Yet another book recommendation
I'm reading a splendid little set of four dark fantasy tales called Hebrew Punk by one of the most original dark fantasy writers out there - Lavie Tidhar.
The four tales concern vampires and magick. Okay you might think that this is hardly original, but Tidhar's vampire are enmeshed in Hebrew mythology and history rather than the conventional European backstory. In some ways vampires are vampires but this slight change of setting allows Tidhar to treat his vampires differently - including adding humour with their immunity to some of the traditional vampire wards. His magick is also different to western standards - here we get Tzaddiks and Golems in place of sorcerers and zombies.
The tales themselves read as dark pulp fiction, thirty style noir with added monsters done in a very tongue-in-cheek manner. Splendidly entertaining.
I've been fortunate enough to read some of his work before and each time I have been impressed by his stories. Okay there are a number of writers who are better at the actual craft of writing, creating more lyrical prose, but for ideas this guy is good.
Anyway you'll find the book on Apex Digest's site
http://www.apexdigest.com/
And you'll find Lavie himself at
http://www.lavietidhar.co.uk/
The four tales concern vampires and magick. Okay you might think that this is hardly original, but Tidhar's vampire are enmeshed in Hebrew mythology and history rather than the conventional European backstory. In some ways vampires are vampires but this slight change of setting allows Tidhar to treat his vampires differently - including adding humour with their immunity to some of the traditional vampire wards. His magick is also different to western standards - here we get Tzaddiks and Golems in place of sorcerers and zombies.
The tales themselves read as dark pulp fiction, thirty style noir with added monsters done in a very tongue-in-cheek manner. Splendidly entertaining.
I've been fortunate enough to read some of his work before and each time I have been impressed by his stories. Okay there are a number of writers who are better at the actual craft of writing, creating more lyrical prose, but for ideas this guy is good.
Anyway you'll find the book on Apex Digest's site
http://www.apexdigest.com/
And you'll find Lavie himself at
http://www.lavietidhar.co.uk/
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