Featuring: Anthony Bourdain, Elaine Castillo, Jade Chang, Sam Guthrie, Jochen Hellbeck, Van Jensen, Elizabeth McCracken, Olivier Norek, Lauren Rothery, Andrew Rowe, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Lavie Tidhar
Lavie Tidhar
Interview with LAVIE TIDHAR and NIR YANIV about LOONTOWN
The new short film Loontown was released yesterday. Written by multi-award winning author Lavie Tidhar and directed by Nir Yaniv, here’s some info from the press release:
Imagine The Wire crossed with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, add a healthy dose of classic film noir, and you’ll come close to this absurdist sci fi fable about lonely balloons with big dreams. Picture Humphrey Bogart reincarnated as a balloon detective hot on the case of a missing shipment of helium (“street name H”), and this might be the movie for you!
When Mordy “The Mouth” is gruesomely – and literally! – popped in an alleyway, it’s down to world-weary detective Muldoon to solve the case. His quest quickly takes him up against a mysterious gangster just out of prison (a “twelve stretch in Blimpsville”), a seductive femme fatale named Red (who he helplessly falls for), and an inevitable meeting with destiny.
Filmed in and around Los Angeles, in locations including the famous alleyway from They Live and Chinatown’s LA River, the film mixes live action backgrounds with animated characters.
Here are the film’s credits:
- Written by Lavie Tidhar
- Directed by Nir Yaniv
- Starring Digger Mesch, Anne Wittman, Kenneth Jay, Nathan Osgood, Al Lubel, Russell Wilcox and Katie Snyder
As a long-time fan of Tidhar’s fiction, I am very much looking forward to watching this! I am also happy to share with you an interview with Tidhar and Yaniv…
Excerpt: THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE WORLD by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)
Next month, Tachyon Publications will publish The Circumference of the World, the latest mind-bending novel from Lavie Tidhar, and they have provided CR with an excerpt to celebrate the upcoming release. An author whose name on the cover indicates a must-buy/-read, this latest book looks like it’ll be as intriguing and original as his others. Before we get to the excerpt, let’s first check out the synopsis:
Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious book that disappears upon being read. Only the author, a rakish sci-fi writer, knows whether his popular novel is truthful or a hoax…
Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn’t supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpectedly dangerous. Oskar Lens, a science fiction-obsessed mobster in the midst of an existential crisis, will stop at nothing to find the novel. After Delia’s husband Levi goes missing, she seeks help from Daniel Chase, a young, face-blind book dealer.
The infamous novel Lode Stars was written by the infamous Eugene Charles Hartley: legendary pulp science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes. In Hartley’s novel, a doppelganger of Delia searches for her missing father in a strange star system. But is any of Lode Stars real? Was Hartley a cynical conman on a quest for wealth and immortality, creating a religion he did not believe in? Or was he a visionary who truly discovered the secrets of the universe?
New Books (June-July)
Featuring: Valerie Babb, RJ Barker, Jonathan D. Beer, Scott Eyman, Chris Hadfield, Darius Hinks, J. Robert Lennon, John Sargent, Martha Wells
Excerpt: NEOM by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)
Today, we have an excerpt from Neom, Lavie Tidhar‘s highly-anticipated second novel set in the Central Station universe. If you’re a fan of Tidhar’s previous work, then you’re definitely going to want to check this out. If you’re new to his books, then perhaps start with Central Station before diving into this one. 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.
New Books (May-June)
Featuring: Dan Abnett, Ava Barry, Lily Brooks-Dalton, James Chapman, Joël Dicker, Nick Duerden, Adam Hamdy, Alex Jennings, Lesley-Ann Jones, Benjamin Markovits, Mary McMyne, Craig McNamara, Tripp Mickle, J. M. Miro, Steven Novella, Leslye Penelope, Sarah Priscus, Matthew Quirk, Alastair Reynolds, Anthony Ryan, Victoria Shepherd, Jane Smiley, Tasha Suri, Lavie Tidhar, Steve Toltz, Harry Turtledove, Sudhir Venkatesh, Louise Willder
Upcoming: NEOM by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)
Back in 2016, Tachyon Publications released Lavie Tidhar‘s Central Station, a fantastic novel that went on to win a whole bunch of awards and commendations. Fans of the novel will be very happy to know that a new novel set in the same universe, Neom, is due to be published 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.
Lavie Tidhar’s Neom is due to be published by Tachyon Publications in North America and in the UK, on November 9th.
Also on CR: Interview with Lavie Tidhar (2019); Excerpt from The Best of World SF, Volume 1; Reviews of The Violent Century and By Force Alone
New Books (January-February)
Featuring: Howard Blum, Becky Chambers, Marika Cobbold, David Dalglish, Will Dean, Jennifer Fawcett, Lee Goldberg, Elizabeth Hand, Tom Hindle, Chris Holm, Adam Oyebanji, Robin Peguero, Maggie Shipstead, Peter Spiegelman, Anna Stephens, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Saeed Teebi, Lavie Tidhar, P. J. Tracy, Jing Tsu, Kimberly Unger, Ally Wilkes, Gabrielle Zevin, Ying Zhu
New Books (July-August)
Featuring: Joe Abercrombie, Shane Anderson, Carmelo Anthony, RJ Barker, Nicholas Bowling, Michael Carroll, Charles Cumming, Scott Eyman, John Higgins, Richard Kadrey, Anita Kopacz, Devin Madson, William McIlvanney, Premee Mohamed, Scotto Moore, Abir Mukherjee, Ian Rankin, Joe Mungo Reed, James Rollins, John Sandford, Dan Shaughnessy, Defne Suman, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tade Thompson, Lavie Tidhar, Stevie Van Zandt, Matthew Ward, D. Watkins
New Books (June-July)
Featuring: Charles Arthur, Anna Bailey, Mike Brooks, S. A. Cosby, Kate Elliott, Mirin Fader, Dan Fante, Alex Finlay, John Fletcher, Jeffrey Frank, Mike Gayle, J.T. Greenhouse, Ha Jin, Chris Hadfield, Cameron Johnston, Ward Larsen, Ben Mezrich, Alex Michaelides, Claire North, J.P. Oakes, K.J. Parker, Vince Passaro, Anna Pitoniak, Nita Prose, Catherine Steadman, Matt Sullivan, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Lavie Tidhar
Civilian Reader 