Central Station

After a confusing start, I ended up really enjoying this collection of inter-connected short stories. There is not much action and very little resolution to be found here but Tidhar's wonderful writing brings his characters to life within the titular Central Station community.

And it is a large cast of characters that inhabit Central Station, many of whom are related in one form or another. The tech seems magical, (in a Clarke's Law sort of way), but the characters are all very human, even the robots, cyborgs, and space vampires. Which brings up an aspect of this book that I really got a kick out of - all the subtle (and not so subtle) references to other works of SF. One very obvious example is Carmel, the Shambleau character. Her back story is essentially a re-telling of C.L. Moore's classic tale, with some very creative technological twists, which were nicely done. Many other references abound. I caught a bunch of them but am sure I also missed a few.

It took me a while to realize that I was reading a collection as opposed to an actual novel, hence my initial confusion. Once I tumbled to that fact, my expectations changed, and I was able to better settle into the world of Central Station.

This is my first Tidhar. I expect to read more soon.