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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.
UK Publication Day for Camera Obscura!
Today is the official release day for Camera Obscura in the UK!
That means it should be in shops, but you can always order a copy online, from Amazon UK or from The Book Depository (with free international shipping). Camera Obscura will be out in the US towards the end of the month.
A reminder! I’ll be signing copies of Camera Obscura on Sunday, 17th of April in Waterstones Kingston (in the Bentall Centre), at 12:00, an on Tuesday, 19th of April, in Forbidden Planet (you can also order a signed copy from them if you can’t make it).
Great review for Camera Obscura
From The Traveller’s Steampunk Blog:
All these elements make Camera Obscura an incredible 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.
Camera Obscura is also much darker than The Bookman, the abysses of human and near-human existence are explored and are a major force driving the plot. Possession (of one kind or the other), artificial extension of life, and certain vile things only possible with advanced technology, all play a part.
Camera Obscura shows the reader some inner and outer demons. It is quite a different reading experience than The Bookman. Since I am a big admierer of Lovecraft, I obviously think this is a positive development.
A few weeks back I was wondering if Lavie would manage to dethrone himself and make Camera Obscura my new favourite Steampunk novel.
He did.
I think Camera Obscura is required reading for every Steampunk out there. The full reinforced squadron, ten out of ten Zeppelins!
