In 1945, the Archangels materialised over the battlefields of Europe, ushering in a new Cold War. Fifty years later, they are being killed off... one by one.

But who - or what - can kill an angel?

Killarney is a shadow executive for the Bureau, British Intelligence's most secret organisation: so secret it doesn't even officially exist. She is the best - and she always works alone. Sent on a desperate mission to locate a missing cryptographer who may prove the key to the murders, Killarney finds herself running for her life, from London to Paris to Moscow, leading to a confrontation with a very human evil in the frozen wastelands of Novosibirsk.

Plagued by dreams of a different world, and haunted by a swastika adorned with angel wings, it ould take all of Killarney's resources to survive, when heaven itself may be threatened, and God herself may be walking the earth...

With an introduction from Liz Williams, An Occupation of Angels is a taut, high-octane thriller in the tradition of Adam Hall's Quiller novels, and a meditation on God and religion that echoes both Philip Pullman's Northern Lights and Tim Powers' Declare. This first novella from the winner of the Clarke-Bradbury Prize is a hallucinatory trip that is guaranteed to get you high... as high as angels.

"A novella of blistering, ballistic energy and ferocious cleverness. A nonstop fantasy spy adventure of the kind that John le Carré might write, if he ingested a few strange, strong drugs first. Fans of Tim Powers should love this. Fans of high-class supernatural action drama should love this. Fans of ballsy, gun-toting heroines should love this. In fact, everyone should love this." James Lovegrove

"Fast moving, powerfully phantasmagoric fantasy; a gorgeous mutant cross between James Bond, Constantine and Rilke. Sharp, witty, violent and liable to haunt your dreams. Don't say you weren't warned..." Adam Roberts

"The Cold War has suddenly become cool" Jay Caselberg

"Lavie Tidhar's novella is like a coiled sprinter launching himself at the B of BANG. The pace is relentless, the tension continually ramped. A blackly humorous amalgam of subtle SF invention and flat out thrills with a hard-boiled wiseass hero. Great fun." Conrad Williams

"Sharp, brutal, cool - yet also stunningly imaginative and perfectly realised. This is the most compelling thing I've read in a long time: the only bad thing was that it had to end." Michael Marshall Smith

Reviews

"a violent, exhilarating spy thriller/fantasy held together by the skin of its teeth by a talented new writer" – Ellen Datlow, The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror

"Sparkles with the odd touch of brilliance" - SFX

Impressive... a breathless adventure story, finely crafted and rammed home with the assured confidence of an author very much in his stride" – John Berlyne, SFRevu

"the hectic pace clearly demands a driving rock soundtrack. This combination of spy thriller action and hard-edged modern fantasy delivers a taut tale of suspense and violence... Tidhar is a rising star in the British fantasy and SF scene and this dark thriller gives ample demonstration of why... [this] tale of otherworldly intrigue will stick with you long after you've finished it" – Patrick Hudson, The Zone

"Mr. Tidhar has a new fan… [The book[ leaves you desperately needing a warm blanket. And that is the best homage to Hall and Powers one could possibly want" - William D. Gagliani, Chizine

"This emotionally gripping, fast-paced novella is hard to put down" – Mari Adkins, Apex Digest Online

"[has] all the right elements… entertaining" – Cheryl Morgan, Emerald City

"A very original premise…Lavie Tidhar here has proven that he gets the ideas, the good ones" – The Eternal Night

An Occupation of Angels
Pendragon Press, December 2005

Introduction by Liz Williams

Cover artwork & design by Ben Baldwin

 

Paperback, 90pp, £4.99

ISBN: 0-9538598-6-X

First 100 copies signed and numbered

 

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Slipstream, sf, weird; three novelettes that are just plain different, but bound together in this the first of a planned series of mini-anthologies of short stories that are just too long to be classified short, yet too short to be classified as novellas. Enjoy...

 

In The Thirty-Million Day Dance Card (18,000 words), John Grant weaves elements of political rhetoric and sf into the tale of a retired Presidential advisor looking back upon his life, and how the women he loved became but one.

 

Allen Ashley meanwhile writes a pure Philip K Dickian tale of paranoia in The Interlopers (15,000 words), where John Taylor slowly realises his flat is home to not only himself, but also a couple who rather resent sharing the place with him... yet, he's the only one who sees them - do they really exist, and in fact, does he actually exist?

 

Lavie Tidhar allows us to sit upon Stocard's Dream Chair in Leaves of Glass (8,000 words) with Walt Whitman, whose quest to meet Houdin leads to Paris, and a journey that may be real, or not, but is nevertheless several steps into the surreal.

 

Reviews for Leaves of Glass

 

"A fantastical journey worthy of Coleridge's drug fuelled madness" – Sci Fi Online

 

"Bizarre and wonderfully realized... The only real problem I had with this story was that I wanted more" – Gary McMahon, Wow

 

"Leaves of Glass is undoubtedly the best story in Triquorum One... Boldly imaginative and full of rich imagery... As with many great stories, Tidhar's amazing tale leaves us hypnotised, and wishing for more... makes the most of its brevity, cramming a multitude of extraordinary scenes into less than two-dozen pages, and is all the more fascinating because of its concise and energetic narrative style." – The Zone.

 

Triquorum One

Pendragon Press, April 2006

 

Paperback, 120pp, £5.99

 

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Quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and the nature of time are viewed with a child's ironic gaze in this short one act play by Lavie Tidhar. Two brothers, Lucius and Decius, live in what may be a dream and might be the periphery of a black hole. Argumentative and articulate, they bicker over the nature of time, death, and play, draw in crayons and play with dice, and must finally face the possibility of growing up. The chapbook is illustrated by John Keates, who perfectly captures the dream-like logic that permeates the play.

"A strikingly original and intriguing examination of the enigma that is time." Terry Gates Grimwood, review at ookami.co.uk

 

 

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A must for Michael Marshall Smith collectors and to anyone with an interest in the creative process of writing, MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH: THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY combines bibliographer Lavie Tidhar's meticulous eye for detail with Smith's own extensive annotations to offer a rare glimpse into an author's mind and to the rich, rarely-explored world of the collector.

A treasure trove for collectors, the bibliography charts over ten years of Smith's extraordinary writing career, providing an overwhelming wealth of detail with regards to Smith's each and every publication, which achieves a new level of bibliographical study rarely if ever seen before.

Complementing each entry are Smith's fascinating and diverse annotations, commenting on the origin of his stories, the process and development of his writing, and even answering the perennial question of where he gets his ideas from. Combining the two aspects in one book creates a unique bibliography-as-narrative that offers a rare window into the mind of a working writer at the height of his powers, and a handy guide to Smith's many fans and collectors.

MMS: The bibliography has just evolved...
 

Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography

PS Publishing, June 2004

Hardcover (200 copies) £25 / $45
ISBN: 1904619053

Paperback (500 copies) £10 / $18
ISBN: 1904619045

 

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