I may be posting this too late… but I discovered the other day that Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is giving away five copies of the Solaris mass market paperback of Infoquake. Read the entry on the website for more information about how to enter. There’s no information about when the contest ends, so you’d better hustle over there if you’re hoping to win one.

Pat has promised a review of Infoquake in the coming days, but in the meantime he has this to say: “I’m more than halfway through the novel, and it’s a terrific read thus far! Edelman has been nominated for the second time for the John W. Campbell Award, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins it this year.” (Actually, it’s my first nomination for the Best New Writer Campbell, but who’s counting?)

Pat of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist (and of the aforeblogged giveaway contest) has given my novel Infoquake the kind of rave review that every author wants to get. I can’t believe nobody paid the guy money for this. (Right? I mean, I didn’t pay him anything…)

Some excerpts:

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! Only rarely will a debut author produce the sort of work which habitually comes from celebrated veterans…

Contrary to a majority of scifi yarns, its the characterization which carries Infoquake forward. Though Natch is a captivating character, the supporting cast is equally interesting, with characters such as Jara, Horvil and Quell. I’m really looking forward to learning more about each of them in the two sequels…

Ambitious, vast in scope, with a deftly executed plot and impeccable prose from start to finish, David Louis Edelman’s Infoquake is a fascinating read. 2006 was one of the best years in memory in terms of impressive speculative fiction debuts. 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.

He concludes by giving the book a solid 8 out of 10 and then makes a pitch for the imminently arriving sequel MultiReal as well.

“One of the very best science fiction debuts I have ever read”? Hah! Take that, Dune, Ender’s Game, and Neuromancer, not to mention Frankenstein. I’m crashing your party. Let’s hope you’re stocked up on Doritos.

After seeing the rush of new reviews for Infoquake, I decided to do a round of vanity Googling and found several more that I had been unaware of. Yes, I know how unusual it is for me to blog three times in one day. But don’t worry, after today I promise I’ll go back to sporadically throwing out blog pieces about random topics at no fixed interval.

The book cover for Indian Larry: Chopper Shaman here has no relation to any of these book reviews. I just stumbled upon it while Googling and found it amusing. Tell me Indian Larry isn’t the coolest guy on the planet. Go ahead, tell me. No, I don’t believe you. You’re lying.

Now, the new reviews:

Graeme Flory of Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review recently reviewed The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two, and called my story “Mathralon” one of his two favorites in the collection. “George Mann’s second collection of science fiction makes for some enthralling reading of other worlds and the people who inhabit them,” says Graeme. “…My favourite stories were Dan Abnett’s ‘Point of Contact’ and David Louis Edelman’s ‘Mathralon’, two tales that leave the reader in no doubt as to how cold and lonely our universe can be.”

Not really a review, but the Antiaging Wellness Blog uses Infoquake as a starting point for a brief essay about biological programming. “In reading through the programs used in Infoquake, it is hard not to ask oneself, are these not the very mechanisms that the body is designed to control itself, through our hormonal and neurological pathways.”

Don D’Ammassa apparently long ago posted a capsule outtake review of Infoquake, which I completely failed to notice at the time. Says Don: “Lots of interesting speculation and a plausible and interesting plot. I found the prose a bit awkward from time to time but not so much that it significantly interfered with my enjoyment of the story.”

Some Amazon reviewer apparently has been using his copy of Infoquake as a makeshift Frisbee. Says Ray A.R. “Abe” in his 1-star review: “This is one of two supposedly highly rated books I read lately that were completely awful. I read the whole thing but wished I’d stopped after the third time I threw the book across the room. Take out the technojunk and this is nothing but a subpar novel, weak on character, weak on plot. Suffice to say I’ll never read another thing written by this awful author.” FYI, the other highly rated book that “Abe” disliked was Pat Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind.