Best of 2008

With the year drawing to a close, the usual Best of 2008 lists are starting to appear, and it's nice to see some Pyr titles on them (some for their UK editions):

SFX: Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kingsat # 8

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: David Louis Edelman's MultiReal at # 4, Last Argument of Kings at # 5

The Wertzone: Last Argument of Kings at # 2

Borderlands Books

Borderlands Books has added a totally cool feature to their homepage that shows a panoramic view of their store and allows you to zoom in. Not only do you get to see what a beautiful store it is (I miss it terribly), but using the zoom feature, you can get so close as to read the titles off individual spines. I, concerned editor that I am, was thrilled to immediately spot David Louis Edelman's Infoquake and MultiReal in a shelf along the left-side wall.

David Louis Edelman Reading Tonight

The Barnes & Noble in the Spectrum Center in Reston, Virginia will be hosting David Louis Edelman tonight, Wednesday, September 17 at 7:00 pm. He’ll be reading from and signing copies of MultiReal.Come on by if you are in the area! The store is at 1851 Fountain Drive, Reston, VA 20190, phone number 703-437-9490.


And check out the recent praise for MultiReal:

• io9: “I’m in it for the long haul, because it feels like Edelman is writing about real people and real issues, in a thrilling, engaging way. And that’s rarer than it should be.”
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist: “This is one sequel that delivers! No middle book syndrome for David Louis Edelman… The Jump 225 trilogy remains one of the very best ongoing science fiction series on the market.”
• Bookgasm: “Infoquake’s strengths have carried over to its sequel… With Infoquake and MultiReal, [Edelman]’s got new archetypes aplenty, and he doesn’t need old tropes to slow him down.”
• Chicago Center for Literature and Photography: “(Rating: 8.8 out of 10) This is a series that genre fans will definitely want to check out, and an individual chapter here that could very well garner a Hugo nomination next year.”
• Through a Glass, Darkly: “Even for a reader who loves laser battles and big explosions, MultiReal still comes across as extremely satisfying and fun.”
• Death Ray Magazine (not online): “A mix of cyberpunk and The Wall Street Journal… Where Edelman does excel, and the true focus of the book, is exploring the economics and political powers behind new technologies, their development and routes to market and the social and moral implications of such advancements.”

Two Out of Two Anders Agree: Infoquake/MultiReal is Brilliant!

Over on the Pyr blog, Mark Chadbourn asks "Should Scientists Forget Space?", citing an article on the UK's former Chief Scientist, Sir David King, who says that we are in need of a "re-think of priorities in science and technology and a redrawing of our society's inner attitudes towards science and technology." Sir King wants us to forgo experiments in space and in CERN in favor of addressing more immediate concerns at him. I've already given my opinion in the comments of Mark's post, but it's interesting to me to contrast it here with Charlie Jane Anders' io9.com review of David Louis Edelman's Infoquakeand MultiReal(books one and two of his Jump 225 trilogy).

Charlie Jane beings the review, which is titled "MultiReal is your antidote to science-bashing scifi," by saying, "With so much mass-media science fiction featuring anti-science heroes who battle to stop science from "going too far," it's great to read a really smart novel about a hero who's fighting to save scientific progress from being suppressed." She characterizes the books as being "about the nature of technological progress" and says, "Where MultiReal really shines, however, is in the debates over the ethics of this reality-twisting software. There really is no right answer to the question of how society should deal with software that 'liberates you from cause and effect,' and the sequence where Natch's mentor debates the government's attorneys is easily my favorite part of both books. It's a complex issue, and Edelman draws it out enough that you can see how it applies to today's real-life challenges: should we try to suppress new technologies, should we regulate them heavily? Is it possible to suppress new knowledge after all? Does information really want to be free? It's a lot more nuanced than the 'science iz scary OMG' idea that seems to be popular in media SF right now.

Now, with the understanding that I am generalizing horribly, I think that traditionally a majority of filmic sci-fi is concerned with maintaining the status quo and getting the genies back in the bottles. Something is developed, approaching, on the loose - and its up to the protagonists to stop it. An asteroid is going to hit the earth, aliens are invading, a man has turned himself invisible and is running amok - how do we divert it, repel them, contain him... In other words, there is a threat to consensus reality and by the end of the film or television show, it's been dealt with and nicely put away. Go on with your lives. Nothing to worry about here.

By contrast, literary science fiction is often set after such an event has already happened, sometimes a good deal after, and throws us in medias res into a world in which part of the fun of the narrative is working out how the world in the tale differs from the world we know and part of the theme lies in examining how these changes act as a lens to illuminate some aspect of humanity that we take for granted. So, an asteroid hit the earth and killed everyone over 18, how do the survivors cope? Aliens invaded and are now our overlords - would you let one date your sister? 1/3 of the population is invisible, what new class of people do they form? The intrusion isn't repelled, it's part and parcel of the way things are now going forward. I find this the more honest approach, and underscores on of science fiction's strengths as the genre that embraces the reality and inevitability of change.

There are, of course, examples of both approaches in both mediums. In fact, one of the (many) failures of The Matrix trilogy is that it began from what I'm calling a more literary position of science fiction and transitioned to the filmic. At the end of the first movie, Neo promises to hang up the phone and, "then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world ... without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible." The goal of the protagonists isn't to preserve consensual reality, but to destroy it, by ushering in a world where anyone can do the things he can. But instead of this, the subsequent films shift the emphasis radically away from the Matrix (which is never anything more than a set for agents and rebels to play in henceforth) to saving Zion and restoring the status quo of balance between machine and rebel. We never actually deal with another person who still believes in/is imprisoned by the Matrix's view of reality - and the battle that is fought is all about getting things back to the way they were in the first film. I don't know why this is, though the best explanation I've heard is that 9/11 occurred between the first and second films, forcing Warner to rethink the wisdom of making two more movies staring a group of admitted terrorists out to destroy 1999. (In some ways, V for Vendetta - which was released as public opinion was beginning to change re: the current war and Bush's approval ratings were dipping, and questioning him was no longer being seen as being unpatriotic - is the film the Wachowski's should have made out of Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions and didn't/couldn't at the time). But I digress...

To bring this back to the Jump 225 trilogy: What I personally love about Edelman is that he sets his story not before (and up to the point) of the radical transformation, nor after (and at a comfortable distance from) the transformation, but that he is actually charting the course through the societal singularity, showing how all the institutions of government, business, and society rearrange, realign, and topple. To an extent, Charlie Stross did this with his brilliant and essential Accelerando (though he moves his action off-world for a good deal of it - which is no criticism, it's a different animal), but I've never personally encountered a work that did such a thorough job and concentrated so much of its focus in taking us through the shift point between paradigms. I think that's why so many readers say that the future Edelman presents is a "believable" one, and why I think, though he mixes and matches tropes we've seen before, his approach is so unique.

David Louis Edelman & the Underlying Purpose of the Human Race

David Louis Edelman is interviewed on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. Here's a sample:

What was the spark which generated the idea that drove you to write the Jump 225 trilogy?

Working in the dot-coms, definitely. I started out writing a much more humorous novel -- a single novel, actually, that was to be called Jump 225.7. It was more lighthearted and satirical in tone, which is why I came up with all the funny acronyms like L-PRACGs and OCHREs, and silly names like SeeNaRee and the Defense and Wellness Council. I literally finished the first draft of that book on September 10, 2001. Then a few days later I put the whole thing aside and started over. I had darker things on my mind then: the future of Western society, the longevity of capitalism and democracy, the underlying purpose of the human race. So the trilogy has turned out to be a somewhat unique mixture of those two moods.

Also, there's a great review of MultiRealon Bookgasm today. I especially like Ryun Patterson's final thoughts: "People get accustomed to new ideas by leveraging the notion of things we’ve seen before, like saying this work is a cross between Wall Street and Neuromancer/Snow Crash/Blade Runner. That’s nice, I guess, but it doesn’t do justice to Edelman’s creation. With Infoquakeand MultiReal, he’s got new archetypes aplenty, and he doesn’t need old tropes to slow him down."

A Trio of Reviews: Last Argument of Kings, MultiReal, Stalking the Unicorn

Tomas L. Martin, for SFCrowsnest, on Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings:

"The sheer audacity of many of the plot twists and conclusions to character arcs are dazzling. The realism and grittiness of Abercrombie's world continues to the end, with no character emerging unscathed with a fairy-tale ending. These are flawed characters, he seems to say, so why should they finish any less flawed? ...without re-treading the old formulae and by populating his complex world with dynamic, immensely imperfect characters Abercrombie has produced a reinvigoration of the genre.

Patrick of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist on David Louis Edelman's MultiReal:

"...this is one sequel that delivers! No middle book syndrome for David Louis Edelman. ...a superior read. Moreover, if the final installment lives up to the expectations generated by its predecessors, this series could well be the best thing ever published by Pyr. That's saying something!"

John DeNardo of SF Signal on Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn:

"Mallory is a strong character; the book doesn't take itself seriously; humorous dialogue and prose. ...What's interesting about this book, besides the lighthearted tone and wry humor, is how it overcomes my usual reservations about fantasy by blatantly flying in the face of everything that normally makes me want to roll my eyes. ...a fun story when all is said and done, and I give credit to the author for making a palatable fantasy novel that even this hard-case fantasy reader could enjoy."

Thinking Highly of Us

A host of reviews recommending and highly recommending various Pyr books.

First there's Sam Lubell, for SFRevu, on David Louis Edelman's MultiReal:

"...cyberpunk after it grew up and graduated from business school... This is in many ways a stronger book than the first, Infoquake, a rarity among second volumes in trilogies... Multireal, and the Jump 225 trilogy, is very complex. But the rewards of reading it are very great. This is not relabeled history with sf props, not space adventure that has to be fast moving so the reader has no time to realize that the background is flimsy and motivations nonexistent. Edelman has clearly put a lot of thought into his universe, and is able to show this in ways that do not overwhelm the reader (at least outside the appendices.) This is modern-day science fiction the way it ought to be written. Very highly recommended..."

Then John of Grasping for the Wind on Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn:

"Alice in Wonderland for the modern age... Written in the early 1980's, Stalking the Unicorn is the very definition of the urban fantasy novel. ...funny and full of plot twists. ...Adding to the fun is Resnick's witty dialogue. ...everything an entertaining story should be. Funny, full of action, adventure, dosed with a bit of mystery and the ridiculous. Mallory is the quintessential detective, a mixture of Columbo, Sam Spade, and Hercule Poirot. That his territory is a fantasy world only enhances the enjoyment. I highly recommend everyone read Stalking the Unicorn."

Back on SFRevu, we have Carolyn Frank on Stalking the Unicorn:

"With a witty perspective on many aspects of city life, anyone who enjoys fantasy adventures in a more or less familiar urban setting will laugh their way through this wild entertainment."

And finally Drew Bittner, again of SFRevu, on Stalking the Vampire:

"Mallory remains a great character, the classic world-weary knight in trenchcoat armor, with a strong supporting cast. ...It's clear Resnick is having fun with the characters, setting and mystery itself. Readers who enjoy a lighthearted caper through familiar-but-not territory will find this a pleasant read. Recommended."

David Louis Edelman: At a Romantic Dead End?

The wonderful Rob H. Bedford interviews Infoquakeand MultiRealauthor David Louis Edelman for SFFWorld today.

In light of old discussions about writing for the opposite gender, I particularly appreciated this bit:

Did you find Jara’s voice more difficult to capture than Natch’s, considering, well, you are a man and Jara is a woman?

Honestly, I feel like I understand Jara better than I understand Natch. He’s somewhat difficult and remote, and he’s not really like me at all. Jara is much easier to relate to. She’s approaching middle age, she’s fed up with her career, she’s sexually unfulfilled, and she’s hit a romantic dead end. I know plenty of people, male and female, who fit those descriptions. So I didn’t worry too much about gender differences. I just tried to make her a well-rounded character.

And this bit made me laugh:

If you could take any pre-existing fictional character and plunk them into the events of the Jump 225 trilogy, who would it be?

Dr. Strange. He’s a guy who hops dimensions all the time. He ought to know how to handle MultiReal.

But you should read it all, right?

Got MultiReal?

From Rob's Blog o'Stuff: “I posted my review of MultiRealtoday, the second (wonderful) novel in David Louis Edelman’s excellent Jump 225 trilogy. I know I tend to throw around the superlatives when I like something, but I try to be genuine with what I like. David’s novels are no exception…His books really work for me on a lot of levels…Where does MultiReal stand in this year’s slew of [SF] book releases? At this point it’s right at the top with Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother."

From POD People, TCM Reviews, July 21, 2008: “Pyr is a new, up-and-coming science fiction press, and David Louis Edelman is one of their hot new stars…[MultiReal] is full of Big Ideas, in the best tradition of science fiction…Edelman is a programmer in real life, and his understanding of the process informs the book. Multireal is a deep book, full of plots and counter-plots, with a stunning vision of the future. It manages what seems to be impossible, making the act of computer programming exciting, while reflecting on the nature of government and business. This is high science fiction at its finest. RATING 10/10

'Nuff said.

MultiReal: An Enthralling, Superlative Science Fiction Novel?

"Yes," says SFFWorld's Rob H. Bedford, answering the question of this header. "David Louis Edelman]’s continued to weave an intricate future history that parallels our own in many ways."

He's talking about MultiRealof course, a book, "on the par with the previous volume for Edelman’s ability to change the game a bit and still maintain what made Infoquake such a great novel, his growth as a writer is most evident in the characters themselves. If anything, MultiReal may be a bolder novel because of the risk Edelman took in character focus and perhaps more audacious in laying out the implications of the technology. MultiReal is also not a ‘treading water middle book’ of a trilogy...it really drives home much of what Edelman was setting up in the first volume and leaves the reader eager for the next volume. David Louis Edelman has crafted another winner with MultiReal ...I for one can’t wait to see where Edelman takes the conclusion of this [thus far] spectacular trilogy."

You know what Rob? Me too!

MultiReal: Taking its Place Among the Classics

Man, I love this Sci Fi Weekly review of David Louis Edelman's MultiReal,which just so happens to be the 700th review of a Pyr book that I have seen/logged. This one is written by the uber-knowledgeable Paul Di Filippo, not only gives the book an A grade, but name checks a host of science fiction greats whose work, he says, Edelman fits right in alongside of.

"The notion of MultiReal as a power-leveling weapon seems rather van Vogtian to me. The amount of attention and insight paid to the workings of political and social institutions would please a Heinlein or a Brunner. There's a definite Spinradian New Wave anger at authority and also a cynicism at work here as well. And the MultiReal experience resembles Paul Atreides' precog abilities, as described by Frank Herbert."

As far as contemporary classics goes, he adds that Edelman, "brings all the intellectual firepower and verisimilitude of the digerati like Sterling, Stross and Doctorow to his text. And the ontological twists and implications of MultiReal would do honor to Greg Egan.

But he says, "The strongest overall vibe I get is that of Alfred Bester...Bester is much admired verbally, but very few authors really try to emulate him in print—he set the bar so high—and Edelman's success is commensurate with his ambitions."

The love that this book has gotten so far (including it and its author getting nominated for BOTH Campbell Awards) really, really makes me proud.

(PS - Paul just launched a group blog called Weird Universe that is sure to be worth checking out.)

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."

MultiReal: The Book Cover

The full jacket for MultiReal.Courtesy of illustrator Stephan Martiniere and designer Jackie Cooke. Nice, huh?

A sly variation on the traditional cyberpunk novel...

Publishers Weekly on David Louis Edelman's forthcoming MultiReal.The bold emphasis is mine:

A sly variation on the traditional cyberpunk novel, Edelman's sequel to 2006's Infoquake views a stunning new technology through the eyes of the cutthroat executives vying to market it. MultiReal, a reality-altering tool combining biological programming and quantum physics, threatens to plunge a far-future world into chaos, but before it can penetrate the furthest reaches of society, Natch, an entrepreneur and rebel, must find a way to market and distribute it. He faces tremendous resistance from legislative bodies, competing business concerns and the ominous black code embedded in the mechanisms that enhance his body. Edelman brings fresh air to the technological thriller, but his characters remain somewhat anemic and caricatured, particularly Jara, Natch's second-in-command. MultiReal itself is firmly established as one of the most fascinating singularity technologies in years, and the inconclusive feel of this installment will build anticipation for the third Jump 225 book.

Infoquake: Volatile, Complex and Very, Very Realistic

I just noticed that Colleen R. Cahill has suddenly reviewed David Louis Edelman's Infoquakefor Fast Forward, (the local cable TV show devoted to science fiction based in the Washington, DC area, not my anthology series of the same name). Colleen praises the world-building, which rather than being a dystopia or a utopia, is realistic enough to encapsulate both. Although she doesn't invoke it, her split the middle future reminds me of Warren Ellis' comic book Transmetropolitan,which I always loved for the way it presented the future as neither wonderful nor terrible but both simultaneously (you can be genetically engineered to swim with dolphins for a day, in a world where poor Irish children are sold as food). This sort of all-too-believable future is what drew me to Infoquake to begin with, though I agree with Colleen when she says, "As interesting as his world is, it is Edelman's characters that make this book shine. Natch might be good at bio/logics, but he mostly seems motivated by revenge: as his friend Horvil points out, Natch only seems to succeed when he is beating someone else. The interactions between Natch, Horvil and Jara (who is both attracted to and disturbed by her boss) are volatile, complex and very, very realistic. It is easy to believe in these people, and even feel like maybe this is a future that is not too far away."

I'm glad Collen stressed the strength of Dave's characters, because sometimes I think people in the SF genre have a hard time with protagonists who do bad things. I don't know why this is - though I suspect it stems from decades of conditioning in SF television, all the way back to Roddenberry and his attempts to have drama without interpersonal conflict. And the strange pressures of a society that want its basketball players, boxers, and rock stars to be role models as well. You know, when you look back at classic "heroes", all the way back to the Greeks, they are a pretty flawed bunch, and it's their flaws, as much as their strengths, that give us such wonderful narratives. I love Natch, because, hey, I've worked for Natch. And because I think brilliant-but-flawed and obsessively-driven people are fascinating (Batman, Spock, James Bond, the aforementioned Spider Jerusalem, many more....) In the meantime, SF television has certainly come along, with post-HBO shows like Battlestar Galactica. But I still think some people conflate interesting with admirable. A character need only be the former, not the latter. Of course, a well-rounded character can move from one to the other too, and remember, I've already read MultiReal.