Above you can see the eye-catching Romanian cover for Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning CENTRAL STATION! Due out on January 30th, and published by Nautilus/Nemira as STAȚIA CENTRALĂ, here’s the synopsis…
Statia Centrala este legatura interplanetara intre un Tel Aviv in permanenta transformare, o arena de realitate virtuala si coloniile spatiale pe care oamenii au fugit de saracie si razboaie.
O diaspora de un sfert de milion de oameni traieste la baza acestei statii spatiale, unde diversele culturi se amesteca in viata reala si in realitatea virtuala, intr-un mozaic al postumanitatii: vampiri de date infectati de Codul Nosferatu, robotniki – fosti soldati – copii creati prin inginerie genetica si „mutilatii“, care decid sa traiasca fara tehnologie. Peste toate planeaza Alterii, entitati extraterestre care folosesc Conversatia – un flux cvasitelepatic de milioane de voci.
The novel is published in English by Tachyon Publications, and is available in a limited edition via PS Publishing. The novel has also been published in German, Bulgarian and Polish (more translations on the way). Here’s the English-language 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.
