ICYMI: Lavie Tidhar & Mysterious Galaxy!


A little while ago, Mysterious Galaxy hosted Lavie Tidhar for an event to celebrate the release of NEOM, the second novel set in the Central Station universe. Lavie was joined by Samit Basu, and you can watch the video, above!

NEOM is out now, published by Tachyon Publications. Here’s the synopsis…

Today, Neom is a utopian dream — a megacity of the future yet to be built in the Saudi desert. In this deeply imaginative novel from the award-winning universe of Central Station, far-future Neom is already old. Sentient machines roam the desert searching for purpose, works of art can be more deadly than weapons, and the spark of a long-overdue revolution is in the wind. Only the rekindling of an impossible love affair may slow the inevitable sands of time.

The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. It 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 Elias has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world. 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.

Lavie Tidhar’s (Unholy Land, The Escapement) newest lushly immersive novel, Neom, which includes a guide to the Central Station universe, is at turns gritty, comedic, transportive, and fascinatingly plausible.

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

‘World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar takes readers back to the fascinating far-future world of 2016’s CENTRAL STATION in this gentle narrative about self-fulfillment and one robot’s quest to reunite with a lost love… Tidhar offers a heartfelt exploration of artificially intelligent beings’ struggles to find existential meaning while being restrained by both coding and form. Fans of literary sci-fi are sure to be enchanted by the imaginative worldbuilding and tenderly wrought characters.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Tidhar’s narrative takes on a gentle, ruminative air, and while that helps establish the atmosphere of a convincing, lived-in city, veteran SF readers will also find plenty of playful and affectionate Easter eggs… Neom easily joins the list of SF cities we’d like to visit.’ — Locus

‘[A] delight­ful jour­ney through a fan­ta­sy of out­er space and a future Mid­dle East. Tidhar’s world con­tains lik­able char­ac­ters who work togeth­er (some­times acci­den­tal­ly, some­times begrudg­ing­ly) to tell a sto­ry full of adven­ture, mys­tery, hope, and love… Tid­har writes sci­ence fic­tion with real-world par­al­lels and comedic tim­ing, if also a bit of a ten­den­cy toward hope­ful romanticism… NEOM is a won­der­ful read for any lover of sci­ence fic­tion. For some­one who has not yet vis­it­ed the world of CENTRAL STATION — Tidhar’s nov­el from 2016 — it is easy to catch on to the col­lo­qui­alisms and cus­toms of the sto­ry uni­verse. But after read­ing NEOM, new Tid­har fans will sure­ly want to go back for more.’ — Jewish Book Council

‘Extraordinary and compassionate.’ – Foreword (starred review)

‘… 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

‘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.’ — The Speculative Shelf

Lavie Tidhar’s NEOM Out Now in Audiobook!


The audiobook edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed NEOM is out now! Published by Dreamscape, and narrated by Rasha Zamamiri, here’s the synopsis…

Today, Neom is a utopian dream — a megacity of the future yet to be built in the Saudi desert. In this deeply imaginative novel from the award-winning universe of Central Station, far-future Neom is already old. Sentient machines roam the desert searching for purpose, works of art can be more deadly than weapons, and the spark of a long-overdue revolution is in the wind. Only the rekindling of an impossible love affair may slow the inevitable sands of time.

The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. It 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 Elias has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world. 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.

Lavie Tidhar’s newest lushly immersive novel, Neom, which includes a guide to the Central Station universe, is at turns gritty, comedic, transportive, and fascinatingly plausible.

Set in the same world as the award-winning CENTRAL STATION, NEOM is published by Tachyon Publications.

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

‘World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar takes readers back to the fascinating far-future world of 2016’s CENTRAL STATION in this gentle narrative about self-fulfillment and one robot’s quest to reunite with a lost love… Tidhar offers a heartfelt exploration of artificially intelligent beings’ struggles to find existential meaning while being restrained by both coding and form. Fans of literary sci-fi are sure to be enchanted by the imaginative worldbuilding and tenderly wrought characters.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Tidhar’s narrative takes on a gentle, ruminative air, and while that helps establish the atmosphere of a convincing, lived-in city, veteran SF readers will also find plenty of playful and affectionate Easter eggs… Neom easily joins the list of SF cities we’d like to visit.’ — Locus

‘[A] delight­ful jour­ney through a fan­ta­sy of out­er space and a future Mid­dle East. Tidhar’s world con­tains lik­able char­ac­ters who work togeth­er (some­times acci­den­tal­ly, some­times begrudg­ing­ly) to tell a sto­ry full of adven­ture, mys­tery, hope, and love… Tid­har writes sci­ence fic­tion with real-world par­al­lels and comedic tim­ing, if also a bit of a ten­den­cy toward hope­ful romanticism… NEOM is a won­der­ful read for any lover of sci­ence fic­tion. For some­one who has not yet vis­it­ed the world of CENTRAL STATION — Tidhar’s nov­el from 2016 — it is easy to catch on to the col­lo­qui­alisms and cus­toms of the sto­ry uni­verse. But after read­ing NEOM, new Tid­har fans will sure­ly want to go back for more.’ — Jewish Book Council

‘Extraordinary and compassionate.’ – Foreword (starred review)

‘… 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

‘This is Tidhar at his best: the crazily proliferating imagination, the textures, the ideas, the dazzling storytelling. A brilliant portrait of community and its possibilities.’ — Adam Roberts, author of Purgatory Mount

Lavie’s latest novel is MAROR, published by Head of Zeus (out now).

New NEOM Limited Edition!


There is a new limited edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed NEOM, available to order from PS Publishing! Limited to just 200 signed copies, the hardcover comes complete with a slipcase with additional artwork (below) by Sarah Anne Langton. Here’s the synopsis…

From the rich, multi-award-winning universe of CENTRAL STATION, the inhabitants of a complex desert-city rediscover passion while at the brink of revolution. Machines roam the desert in search of purpose; works of art can be deadlier than weapons; and improbable love transcends the sands of time.

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.

NEOM is also published in paperback and eBook, by Tachyon Publications. The novel is the second book set in the CENTRAL STATION universe (book one is also published by Tachyon Publications).

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

‘World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar takes readers back to the fascinating far-future world of 2016’s CENTRAL STATION in this gentle narrative about self-fulfillment and one robot’s quest to reunite with a lost love… Tidhar offers a heartfelt exploration of artificially intelligent beings’ struggles to find existential meaning while being restrained by both coding and form. Fans of literary sci-fi are sure to be enchanted by the imaginative worldbuilding and tenderly wrought characters.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Tidhar’s narrative takes on a gentle, ruminative air, and while that helps establish the atmosphere of a convincing, lived-in city, veteran SF readers will also find plenty of playful and affectionate Easter eggs… Neom easily joins the list of SF cities we’d like to visit.’ — Locus

‘[A] delight­ful jour­ney through a fan­ta­sy of out­er space and a future Mid­dle East. Tidhar’s world con­tains lik­able char­ac­ters who work togeth­er (some­times acci­den­tal­ly, some­times begrudg­ing­ly) to tell a sto­ry full of adven­ture, mys­tery, hope, and love… Tid­har writes sci­ence fic­tion with real-world par­al­lels and comedic tim­ing, if also a bit of a ten­den­cy toward hope­ful romanticism… NEOM is a won­der­ful read for any lover of sci­ence fic­tion. For some­one who has not yet vis­it­ed the world of CENTRAL STATION — Tidhar’s nov­el from 2016 — it is easy to catch on to the col­lo­qui­alisms and cus­toms of the sto­ry uni­verse. But after read­ing NEOM, new Tid­har fans will sure­ly want to go back for more.’ — Jewish Book Council

‘Extraordinary and compassionate.’ – Foreword (starred review)

‘… 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

NEOM is a thoughtful, beautifully written story about what we have, what we want, how we achieve our desires, and what, and whom, we are willing to risk for our own benefit.’ — Los Angeles Public Library

‘A new novel set in the same universe as the multi-award winning CENTRAL STATION. Tidhar is a superb author, so it really doesn’t matter to me what he writes — I’ll still happily read it.’ — Civilian Reader

‘I have never seen worldbuilding that’s as evocative, imaginative, and extensive as that in NEOM. Anywhere, in any genre… NEOM is stuffed with gut-churning scenarios, compelling worldbuilding, and dark surprises. There’s so much packed into its relatively few pages that I found myself thinking about it over and over since finishing it… Tidhar’s ideas will stick with you for weeks after turning that final page.’ — Strange Horizons

New UNHOLY LAND French Paperback Edition Out in March!


In March, Pocket are due to publish a new French paperback edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed UNHOLY LAND! Published in France as AUCUNE TERRE N’EST PROMISE, here’s the synopsis…

La révélation de la science-fiction israélienne

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.

UNHOLY LAND is published in North America and in the UK by Tachyon Publications. 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.

The novel has received an impressive number of commendations, including being selected as an NPR, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Guardian, Barnes & Noble, and Crime Time best book of 2018, as well as appearing on the Locus Recommended Reading List, and also being nominated for an SCKA Award. The cover (below), by Sarah Anne Langton, was also a British Science Fiction Award finalist, for Best Artwork.

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

‘… 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

‘Shifting perspectives will keep readers trying to catch up with this fast-paced plot involving incredible twists on multiple realities and homecoming. This latest from Campbell and World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar (Central Station) is fascinating and powerful.’ — Library Journal

‘[O]ne of those lovely books that starts out presenting itself as one thing, and mutates into another almost without you seeing it… a game-player of a writer who uses the spectrum of science fiction canon for his pieces… a grand game of alternate worlds cast like jewels on the sand. The long second act is all dust and blood and madness and glory, and the fast third act comes down on you like a sharpened spade… Lavie Tidhar is a clever bastard, and this book is a box of little miracles.’ — Warren Ellis

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, Casablanca 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

‘There are SFF writers. There are good SFF writers. And there is Lavie Tidhar. In a genre entirely of his own, and quite possibly a warped genius, he rummages in the ruins of our centuries and our genres and makes out of them something strange, dark and utterly unique. There is no one like him writing in genre today. This is a twisted piece of alt-history/geography that refuses to go where lesser writers would drive it. Bold and witty and smoky, it plays games and coquetries, makes dark dalliances and will leave you dazzled and delighted.’ — Ian McDonald

‘Lavie Tidhar’s daring UNHOLY LAND  brilliantly showcases one of the foremost science fiction authors of our generation.’ — Silvia Moreno-Garcia (author of Certain Dark Things)

‘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)

A busy NEOM End of Year…


Lavie Tidhar‘s excellent new novel NEOM has received a number of great reviews since its publication. The second novel in the CENTRAL STATION setting, it is published by Tachyon Publications. Here’s the synopsis…

The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. It 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 Elias has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world. 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.

Lavie Tidhar’s (Unholy Land, The Escapement) newest lushly immersive novel, Neom, which includes a guide to the Central Station universe, is at turns gritty, comedic, transportive, and fascinatingly plausible.

If you haven’t yet read either CENTRAL STATION or NEOM, and are interested in giving the setting a try, the new short story THE SMELL OF ORANGE GROVES was published by Clarkesworld (way back in issue #62), and is available in text and audio.

For podcast enthusiasts, Lavie recently appeared as a guest on the Coode Street Podcast.

NEOM has also received another glowing review, this time from the Los Angeles Public Library:

NEOM is a thoughtful, beautifully written story about what we have, what we want, how we achieve our desires, and what, and whom, we are willing to risk for our own benefit.’

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

‘World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar takes readers back to the fascinating far-future world of 2016’s CENTRAL STATION in this gentle narrative about self-fulfillment and one robot’s quest to reunite with a lost love… Tidhar offers a heartfelt exploration of artificially intelligent beings’ struggles to find existential meaning while being restrained by both coding and form. Fans of literary sci-fi are sure to be enchanted by the imaginative worldbuilding and tenderly wrought characters.’Publishers Weekly

‘Tidhar’s narrative takes on a gentle, ruminative air, and while that helps establish the atmosphere of a convincing, lived-in city, veteran SF readers will also find plenty of playful and affectionate Easter eggs… Neom easily joins the list of SF cities we’d like to visit.’Locus

‘[A] delight­ful jour­ney through a fan­ta­sy of out­er space and a future Mid­dle East. Tidhar’s world con­tains lik­able char­ac­ters who work togeth­er (some­times acci­den­tal­ly, some­times begrudg­ing­ly) to tell a sto­ry full of adven­ture, mys­tery, hope, and love… Tid­har writes sci­ence fic­tion with real-world par­al­lels and comedic tim­ing, if also a bit of a ten­den­cy toward hope­ful romanticism… NEOM is a won­der­ful read for any lover of sci­ence fic­tion. For some­one who has not yet vis­it­ed the world of CENTRAL STATION — Tidhar’s nov­el from 2016 — it is easy to catch on to the col­lo­qui­alisms and cus­toms of the sto­ry uni­verse. But after read­ing NEOM, new Tid­har fans will sure­ly want to go back for more.’Jewish Book Council

‘… 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

‘This is a book of hearts and of the heart, be it human or robot, and that is something that is universal, be it ourselves or in “the other”. The “other”, in Tidhar’s work, is us, and we are the other. We are all us, and in NEOM, we feel for that other, in the personage of the robots, in the human characters, and we take them, and their stories, into us.’File 770

Lavie’s other 2022 novel, in case you missed it, is MAROR, which has been selected as a best book of the year by The Guardian and The Economist. It is out now, published by Head of Zeus.

Coming Soon: TIERRA PROFANA by Lavie Tidhar


A new Spanish translation of Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed UNHOLY LAND is due out next year! Translated by Alexander Páez, TIERRA PROFANA is due to be published by Duermavela in January 2023. Here’s the synopsis…

Una ucronía llena de suspense, universos alternativos y giros inesperados que reflexiona sobre la realidad del pueblo judío

Lior Tirosh es un escritor de ciencia ficción pulp que regresa a su hogar en Ararat, África, tras una larga ausencia. Pero Palestina, un estado judío fundado a principios del siglo XX, se enfrenta a sus horas más bajas. Asolada por ataques terroristas y presa de una violencia cada vez mayor, construye un polémico muro que la separa de la vecina Uganda.

La muerte de un viejo conocido y la desaparición de su sobrina enredan a Tirosh en una intrincada trama detectivesca cada vez más confusa en la que comienzan a fundirse su propio pasado, el presente y diversas realidades que parecen no encajar en ninguna parte.

Lavie Tidhar compone una obra inclasificable, que se mueve entre el noir detectivesco y las novelas de universos paralelos, mientras analiza sin concesiones la problemática del pueblo judío.

The novel is published in the UK and North America by Tachyon Publications, with a cover by Sarah Anne Langton. 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.

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

‘… 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

‘Shifting perspectives will keep readers trying to catch up with this fast-paced plot involving incredible twists on multiple realities and homecoming. This latest from Campbell and World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar (Central Station) is fascinating and powerful.’ — Library Journal

‘[O]ne of those lovely books that starts out presenting itself as one thing, and mutates into another almost without you seeing it… a game-player of a writer who uses the spectrum of science fiction canon for his pieces… a grand game of alternate worlds cast like jewels on the sand. The long second act is all dust and blood and madness and glory, and the fast third act comes down on you like a sharpened spade… Lavie Tidhar is a clever bastard, and this book is a box of little miracles.’ — Warren Ellis

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, Casablanca 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

‘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 Tidhar’s NEOM is out now!


Return to the universe of CENTRAL STATION in Lavie Tidhar‘s latest novel, NEOM — out today, published by Tachyon Publications! 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 highly-acclaimed 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.

Here are just a few of the early reviews that NEOM 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

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

Lavie Tidhar’s NEOM is Out Next Week!


Next week, readers can return to the universe of CENTRAL STATION in Lavie Tidhar‘s latest novel, NEOM! Due to be published by Tachyon Publications, on November 8th, 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.

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.

Here are just a few of the early reviews that NEOM 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

To celebrate the release of NEOM (as well as the recent publication of MAROR and THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 2), Lavie will be taking part in a number of events over the next few weeks. The date are below, with links for more details and information:

  • 5th November42 Festival (in person), Barcelona
  • 8th November — SRFC (in person) (see above)
  • 12th NovemberMysterious Galaxy virtual event, with Samit Basu
  • 13th NovemberCity Lit Books virtual event, with Daryl Gregory
  • 19th November — NY Public Library online panel for THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 2 [no event link just yet]
  • 2nd December — Waterstones Kingston Xmas Evening, in-person event [no current link]
  • 11th DecemberJewish Museum Milwaukee online event

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

Two Great Interviews with Lavie Tidhar!


Above, you can listen to the recent, great Lavie Tidhar interview on the Better Known from a couple of weeks ago!

Back in July, Lavie was also a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book show, in the “Ethics of Crime” episode. You can listen to that, too, below.

Lavie’s latest novel is MAROR, which is published by Head of Zeus and out now. 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. 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.

The novel has been receiving a considerable number of great reviews, and here are just a few of them…

‘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

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

‘A masterpiece of the sacred and the profane … a literary triumph.’ — Guardian

‘A bloody beast of a book… MAROR is to Israeli history what Tarantino is to American movie culture’ — Daily Mail

‘Radiant with all the brutally elegant atmosphere of crime noir, and the richly nuanced complexity and style of Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings, it’s a genre-busting novel that will catch your breath … At once illuminating, thrilling and thought-provoking, this tale of corruption, killings, sacrifice and the souls that make up a nation is a symphonic feat of fiction.’ — LoveReading

‘Who can forget the savage, musical James Ellroy prose circa the L.A. Quartet books? Now we have a successor … Lavie Tidhar, a marvelous multi-genre author who never fails to delight, has now penned his noir opus. MAROR is a heady, nonstop brew of terror, violence, and mayhem, while also exuding swathes of coursing humanity.’ — Read Listen Watch

‘An unforgettably powerful saga … a sweeping portrayal of violence, corruption and chaos threaded through by veins of humanity… It is difficult to do justice to such a monumental work. So many aspects of MAROR attract superlatives but they fail to convey the range and breathtaking insight of this epic crime novel. A book for all lovers of great literature.’ — Queensland Reviewers Collective

Lavie’s next novel is NEOM, which is due to be published by Tachyon Publications, in November.

Today, Neom is a utopian dream — a megacity of the future yet to be built in the Saudi desert. In this deeply imaginative novel from the award-winning universe of Central Station, far-future Neom is already old. Sentient machines roam the desert searching for purpose, works of art can be more deadly than weapons, and the spark of a long-overdue revolution is in the wind. Only the rekindling of an impossible love affair may slow the inevitable sands of time.

The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. It is 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 Elias has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world. 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.

Lavie Tidhar’s newest lushly immersive novel, Neom, which includes a guide to the Central Station universe, is at turns gritty, comedic, transportive, and fascinatingly plausible.

NEOM is also being met with a great amount of early praise. Here’s just some of the pre-release reviews and responses…

‘World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar takes readers back to the fascinating far-future world of 2016’s CENTRAL STATION in this gentle narrative about self-fulfillment and one robot’s quest to reunite with a lost love… Tidhar offers a heartfelt exploration of artificially intelligent beings’ struggles to find existential meaning while being restrained by both coding and form. Fans of literary sci-fi are sure to be enchanted by the imaginative worldbuilding and tenderly wrought characters.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘… 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

‘This is a book of hearts and of the heart, be it human or robot, and that is something that is universal, be it ourselves or in “the other”. The “other”, in Tidhar’s work, is us, and we are the other. We are all us, and in NEOM, we feel for that other, in the personage of the robots, in the human characters, and we take them, and their stories, into us.’ — File 770

‘A new novel set in the same universe as the multi-award winning CENTRAL STATION. Tidhar is a superb author, so it really doesn’t matter to me what he writes — I’ll still happily read it.’ — Civilian Reader

‘Another downloading from Tidhar’s fertile imagination. Science Fictional ideas and references spin off this in giddy profusion… As a writer Tidhar is frequently playful, allusive and self-referential… Tidhar has of late become fairly prolific. Perhaps he’s made good use of lockdown. NEOM shows there has been no drop-off in quality.’ — ParSec

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


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!


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.

Lavie Tidhar Received Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation!


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

Zeno Clients Well-Represented on Locus 2021 Recommended Reading List!


Last week, Locus released their 2021 Recommended Reading List, and we’re very happy to report that six titles by Zeno clients were included! We thought we’d take this opportunity to highlight these titles, below…

Lavie Tidhar appeared three times on the list. His two novels from last year, THE ESCAPEMENT and THE HOOD were both included in the Novels: Fantasy list. THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1, which Lavie curated and edited, also appeared on the Anthologies list.

THE ESCAPEMENT is published by Tachyon Publications, with a Special Edition also available from PS Publishing. In addition to appearing on this list, it was recently announced as a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. Here’s the synopsis…

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.

THE HOOD is the second novel in Lavie’s acclaimed Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet, and is published by Head of Zeus.

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.

An acclaimed collection of science fiction from around the world, THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 is also published by Head of Zeus. (We’ll have details of Volume 2 to share with you soon.)

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.

Aliette de Bodard also appears multiple times on the list. Her latest novella, FIREHEART TIGER continues to rack up plaudits, praise, and commendations, and is a recommended Novella from last year. Published by Tor.com, here’s the synopsis…

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?

Published in the September/October 2021 issue of Uncanny Magazine, Aliette’s MULBERRY AND OWL was also included in the Novellete list. The story can be read for free now, on the magazine’s website.

Year of the Âm Dragon, fifth year of the Peaceful Harmony Empress, Great Mulberry Nebula

Thuỷ stood in her cabin in The Goby in the Well, her bots arrayed on her shoulders and clinging to her wrists, and watched the heart of the nebula…

Hot on the heels of winning the Goodreads Choice Award for Horror, Grady Hendrix‘s THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP has also been selected for Locus’s Horror Recommended Reading list. Published in the UK by Titan Books, here’s the synopsis…

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.

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

Lavie Tidhar’s THE ESCAPEMENT a Finalist for Philip K. Dick Award!


We are very happy to report that Lavie Tidhar‘s THE ESCAPEMENT has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award! In case you are unfamiliar with the award, here’s its mission…

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States during the previous calendar year. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the Northwest Science Fiction Society.

The winner of the award will be announced at Norwescon 44, on April 15th, 2022. THE ESCAPEMENT is published by Tachyon Publications in North America and in the UK; a limited edition of the novel is also available via PS Publishing. Here’s the synopsis…

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

‘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

‘Comic, tragic, and utterly magnificent — a masterpiece of fantasy. Lavie Tidhar has crafted a wonderfully strange and surreal world in THE ESCAPEMENT, setting a liminal stage for both a gripping adventure and a poignant meditation on grief. I can’t wait to read it again.’ — Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of The Orange Tree

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

‘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

ICYMI: Lavie Tidhar in Conversation with Silvia Moreno-Garcia


Today we wanted to share with you the conversation Lavie Tidhar had with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, hosted by Mysterious Galaxy. Held back in December, the event marked the release of Lavie’s critically-acclaimed novel THE ESCAPEMENT.

Published by Tachyon Publications in the UK and North America, here’s the synopsis…

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.

A limited edition of the novel is also available from PS Publishing.

Bonus: here, too, is Lavie’s conversation last year with Silvia for the release of BY FORCE ALONE, the first novel in his Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet — also hosted by Mysterious Galaxy. (Novel published by Head of Zeus in the UK, and Tor Books in North America.)