A Foreword Book of the Day

“This is Tidhar at his best: the crazily proliferating imagination, the textures, the ideas, the dazzling storytelling. A brilliant portrait of community and its possibilities.”
—Adam Roberts, author of Purgatory Mount

[STARRED REVIEW] “In his signature style, Tidhar laces his future-set, fascinating tale with biblical references and nods to science fiction classics, here revitalized with added empathy…. Neom is an extraordinary and compassionate trek into the hearts of AI.”
—Foreword

“World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar takes readers back to the fascinating far-future world of 2016’s Central Station in this gentle narrative about self-fulfillment and one robot’s quest to reunite with a lost love. In Neom, a port city between Earth and space on the shores of the Red Sea, Mariam de la Cruz divides her days between several odd jobs while her nights are spent longing for quietude. Meanwhile, shurta officer Nasir questions the point of law enforcement as he spends most of his time handing out tickets for littering. An unnamed robot reunites these two childhood friends when Nasir and Mariam become entangled in the robot’s mission to resurrect a ‘golden man’ of legend. These quiet personal stakes play out against a vividly imagined world where ancient war machines stalk the deserts and seas, terrorist ‘art installations’ explode forever within stasis fields, and the human population in space tell stories of the eldritch creatures inhabiting the Oort clouds. Meanwhile, Tidhar offers a heartfelt exploration of artificially intelligent beings’ struggles to find existential meaning while being restrained by both coding and form. Fans of literary sci-fi are sure to be enchanted by the imaginative worldbuilding and tenderly wrought characters.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Tidhar (Central Station) writes another story that takes place within his Central Station universe. Neom is a future-oriented, techno city: a port of call to the stars for humans and a neighbor to the robots that roam the nearby desert searching for a purpose. Destinies will collide as a mechanical man initiates a robotic revolution, a former “terrorartist” seeks her buried memories, and three humans—Saleh, Mariam, and Nasir—have a chance to realize their dreams. Tidhar is a unique voice in science fiction and an author with many awards to his name. An enrapturing conglomeration of philosophy, psychology, and storytelling, the novel melds the what-ifs with a believable and relatable scenario. This is not a sequel so much as another saga in a well-developed and thought-out world. VERDICT Old and new fans alike will adore this fascinating new addition to Tidhar’s future Earth universe, and science fiction buffs would do well to put Tidhar on their radar of must-read authors.”
—Library Journal

“Yet again, Lavie Tidhar’s future world of Neom is exciting and distinctive, his characters complex and fascinating, and his themes powerful and thought-provoking.”
—Kij Johnson, author of The River Bank

“Neom is a treasure, and Tidhar says that there are so many more stories from this complicated world. Every new one is a compelling chapter in this future history that reflects so much about who we are and the basic things we yearn for.”
—SciFi Mind

“At times Tidhar’s narrative takes on a gentle, ruminative air, and while that helps establish the atmosphere of a convincing, lived-in city, veteran SF readers will also find plenty of playful and affectionate Easter eggs. . . . For all its fearsome ancient ordnance, its eco¬nomic disparity, and its looming threats, Neom easily joins the list of SF cities we’d like to visit.”
—Locus

“Richly built without being overwhelming, and the narrative moves quickly even while juggling several moving parts and mysteries.”
—Booklist

“Lavie Tidhar’s Neom is a stunning return to his world of Central Station, twinning the fates of humans and robots alike at a futuristic city on the edge of the Red Sea.”
—Green Man Review

“This was superb and I’m in awe of Tidhar’s vision. He’s conjured up a futuristic city that feels simultaneously ultramodern and also run down. The rich histories of the region and its cultures are seamlessly interwoven into the fabric of this fully-realized world.”
—The Speculative Shelf

“Always expect the unexpected with Lavie Tidhar, and this welcome return to the sprawling space-operatic world of Central Station delivers oodles of poetry, action, memorable characters, wonderfully bizarre landscapes and wild imagination. No two books by Tidhar are ever the same, but each is a revelation.”
—Maxim Jakubowski, author of The Piper’s Dance

“Vivid and techno-mythological, Neom infects you with something special that transcends all the incidents and terrors—a shimmering current of guarded optimism.”
—David Brin, author of Existence, Earth and The Postman

“Lavie Tidhar’s Neom is a deliciously inventive wild ride through a future Middle East full of unexpected wonders: dutiful jackals, traumatized robots, terrifying terrorartists, caravans of elephants and great slinkying robotic khans, preserves for wild mechas and monasteries that are also singularities. But more than that, the world of Neom is deeply, richly lived in: the past and the present and the future are not just unevenly distributed, they are marbled together—tiny slithering tadpole robots adapted to the fused-glass desert around an ancient crash site, okra and tomatoes frying in a pan, rogue sandworms and grandmothers doing Tai Chi in an urban park, the Oort cloud and milkshakes, Martian soap opera Bedouin actors, a Bazaar of Rare and Exotic Machines equally excited by Atari Pac-Man cartridges and city-obliterating superweapons. It is this eye for detail, this deft touch intermingling now and someday, that makes Neom’s future so vividly real: not just human or gritty or lived-in, but full to bursting with the variety and complexity that characterize life. It is a world anchored by its characters: the bright ambition and yearning of the orphan Saleh, the sensible pragmatism and inexhaustible humanity of the capable housecleaner/flower vendor/receptionist/Tamagotchi shelter volunteer Miriam de la Cruz . . . and the robot, who is obsolete and dangerous, full of grief and mystery and philosophy, and whose obstinate mission beckons us ever forward through Neom’s pages. . . .”
—Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of The Unraveling

“The more of Tidhar's work that I read, the more he becomes one of my favorite writers. No, I haven't read everything of his, but at some point I feel as if I will catch up and read all of it. He is one of the outstanding writers of modern times in the field of science fiction and fantasy. Neom is a wonderful addition to the field, and it should be read by all.”
—MT Void

“Neom is a real place. A completely batshit crazy place. Nonetheless, Lavie Tidhar, standing on the shoulders of Vance, Smith, and Ballard and others, imagines stories set in that place.”
—Jonathan Strahan

“Another downloading from Tidhar’s fertile imagination. Science fictional ideas and references spin off this in giddy profusion. If you want your fix of the strange and wonderful, even the downright odd, get it right here.”
—ParSec

“Neom is a wonderful read for any lover of science fiction. For someone who has not yet visited the world of Central Station—Tidhar’s novel from 2016 — it is easy to catch on to the colloquialisms and customs of the story universe. But after reading Neom, new Tidhar fans will surely want to go back for more.”
—Jewish Book Council

5/5 Electric Sheep. “Overall this story and the world it’s set in are amazing to me. It feels as if we got just a snapshot of an event that ultimately might have gone under the radar for most of this world. There was so much of the almost mundanity of life that this felt poignant but small in the ultimate scope in a way that has me wanting more. I am definitely going to download and seek out far more of Mr. Tidhar’s work moving forward.”
—Wayseeker’s Books

“I enjoyed so much about this book; the world-building, the diverse and well fleshed out characters and the plot. This is well worth a read.”
—The Book Lover’s Boudoir

“It reads as a memoir more than a plot-driven novel of the results of what was once the dream city of Neom. Now, however, after wars and upheavals, Neom exists as a collector of people, robots, ideas; a place where all sorts of life happens. Take a read and let me know what you think!”
—Frivolous Comma

“A beautiful and touching tapestry, certainly among my favorites of the year.”
—Tar Vol On

On Central Station

John W. Campbell Award Winner
Neukom Literary Arts Award Winner
Arthur C. Clarke Award Finalist
NPR Best Books
Barnes and Noble Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
Locus Recommended Reading List

“Beautiful, original, a shimmering tapestry of connections and images.”
—Alastair Reynolds, author of the Revelation Space series

“A dazzling tale of complicated politics and even more complicated souls. Beautiful.”
—Ken Liu, author of The Paper Menagerie and The Grace of Kings

[STARRED REVIEW] “Readers of all persuasions will be entranced.”
—Publishers Weekly

[STARRED REVIEW] “A fascinating future glimpsed through the lens of a tight-knit community.”
—Library Journal

International promotion at major trade and genre conventions, including the World Science Fiction and World Fantasy conventions; Celcius (Spain); and Readercon (Boston)

Coverage targeting U. S., Israeli, British, and Middle Eastern themed online media, including reviews and interviews to include NPR, the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Review of Science Fiction, UK Guardian, Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle

Book launch event at Forbidden Planet bookstore, London, UK

Planned book giveaways on Goodreads, SF Signal, and other online outlets; Print and digital ARC distribution via Goodreads, NetGalley, and Edelweiss+

Instagram and blog tour, Reddit AMA, and social media campaign