Multireal (2 page)
Authors: David Louis Edelman
Tags: #Fiction - Science Fiction, #High Tech, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #General, #Science Fiction, #Science Fiction - General, #Corporations, #Fiction, #Space Opera, #Political, #Fantasy, #Adventure
Chris Roberson, author of Set the Seas on Fire
If you like Charlie Stross, you'll like this book. If you wish you understood what
everyone else is saying about Charlie Stross, you will really like this book."
Matthew Jarpe, author of Radio Free fall
"Infoquake just might be THE Science Fiction novel of the year, if not the past five
years. David Louis Edelman has done so many things right in this book, from the
plausible next steps in human society to the characters, all the notes ring true"
Rob H. Bedford, Rob's Blog o' Stuff
One of the best books I read in 2006 was Infoquake by David Louis Edelman."
EvoTerra,The Dragon Page and Podiobooks.com
"(Rating: 8 out of 10) Edelman has created a fully realized future with many parallels to the world we live in now.... But the real power of this novel is in the players.
Natch is brilliantly intimidating and mysterious, and Edelman is at his best as he
delves into Natch's past.... Edelman's first book is a wonderful debut and one of
the best books released this year."
Ken Fergason, Neth Space
"David Louis Edelman's Infoquake just might be one of the very best science fiction
debuts I have ever read.The book deserves all the praise it has garnered, and then
some! ... Had I read it when it was originally released, Infoquake would have
trumped Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora, Naomi Novik's His Majesty's
Dragon, Brian Ruckley's Winterbirth, and Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself."
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
"(5 Stars) The reason this futuristic science fiction seems plausible is the depth of
detail interwoven into the cat-and-mouse story line, so much so that the audience
will accept nanotechnology bio/logics as happening today.... In the first Jump 225
tale, David Louis Edelman writes an exciting thriller that grips the audience."
Harriet Klausner, Amazon's #I Customer Reviewer
"David Louis Edelman keeps the action coming at a breakneck pace, and despite
the lack of SFnal tropes such as interstellar travel and space battles, Infoquake never
lacks in excitement.... Infoquake seems an obvious frontrunner in the race to win
this years Philip K. Dick Award.... Perhaps the best recent take on the dangers of
widespread capitalism. A wondrous and scathing debut novel. It is the most successful attack on the future of mega-corporations and the inevitable failure of our
current economic system thus far written ... a must-read of 2006"
William Lexner, I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away the Ending
"(Rating: 9.3 out of 10 for science fiction fans) Some of the ideas Edelman bandies
about here are insanely great enough to make your head pop right off your neck....
It's a great novel to be sure, an infinitely smart page-turner that will have your brain
spinning for days afterward.... This dense story is literally a genre fan's dream; an
entire universe with an entire glossary full of backstory, and even with an expansive
Web site devoted to those who want to know more, allowing fans of such expansive universes to really wallow in the details of it all.... This fan-turned-professional
delivers in spades everything a lover of smart science fiction would ever want"
Jason Pettus, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography
"A good and solid SF debut that should put Edelman in consideration for the Dick
and Campbell awards.... Edelman has obviously paid attention during his own dotcom experience, and the result is a science fiction novel that has fully internalized
the lessons of the past decade.... Fluent in the languages of business and information technology, Infoquake is a ride through a fresh future, a strong debut from a
promising writer, and a proud representative of Pyrs early lineup."
Christian Suave
"Despite a high-tech gleam and plausible hard science polish, [Edelman's] debut
novel, Infoquake, is the sort of SF that non-SF readers can enjoy too.... It is SF, yes,
but SF about cutthroat business practices and competitive programming (a waycool concept of sorta programming in thin air), with an endearingly sociopathic
protagonist, lotsa, lotsa nifty techno-supposings, and an interesting concept of guild/spiritual family/religion/union groups in a technocracy.... Highly imaginative
use of the current Zeitgeist."
Paula Guran, DarkEcho Blog
"David Louis Edelman's postcyberpunl< Infoquake is the imminent business thriller
Richard Morgan wishes it could be"
Chris Nakashima-Brown, No Fear of the Future
"Edelman has succeeded in making the world of the corporate boardroom into an
adventure-filled narrative. What John Grisham has done with the legal thriller,
Edelman has done with business.... The climax is fulfilling and exciting, yet it is only
a speech, and a marketing one at that. Edelman has so well woven the elements of
his plot together that Natch's simple speech has as much power and excitement
to it as another science fiction story's destruction of a spaceship or a fantasy's evil
overlord dying hideously at the hands of a hero. That takes skill to write, and
Edelman has it in spades. I highly recommend this novel."
Grasping for the Wind
"(Rating 8.5 out of 10) The book is fast paced from the start, although the action
is much more cerebral than physical.... [Edelman] is clearly a master at fleshing out
his concepts.The story drew me in from the start, and I'm eagerly anticipating the
forthcoming volumes."
Steve Spaulding,The Human Race
The book is clever and imaginative, and Edelman, a Web programmer by trade,
makes this far-future story feel completely contemporary, as though we were living
in his invented world."
David Pitt, Between the Lines
"Engaging and interesting....As promised by other reviewers, the book was just
bursting with new ideas and lots of fun. Besides, when the highlight of the book isn't
killing people but is, instead, shipping a software project, it is pretty close to home"
Al Billings, In Pursuit of Mysteries
"David Louis Edelman attacks the sci-fi genre and infuses it with his stunning vision
of humanity's future.... This book carved a brand-new universe using alternate history, detailed imagination, and Edelman's computer programming background"
Multiverse Reviews
This biotech-based future is astonishingly believable. It's remarkable to have a
novel that's packed with action, excitement, and tension when the action itself is
more what you'd see in the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal. With the
sequel, MultiReal, out later in 2008, you'd be well advised to pick this one up and
refresh your memory on one of 2006's great debuts"
Tomas L. Martin, blogger for Futurismic and reviewer for SFCrowsnest
"A truly compelling and unique future setting that mixes programming, bio-genetics
(or bio/logics), and economic theory. It reads kinda like a libertarian capitalist Dune,
if you swap out the Spice for the Market, replace the dueling Houses with megacorporations, and think of Muad'Dib as less of a messiah and more of a cutthroat
entrepreneur looking to make a lot of money."
From the Case Files
D A V I D
LOUIS
EDELMAN
V O L U M E 2 O F T H E J U M P 225 T R I L O G Y
an imprint of Prometheus Books
Amherst, NY
Published 2008 by Pyr(r), an imprint of Prometheus Books MultiReal. Copyright (c) 2008 by David Louis Edelman. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Inquiries should be addressed to Pyr 59 John Glenn Drive Amherst, New York 14228-2119 VOICE: 716-691-0133, ext. 210 FAX: 716-691-0137 WWW.PYRSF.COM
1211100908 543 21 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Edelman, David Louis. MultiReal / by David Louis Edelman. p. cm. - (Jump 225 trilogy ; v. 2) ISBN 978-1-59102-647-1 (pbk.) 1. Corporations-Fiction. I. Title. PS3605.D445M85 2008 813'.6-dc22 2008021888 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
2. The Nothingness at the Center of the Universe
49
APPENDIXES
g. On the Transportation System
515
h. On Dartguns and Disruptors
519
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
-Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"
LESSONS LEARNED
i
Len Borda was dying.
Or so Marcus Surina told his twelve-year-old daughter, Margaret,
one blustery winter morning, the two of them striding through the
hoverbird docks, wind at full bore, the sun a frail pink thing cowering
behind the clouds.
He won't die today, of course, said Marcus. His voice barely registered
above the clanging of the cargo loaders and the yelling of the dockworkers. Not this week or even this month. But the worries hang from the high
executive's neck like lusterless pearls, Margaret. They weigh him down and
break his will. I can see it.
Margaret smiled uncomfortably but said nothing.
If the city of Andra Pradesh had a resident expert on untimely
death, it was her father. Before he had accepted the Surina family
mantle and assumed his birthright as head of the world's most prominent scientific dynasty, Marcus had wandered far and wide. He had
teased the boundaries of human space, flirted with dangerous organizations in the orbital colonies. Death was a constant presence out there.
And yet, High Executive Borda seemed an unlikely candidate for
the Null Current. He had been a hale and headstrong man upon his
inauguration just weeks after Margaret was born. A NEW EXECUTIVE
FOR A NEW CENTURY, the headlines had proclaimed. Some predicted
that the troubles of the office would prove too daunting for the young
high executive. They murmured that Borda had never been tested by
hardship, that he had come of age in a time of plenty and had inherited the job uncontested. But his stature had only grown in the intervening decade. Try as she might, Margaret could find no lingering
gaps on Borda's calendar, no telltale signs of weakness or indecision. As
far as she was concerned, the high executive was on his way to becoming a fundament of the world, an eternal force like rock or
gravity or time itself.
But Marcus Surina remained firm. You develop a sixth sense out on the
frontiers, he said, examining the hoverbird manifest for the third time.
You begin to see things outside the visible spectrum of light. Patterns of human
behavior, focal points of happenstance. Travel the orbital colonies long enough,
and you learn to recognize the omens.
