reflection of where we all find ourselves these days.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘Lavie Tidhar’s BY FORCE ALONE gives us an Arthur for the Brexit era: A tyrant in lieu of a king, brute violence in lieu of gallant feats, undisguised venality in lieu of chivalric ideals. This is the Matter of Britain become the Matter with Britain… For all the bleakness and cynicism of his story, Tidhar’s profligate invention makes BY FORCE ALONE a joy… Lavie Tidhar’s joke on the Matter of Britain is a great one. And if the laughter catches in your throat, that just means you’ve been paying attention to the book, and to the world.’ — Tor.com

‘BY FORCE ALONE is a joyous rush of a novel, sweeping up everything from grimdark to gangster films to kung fu to Russian science fiction in its wake, and somehow pulling them together into a coherent whole that critiques Britain’s toxic self-image and the lineage of the Fantasy genre itself… the book’s serious intent does not make BY FORCE ALONE a difficult read. It is a book that is both funny and fun. Tidhar has a wonderful time stretching the stories into unfamiliar genres and shapes, whilst maintaining the core of the tale which has seen its appeal last for so long… BY FORCE ALONE shows the power and playfulness of Tidhar’s imagination, as he uses pop culture to make us confront grim political reality, all whilst having a whale of a time. It is this that makes him one of today’s most essential and unpredictable writers.’ — Fantasy Hive

‘[An] extraordinary and vivid retelling of our national myth. Gritty revisionism is supercharged by the supernatural… rich and breakneck narrative… As eclectic as the Sword In The Stone and as ruthless as A Game Of Thrones, this retelling of the whole Arthurian Legend stands alongside the very best.’ — Daily Mail

‘Tidhar’s latest fantasy is a ferocious and often very funny reinvention of the King Arthur myth, taking in references from Tolkien to Brexit.’ — I News

‘BY FORCE ALONE does … bold things with genre, rewriting the King Arthur legend through a mash up of horror, fantasy, history and black comedy. The narrative voice is deadly serious but there’s a strong undercurrent of gleefulness to the profanity, violence and otherworldly magic that makes BY FORCE ALONE a whole lot of fun to dive into.’ — Spectator (Five Unmissable Summer Reads)

‘Drawing on everything from wushu movies to The Wire by way of Tarkovsky and Tarantino, BY FORCE ALONE is wild, surprising and entertaining, and a hugely immersive read.’ — M.R. Carey

‘A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious, funny, Peaky Blinders of the Round Table.’ — Adrian Tchaikovsky

‘Profane, hilarious, brutal… kills as both sheer entertainment and canny political statement. To my fellow writers: the Arthurian Revision category is now closed. Take your ball and go home.’ — Daryl Gregory

‘Tidhar turns King Arthur’s court into a gangster’s paradise, full of wheelings and dealings, and true grit. If the tale didn’t go down like this, it should have.’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Short Fiction Watch: New Stories by Ian McDonald & Lavie Tidhar!

Posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2020

In the final instalment of Short Fiction Watch of 2020, we want to draw your attention to two recent sci-fi anthologies featuring work by Zeno clients. Specifically: Ian McDonald and Lavie Tidhar.

First up, both authors have stories included in THE 2020 LOOK AT MARS FICTION (pictured above), edited by Allan Kaster. In Ian’s story, THE OLD COSMONAUT AND THE CONSTRUCTION WARKER DREAM OF MARS, which first appeared in 2002’s MARS PROBES collection…

… the lives of a young Indian construction worker and an old Estonian cosmonaut collide during the terraforming of Mars by quantum machines.

Lavie’s TERMINAL, which was first published on Tor.com in 2016, is about…

An improbable group of astronauts are slingshot to Mars in cheap one-person, one-way jalopies…

Finally, Ian has another story in THE 2020 LOOK AT SPACE OPERA BOOK, also edited by Allan Kaster. The collection ‘highlights 20 stellar space operas published over the past 20 years by top-notch authors of the science fiction genre’. Ian’s contribution is BOTANICA VENERIS: THIRTEEN PAPERCUTS BY IDA COUNTESS RATHAGAN, which was first published in Clarkesworld in 2017…

An aristocrat’s trip to Venus, in search of her disgraced brother, is memorialized by papercuts of flora native to the planet…

Ian McDonald’s latest series is Luna, published by Gollancz in the UK and Tor Books in North America — NEW MOON, WOLF MOON, and MOON RISING are all out now. The prequel novella, THE MENACE FROM FARSIDE, is published by Tor.com.

Lavie Tidhar’s latest novel is BY FORCE ALONE, published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Tor Books in North America.

Out Now: THE BIG BLIND by Lavie Tidhar!

Posted on Friday, December 11th, 2020

Lavie Tidhar‘s latest novella, THE BIG BLIND is out now! Available in two editions — a regular edition (shipping now) and a more-limited signed edition (shipping very soon) — it’s published by PS Publishing. Here’s the synopsis…

The daughter of a legendary card player with skills of her own, Claire doesn’t want to go into the family business. She’s heard the call, and she desperately wants to become a nun. But when her convent comes under financial threat, Claire must leave what she loves to save what she loves – and enter an international poker tournament.

Both a poker novella and a meditation on faith, The Big Blind is a taut, heartfelt and compelling new book from multiple award winner Lavie Tidhar.

The book has already received a review from Gary K. Wolfe in the December 2021 issue of Locus Magazine, too…

‘Tidhar has long taken a kind of perverse glee in his own unpredictability, sometimes blurring the line between pointed literary allusiveness and simple attention deficit…. So while the question of what Tidhar might come up with next is a perfectly reasonable one, I have to admit that the last thing I’d have expected is a sweet-natured tale that, with almost no changes, would work just fine as a 1950s Audrey Hepburn comedy about a young poker-playing Irish nun trying to save her convent from foreclosure… touching… the story unfolds like a Hollywood playbook… a feel-good ending.’

Lavie’s latest novel, BY FORCE ALONE is out now, published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Tor Books in North America.

In rather cool news, someone pointed out via Twitter that Lavie is mentioned in Charlie Kaufman’s Antkind:

Coming Soon: THE BEST OF WORLD SF, edited by Lavie Tidhar!

Posted on Monday, December 7th, 2020

Announced late last week via Book Brunch and Tor.com, we wanted to share the cover and details for the upcoming THE BEST OF WORLD SF, VOLUME 1! Due to be published on April 1st, 2021, by Head of Zeus (via its Ad Astra SFF imprint), it’s an anthology of 26 short stories, curated and edited by award-winning author Lavie Tidhar! Here’s the synopsis…

Twenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction, selected by Lavie Tidhar.

The Best of World SF draws together stories from across the spectrum of science fiction – expect robots, spaceships and time travel, as well as some really weird stuff – representing twenty-one countries and five continents.

Lavie Tidhar has selected stories that range from never-before-seen originals to award winners; from authors at every stage of their career; and a number of translations, including a story translated from Hebrew by Tidhar himself.

And here’s the substantial table of contents…

  • ‘Immersion’ by Aliette de Bodard
  • ‘Debtless’ by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks)
  • ‘Fandom for Robots’ by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • ‘Virtual Snapshots’ by Tlotlo Tsamaase
  • ‘What The Dead Man Said’ by Chinelo Onwualu
  • ‘Delhi’ by Vandana Singh
  • ‘The Wheel of Samsara’ by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author)
  • ‘Xingzhou’ by Yi-Sheng Ng
  • ‘Prayer’ by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski)
  • ‘The Green Ship’ by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert)
  • ‘Eyes of the Crocodile’ by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei)
  • ‘Bootblack’ by Tade Thompson
  • ‘The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things’ by Fabio Fernandes
  • ‘The Sun From Both Sides’ by R.S.A. Garcia
  • ‘Dump’ by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood)
  • ‘Rue Chair’ by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author)
  • ‘His Master’s Voice’ by Hannu Rajaniemi
  • ‘Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys’ by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar)
  • ‘The Cryptid’ by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author)
  • ‘The Bank of Burkina Faso’ by Ekaterina Sedia
  • ‘An Incomplete Guide…’ by Kuzhali Manickavel
  • ‘The Old Man with The Third Hand’ by Kofi Nyameye
  • ‘The Green’ by Lauren Beukes
  • ‘The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir’ by Karin Tidbeck
  • ‘Prime Meridian’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • ‘If At First You Don’t Succeed’ by Zen Cho

’21st-century science fiction is defined by diversity and multiculturalism, and it’s been my joy and privilege to put together the first mass-market anthology dedicated to international SF,’ said Tidhar, who also curated two World SF Humble Bundle collections, in 2019 and 2020. ‘It has been a dream of mine for over a decade and I couldn’t be more delighted to finally launch a big, world SF anthology. Sometimes you have to wait for the times to change — and for the right publisher to come along!’

Nicholas Cheetham, CEO of Head of Zeus, said, ‘The flagship of our new science fiction imprint, Ad Astra, Lavie’s anthology delivers our promise to bring you the very best science fiction on the planet. Nobody knows more about SF from beyond the anglosphere than Mr Tidhar.’

Lavie’s latest novels is BY FORCE ALONE, published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Tor Books in North America. His first novel for younger readers, CANDY, was recently published by Scholastic in the UK and Peachtree Publishing in North America (as THE CANDY MAFIA).

Lavie is also the author of the critically-acclaimed, award-winning CENTRAL STATION, UNHOLY LAND, THE VIOLENT CENTURY (published by Tachyon Publications), and A MAN LIES DREAMING (published in eBook by JABberwocky).

Head of Zeus are due to re-issue two of Lavie’s classic novels in the UK, next year: the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING. (We’ll share more details — including cover art — on here as soon as we have them.)

Aliette de Bodard and Lavie Tidhar Feature among the Tor.com Reviewers’ Best of 2020!

Posted on Friday, November 27th, 2020

Two of our clients’ books are featured in the Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice: Best of 2020! Specifically, SEVEN OF INFINITIES by Aliette de Bodard and BY FORCE ALONE by Lavie Tidhar. We personally feel that these are entirely justified selections to be among the Best of 2020! Congrats, Aliette and Lavie!

Aliette’s SEVEN OF INFINITIES is out now, published by Subterranean Press in limited edition and eBook. Here’s what Liz Bourke had to say about her selection of the book…

‘Drawing inspiration from Arsene Lupin and Raffles, it sees a poor scholar and a gentleperson thief — a mindship who’s been growing bored in retirement — faced with a mysterious death, a dangerous kind of treasure-hunt, and a growing mutual attraction. A dense, atmospheric, emotionally satisfying gem of a space opera.’

Here’s the synopsis…

Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student. 

Sunless Woods is a mindship — and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity.

When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship — and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.

And here are some of the other reviews the book has received…

‘With this lush, immersive sci-fi tale, de Bodard (The House of Sundering Flames) delves into a world as gritty as it is ethereal… De Bodard hints at a vast, fully realized world… readers will be swept away by the vivid prose, intrigue, and romance of this intricate tale. This fascinating, unusual story is sure to entrance.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘A magnificent sf mystery, nuanced, intense, and romantic, with a complex, clever plot nested inside de Bodard’s rich, evocative, and vivid Xuya universe.’ — Kate Elliott

‘Aliette de Bodard is an author whose works I both like (in several cases, the word adore may be more appropriate) and admire… De Bodard’s work is marked by precision and delicacy of prose, by a concern with ethics and relationships, and by the presence of uncaring systems that violently resist critique from without – and even from within… SEVEN OF INFINITIES is a novella concerned with forgiveness, deserved or not, about cages, self-made or otherwise. It concerns itself with growth, with grace, with ruthlessness and its costs and consequences. It’s a tightly written jewel of a story, intense and full of feeling, and I recommend it highly.’ — Locus

Lavie’s BY FORCE ALONE is published by Tor Books in North America and Head of Zeus in the UK. Matt Keeley selected the novel…

‘Tidhar’s revisionist Arthurian fantasy By Force Alone was a great mix of high learning and low behavior. To my mind, the best Arthur novel since Thomas Berger’s Arthur Rex back in 1978.’

Here’s the synopsis…

Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.

The fact is they don’t know sh*t.

Arthur? An over-promoted gangster.
Merlin? An eldritch parasite.
Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer.
Britain? A clogged sewer that Rome abandoned just as soon as it could.

A savage and cutting epic fantasy, equally poetic and profane, By Force Alone is a magical adventure and a subversive masterwork.

Here are just a few of the great reviews the novel has received so far…

‘Tidhar saturates this epic adventure with profanity, dark humor, sword-sharp twists, and unexpected moments of pathos. Readers who hold King Arthur dear to their hearts will be gratified by Tidhar’s attention to detail amidst the innovation. This dark, imaginative take on a classic is sure to impress.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Lavie Tidhar has built a career out of not playing it safe. Over the last decade he has written bold, provocative novels… with a flair for metafiction and inspired by the pulps (both hard-boiled and genre)… given the political nature of his work, it’s not entirely surprising that he would shift his focus to the question of nationalism and Brexit… with his latest novel, BY FORCE ALONE, Tidhar takes a mythology the English hold dear, the legend of King Arthur, and goes to town with it… For all its foul language and radical deconstruction, of which I’ve provided only a taste (you should see what Tidhar does with the Holy Grail), BY FORCE ALONE isn’t a desecration of the Arthurian romances. Instead, he pays homage to the writers and poets – Robert Wace, Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Thomas Mallory (just to name a few) – who took their turn in adapting and refining Monmouth’s text… BY FORCE ALONE is a jolt of pure entertainment, a brilliant, revisionist blend of magic, crime syndicates and Kung-fu knights.’ — Locus (Ian Mond)

‘Uther is a chancer and a shagger… [Arthur] is ruthless in pursuit of power… His Lancelot… is a ninja warrior, his Guinevere a killer — the writer is clearly having fun… Tidhar never lands direct political punches… but the very tone and shape of the book are a reminder that we need to treat national myths with caution… this is a novel that demands your attention and proves that sometimes when a writer has the audacity to revisit stories that others would avoid for fear of over-familiarity, they can steal the power of the oldest tales.’ — SFX (4.5*/5)

‘Lavie Tidhar’s BY FORCE ALONE gives us an Arthur for the Brexit era: A tyrant in lieu of a king, brute violence in lieu of gallant feats, undisguised venality in lieu of chivalric ideals. This is the Matter of Britain become the Matter with Britain… For all the bleakness and cynicism of his story, Tidhar’s profligate invention makes BY FORCE ALONE a joy… Lavie Tidhar’s joke on the Matter of Britain is a great one. And if the laughter catches in your throat, that just means you’ve been paying attention to the book, and to the world.’ — Tor.com

Lavie Tidhar’s ADLER #5 Out Now!

Posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2020

The final issue in Lavie Tidhar‘s first comic series, ADLER is out today! Published by Titan Comics, in print and digital editions, here’s the synopsis…

THE FINAL BATTLE BEGINS!

Adler and her team of Victorian heroines face-off against AYESHA’S army of AMAZONS. From the World Fantasy Award-winning writer Lavie Tidhar and artist Paul McCaffrey (DC’s Men of War, TMNT) comes an all-new story written in the vein of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!

Lavie is also the award-winning and critically-acclaimed author of number of novels, including: BY FORCE ALONE, UNHOLY LAND, CENTRAL STATION, A MAN LIES DREAMING, THE VIOLENT CENTURY, OSAMA, and his first for young readers, CANDY. He’s also the author of a number of novellas and short stories.

Short Fiction Watch: Lavie Tidhar Has Been Quite Busy…

Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2020

If you follow Lavie Tidhar on Twitter, you may have noticed his frequent announcements that he’s sold a short story. Well, many of these are now starting to see the light of day, and we wanted to take this opportunity to let you know where some of them have landed. So, without further ado…

Next month (November 11th, to be precise) Tor.com are due to publish JUDGE DEE AND THE LIMITS OF THE LAW. Aside from the cover (at top) and the release date, there’s not much information about the story, save for this Tweet from Lavie:

JUVENILIA appears in Uncanny Magazine’s September/October 2020 issue, which is out now. You can read the story online, too. Here’s a very short snippet…

In the winter of 19–, having newly arrived in England, and still recovering from the nervous indisposition which had afflicted me greatly ever since my circumstances during the war, I responded to an advertisement placed in the Yorkshire Post, for the position of caretaker in an old, near-abandoned Elizabethan mansion called Wildfell Hall.

Who in truth owned it, I did not know. I was met at the train station of the nearby village by a young London solicitor, who informed me cheerfully that I was the only applicant…

The story BLUE AND BLUE AND BLUE AND PINK is available now in Clarkesworld’s September 2020 issue, as well as on the magazine’s website as text and in an audio edition.

Purple clouds roiled on the horizon and the old Cessna Centurion came in low and fast, riding the tailwind. Giorgio, on the ground and looking up, took shelter behind a crude half-shed of corrugated iron and lit a cigarette with a Zippo he’d once bought in the Talat Sao back in Vientiane. It was supposedly owned by a downed Air America pilot during the Secret War.

He stared at the plane coming in from the border. Smoke was coming out of the engine and half a wing looked like it’d been strafed, and Giorgio wondered who it was flying it. One of the Israelis, maybe…

In Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue #314 (October 2020), you can find Lavie’s novelette THE DROWNED GOD’S HERESY — a new story featuring Gorel of Goliris, star of GOREL AND THE POT BELLIED GOD (published by PS Publishing). The issue is available as an eBook, and the story can also be read on BCS’s website.

Now, forever exiled, he sought his home, his birth right, his throne. He would not rest until he found it.

Finally, a new Israeli SF magazine — Speculation — has launched, and it recently published the Hebrew translation of Lavie’s story NEOM (ניאום). You can read that story here. One of the author’s ‘favourite recent stories’, it was first published in the January-February 2019 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction.

Lavie Tidhar’s THE BIG BLIND available for Pre-Order Now!

Posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2020

PS Publishing has announced that they will be publishing the latest novella by Lavie Tidhar: THE BIG BLIND! Available for pre-order now, and due out in November, here’s the synopsis…

The daughter of a legendary card player with skills of her own, Claire doesn’t want to go into the family business. She’s heard the call, and she desperately wants to become a nun. But when her convent comes under financial threat, Claire must leave what she loves to save what she loves – and enter an international poker tournament.

Both a poker novella and a meditation on faith, The Big Blind is a taut, heartfelt and compelling new book from multiple award winner Lavie Tidhar.

‘I had the idea for this book,’ Tidhar says, ‘which I jokingly refer to as Sister Act meets “rounders”—a while back, but it took time to write. I had the full outline of the story sitting around, and I needed a space to write it in, and ended up sneaking it in between two novels, purely for my own enjoyment. I love watching poker, but I am not a player. I ended up spending a couple of weeks playing online just to get into a certain rhythm, which helped. It turned into something that I really loved—entirely non-fantastical, which was a departure for me, written sparsely (I had Elmore Leonard in mind when I was writing, and a certain noir vibe, though this book is not at all noir), but with a heart. I hope it finds its readers.’

PS Publishing also published some limited editions for Lavie’s earlier books OSAMA, THE VIOLENT CENTURY, A MAN LIES DREAMING and UNHOLY LAND. (All of which have sold out, but are still available in other formats.)

The striking cover art for THE BIG BLIND is by Pedro Marques.