100 word review: Jesus and the Eightfold Path, by Lavie Tidhar

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Apr 192017
 

Ed note: This was written in 2013 and just turned up in my drafts folder. Oops. Have it now!

Jesus and the Eightfold Path

Somewhere between the manger and gathering fishers of men, Jesus grew up. Lavie Tidhar presents us with a Jesus learning from three wise men: Pig, Monkey, and Sandy, from the Chinese classic Journey to the West. What Tidhar does, in this very fun, silly, and easy-to-read novella is blend of myth, history, and fancy. The thing that I love about this is Tidhar’s ability to be irreverent, researched, and respectful, all at the same time. This slim volume is fun, insightful, and highly entertaining. It could easily have been none of those things – if you get a chance, read it.

 

You *might* be able to get it here (UK), but the publisher says it’s out of print.

100 word review: The Great Game, by Lavie Tidhar

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Jan 032014
 

 

Tidhar’s final volume in the Bookman Histories brings us more of the mysterious Bookman. We follow Smith, a secret agent in the mould of the Cold War spy, as he comes out of ignominious retirement for a last job. Ageing, tired, but still handy with a blade, Smith seeks the murderer of Mycroft Holmes, and to unravel a complex mystery whose importance grows as the book goes on. The spare prose requires the reader to bring attention to this gripping conclusion to the Bookman Histories – an excellent story, which avoids falling into tropes, maintains its humanity and delivers in spades.

 

Get it here (UK) or here (US)

100 word review: Camera Obscura, by Lavie Tidhar

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Dec 302013
 

I’m a big fan of Lavie Tidhar; this, the second of the Bookman Histories, moves to France, where we find Milady de Winter, a tall Amazon of a woman with a chequered past who carries a big gun in her duties for the Quiet Council, the mysterious coalition of human and machine that run the country, resisting the David Icke inspired Les Lezards who rule the British Empire. Tidhar brings dead men back as machines, goes steampunk cyberpunk, and asks what it means to be human in the age of empires. The writing is spare, imperfect, but shows real ambition.

 

Get it here (UK) or here (US)

100 word review: Pandemonium: Ash, edited by Jared Shurin

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Oct 162013
 

 

First of all, it’s free. Why are you reading this and not reading it? Go get it now. Read it over lunch. Then ignore everything I have to say. I’ve already used up a third of my space.

 

The rest of this, though, I can use to tantalise you with Lavie Tidhar’s people appeasing gods in the south Pacific. Charlie Human’s seriously creepy wedding-raft. Richard de Nooy’s mer-horse-people-things. Dan Green’s end of the world monster, rising – literally – from the sea, and taking eyes. Nerine Dorman’s skin-crawling wtf. It’s fun. It’s short. It’s filled with amazing talent.

 

Did I mention free?

 

Get it here. (Free)

100 word review: The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar

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Aug 212013
 

Where do heroes come from? How are friendships made? What makes us human? These are the questions that Lavie Tidhar grapples with, in this story of friendship writ large upon a canvas that stretches from the 1930s to the present day, in a slightly alternate world where superheroes exists, but heroics mean different things to different people. Choices made in the second world war resonate down through a series of brilliantly detailed cold war scenes, ultimately wrestling with the idea of the self. This is a big, ambitious book that manages to deliver. Expect nominations, awards, and Tidharian grumbling speeches.

Pre-order it here (UK) or here (US). You really, really should.