Lavie Tidhar - Zeno Agency Ltd.

CENTRAL STATION is a Kindle Daily Deal, today!

Posted on Friday, October 21st, 2016

Today, Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed CENTRAL STATION is a Kindle Deal in the US! Published by Tachyon Publications, here’s the synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness — are just the beginning of irrevocable change.

At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

Lavie’s novel has been praised far and wide, by peers and readers alike. Here’s just a sample of the reactions…

‘It is just this side of a masterpiece — short, restrained, lush — and the truest joy of it is in the way Tidhar scatters brilliant ideas like pennies on the sidewalk.’ — NPR

‘The stories include some of Tidhar’s most beautiful prose, and his future Tel Aviv is among the most evocative settings in recent SF… Somehow, CENTRAL STATION combines a cultural sensibility too long invisible in SF with a sensibility which is nothing but classic SF, and the result is a rather elegant suite of tales.’ — Locus

‘If you want to know what SF is going to look like in the next decade, this is it.’ — Gardener Dozois

‘Beautiful, original, a shimmering tapestry of connections and images – I can’t think of another SF novel quite like it. Lavie Tidhar is one of the most distinctive voices to enter the field in many years.’ — Alastair Reynolds

‘A fascinating future glimpsed through the lens of a tight-knit community. Tidhar changes genres with every outing, but his astounding talents guarantee something new and compelling no matter the story he tells.’ — Library Journal (starred review)

‘A dazzling tale of complicated politics and even more complicated souls. Beautiful.’ — Ken Liu

More reviews can be found on Lavie’s author page, and also on the book’s page at the publisher’s website.

Promotional Comic Art for THE VIOLENT CENTURY in Taiwan!

Posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2016

To help promote the Taiwanese edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY, a promotional comic has been produced! The artwork can be found here, but here are two examples (possibly the front and back covers for the comic)…

The novel is due to be published in Taiwan by Apex as 狂暴年代. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism — a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields — to answer one last, impossible question: What makes a hero?

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Thomas Dunne and in Japan by 東京創元社 (in two volumes). It is also available in limited edition, published by PS Publishing.

Lavie Tidhar’s GREAT GAME is once again afoot…

Posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2016

Lavie Tidhar‘s third Bookman novel, THE GREAT GAME, is re-issued this week! Published by Angry Robot Books, the novel is available in North America tomorrow, and in the UK this Thursday. Here’s the synopsis…

Smiley’s People meets War of the Worlds…

As a 19th century unlike our own comes to a close, Mycroft Holmes is found murdered outside his London club. It is up to retired shadow executive Smith to track down the killer – only to stumble on the greatest conspiracy of his life. Strange forces are stirring into life around the globe, and in the shadow game of spies nothing is certain.

In The Great Game, World Fantasy Award winning author Lavie Tidhar concludes his epic trilogy of a Victorian era that could never have been: filled with literary references galore, not to mention airship battles, Frankenstein monsters, alien tripods and death-defying acts. It is a world where nothing is certain – not even death.

And furthermore… venture deeper into the Lost Files of the Bookman Histories in this 2016 edition, as Professor Tidhar explores the ‘Dynamics of an Asteroid’!

Angry Robot re-issued the first two novels in the series — THE BOOKMAN and CAMERA OBSCURA — earlier this year.

Here is a small selection of reviews the novel and series have enjoyed…

‘THE GREAT GAME is a very fine addition to the [Bookman Histories] series, and can be enjoyed without having read the others, though you owe it to yourself to read the entire series if well detailed alternate history science fiction is your sort of thing.’ — Starburst

‘Alien technologies, lizard monarchs, giant robots, breathless action, and all manner of weird stuff going down … It’s great, over-the-top period fun.’ –– Ros Jackson, Warpcore SF on THE GREAT GAME

‘Tidhar’s world is energetic… a thoroughly fun book and a lively adventure.’ — Terror Tree on THE GREAT GAME

‘Lavie Tidhar’s THE BOOKMAN is simply the best book I’ve read in a long time, and I read a lot of books. If you’re worried that Steampunk has turned into a mere fashion aesthetic, then you’d better read this one. It’s a stunningly imaginative remix of history, technology, literature, and Victorian adventure that’s impossible to put down. The book is immensely smart and readable at the same time. I very much hope that it’s the first of many such books. Buy it.’ — James P. Blaylock

‘THE BOOKMAN is a delight, crammed with gorgeous period detail, seat-of-the-pants adventure and fabulous set-pieces.’ — The Guardian

‘Achieves moments of surprising depth and beauty, with real insights into human history and psychology as well as the immense and varied wealth of writing in the last half of the 19th century. It’s a virtuoso performance.’ — Locus Magazine on CAMERA OBSCURA

Lavie’s latest novel, CENTRAL STATION, was published this year by Tachyon Publications, to great acclaim. His previous, critically-acclaimed and award-winning novels include A MAN LIES DREAMING (Hodder/Melville House), THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder/Thomas Dunne/PS Publishing) and OSAMA.

Lavie Tidhar’s A MAN LIES DREAMING out in Czech!

Posted on Friday, September 30th, 2016

The Czech edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is out today! Published by Argo as MUŽ LEŽÍ A SNÍ, here’s the synopsis…

Druhá polovina 30. let 20. století. Evropa je v krizi a Velká Británie se potýká s přílivem uprchlíků. V Německu totiž došlo k Pádu, moci se chopili komunisté, a tak boháči i fašisté, nechtějí-li skončit v trestaneckém táboře, musí utéct za hranice. Většinou se rychle vzpamatují a dál se věnují tomu, na co mají talent, třeba obchodu nebo organizovanému zločinu, ale jistý pan Wolf je muž s ideály, hnusí se mu všeobecný morální úpadek, a zatímco živoří v zaměstnání soukromého detektiva, sní o tom, že už brzy vydá další část svého životního díla, knihy nazvané Můj boj.

Pravda, mezitím si ještě bude muset vytrpět něco sexuálního ponížení v rukou zdegenerovaných prostitutek či špinavé Židovky a párkrát dostane pořádnou nakládačku, ale to muže jeho formátu nezlomí. Zatím v jiném čase a na jiném místě leží muž a sní…

The novel is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Melville House, and in Italy by Frassinelli. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Here is just a handful of great reviews, taken from the many the novel has enjoyed…

‘Comes crashing through the door of literature like Sam Spade with a .38 in his hand. This is a shocking book as well as a rather brilliant one… Tidhar’s novel treats its grim theme not as a comedy, although there is plenty of caustic humour, but instead as a pulp-noir tale of seamy city streets, gumshoes and lowlifes… Tidhar gets the outre tone just right… Tidhar, who cut his teeth in the world of genre SF, understands how eloquent pulp can be… [OSAMA] won the World Fantasy award. I wouldn’t be surprised to see A MAN LIES DREAMING repeat that achievement… Like Tarantino, Tidhar may find that some people don’t take him seriously. But the joke’s on them. Seriousness is the least of it: A MAN LIES DREAMING is a twisted masterpiece.’ — Guardian

‘Wild, noir-infused alternative history from genre-bender Tidhar… A wholly original Holocaust story: as outlandish as it is poignant.’ — Kirkus (Starred Review)

‘…savagely funny… A MAN LIES DREAMING, by the Israeli-born novelist Lavie Tidhar, has not been published with the fanfare bestowed on Martin Amis’s The Zone of Interest or Howard Jacobson’s J, but it is their equal for savage humour… Those who enjoy laughter in the dark will relish Tidhar’s parade of mordant ironies… This novel is weird, upsetting, unmissable.’ 5* — Telegraph

‘No one can accuse Lavie Tidhar of being risk-averse… Tidhar reveals – as he did earlier in OSAMA and to some extent in THE VIOLENT CENTURY – that he’s really less interested in the mechanistic ‘‘what-ifs’’ of conventional alternate history than he is in the interpenetration of real and invented histories, or perhaps more grandiosely in the interpenetration of art and life – even the often-demeaned art of sensational fiction or (as in the case of THE VIOLENT CENTURY) comic books. This is what makes him such an interesting writer, and what makes A MAN LIES DREAMING quite a bit more complex than it at first appears… the novel is not without a fair amount of humor, and that might well be the boldest risk Tidhar is taking here…’ — Locus

‘Everything in this genre-bender works; intriguing historical characters are worked into expertly managed plots, and the visceral noir atmosphere is juxtaposed nicely against the drawing-room world of London’s political scene.’ — Booklist (Starred Review)

‘A Chandler-esque mystery… a jarring tale of a grim, gray alternative world… Seldom will readers come across fantasy as well conceived and well written as this exceptional novel.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

Lavie’s latest book, CENTRAL STATION, is published by Tachyon Publications. His previous work includes the critically-acclaimed novels THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder/Thomas Dunne), the Bookman Histories trilogy (Angry Robot), and multiple short stories and novellas.

Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION out in audio tomorrow!

Posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2016

Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed latest novel, CENTRAL STATION, is released as an audiobook tomorrow! Published by Audible, it will be available in the UK and US. Here’s the synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’ ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap in to the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv, a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness – are just the beginning of irrevocable change. At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

The book is published in print by Tachyon Publications, and is out now. Here’s just a small selection taken from the great reviews the novel has received recently…

‘Magnificently blends literary and speculative elements in this streetwise mosaic novel set under the towering titular spaceport… Tidhar gleefully mixes classic SF concepts with prose styles and concepts that recall the best of world literature. The byways of Central Station ring with dusty life, like the bruising, bustling Cairo streets depicted by Naguib Mahfouz. Characters wrestle with problems of identity forged under systems of oppression, much as displaced Easterners and Westerners do in the novels of Orhan Pamuk. And yet this is unmistakably SF. Readers of all persuasions will be entranced.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘A fascinating future glimpsed through the lens of a tight-knit community. Verdict: Tidhar… changes genres with every outing, but his astounding talents guarantee something new and compelling no matter the story he tells.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘It is just this side of a masterpiece — short, restrained, lush — and the truest joy of it is in the way Tidhar scatters brilliant ideas like pennies on the sidewalk.’ — NPR Books

‘Tidhar’s prose draws the reader in, bringing this world to life with ease… Not only intelligent, it’s emotional too… Tidhar is reminiscent of an early William Gibson, not just in sharing that short and punchy style, but in his ability to create a world where the speculation is believable enough to fit seamlessly into the narrative… cement[s] Lavie Tidhar as one of science fiction’s great voices, an author who creates scenarios and characters that feel destined to become classics, ones that readers will be happy to revisit time and time again. It’s a compelling collection that mixes the epic and the intimate, one that succeeds at being profound, incredibly moving and, quite simply, stunning.’ (10/10) — Starburst

‘A marvellous, multi-faceted story that flows gently from one character to another like an intimate private tour of Tel Aviv and the spaceport at its centre.’ — SF Crowsnest

‘The stories include some of Tidhar’s most beautiful prose, and his future Tel Aviv is among the most evocative settings in recent SF… Somehow, CENTRAL STATION combines a cultural sensibility too long invisible in SF with a sensibility which is nothing but classic SF, and the result is a rather elegant suite of tales.’ — Locus

‘A fantastic mosaic novel.’ — New York Review of Science Fiction

Lavie Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY coming soon in Taiwan!

Posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2016

Above is the cover for the Taiwanese edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY. Published next month by Apex as 狂暴年代, here’s the English-language synopsis…

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism — a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields — to answer one last, impossible question: What makes a hero?

Here’s the full-wrap image:

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Thomas Dunne and in Japan by 東京創元社. It is also available in limited edition, published by PS Publishing.

Here’s a small selection from the great reviews the novel has received so far…

‘A brilliantly etched phantasmagoric reconfiguring of that most sizzling of eras – the twilight 20th… This book has it all: time travel, political intrigue, hellacious history… You’ve got superheroes in the guise of regular humans, you’ve got World War II… THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a torrid tour de force!’ — James Ellroy

‘THE VIOLENT CENTURY is an excellent novel that demonstrates, once again, the impressive versatility of its author.’ — Interzone

‘It’s hard, but not impossible as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey and others have shown, to create a morally complex, artistically ambitious story based on characters whose origins are not that far removed from the simplicity of Superman, Spiderman, and their ilk. Tidhar has succeeded brilliantly in this task. THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a masterful example of alternate universe science fiction and can only add to its author’s rapidly growing reputation.’ — Los Angeles Review of Books

‘An original, engrossing fusion of noir-ish super-heroes and gritty espionage thriller… Tidhar has written a fantastic novel… Definitely recommended.’ — Civilian Reader

‘The level of detail with which Tidhar fills his novel ensures that the events he is using as his setting feel convincing. Like Le Carre’s best novels, the world of espionage isn’t glamorous or exciting; it’s a grim, cold and lonely place. The author does a lot with a relatively minimalist style… it’s impressive how much ground Tidhar covers… As well as being a wonderfully drawn and detailed historical espionage tale, THE VIOLENT CENTURY is ultimately a very human story. It’s gripping, imaginative and, finally, moving.’ — SciFi Now

‘THE VIOLENT CENTURY has everything to look for in a novel – a wonderfully crafted plot, strong realistic characters, an atmosphere that is unnervingly real – all written in a style that insists on the reader’s full attention… one of the best books I’ve ever read.’ — Fantasy Faction

‘Tidhar brings us a tale of individuals wrestling with questions of their nature, told on a grand scale, on the stage of the historical shifts that exist in living memory, and he does an outstanding job of it, weaving together historical fact with stunningly deceptive world building… Tidhar shows a deft hand with research… This is a dark, brooding book, one that you want to gnaw on, savour, slowly, and enjoy, but it has its light moments, too… He’s dealing with the grandest schemes on the largest of backdrops in time and place, and this level of awe-inspiring craft places him firmly within the highest tier of writers working today, no longer an emerging writer, but a master.’ — British Fantasy Society

Lavie’s most recent novels are the critically-acclaimed CENTRAL STATION, published by Tachyon Publications; and the award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING, published by Hodder (UK) and Melville House (US).

Czech Edition of A MAN LIES DREAMING out next month!

Posted on Monday, September 5th, 2016

Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is due to out at the end of October in Czech. Published by Argo as MUŽ LEŽÍ A SNÍ, here’s the synopsis…

Druhá polovina 30. let 20. století. Evropa je v krizi a Velká Británie se potýká s přílivem uprchlíků. V Německu totiž došlo k Pádu, moci se chopili komunisté, a tak boháči i fašisté, nechtějí-li skončit v trestaneckém táboře, musí utéct za hranice. Většinou se rychle vzpamatují a dál se věnují tomu, na co mají talent, třeba obchodu nebo organizovanému zločinu, ale jistý pan Wolf je muž s ideály, hnusí se mu všeobecný morální úpadek, a zatímco živoří v zaměstnání soukromého detektiva, sní o tom, že už brzy vydá další část svého životního díla, knihy nazvané Můj boj.

Pravda, mezitím si ještě bude muset vytrpět něco sexuálního ponížení v rukou zdegenerovaných prostitutek či špinavé Židovky a párkrát dostane pořádnou nakládačku, ale to muže jeho formátu nezlomí. Zatím v jiném čase a na jiném místě leží muž a sní…

A MAN LIES DREAMING is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Melville House, and in Italy by Frassinelli. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Lavie’s latest book, CENTRAL STATION, is published by Tachyon Publications. His previous work includes the critically-acclaimed novels THE VIOLENT CENTURY, the Bookman Histories trilogy, and multiple short stories and novellas.

Lavie Tidhar and Anne Lyle’s Nine Worlds 2016 Schedules

Posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2016

This weekend, Nine Worlds Geekfest 2016 is taking place between August 12-14th, 2016, at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith. Two Zeno clients will be in attendance: Lavie Tidhar and Anne Lyle. Here are where you’ll be able to find them…

Lavie Tidhar…

Saturday August 13th

10am — “The end of the world, and why we love it” (Reims)
11:45am — “How to Idea” (Cremant)

Lavie’s latest novel, CENTRAL STATION, was published this year by Tachyon Publications. His previous work includes A MAN LIES DREAMING, winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Melville House; the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA (PS Publishing); the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder/Thomas Dunne); and the recently re-issued Bookman Histories series (Angry Robot Books).

Anne Lyle…

Saturday August 13th

5pm — “Making and breaking a hero” (Mouton Cadet)

Sunday August 14th

1:30pm — “Writing Utopia” (Bouzy)

Anne Lyle’s critically-acclaimed Night’s Masque trilogy is published by Angry Robot Books, and includes: THE ALCHEMIST OF SOULS, THE MERCHANT OF DREAMS and THE PRINCE OF LIES.

New Edition of Lavie Tidhar’s CAMERA OBSCURA Out Now!

Posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2016

Today, Angry Robot Books release the new edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed CAMERA OBSCURA! It is the second novel in the Bookman Histories steampunk series. Here’s the synopsis…

In the last decade of a 19th century unlike our own, Milady de Winter is called to the scene of an impossible crime. A gruesome murder on the Rue Morgue sets her against a ghostly serial killer, and on a voyage that leads from the catacombs of Paris to the wonders of the New World – where new horrors lie in wait.

In Camera Obscura, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar combines the Victorian penny dreadful with exploitation cinema to create a wide-screen thriller of redemption: complete with mad scientists, secret societies, Shaolin monks and figures liberally borrowed from the literature of the era – as only he can.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! For the first time, the 2016 edition also includes ‘Titanic’, a short story from the Lost Files of the Bookman Histories.

The new edition was also released in the US, on Tuesday. Angry Robot re-issued the first novel, THE BOOKMAN, back in June; the final novel in the series, THE GREAT GAME, is due to be re-issued in October 2016. CAMERA OBSCURA was nominated for both the Sidewise and Airship Awards, when it was first released. Here’s just a small selection of reviews the novel has received…

‘A rollicking adventure…a maelstrom of pop culture and recursive fantasy.’ — Tor.com

‘The reader certainly suffers along with the character. At the same time, the characters never cease to be fascinating and I found myself intrigued by the settings, which become characters in themselves. From the underwater squid-like dwellings of Scab to the Little China of Paris, each location is richly detailed, dripping with nuances and characters which bring it to life. It’s easy to feel ‘there’ along with Milady throughout her journey.’ — SF Signal

‘Superb.’ — Fantasy Book Critic

‘Achieves moments of surprising depth and beauty, with real insights into human history and psychology as well as the immense and varied wealth of writing in the last half of the 19th century. It’s a virtuoso performance.’ — Locus Magazine

Lavie is also the author of the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA (PS Publishing), the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING (Hodder UK/Melville House US), and the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder UK/Thomas Dunne US) and CENTRAL STATION (Tachyon Publications).

THE BOOKMAN Re-Issued in US Today!

Posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2016

Hot on the heels of THE BOOKMAN‘s re-issue in the UK last week, we’re very happy to report that the new edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s debut (pictured above) is out today in the US, too! Published by Angry Robot Books, here’s the synopsis…

In a 19th century unlike our own, the shadowy assassin known as the Bookman moves unseen. His weapons are books; his enemies are many. And when Orphan, a young man with a mysterious past, loses his love to the sinister machinations of the Bookman, Orphan would stop at nothing to bring her back from the dead.

In The Bookman, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar writes a love letter to books, and to the serial literature of the Victorian era: full of hair-breadth escapes and derring-dos, pirates and automatons, assassins and poets, a world in which real life authors mingle freely with their fictional creations – and where nothing is quite as it seems.

New 2016 edition includes the novelette “Murder in the Cathedral”. Discover, truthfully, what actually happened when Orphan visited Paris.

The second and third novels in the series — CAMERA OBSCURA and THE GREAT GAME — will be published in August and October, respectively.

The Bookman Histories have also been published in Japan, by Hayakawa Shobo…

Lavie Tidhar is, most recently, the author of the critically-acclaimed CENTRAL STATION, published by Tachyon Publications. He is also the multi-award winning author of A MAN LIES DREAMING (Hodder UK/Melville House US), THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder UK/Thomas Dunne US) and OSAMA (PS Publishing), among many novellas and short stories.

Lavie Tidhar’s THE BOOKMAN Reissued in UK Today!

Posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2016

Today, Angry Robot Books re-release the first novel in Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed Bookman Histories steampunk series! THE BOOKMAN was originally published in 2010. Here is the synopsis…

In a 19th century unlike our own, the shadowy assassin known as the Bookman moves unseen. His weapons are books; his enemies are many. And when Orphan, a young man with a mysterious past, loses his love to the sinister machinations of the Bookman, Orphan would stop at nothing to bring her back from the dead.

In The Bookman, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar writes a love letter to books, and to the serial literature of the Victorian era: full of hair-breadth escapes and derring-dos, pirates and automatons, assassins and poets, a world in which real life authors mingle freely with their fictional creations – and where nothing is quite as it seems.

New 2016 edition includes the novelette “Murder in the Cathedral”. Discover, truthfully, what actually happened when Orphan visited Paris.

The new edition of THE BOOKMAN will be published in the US next week. The final two volumes in the trilogy, CAMERA OBSCURA and THE GREAT GAME, will be re-issued by Angry Robot in August and October, respectively.

Lavie Tidhar is, most recently, the author of the critically-acclaimed CENTRAL STATION, published by Tachyon Publications. He is also the multi-award winning author of A MAN LIES DREAMING (Hodder UK/Melville House US), THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder UK/Thomas Dunne US) and OSAMA (PS Publishing), among many novellas and short stories.

Here is just a handful of great reviews THE BOOKMAN has received…

‘Lavie Tidhar’s THE BOOKMAN is simply the best book I’ve read in a long time, and I read a lot of books. If you’re worried that Steampunk has turned into a mere fashion aesthetic, then you’d better read this one. It’s a stunningly imaginative remix of history, technology, literature, and Victorian adventure that’s impossible to put down. The book is immensely smart and readable at the same time. I very much hope that it’s the first of many such books. Buy it.’ — James P. Blaylock

‘THE BOOKMAN is a delight, crammed with gorgeous period detail, seat-of-the-pants adventure and fabulous set-pieces.’ — Guardian

‘This is a steampunk gem. The settings are marvellously detailed, giving you the feeling that there is a London in which Lizards reign and whales swim up the Thames to sing lullabies to the city dwellers… Bring on a sequel, Tidhar! I’m craving to know what happens after the ending!’ — SFF World on THE BOOKMAN

‘The juicy backstory is unfolded by Tidhar, making it a key part of what makes the narrative so compelling… skilful, clever and highly enjoyable.’ –– SFX Magazine on THE BOOKMAN

‘An intelligent, clever book, that creates a wonderfully complex secondary world … as well-constructed as a Swiss cuckoo clock and as readable as any genre fiction being written today.’ — Red Rook Review

Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION is out tomorrow!

Posted on Monday, May 9th, 2016

Tomorrow, Lavie Tidhar‘s highly-anticipated new novel is out! CENTRAL STATION is published by Tachyon Publications. Here’s the synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness — are just the beginning of irrevocable change.

At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

The novel, which is made up of a series of linked stories, has already received some fantastic reviews. Here’s just a small sample…

‘Magnificently blends literary and speculative elements… Tidhar gleefully mixes classic SF concepts with prose styles and concepts that recall the best of world literature… Readers of all persuasions will be entranced.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘The stories include some of Tidhar’s most beautiful prose, and his future Tel Aviv is among the most evocative settings in recent SF… Somehow, CENTRAL STATION combines a cultural sensibility too long invisible in SF with a sensibility which is nothing but classic SF, and the result is a rather elegant suite of tales.’ — Locus

‘If you want to know what SF is going to look like in the next decade, this is it.’ — Gardener Dozois

‘A fascinating future glimpsed through the lens of a tight-knit community. Tidhar changes genres with every outing, but his astounding talents guarantee something new and compelling no matter the story he tells.’ — Library Journal (starred review)

Tor.com has shared an excerpt from the book, in case you’d like to try it first.

Lavie is also the author of the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING (Hodder/Melville House), and the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY (Hodder/Thomas Dunne) and the Bookman Histories series (Angry Robot Books).

Lavie Tidhar’s Signing at Forbidden Planet Next Week

Posted on Friday, April 29th, 2016

Next Thursday at 6pm, Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue will host Lavie Tidhar for a signing of his next book, CENTRAL STATION. The highly-anticipated sci-fi tale is published by Tachyon Publications on May 10th. Here’s the synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness—are just the beginning of irrevocable change.

At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

Lavie is also the author of the award winning OSAMA and A MAN LIES DREAMING, the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY and The Bookman Histories, and numerous novellas and short stories.

Lavie Tidhar’s & Shimon Adaf’s ART AND WAR Out Today!

Posted on Thursday, April 21st, 2016

ART AND WAR, Lavie Tidhar‘s collaboration with Shimon Adaf, is out today! Published by Repeater Books, here’s the synopsis…

Shimon Adaf and Lavie Tidhar are two of Israel’s most subversive and politically outspoken writers. Growing up on opposite sides of the Israeli spectrum — Tidhar in the north of Israel in the Zionist, socialist Kibbutz; Adaf from a family of religious Mizrahi Jews living in Sderot — the two nevertheless shared a love of books, and were especially drawn to the strange visions and outrageous sensibilities of the science fiction that was available in Hebrew. Here, they engage in a dialogue that covers their approach to writing the fantastic, as they question how to write about Israel and Palestine, about Judaism, about the Holocaust, about childhoods and their end. Extending the conversation even into their fiction, the book contains two brand new short stories — “Tutim” by Tidhar, and “third_attribute” by Adaf — in which each appears as a character in the other’s tale; simultaneously political and fantastical, they burn with an angry, despairing intensity.

Lavie Tidhar is the author of the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING, and the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY, among others. THE VIOLENT CENTURY and A MAN LIES DREAMING are both published in the UK by Hodder. A MAN LIES DREAMING is also available in a Limited Edition (PS Publishing), in Italy (Frassinelli) and was published in the US by Melville House, in March 2016. THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the US by Thomas Dunne Books. His next book is CENTRAL STATION, which is due to be published in May 2016, by Tachyon Publications.

Lavie Tidhar Talks Writing, Genre, and More

Posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2016

Recently, Lavie Tidhar stopped by the Coode Street Podcast to chat about A MAN LIES DREAMING, his upcoming book CENTRAL STATION and more…

We discussed his sometimes controversial approach to alternate history, the question of borrowing tropes from pulp fiction in portraying serious events such as the Holocaust and terrorism, the importance of American SF writers like Cordwainer Smith, his own experiences growing up in a kibbutz and what he read there, and the never-ending question of genre literature vs “literary” fiction.

Lavie Tidhar won the World Fantasy Award-winning for his novel OSAMA; and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY, and a considerable number of short stories and novellas. You can read one of his latest short stories, TERMINAL, is available to read on Tor.com.

THE VIOLENT CENTURY and A MAN LIES DREAMING are both published in the UK by Hodder. A MAN LIES DREAMING is also available in a Limited Edition (PS Publishing), in Italy (Frassinelli) and was published in the US by Melville House, in March 2016. THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the US by Thomas Dunne Books. His next book is CENTRAL STATION, which is due to be published in May 2016, by Tachyon Publications — you can read an excerpt over on Tor.com.