Tag: Lavie Tidhar

Lavie Tidhar’s MAROR Out Now!

Posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2022

MAROR, Lavie Tidhar‘s latest epic novel is out now! Published by Head of Zeus, it has been described as ‘a kaleidoscopic masterpiece’ (Junot Diaz) and ‘like the Jewish Godfather’ (Silvia Moreno-Garcia). Check out the synopsis…

A multi-generational saga with cultural and political depth, drawing on the rich, often troubling recent history of Israel, for fans of A History of Seven Killings or The White Tiger.

How do you build a nation?

It takes statesmen and soldiers, farmers and factory workers, of course. But it also takes thieves, prostitutes and policemen.

Nation-building demands sacrifice. And one man knows exactly where those bodies are buried: Cohen, a man who loves his country. A reasonable man for unreasonable times.

A car bomb in the back streets of Tel Aviv. A diamond robbery in Haifa. Civil war in Lebanon. Rebel fighters in the Colombian jungle. A double murder in Los Angeles.

How do they all connect? Only Cohen knows.

Maror is the story of a war for a country’s soul – a dazzling spread of narrative gunshots across four decades and three continents.

It is a true story. All of these things happened.

Head of Zeus has also published some of Lavie’s other novels: OSAMA, A MAN LIES DREAMING, BY FORCE ALONE, and THE HOOD , as well as the THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 and (forthcoming) Volume 2, which Lavie edited.

Check out that pair of advance reviews of MAROR in full…

‘Some write in ink, others in song, Tidhar writes in fire… MAROR is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece, immense in its sympathies, alarming in its irreverences and altogether exhilarating.’ — Junot Díaz

‘One of the boldest, most visionary writers I’ve ever read creates both a vivid political exploration and a riveting crime epic.’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia

‘MAROR blends the page-turning wit of a hard-boiled detective noir with the stirring intrigue of a multi-national political epic. An ambitious achievement that weaves a tapestry of both story and statement.’ — Kevin Jared Hosein

Lavie Tidhar’s MAROR Out Next Week!

Posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2022

The wait for Lavie Tidhar‘s latest epic novel is almost over: MAROR is due to be published next week by Head of Zeus! Check out the synopsis…

A multi-generational saga with cultural and political depth, drawing on the rich, often troubling recent history of Israel, for fans of A History of Seven Killings or The White Tiger.

How do you build a nation?

It takes statesmen and soldiers, farmers and factory workers, of course. But it also takes thieves, prostitutes and policemen.

Nation-building demands sacrifice. And one man knows exactly where those bodies are buried: Cohen, a man who loves his country. A reasonable man for unreasonable times.

A car bomb in the back streets of Tel Aviv. A diamond robbery in Haifa. Civil war in Lebanon. Rebel fighters in the Colombian jungle. A double murder in Los Angeles.

How do they all connect? Only Cohen knows.

Maror is the story of a war for a country’s soul – a dazzling spread of narrative gunshots across four decades and three continents.

It is a true story. All of these things happened.

Check out this pair of advance reactions to the novel…

‘Some write in ink, others in song, Tidhar writes in fire… MAROR is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece, immense in its sympathies, alarming in its irreverences and altogether exhilarating.’ — Junot Díaz

‘One of the boldest, most visionary writers I’ve ever read creates both a vivid political exploration and a riveting crime epic. It’s like the Jewish Godfather!’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Head of Zeus has also published some of Lavie’s other novels: OSAMA, A MAN LIES DREAMING, BY FORCE ALONE, and THE HOOD , as well as the THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 and (forthcoming) Volume 2, which Lavie edited.

THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Vol.2 Announced!

Posted on Friday, July 8th, 2022

We’re very happy to report that the full details of THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 2 have now been unveiled! Following on from the success of the first volume in the series, this one is also edited by Lavie Tidhar, and is due to be published by Head of Zeus/AdAstra in the UK (October 13th) and North America (November 1st). Here’s the synopsis…

Twenty-nine new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction.

The second annual instalment to the ‘rare and wonderful’ (The Times) The Best of World SF Volume 1, this collection features twenty-nine stories, including eight written exclusively for this collection. This is not a retrospective of what science fiction around the world used to look like. This is a snapshot of what some of it looks like now. And it’s never been more exciting.

Navigating around the globe, The Best of World SF Volume 2 features writers from: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Brazil, Bolivia, China, Czech Republic, Greece, India, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Each story has been selected by World SF expert and award-winning author Lavie Tidhar in a collection which traces the ever-changing meaning of the genre from some the most exciting voices writing today.

Here’s the full Table of Contents…

  • Nadia Afifi, THE BAHRAIN UNDERGROUND BAZAAR (Bahrain)
  • Lavanya Lakshminarayan, THE TEN-PERCENT THIEF (India)
  • Frances Ogamba, AT DESK 9501 (Nigeria) *
  • Isabel Yap, MILAGROSO (The Philippines)
  • Saad Z. Hossain, BRING YOUR OWN SPOON (Bangladesh)
  • Yukimi Ogawa, BLUE GREY BLUE (Japan)
  • Xing He, YOUR MULTICOLORED LIFE (China), trans. Andy Dudak
  • Nalo Hopkinson, THE EASTHOUND (Jamaica)
  • Pan Haitian, DEAD MAN, AWAKE, SING TO THE SUN! (China), trans. Joel Martinsen *
  • Jacques Barcia, SALVAGING GODS (Brazil)
  • Edmundo Paz Soldán, THE NEXT MOVE (Bolivia), trans. Jessica Sequeira *
  • Dilman Dila, THE CLAY CHILD (Uganda) *
  • Natalia Theodoridou, TO SET AT TWILIGHT IN A LAND OF REEDS (Greece)
  • Bef, THE BEAST HAS DIED (Mexico), trans. Brian L. Price
  • Alberto Chimal, TWENTY ABOUT ROBOTS (Mexico), trans. Fionn Petch
  • Wole Talabi, THE REGRESSION TEST (Nigeria),
  • William Tham Wai Liang, KAKAK (Malaysia)
  • Usman T. Malik, BEYOND THESE STARS OTHER TRIBULATIONS OF LOVE (Pakistan)
  • Julie Novakova, A FLAW IN THE WORKS (Czech Republic), trans. by author *
  • Cassandra Khaw, WHEN WE DIE ON MARS (Malaysia)
  • Karen Lord and Tobias S. Buckell, THE MIGHTY SLINGER (Barbados/Grenada)
  • T.L. Huchu, CORIALIS (Zimbabwe)
  • Clelia Farris, THE SUBSTANCE OF IDEAS (Italy), trans. Rachel S. Cordasco
  • Agnieszka Hałas, SLEEPING BEAUTIES (Poland), trans. by author *
  • Samit Basu, WAKING NYDRA (India) *
  • Neon Yang, BETWEEN THE FIRMAMENTS (Singapore)
  • Bo-Young Kim, WHALE SNOWS DOWN (South Korea), trans. Sophie Bowman
  • Hassan Blasim, THE GARDENS OF BABYLON (Iraq), trans. Jonathan Wright
  • K.A. Teryna, THE FARCTORY (Russia), trans. Alex Shvartsman *

(Stories indicated with an * are original for this volume.)

Here are some of the reviews the first has volume received…

‘This handsome volume from Head of Zeus is a major step on a 45-year journey to bring global speculative fiction to Anglophone attention… The print edition of THE BEST OF WORLD SF: Volume 1 is truly a thing of beauty, providing gravitas and a wider audience for the authors it collects… There are many striking stories in the collection… This anthology is just the start of a whole new game for speculative fiction authors around the world’ — LA Review of Books

‘An excellent, lovingly curated collection that is also uniformly well translated’ — Financial Times

‘Tidhar gives a cheerful, fannish introduction to the stories, drawn from 26 countries on five continents, and encompassing a dizzying range of tones and approaches’ — The Times

THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 is out now, available in paperback.

Lavie Tidhar Returns to the CENTRAL STATION Universe, with NEOM!

Posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2022

This winter, Lavie Tidhar returns to the setting of his multi-award-winning CENTRAL STATION! The new novel, NEOM, is due to be published by Tachyon Publications in November. Here’s the synopsis…

The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. Neom is a tech wonderland for the rich and beautiful; an urban sprawl along the Red Sea; and a port of call between Earth and the stars.

In the desert, young orphan Saleh has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world from Central Station. But the desert is full of mechanical artefacts, some unexplained and some unexploded. Recently, a wry, unnamed robot has unearthed one of the region’s biggest mysteries: the vestiges of a golden man.

In Neom, childhood affection is rekindling between loyal shurta-officer Nasir and hardworking flower-seller Mariam. But Nasu, a deadly terrorartist, has come to the city with missing memories and unfinished business.

Just one robot can change a city’s destiny with a single rose — especially when that robot is in search of lost love.

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

‘… hauntingly beautiful… Written in a straightforward but luminous style… NEOM is a treasure… a compelling chapter in this future history that reflects so much about who we are and the basic things we yearn for.’ — SciFi Mind

‘Lavie Tidhar’s NEOM is a stunning return to his world of CENTRAL STATION, twinning the fates of humans and robots alike at a futuristic city on the edge of the Red Sea.’ — Green Man Review

‘This was superb and I’m in awe of Tidhar’s vision. He’s conjured up a futuristic city that feels simultaneously ultramodern and also run down. The rich histories of the region and its cultures are seamlessly interwoven into the fabric of this fully-realized world.’ — Speculative Shelf

CENTRAL STATION was published in 2016, also by Tachyon Publications. With an award-winning cover by Sarah Anne Langton, the novel was also the John W. Campbell Award Winner, Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award Winner, Xingyun Award Winner; it was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Kurd Laßwitz Preis; longlisted for the British Science Fiction Award; was nominated for the Geffen Award (Best Translated Science Fiction Book); and it was a finalist for the Premio Italia, Best International Novel Award.

Tachyon also publishes Lavie’s UNHOLY LAND, THE VIOLENT CENTURY, and THE ESCAPEMENT.

New Lavie Tidhar StoryBundle Now Available!

Posted on Friday, June 10th, 2022

Continuing our rather Lavie Tidhar-themed week, there is a new StoryBundle available featuring up to 12 of the author’s books! Comprised of a collection of award-winning novels and novellas, available individually via Tachyon Publications and the JABberwocky eBook Program, here’s what Lavie had to say about the bundle…

The real streets of Central Station in Tel Aviv inspired the novel of that name. Living on the Mekong in Vientiane inspired much of the atmosphere of GOREL & THE POT-BELLIED GOD, and a fascination with the game of poker led to the writing of THE BIG BLIND.

The world of UNHOLY LAND was much informed by the years I spent in south and east Africa, just as my adopted home city of London was a fundamental character in THE VIOLENT CENTURY and THE VANISHING KIND.

But I cannot, in truth, claim ever to have lived in the Doinklands of THE ESCAPEMENT.

These are some of my favourite novels and novellas of the past decade or so. I wrote them variously in Laos, in Israel, in Vanuatu and in London. A key part of UNHOLY LAND was written in Korea, at the Toji Cultural Centre whose founder, the author Pak Kyongni, inspired in turn the writing of NEW ATLANTIS.

The bundle includes my earliest novella, AN OCCUPATION OF ANGELS, with a brand-new edition and a cover by artist Paul McCaffrey, who worked with me on the graphic novel Adler. It also includes an exclusive sampler of my latest work, the forthcoming SF novel NEOM, which was inspired by my visits to Egypt over the years, and my dreams of what lay on the other side of the Red Sea.

When you buy the bundle, you will also have a chance to donate a portion of the proceeds to The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees!

The novel NEOM is Lavie’s latest novel, which is due to be published by Tachyon Publications in November 2022 — the bundle includes an exclusive teaser as a bonus. Here’s the synopsis…

The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. Neom is a tech wonderland for the rich and beautiful; an urban sprawl along the Red Sea; and a port of call between Earth and the stars.

In the desert, young orphan Saleh has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world from Central Station. But the desert is full of mechanical artefacts, some unexplained and some unexploded. Recently, a wry, unnamed robot has unearthed one of the region’s biggest mysteries: the vestiges of a golden man.

In Neom, childhood affection is rekindling between loyal shurta-officer Nasir and hardworking flower-seller Mariam. But Nasu, a deadly terrorartist, has come to the city with missing memories and unfinished business.

Just one robot can change a city’s destiny with a single rose — especially when that robot is in search of lost love.

The Bundle is live/available for the rest of June.

AN OCCUPATION OF ANGELS by Lavie Tidhar is out now!

Posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2022

Lavie Tidhar‘s novella AN OCCUPATION OF ANGELS is out now! Published by JABberwocky, it is available as an eBook and print on demand. Here’s the synopsis…

A British secret agent is caught in a plot to assassinate archangels who settled Earth after WWII in this classic thriller from the World Fantasy Award winning author!

In 1945, the Archangels materialised over the battlefields of Europe, ushering in a new Cold War. Fifty years later, they are being killed off… one by one.

But who – or what – can kill an angel?

Killarney is a shadow executive for the Bureau, British Intelligence’s most secret organisation. She is the best – and she always works alone. Sent on a desperate mission to locate a missing cryptographer who may prove the key to the murders, Killarney finds herself running for her life, from London to Paris to Moscow, leading to a confrontation with a very human evil in the frozen wastelands of Novosibirsk.

Plagued by dreams of a different world, and haunted by a swastika adorned with angel wings, it could take all of Killarney’s resources to survive, when Heaven itself may be threatened, and God herself may be walking the earth…

‘Sharp, brutal, cool — yet also stunningly imaginative and perfectly realised.’ — Michael Marshall, bestselling author of The Straw Men trilogy

THE HOOD Paperback is out this week!

Posted on Monday, June 6th, 2022

The paperback edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s THE HOOD is out this week! The second novel in the author’s acclaimed Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet, it is published by Head of Zeus, and will officially arrive in shops on June 9th. (If you’re lucky, you may find some out there already…)

God bless you, England, on this glorious Year of Our Lord, 1145.

Things are definitely not right in Nottingham. Rebecca, daughter of a Jewish money-lender, has a sense for it.

A mad monk schemes to resurrect the Christ from body parts. A bone harpist murders creatures of legend for a price. A fae creature binds its wings and embraces a new God and his son.

And don’t even mention the Hood. The Man in Green. The Prince of Thieves. The tick-tock taker of the ten-toll tax.

What hope have the series of sheriffs sent to hold the peace?

It’s the forest, you see. Sherwood. Ice Age ancient, impenetrable, hiding a dark and secret heart. But hearts, no matter how black, no matter how hidden, are not immune to change. The old world is dying… and a terrifying new one is waiting to take its place.

Rebecca senses an opportunity. But how far is she willing to go, and what price – because there is always a price – will she have to pay?

The Hood is Lavie Tidhar’s narcotic reweirding of an ancient English myth, a tale stitched together from legends lost to time, a tale told and retold, reworked and renewed for each passing century. A tale, reader, for today.

Head of Zeus also publish the first book in the series, BY FORCE ALONE, in the UK. (It is published in North America by Tor Books.) Head of Zeus also publishes Lavie’s novels OSAMA and A MAN LIES DREAMING; THE BEST OF WORLD SF Volumes 1 and 2 edited by Lavie; and also the upcoming novel MAROR.

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

‘A wild, inventive tapestry of myth and magic, with a wry sense of humor. Tidhar’s writing is wonderfully vibrant’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia, bestselling author of Mexican Gothic

‘[THE HOOD] offers a wealth of colorful tales and memorable characters, along with the usual unexpected walk-ons and guest stars. If it sometimes feels like a bunch of legends and historical events stirred together in a big pot, isn’t that pretty much what the Matter of Britain was in the first place?’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘Brilliant, restless revisionist gaze’ — Daily Mail

‘Reaches impressive levels of delirium.’ — The Times

‘This is a book to experience rather than to read, as every chapter and revisionist character expands into sheer, wonderful madness. One for the ages.’ — Crime Time (Book of the Month)

THE GREAT GAME Full Cast Production Out Now!

Posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2022

Lavie Tidhar‘s third Bookman Histories novel, THE GREAT GAME is now available as a new audiobook edition from Graphic Audio. Produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects and cinematic music, here’s the synopsis…

When Mycroft Holmes is murdered in London, it is up to retired shadow executive Smith to track down his killer — and 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. Fresh from liberating a strange alien object in Abyssinia – which might just be the mythical Ark of the Covenant — young Lucy Westerna, Holmes’ protégé, must follow her own path to the truth while, on the other side of the world, a young Harry Houdini must face his greatest feat of escape – death itself.

As their paths converge the body count mounts up, the entire world is under threat, and in a foreboding castle in the mountains of Transylvania a mysterious old man weaves a spider’s web of secrets and lies.

Airship battles, Frankenstein monsters, alien tripods and death-defying acts: The Great Game is a cranked-up steampunk thriller in which nothing is certain — not even death.

Graphic Audio has also published the first two novels in the series as full-cast productions: THE BOOKMAN and CAMERA OBSCURA.

‘[A] very fine addition to the 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 Magazine on THE GREAT GAME

The Bookman Histories are published in print and digital editions by Angry Robot Books.

Lavie’s latest novel is THE HOOD, the second novel in his Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet (Head of Zeus); his next novels are MAROR, a stand-alone due to be published by Head of Zeus (August 4th); and NEOM, a second novel in the Central Station universe, due to be published by Tachyon Publications (November).

Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar & Grady Hendrix are Locus Award Finalists!

Posted on Thursday, May 12th, 2022

Announced yesterday, we’re very happy to report that Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar, and Grady Hendrix are among this year’s Locus Award Finalists!

Aliette de Bodard’s highly acclaimed novella FIREHEART TIGER (Tor.com) is a finalist in the Novella category. MULBERRY AND OWL (Uncanny Magazine) is a finalist in the Novelette category.

Fire burns bright and has a long memory…

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate — and her own?

THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 (Head of Zeus/AdAstra), edited by Lavie Tidhar (and including a story by Aliette: IMMERSION) is amongst the finalists in the Anthology category.

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Grady Hendrix’s THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP (Titan), which also won a Goodreads Choice Award, is a finalist in the Horror category.

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized — someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

Huge congratulations to Aliette, Lavie and Grady!

Award winners will be announced on June 25, 2022, during the virtual Locus Awards Weekend.

*

Zeno represents Grady Hendrix in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Lavie Tidhar Received Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation!

Posted on Friday, April 29th, 2022

We are very happy to report that Lavie Tidhar has received a Special Citation from the Philip K. Dick Award organization! Awarded for his novel THE ESCAPEMENT, which is published by Tachyon Publications. Here’s the synopsis…

In this dazzling new novel evoking Westerns, surrealism, epic fantasy, mythology, and circus extravaganzas, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) has created an incomparable dreamscape of dark comedy, heartbreak, hope, and adventure. Chronicling a lone man’s quest in parallel worlds, The Escapement offers the archetypal darkness of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger within the dark whimsy of a child’s imagination.

Into the Escapement rides the Stranger, a lone gunman on a quest to rescue his son in a strange parallel reality. But it is easy to lose one’s way on an endlessly shifting, unpredictable landscape. Especially in a place full of dangerous mirror-images of a child’s beloved things: lawless heroes, giants made of stone, downtrodden clowns, spectacular symbol storms, and an endless war between gods and shadowy beings.

As the Stranger has learned, the Escapement is a dreamscape of deep mysteries, unlikely allies, and unwinnable battles. Yet the flower the he seeks still lies beyond the Mountains of Darkness. Time is running out as the Stranger journeys deeper into the secret heart of an unimaginable world.

In his most compelling work to date, Lavie Tidhar has delivered a multicolored tapestry of dazzling imagery. The Escapement is an epic, wildly original chronicle of the extraordinary lengths to which one will go for love.

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

‘Comic, tragic, and utterly magnificent.’ — Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

‘Tidhar scatters brilliant ideas like pennies on the sidewalk.’ — NPR Books

‘To say THE ESCAPEMENT is unique sells it way short. It’s part weird western and part quest; half dream and half epic adventure tale set in a memorable Daliesque landscape. Tidhar lets his imagination run wild in this vivid book, all told in spare, beautiful prose. Also, there are clowns. Lots of clowns.’ — Richard Kadrey, bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series

‘A delightfully cacophonous novel, teeming with character… Tidhar’s latest offering transports readers to a liminal otherworld of spaghetti Western pastiche… The author draws from an eclectic mix of sources to create a dazzling story that is more than the sum of its parts, and much of the fun of reading it comes from recognizing its homages.’ — Kirkus

‘[F]uriously inventive and wildly eclectic… Among the most visual and even cinematic of Tidhar’s novels… it’s also, in the end, a surprisingly touching reminder of how such quests can begin in heartache.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘Dazzling… Those who enter THE ESCAPEMENT should strap themselves in for horrors and wonders galore. Filled with contorted fairy tales, myths, and familiar stories, Lavie Tidhar’s latest novel is both a fantastical diversion and a moving articulation of deep parental love.’ — Foreword

‘THE ESCAPEMENT is absorbing, bizarre, haunting, and compelling. Lavie Tidhar continues to shatter the boundaries of literary and genre fiction with a novel that is equal parts horrifying dreamscape and an affecting meditation on parental love. There are a lot of books out there, but this is an experience.’ — David Liss, author of The Peculiarities

‘The Man With No Name travels through an impossibly alien world peopled by brutalized clowns, superhuman bounty hunters, and titanic monsters indifferent to human suffering—although being a Lavie Tidhar book, there’s a step beyond the main story that I’ll avoid revealing. A blurb from me being at worst harmless, I will comment for the record that ‘Tidhar’s brand of surreal pulp continues to be one of the few truly distinctive voices in genre fiction.’ — Daniel Polansky

‘Can we just all admit now that Lavie Tidhar’s a genius? He’s written another brilliant book-a beautiful fever dream that somehow manages to be laugh-out-loud funny, psychedelically weird, and deeply moving.’ — Daryl Gregory

‘With THE ESCAPEMENT, Lavie Tidhar fearlessly crests the wave of the New New Weird with a wild, decadent hybrid of The Dark Tower and Carnivale. A vivid beach read, if the beach was made of greasepaint and gunpowder.’ — Catherynne M. Valente

Coming Soon: AN OCCUPATION OF ANGELS by Lavie Tidhar!

Posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2022

This summer, JABberwocky are due to publish a new edition of AN OCCUPATION OF ANGELS by Lavie Tidhar! With a gorgeous new cover by Paul McCaffrey (who also worked with Lavie on his comic series, ADLER), here’s the synopsis…

A British secret agent is caught in a plot to assassinate archangels who settled Earth after WWII in this classic thriller from the World Fantasy Award winning author!

In 1945, the Archangels materialised over the battlefields of Europe, ushering in a new Cold War. Fifty years later, they are being killed off… one by one.

But who – or what – can kill an angel?

Killarney is a shadow executive for the Bureau, British Intelligence’s most secret organisation. She is the best – and she always works alone. Sent on a desperate mission to locate a missing cryptographer who may prove the key to the murders, Killarney finds herself running for her life, from London to Paris to Moscow, leading to a confrontation with a very human evil in the frozen wastelands of Novosibirsk.

Plagued by dreams of a different world, and haunted by a swastika adorned with angel wings, it could take all of Killarney’s resources to survive, when Heaven itself may be threatened, and God herself may be walking the earth…

AN OCCUPATION OF ANGELS will be available from June 7th.

Here are some of the great reviews the novella has received so far…

‘Sharp, brutal, cool — yet also stunningly imaginative and perfectly realised.’  — Michael Marshall, bestselling author of The Straw Men trilogy

‘Fast moving, powerfully phantasmagoric fantasy.’ — Adam Roberts

‘A novella of blistering, ballistic energy and ferocious cleverness.’ — James Lovegrove

‘A breathless adventure story, finely crafted and rammed home with the assured confidence of an author very much in his stride.’ — SFRevue.com

Paperback Edition of THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 is Out Tomorrow!

Posted on Wednesday, April 13th, 2022

The paperback edition of the acclaimed THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 anthology is out tomorrow! Published by Ad Astra/Head of Zeus, the collection is edited by Lavie Tidhar. Here’s the synopsis…

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Here’s the full 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

ICYMI: The World SF StoryBundle 4 Has Launched!

Posted on Sunday, March 27th, 2022

The World SF StoryBundle 4 has been launched! Curated once again by Lavie Tidhar, it includes a fantastic selection of fiction from an international cast of authors…

  • Aliette de Bodard — ON A RED STATION DRIFTING
  • Francesco Verso — BLOODBUSTERS
  • Dilman Dila — THE FUTURE GOD OF LOVE
  • Xueting Ni (ed.) — SINOPTICON
  • Un-Su Kim — THE CABINET
  • Rokuro Inui — AUTOMATIC EVE
  • Lavie Tidhar — GOREL AND THE POT-BELLIED GOD
  • Thilde Kold Holde — NORTHERN WRATH
  • Fabio Fernandes — LOVE. AN ARCHAEOLOGY
  • Wole Talabi — INCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS

Here’s what Lavie had to say about the new bundle…

It’s hard to believe this is now the fifth annual World SF bundle I get the good fortune to curate. The first one was back in 2018!

And yet with every year it’s possible to find more great books – novels, novellas, anthologies and collections – that highlight the sheer talent and diversity of speculative fiction from around the world.

The future doesn’t need to be American anymore. Can it be Vietnamese? Italian? Nigerian? Chinese? You bet it can.

I can imagine nothing more rewarding than being able to share these books with new readers, while supporting the authors and their publishers directly through this bundle. Not to mention supporting a wonderfully worthwhile charity at the same time! So join me, if you will, into the reaches of space and deep into the South American jungles, to the distant past and to the tombs of the moon!

With writers from France, Japan, Italy, Uganda, Korea, China, Brazil, Nigeria and Denmark, you really are in for a truly international feast!

With proceeds from each bundle going to the authors and charity, this is a great way to discover great, international writing talent and also do a little bit of good.

The bundle is available for another 18 days, so make sure you check out the website for full details and to purchase the bundle!

Coming Soon: Lavie Tidhar’s MAROR

Posted on Friday, March 11th, 2022

This August, Head of Zeus is due to publish Lavie Tidhar‘s latest novel: MAROR. A multi-generational saga, it is a novel that draws on the rich recent history of Israel. Here’s the synopsis…

How do you build a nation?

It takes statesmen and soldiers, farmers and factory workers, of course. But it also takes thieves, prostitutes and policemen.

Nation-building demands sacrifice. And one man knows exactly where those bodies are buried: Cohen, a man who loves his country. A reasonable man for unreasonable times.

A car bomb in the back streets of Tel Aviv. A diamond robbery in Haifa. Civil war in Lebanon. Rebel fighters in the Colombian jungle. An assassination in Cancún.

How do they all connect? Only Cohen knows.

Maror is the story of a war for the soul of Israel – a dazzling spread of narrative gunshots across four decades and three continents.

It is a true story. All of these things happened.

Lavie Tidhar is the multi-award-winning author of a broad range of fiction, including the World Fantasy Award-winning OSAMA, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING, the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated THE ESCAPEMENT, the multi-award-winning CENTRAL STATION and UNHOLY LAND, the acclaimed Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet (comprised of BY FORCE ALONE and THE HOOD, so far), and many more.

Short Fiction Watch: Lavie Tidhar’s SEVEN VAMPIRES and Ian R. MacLeod’s THE CHRONOLOGIST

Posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2022

Two Zeno clients have work included in Tor.com’s January/February 2022 collection, which is available free from their website: Lavie Tidhar and Ian R. MacLeod.

First up, Lavie’s SEVEN VAMPIRES, which is his fourth Judge Dee mystery…

Paris is burning and Judge Dee and Jonathan are on the run. To guarantee their safety, they join a band of seven vampires escaping to England. The only problem? Someone in their midst is killing off members of their group one by one. It’s of no matter to the Judge, provided they don’t breach the Unalienable Obligations, but inevitably he’s drawn into events.

Tor.com also publishes the first three Judge Dee mysteries: JUDGE DEE AND THE LIMITS OF THE LAW, JUDGE DEE AND THE THREE DEATHS OF COUNT WERDENFELS, and JUDGE DEE AND THE POISONER OF MONTMARTRE.

Ian’s story is the stand-alone THE CHRONOLOGIST…

A boy, desperate to escape the drudgery of life in his small town, gets caught up in the machinations of a traveling time keeper, and slowly watches his town and his life unravel by the seams.

Both of these stories are great ways to try these two authors’ work, if you haven’t already; and if you have already enjoyed Ian’s and Lavie’s work, then we’re sure you’ll also love these two.

Both stories have covers by Red Nose Studios (who also created the first three Judge Dee covers).