Monday, June 30, 2008

Reviews: MultiReal / Starship: Mutiny

Back from ApolloCon, and will be blogging that soon.

In the meantime, thrilled to come back and see that Fantasy Book Critic's Liviu C. Suciu loves David Louis Edelman's MultiReal,though be warned there are some spoilers in this very thorough review:

"The Matrix meets Boston Legal… A true page-turner that I could not put down, and when the final page came I was sad since I really wanted more… The combination of extraordinary world building, compelling characters that grow on you in Jara and Natch, legal intrigue, political maneuverings and fast action made MultiReal an even more entertaining book for me than Infoquake,which I loved too. Better pacing and a more compact time frame make MultiReal technically more accomplished too, and I really have the highest hopes for Geosynchron. Highly, highly recommended."

And the hilariously named POD People (I'm getting shades of The Dark Crystal here) are quite fond of Mike Resnick's Starship: Mutiny:

"...fun and an interesting commentary on politics, the media and government. Commander Cole is not of the 'blast-them-first, ask questions later' school, so his solutions to the problems presented are inventive and indirect. The secondary characters are well-realized, and the problems presented are grounded in human nature. I really enjoyed Mutiny and can recommend it to fans of science fiction and good stories. Since Pyr is a traditional if small publisher, the mechanics of layout and editing are perfect."

10 comments:

Liviu said...

I am happy you liked the review. I had only one complaint about the book - namely that it took two years to get published after Infoquake; hope Geosynchron comes out faster


While Infoquake was very, very good though a bit strange until you got used to its setting, this one is really gripping - but again once you get back in its milieu.

Though for the next one, with 2 books read I should be able to get back in the Jump 225 world immediately even if takes another 2 years to read it.

Lou Anders said...

Hey, if you can think of a way to get Dave Edelman to write faster, I'd love to hear it!

Liviu said...

A fair point :)

I usually do not mind waiting for books, after all there are enough interesting books out there and not enough time, but for this one the 2 year thingy was the one all around complaint I have seen in the early reactions.

Since this series is developing into a special one, I hope that it will achieve the success and recognition it desrves.

Lou Anders said...

Well, we did the deal with Solaris for the mass-market in part to mitigate the problem of the time lag. And with some other series in 2009, we're going to be experimenting with publishing trilogies across consecutive months (Details at a later time).

Liviu said...

For me the best time frame for a series volume is 9 months to a year after the previous. I usually cannot read two new for me consecutive books in a series even if I like it a lot.

I know that there are people who like series only when done, but I never understood that - part of the fun is waiting and guessing what is next.

So even when I read an old series that is done, I leave some time between the books to "decant" so to speak.

Lou Anders said...

We do the Starship series 12 months apart, and Kay Kenyon's series 11 months apart. I don't mind reading series books closer together, but would probably alternate them out with something in between!

ces said...

I was already reading Elom when Infoquake arrived. Since I had a medical appointment, and needed a paperback to take with me to read while waiting, I grabbed Infoquake. Infoquake then grabbed me - I haven't been able to put it down. Thank goodness MultiReal arrives TODAY (Amazon informed me July 1 instead of July 8).

I would be much happier if the time between releases was 6 months - or 3 months - or the day after!


P.S. I never read reviews. I never even read the jacket blurb. Or the introduction in the book itself. Too many spoilers!

Lou Anders said...

Ces - I'm really glad it's hooked you, though Bill Drinkard is a friend so I do hope you'll eventually get back to Elom. (I haven't read that yet, though I did buy it to have him sign it at his big signing party).

Meanwhile, if you don't even read the jacket flap - what do you base your buying decisions on? Me - I tend to read author interviews, skipping the spoilers but reading the general bits on how they think. I will say, if an author is incoherent or unsophisticated in a Q&A, it tends to put me off.

ces said...

Lou, a few things are used for basing my buying decisions. If it's a book by an author I have previously read, & liked, then I pick it up. If it's a book whose cover art jumped out at me, then I pick it up. If I read about it online from someone whose opinion I respect, even if their taste is different, I pick it up. If someone tells me personally about it, then I pick it up. And, like you, I read author interviews when I find them, and yeah if they can't hold their own, bye-bye. I then admit to doing a horrible thing - once the book is in my hands, even if it's someone I've read before, I open the book randomly (i.e., with my eyes shut) to 3 places & read one paragraph - if the paragraphs aren't interesting, or I don't like the writing style, I set the book back down.

This method has worked remarkably well over the years - there's been less than 10 books that I've started & wished I hadn't bought.

And yes, I fully intend to finish Elom - I've enjoyed what I've read so far, about 25% of the book I would guess.

AND ... MultiReal arrived today!

Lou Anders said...

Yeah, I think I'm similar. I'll read two to three interviews with a writer, and go with my reaction to that rather than reviews. I did decide when I started working in this field that I could no longer shield myself from spoilers though. I figure it's my responsibility to know as much about as many as I can...