Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Excuse Me While I Wipe Up My Brain

Lavie Tidhar “Central Station” (Tachyon, 2016)


Once or twice a year I read a book that seems to just reach inside my head and scramble my brains.  The IDEAS! THE WORLD BUILDING!

Central Station is the latest to do that number on me.

Apparently what we have is a patched up collection of short stories that create a mosaic portrait of a place, Central Station. It’s in Tel Aviv, long after the singularity. Here’s where people of all types, many who don’t currently exist, gather as they go back & forth into the solar system.
 
And wow.

Maybe the closest relative to this is the writing of Hannu Rajaniemi.  There’s the same sort of density to the world building, and the same sense that you’re looking into a future that is so different that you can only hope to understand its edges.

If SF is about expanding boundaries and making us think in new ways, then this is absolutely at the core of the genre. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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