Geosynchron (2 page)
Authors: David Louis Edelman
Tags: #Fiction - Science Fiction, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #General, #Science Fiction, #Science Fiction - General, #Corporations, #Fiction
Paul Di Filippo, Sci Fi Weekly
"David Louis Edelman's future-business saga MultiReal was one of the books that
blew us away the most in 2008.... A welcome cure to the Fringe/Eleventh Hour science-bashing.... The other thing that makes the trilogy (so far) a really addictive
read is the depth of Edelman's world building and characterization ... 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"
Charlie Anders, io9
"(Rating: 8 out of 10) This is one sequel that delivers! No middle book syndrome
for David Louis Edelman.... The politicking is particularly well done, and it adds
another dimension to a series that continues to impress me on several levels.... As
was the case with Infoquake, MultiReal is 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.... The Jump 225 trilogy remains
one of the very best ongoing science fiction series on the market"
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
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"
Fantasy Book Critic
WultiReal is on 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.... 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."
Rob Bedford, SFF World
"[MultiReal is] a story of ideas. So many, in fact, that Edelman has provided several
appendixes and his Web site includes more than 30,000 words of supplemental
material.... Overall, the book is an entertaining read that explores some startling
implications of biological programming, and sets the scene nicely for volume three"
Futurismic
"Cyberpunl< after it grew up and graduated from business school. It features an
incredibly detailed complex background, interesting (and not always likable) characters, and the grand scope and feel of the best science fiction. This is in many ways
a stronger book than the first, Infoquake, a rarity among second volumes in trilogies.... 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.... This is modern-day science
fiction the way it ought to be written. Very highly recommended"
SF Revu
"What is increasingly interesting then about David Louis Edelman's Jump 225 trilogy
... is how it is becoming less a work that addresses the present indirectly, through
such speculation, and more a work that seeks to directly capture the zeitgeist, the
feeling and the texture of the present.... Edelman has embedded an impressive
assemblage of futuristic ideas and technologies into the Jump 225 trilogy; all but the
most buffered of futuristas will have their sensawunda cache filled."
Bookspotcentral
"Edelman is an up-and-comer, he delivers on characterization, and he certainly has
delivered a rich and detailed alternate future.... Cyberpunkistas will absolutely
revel in the Possibilities; anyone who enjoys watching a rising new star develop will
be rewarded. If you want to see the future of where the SF novel is going, pick up
this series."
Ray Gun Revival
"A mix of cyberpunk and the Wall StreetJournal.... 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"
Death Ray magazine
"[MultiReal] has the same excitement, tension, and intrigue as the first volume....
While the plot revolves around a program, this book is definitely character-driven,
with the motivations and desires of the people at its heart. The slightly familiar but
always fascinating world that wraps around the cast only makes the book more
compelling.... If you have read the first volume, you will want to get MultiReal today
and continue the exploration of this dark, complex, and fascinating work"
Fast Forward TV
"Everything... serves to tear down the certainties and break apart the alliances of
the previous volume. To the extent that we are left, at the end of the volume, wondering whether our heroes can get it together enough to fight back, and indeed
whether there is anything worth fighting for, the novel does its job very efficiently.
... David Louis Edelman remains an interesting writer, and he can do breathless
action very well indeed when he wants"
SF Site
"Infoquake's strengths have carried over to its sequel, as Natch's lieutenants are further fleshed out and their characters are tested by the various hurdles thrown up
before them.... 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 Infoquake and MultiReal, he's got new archetypes
aplenty, and he doesn't need old tropes to slow him down"
Bookgasm
FROM AUTHORS
"Just when we thought cyberpunk was dead, David Louis Edelman bursts on the
scene with defibrillator paddles and shouts Clear.' If there's any web more tangled
than the World Wide one, it's the Byzantine networks of high finance; Edelman
intermeshes them in a complex, compelling series. This DOES compute!"
Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of FlashForward
"David Louis Edelman's vision of the future is so alive and full of energy the pages
are practically buzzing. Wonderfully intricate with smart, satisfying complexity, Infoquake and its sequel, MultiReal, serve up a world where mind-bending technologies
promise a freedom nearly as endless as the Machiavellian ambitions of those who
would control them"
Nick Sagan, author of Idlewild, Edenborn, and Everfree
"A thoroughly successful hybrid of Neuromancer and Wall Street, MultiReal is the
kind of thought-experiment we need more of around here: rigorously backgrounded, tightly plotted, and built around one of the most intriguing neurotech
conceits I've encountered in years. William Gibson once observed that the street
finds its own uses forthings. David Louis Edelman reminds us that both boardroom
and back room do as well-and the people who lurk in those places are a lot
scarier..."
Peter Watts, Hugo Award-nominated author of Blindsight
As much as I loved Infoquake, MultiReal is better. It's The West Wing, in the world
of big business, in the future, all last second deals and human emotion finding desperate chances and tense negotiations, but this time with added sex and violence.
... This world, almost uniquely in modern SF, isn't just a commentary on the
modern scene, but might also come to pass.... This will get my Hugo vote for Best
Novel. Edelman is pushing forward a new sort of SF here, one based not in the
myths and magic of the Singularity... but in the continual, ongoing process of history, culture, and, yes, capitalism.... I eagerly await the end of the trilogy, and want
this to win stuff now."
Paul Cornell, Hugo Award-nominated screenwriter for Doctor Who
D A V I D
LOUIS
EDELMAN
V O L U M E 3 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 2010 by Pyr(r), an imprint of Prometheus Books Geosynchron. Copyright (c) 2010 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 FAX: 716-691-0137 WWW.PYRSF.COM
14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Edelman, David Louis. Geosynchron / by David Louis Edelman. p. cm. - (Jump 225 trilogy ; v. 3) ISBN 978-1-59102-792-8 (pbk. alk. paper) 1. Corporations-Fiction. I. Title. PS3605.D445G46 2010 813'.6-dc22 2009042451 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
5. Tyrants and Revolutionaries
275
6. The Guardian and the Keeper
375
a. A Synopsis of Infoquake and MultiReal
447
g. On the Autonomous Revolt
496
AFTERWORD
501
I do not believe all men are destroyed. I can name you a dozen
who were not, and they are the ones the world lives by.
John Steinbeck, East of Eden
THE PRISONERS
i
Margaret Surina is rejuvenated.
She hovers wraithlike in the thin membrane between existence and
nothingness. Skin the olive tinge of the Indian subcontinent, robe a
billowing tent of blue and green, fingers long and precise as praying
mantises. Hair tar black but streaked with white, manifestation of the
paradox behind those sapphire eyes.
That Natch can see her at all is miracle enough. In this place he has
no eyes, no face, no corporeal presence whatsoever. It is a cocoon of
pure mind, where there are no points on the compass and where even
time loops upon itself and disappears in a dizzying spiral of infinite
improbability. Here in this place, Margaret is merely a perception of a
perception, like an awareness or a manufactured memory.
Natch wants to ask her, Don't you realize you're dead?
