Books like Central Station by Lavie Tidhar

Central Station is an interplanetary nexus that blends a sprawling Tel Aviv, a sprawling virtual arena, and distant space colonies into one tidal, ever‑shifting landscape. Amid the city’s unchecked growth, a diaspora of 250,000 people settle at its base, fusing cultures in both real life and digital realms. Returning to Tel Aviv from Mars after years abroad, Boris Chong finds familiar faces altered: an ex‑lover raising a child with telepathic access to data, a cousin enamored with a damaged cyborg soldier, and a terminally ill father burdened by a multigenerational mind‑plague. A hunted data‑vampire follows him into forbidden territory. At the heart of it all lies Central Station, a space station that serves as the conduit for humanity’s interplanetary ambitions. Powerful alien entities, the Others, communicate through the fluid “Conversation,” opening a new chapter of change. Humans and machines here not only adapt and thrive but also evolve, their destinies intertwined with the shifting currents of data, artificial intelligence, and interstellar travel.

First publish date: 2016