Blog Archives
The Bookman Histories – now in audiobooks!
The full set of the Bookman Histories have now been released in audio book form by Audible.
The Bookman, narrated by Jonathan Keeble, 20 hours, 50 minutes.
Camera Obscura, narrated by Karen Cass, 11 hours, 20 minutes.
The Great Game, narrated by Jonathan Keeble, 10 hours, 22 minutes.
Camera Obscura nominated for a Sidewise Award
I’m delighted to say that Camera Obscura is nominated for the Sidewise Award for alternate history, in the long-form category.
I have to admit, the Sidewise is one of my favourite awards, as I love alternative histories – I never expected to be nominated for it though! This is the second award nomination for Camera Obscura, following the Airship Award nomination last year. And, interestingly, my fifth award nomination this year (following the Kitschies, BSFA, BFS and Campbell nominations). A bit of naches, to use the Yiddish term…
Here’s the full press release with nominees:
We are pleased to announce this year’s nominees for the Sidewise Award
for Alternate History. The winners will be announced at Chicon 7,
this year’s Worldcon, in Chicago, Illinois during the weekend of
August 30. The Sidewise Awards have been presented annually since
1995 to recognize excellence in alternate historical fiction. This
year’s panel of judges was made up of Stephen Baxter, Evelyn Leeper,
Jim Rittenhouse, Stu Shiffman, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven H Silver.
Congratulations and best of luck.
Short Form
* Michael F. Flynn, The Iron Shirts (Tor.com)
* Lisa Goldstein, Paradise Is a Walled Garden (Asimov’s, 8/11)
* Jason Stoddard, Orion Rising (Panverse 3, edited by Dario Ciriello,
Panverse Publishing)
* Harry Turtledove, Lee at the Alamo (Tor.com)
Long Form
* Robert Conroy, Castro’s Bomb (Kindle)
* Robert Conroy, Himmler’s War (Baen Books)
* Jeff Greenfield, Then Everything Changed (Putnam)
* Ian R MacLeod, Wake Up and Dream (PS Publishing)
* Ian McDonald, Planesrunner (Pyr)
* Ekaterina Sedia, Heart of Iron (Prime)
* Lavie Tidhar, Camera Obscura (Angry Robot)
The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were conceived in late 1995
to honor the best allohistorical genre publications of the year. The
first awards were announced in summer 1996 and honored works from
1995. The award takes its name from Murray Leinster’s 1934 short story
“Sidewise in Time,” in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth
to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.
For more information, contact Steven H Silver at shsilver@sfsite.com
or go to http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise.
Camera Obscura – the audio book!
So only a day after the audio book release of The Tel Aviv Dossier comes Camera Obscura!
Narrated by Karen Cass, it runs to 11 hours 20 minutes. The Bookman and The Great Game should follow in short order.
Camera Obscura nominated for an Airship Award
Very glad to report that Camera Obscura has been nominated for the Airship Award in the written category! The Airship Awards are given for a variety of steampunk categories at Steamcon, an annual steampunk convention.
The nominees in the written category are:
Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Tee Morris & Pip Ballantine (Harper Voyager)
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Mark Hodder (Pyr)
Camera Obscura, Lavie Tidhar (Angry Robot)
The Half-Made World, Felix Gilman (Tor)
Very nice company to be in! A full list of nominees can be found here.
Camera Obscura review round-up
Some recent reviews, on request of my agent. I engage in the old time tradition of cutting out the selected bits that sound good!
“A rollicking adventure with passages of brilliant prose … a dreadfully fun romp.” – Tor.com
Tidhar writes in the manner Michael Chabon champions in “Trickster in a Suit of Lights,” applauding the speculative writers who keep one foot in the land of “literary” fiction, while invoking “the idea of playfulness, of mockery and inversion.” Tidhar is such a writer.
“An incredibly hard book to put down. A colorful cast of characters, a gripping tale of loss, gain, secrets and cosmic dread, all woven into a hauntingly familiar and yet very strange steampunk version of earth.” – Daily Steampunk
few weeks back I was wondering if Lavie would manage to dethrone himself and make Camera Obscura my new favourite Steampunk novel.
He did.
“A superb more-or-less standalone volume that expands the inventiveness of the debut while keeping the story better focused and having as great a character cast as there. Camera Obscura raised the Lesards series to a must for me. – Fantasy Book Critic.
“Lavie Tidhar’s mind must be fascinating place in which to live. It certainly is an exceeding pleasure to visit … I remain truly awestruck by the brilliance of Tidhar’s creation.” – LitPunk
Tidhar is a wonderful writer, who manages to merge widely different influences and references with seemingly effortless grace and who weaves a ripping yarn–exciting, suspenseful, extremely clever–that revels in the literary fun of it all but in a manner that is never smug or self-satisfied. Tidhar proves that words such as “intellectual” and “playful” are not mutually exclusive, and does so in the most thrilling of ways.
“The storytelling here will keep you on the edge of your seat (now there’s a cliché for you) and you should be well prepared for the ten minute dip into you planned to turn into hours. It happened to me, and it’s both at once wonderful and intensely annoying. I emerged from the final page of Camera Obscura exhausted by the experience, but with a definite smile on my face. It’s fast, and relentlessly fun.” – Matthew S. Dent.
“A good read, packed with gritty action and quirky characters. It has a strong female protagonist in Lady de Winter and to be honest I can’t wait to read the next one.” – Cybermage.se.
“Read this Steampunk adventure for the beautifully dark world that Lavie Tidhar has created.” – Preternatura.
“Stylish and exuberant.” – Warpcore SF
“Eerie and alluring.” – Bookgasm
Camera Obscura giveaway!
There’s a new review of Camera Obscura up at Preternatura, and along with it, you can enter to win a free copy of the book!
Only, you know, if you want to!
Catching up!
It’s been an incredibly busy two weeks, encompassing, at various points, book signings, meetings, Eastercon, the Clarke Award, Sci Fi London and shooting the start of a documentary – so now I’m back home, back on antibiotics, and back in bed. The weather, in case you’re wondering, is gorgeous!
Quick catching up:
- How to sign an e-book!
- Guest-post at the Boston Book Bums Blog, on Strange Places to Buy Books
- My latest short story, The Ambiguity Clock, is now online at Daily Science Fiction
- I’m a judge at the forthcoming Science in My Fiction contest!
- Awesomely in-depth review of Camera Obscura over at Tor.com, by Mike Perschon!
- I sold a new story, “Passage”, to Daily Science Fiction
- The next issue of Interzone will include my short story “Mango Rains”
Forbidden Planet signing
It was a bit nerve wracking walking into Forbidden Planet yesterday for the signing, but was overwhelmed with so many friends showing up for support! There are plenty of signed copies of Camera Obscura now at FP, if you want to pick up a copy. And at a £1 off!
Thanks to Danie Ware for setting it all up, and congratulations on the news today that she’s just got her own book deal with Titan Books! And to everyone who showed up, you know who you are!
Kingston Signing
The signing at the Bentall Centre in Kingston was fun! I met Twitter feller @CTD, and signed an e-book (sort of!), then my mate Richard (AKA South African crime writer Richard Kunzmann) showed up for support, followed, in very short order, by a photographer from the local paper and my friend Isey (pictured) with a couple of his school friends and their parents, and it all got very busy suddenly!
There are a lot of signed copies of both Camera Obscura and The Bookman at Waterstone’s in the Bentall Centre so if you’re a Surreyite and want a copy, that’s the place to go!
I’m signing at Forbidden Planet tomorrow, so come along!
Lavie and Isaac, Kingston Waterstone’s signing, April 2011
Camera Obscura – now on the Kindle!
You can now get Camera Obscura in a Kindle edition – $7.99 US, or £4.48 UK.
You can also get The Bookman for the Kindle now – £4.48 (but currently on £3.58) UK, or $6.79 US.
