Well, that was quick… Only one day after Amazon released Infoquake on the Kindle, they’ve now made MultiReal available too. Go check it out on Amazon. Expect Geosynchron to be released tomorrow.

Two more pieces of book promotion for y’all to chew on.

First, I’ve been interviewed by Shaun Farrell for the Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing podcast. It’s a rather lengthy interview — 30 minutes or so — and it covers everything from whether Natch is the “hero” of Jump 225, why the series is titled Jump 225 in the first place, what is the nature of Natch’s drive to succeed, and why Moonwatcher from 2001 was in a way the first Natch.

Stargate writer and producer Joseph Mallozzi posted my answers to his book club questions about Infoquake recently. The group really seemed to delve into the book and had a very insightful discussion, not only here, but during several days of preceding blog posts. Topics covered include my favorite character, how likely I think the Infoquake future is, and why (or whether) the book ends abruptly. Excerpt:

Iamza writes: “I’m not so sure I really understand MultiReal. As outlined by Margaret, it sounds kind of great — a chance to have things turn out exactly as you wanted. But what happens when the batter wants to hit a six and the bowler wants to get his tenth wicket for no runs (hah, take that, baseball analogies! Give me cricket any day of the week). Whose reality ultimately wins out — or do both batter and bowler split off into separate universes, each achieving their individual goal? For every individual who’s installed the MultiReal program, are there a zillion universes in which things go wrong, and only one in which everything is golden.

DLE: Now you see the big dilemma with MultiReal technology. One of the main subplots in book 2 is how to resolve conflicts very much like you describe. Natch, Jara & Co. discover that there are a lot of broad sociological implications in how MultiReal resolves these conflicts. For instance: how do you charge customers for all those realities? Do you charge a flat fee, or do you charge for each alternate reality they pick? If you choose the latter, does that mean the rich would automatically win every argument?

(Admit it, you’re just making these funny cricket terms up. “The batter wants to hit a six”? “Getting his tenth wicket”? Surely you should not be using such language on a family blog like Mr. Mallozzi’s.)

Meesa bustin’ wit happiness to see all the sudden free publicity for me and my books around the blogosphere. The latest:

• Charlie Jane Anders of science fiction megasite io9 has just published an interview with me. I dig the title: MultiReal Is Your Dot-Com Nightmare Writ Large. Topics covered include my progress on writing Geosynchron, whether there are any good trilogy closers, how MultiReal technology really works, and whether there are Natch and Jara “shippers” out there. (Yeah, I had to go look it up too.) In case you’ve forgotten, io9 are the lovely, lovely folks who gave MultiReal a glowing review and named the book one of their top SF novels of 2008.
• Meanwhile, Joseph Mallozzi, writer and executive producer for TV’s Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis, has been hosting a discussion about Infoquake on his blog. But this ain’t just any ol’ blog book chat. Joe’s blog attracts an incredibly devoted fan base, with dozens of people participating in the discussion and asking detailed questions. I’ve now got all the questions in one big Word document. Joe will be publishing another post with all of my answers soon. In the meantime, read Joe’s original review, the first book discussion round-up, and the second book discussion round-up. Make sure to browse through the comments on each article.
• Finally, SF Signal has published another of its famed Mind Meld columns, this one on the topic “Who Are Your Literary Influences in the Ongoing Conversation of Science Fiction?” Not only did I contribute a few paragraphs (scroll to the bottom), but so did Mike Resnick, Tobias Buckell, Peter Watts, Paul Di Filippo, Jay Lake, Sean Williams, Paul Levinson, S. Andrew Swann, Stephen Hunt, Minister Faust, Julie E. Czerneda, and David Levine. Whew! I listed my two biggest SF influences as Frank Herbert and William Gibson, which should come as no surprise to anyone.

It’s that time of year again when all 114 of us who participate in the Hugo Award voting process send in our nominations for the best science fiction and fantasy stuff from the previous year. If you’re one of those 114, might I oh-so-humbly suggest a couple of items for your consideration:

• MultiReal Is Eligible for Best Novel.
  Book 2 of my Jump 225 trilogy and the sequel to Infoquake, published by Pyr in July 2008. The book continues the story of far-future software entrepreneur Natch in his struggle to maintain control over the MultiReal technology which has fallen into his hands. In MultiReal, he’s got to cope with scheming politicians, power-hungry intelligence agency executives, an old childhood enemy, and a rebellion by his own fiefcorp apprentices. (Plus it’s got one hell of a dartgun battle between three different factions, and a scene on the virtual reality sex network featuring triple-breasted mermaids.) Accolades for the novel so far include listing on Best of the Year lists from io9, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, SFFWorld, and Post-Weird Thoughts, and lots of shiny praise from the likes of Locus, SCI FI Weekly, Publishers Weekly, Robert J. Sawyer, etc.
• “Mathralon” Is Eligible for Best Short Story.
  My story from The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two, “Mathralon” concerns a planet of oppressed miners laboring in obscurity for a ruthless combine that may or may not even exist. It’s told in the first-person plural (Greek chorus) point of view, and it’s somewhat unique in that it has no characters, no dialogue, and no plot. Curious? Go read the story in full, or listen to my reading of it on my appearance on “Hour of the Wolf.” The story got a terrific reception when I read it at both the Library of Congress and the KGB Bar, and it’s made Post-Weird Thoughts’ list of top short stories for 2008.

If you’re so inclined, you might also want to nominate my two editors this year, Lou Anders of Pyr (whose Fast Forward 2 anthology has a great shot at a Hugo nom) and George Mann of Solaris.

I’ve managed to carve out enough time from all of the diaper changes, spit-ups and late-night feedings to conduct two new interviews in support of MultiReal. (And don’t even get me started about the babies.) <rim shot>

Fast Forward, the Arlington, VA-based cable science fiction TV show, conducted a 19-minute interview with me a couple of weeks ago. (Video requires QuickTime 7, but there’s an audio-only version available too.) Interviewer Tom Schaad really seems to have read Infoquake and MultiReal carefully. In our discussion before the cameras started rolling, he picked up on a number of hints in the margins of the books that nobody else has remarked on. (Hint: In which orbital colony did noted philanderer Marcus Surina die? And in which orbital colony was a certain fatherless character born?) Topics in the interview proper include MultiReal, technological paradigm shifts, the difficulty of writing the middle book in a trilogy, ethical systems in a post-religious world, and how the Jump 225 Trilogy is all about trying to find balance.

And blogger Fábio Fernandes has posted a seven-question interview with me on Post-Weird Thoughts. Topics covered include the influence of Dune and William Gibson, my favorite novels, the timeline of the Jump 225 trilogy in relation to today, and Geosynchron. Quick excerpt:

What can we expect of Geosynchron, the next novel of the Infoquake series? (BTW, it will really be a trilogy or there will be other stories in that universe?)

Geosynchron will definitely be the last novel of the trilogy. (I’m not precluding the possibility of writing additional novels in this universe down the road, but this particular story will come to an end at the conclusion of book 3.) As for what’s in store in the final book… You’re going to see the characters go off to places we haven’t been before, like the Pacific Islands and the orbital colony of 49th Heaven. You’re going to meet some of the Pharisees. You’re going to see a lot more of Quell and delve into his relationship with Margaret Surina. And you’re going to see a big ending that involves military strikes, philosophical debate, and (of course) creative marketing techniques. I think I can promise that it’s going to be a very, very unique conclusion. Currently the schedule is for the book to hit the stores in early 2010.

I’m told that Post-Weird Thoughts will have reviews of Infoquake and MultiReal up shortly as well.

Go. Watch. Read. Contemplate. Comment.

Patrick St-Denis has just posted an interview with me on his popular Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist blog. Subjects covered include Infoquake, MultiReal, Lou Anders and Pyr, my strengths as a storyteller, the John W. Campbell Award, cover art, websites and interactivity with readers, the trend of high-quality British SF, and whether SF will ever get proper literary recognition by snooty academics cowering up in their white towers.

But the best part of the whole thing is that Pat has seen fit, unprompted, to post this neat little Photoshopped poster that puts the full force and weight of Uncle Sam behind getting you to read Infoquake and MultiReal. And really, ain’t that how it should be?

Brief excerpt from the interview:

What do you feel is your strength as a writer/storyteller?
I feel like I’m very good at the worldbuilding aspect of things. Really, structure in general. The trilogy has layers and layers of metaphor in it, and I’m really quite proud of the way it all works together as an organic whole. My tendency is to wander off into history and background and structure, and sometimes I have to curb that impulse. If I had written The Lord of the Rings, it would have been three whole books of the Council of Elrond, and nobody would have read it.

Were there any perceived conventions of the science fiction genre which you wanted to twist or break when you set out to write Infoquake and its sequel?

Yes, I wanted to avoid the typical mindless action set-pieces that you find in a lot of bad SF, and bad novels in general. I really wanted to write an exciting novel about business. A lot of authors just use the business aspect as window dressing, and then quickly throw their characters into the same car chases and murder mysteries and gunfights. I wanted to write books that really are about the workplace, where the excitement revolves around product demos and marketing meetings and government hearings and that kind of thing. So that’s what I’ve tried to do.

One of the fun little promotional things I did for Infoquake was to post all the first drafts of chapter 1. You got to see the journey of the book from something I doodled on in 1997 or 1998 to the finished product that hit the shelves in July of 2006.

I’ve now gone ahead and done the same thing for MultiReal. You can now read online the first drafts of MultiReal’s chapter 1, along with footnotes and commentary about each draft. The big difference between the Infoquake drafts and the MultiReal drafts is this: for the latter book, there were thirty-five of them. Yes, thirty-five drafts of chapter 1. Told you I’m something of a perfectionist. (Keep in mind that most of these first drafts were simply rehashes of prior drafts, and most of them are incomplete.)

Instead of posting all thirty-five drafts up on my website, I’ve chosen to simply post the best or most representative samples of the eight different directions I tried. Along with the final published version, of course.

So among the abandoned concepts you can read about in these drafts are: Magan Kai Lee as ruthless martial arts expert (draft 1), a bureaucratic smackdown between rival governments about the weather (draft 17), Horvil fascinated by advertising (draft 18), and Henry Osterman trekking off to Harper’s Ferry to commit suicide (draft 29).

Quick excerpt from draft 29, my favorite abandoned version of chapter 1:

Henry Osterman was dying.

He stumbled into the provincial town of Harper on his own two feet, a pallid scarecrow of a man, his hair greasy, his clothes tattered, his fingernails curling in on themselves like shriveled worms after the rain.

Nobody could say how he had gotten there. The roads leading to Harper had been pulverized a quarter of a millennium ago by the wrath of thinking machines run amok. Tube trains and hoverbirds were technologies for a theoretical future when the world had learned to live without fossil fuels; multi and teleportation were the pipe dreams of lunatics. To get to Harper these days, you needed either a strong horse or a boat limber enough to steer through the debris clogging the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. Osterman had neither.

The city itself was barely worth the effort. A few dozen dilapidated buildings huddled together at the bottom of a hill, that was all. The more prosperous cities nearby had pieced together a fragile shell of trade from the shards of yesterday’s civilization, but so far Harper had little to contribute. Still, you could get three radio stations again in Harper, and sometimes on clear nights you could see the feeble blink of a Chinese satellite. The local music scene was bustling. Drinking water was almost drinkable. Progress.

Hopefully this will prove useful to writers looking for some insight into the process, if not for future scholars at the Edelman Studies departments of major universities worldwide.

Life moves fast, and this MultiReal promotion stuff is zipping by like an F-16. Here’s a passel of news about book stuff, which I’m just going to lump here behind bullet points for lack of any better idea.

• Chat with Me on LibraryThing: From now until next Friday, August 1, I’m participating in my own LibraryThing Author Chat. Which basically means that any LibraryThing member is free to post questions to the author in an open forum, and I’ll answer them. Somebody please log on and ask me something so I can prop up my frail, stunted ego.
• SFFWorld MultiReal Review: Rob Bedford of SFFWorld has given MultiReal what can only be called a rave review. Remember that this is the guy who called Infoquake “THE science fiction novel of the year, if not the past five years,” and said that “the genre might not be quite the same after this book.” So I’ve been looking forward to what Rob has to say. Excerpt:
  

  MultiReal 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.

• Listen to My “Key to Publishing” on Audio: The popular podcasts Adventures in SciFi Publishing and I Should Be Writing are jointly holding a Keys to Publishing Contest. Not only will they be giving away copies of Infoquake and MultiReal, but they’ll also be giving away books by my buddies Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Sean Williams, and Kay Kenyon (as well as Brenda Cooper, whom I’ve not yet had the pleasure of meeting). As part of the contest, they asked the authors to contribute short audio pieces on the key to getting published. Here’s my contribution, on I Should Be Writing 94. The whole podcast is worth listening to, but for reference’ sake, the intro to the Keys to Publishing sections starts at 3:40, and my audio piece runs from 4:50 to 7:36.)
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist Contest Winners: Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has announced the winners of their MultiReal giveaway contest, which ended up being an Infoquake/MultiReal giveaway contest. (In case you’ve forgotten, Pat called Infoquake “one of the very best science fiction debuts I have ever read.” And he hasn’t reviewed MultiReal yet, so I’m very interested in making sure he’s happy. Can I FedEx you a pillow, Pat?)
• POD People Review: Chris Gerrib of POD People has reviewed MultiReal and given it a rating of 10 out of 10. Says Chris (a self-published SF author in his own right):
  

  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.

  Which prompted this amusing reply from one baron_waste on the LiveJournal mirror of the article:

  In ten years, that book is going to be as embarrassingly dated as any 1950s “Atomic Mutant Vegetables Conquer the World” story. I mean, look at it. Maybe he won’t care — royalty checks are their own currency, in the literal sense of the word — but this ain’t exactly The City and the Stars you’re describing here.

  Fine, baron_waste. Not only do you pick on my book, but you make fun of the title for my next book, Atomic Mutant Vegetables Conquer the World. See if I care.

Yesterday Paul Di Filippo posted a review for my new novel MultiReal for SciFi.com. And not only did Mr. Di Filippo give the book a grade of a solid “A,” but he name-checked half of the greats of science fiction in the process. To wit:

Readers of this distinctive and well-conceived series are sure to spot resonances with past classics of the genre… 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… [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.

Di Filippo then goes on to compare the series to the work of Alfred Bester, an author who I actually had not read until after I had completed Infoquake.

But the strongest overall vibe I get is that of Alfred Bester — although stylistically Edelman never quite reaches Bester’s pyrotechnical heights. Natch is in many respects a villain and bastard, the complete businessman antihero, like Bester’s Ben Reich. Yet so vivid and fierce are his desires and drives — think Gully Foyle, too — that you can’t help rooting for him. Now, 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.

Finally he concludes with a little zinger that I imagine will find a prominent place on the blurbs page of future books.

[O]nce you realize that Natch is less Neo than he is Steve Jobs, you’re in for a swell ride.

Very exciting stuff indeed. The review’s even listed at the moment in the bottom left corner of the SciFi.com home page, if you hurry.

In last week’s contest — week 2 of 4 — I asked you to submit your favorite science fiction parody porno titles. I did indeed get some creative entries, though not as many as I would have liked. (And from many of the same people who entered last week.)

The winner this week is Jim Haley. The title he submitted would never fit on a DVD case, but he scores extra points for hitting Douglas Adams’ entire Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, including “Young Zaphod Plays It Safe”:

The Hooker’s Guide to Servicing Aliens at the Truckstop at the End of the Universe, Avoiding His (Her/Its) Wife, Her Purse, and Everything in It, and Knowing When It’s Time to Say, So Long, You Were a Quite a Dish (with the addendum Young Bods May Not Like to Play It Safe, But They’re Mostly Harmless Anyway)

And if that wasn’t enough, he submitted a number of other good titles, including:

The Unzip My Fly Effect

and

So LONG… But It Smells a Little Like Fish

The closest runner-up was Mike Wolffe, for his fabulous entry:

Butt Pirates of the Perineum: At Girl’s End

(I might have awarded Mike the contest, if I didn’t eliminate him for reasons of nepotism. I’ve actually known Mike since we both stood out in deep right field in a softball game in fifth grade and let fly balls fly by us. Go read Mike’s blog, if you want to see some great photography, deviant humor of the Butt Pirates of the Perineum sort, left-wing politics, general deep thoughts, and lots of Calvin and Hobbes. But I should warn you, this is a guy who still likes Guns N’ Roses.)

As for other runners-up… Stephen Stull came close to the grand prize with an entry that made me grin. Although in the end, I thought Titus Groans was a little too — well, obvious.

GormenghASSED Revisited: Titus Groans… Again.

Dave Crampton submitted a few good entries as well, but the one that really made me giggle was:

Anansi Boys on Boys

Very simple and elegant. Neil Gaiman would be proud.

* * *

For this week’s contest, due to popular request (and due to this blogger wishing to get more contest entries so as to not look foolish), I’m opening up entries to the entire world. Yes, that means you, in Zimbabwe! And you, in Portugal! And you, in the Cayman Islands! Not to mention you, in the United States.

I’m also going to lower the decency bar back down where it belongs, in deference to all of the Internet censors in your foreign countries. In fact, I’m so interested in getting your input that I’m going to let you influence the course of the next U.S. presidential election.

Your task is this: pick a comic book superhero to run as either Barack Obama’s or John McCain’s running mate this fall. And then tell me why said superhero would be an asset to the ticket. You can be funny — or heck, if you can really think of some good, solid reasons why Obama should choose Wolverine as his vice president or McCain should be stumping through Idaho with Nick Fury, I’ll be willing to reward a thoughtful enough entry with the prize.

Example: “John McCain should choose Spider-Man as his running mate in ‘08, because 1) his punchy one-liners could really liven up McCain’s stump speeches, 2) who knows, underneath that costume, Spidey might be a black guy too, and 3) his New York residency might actually help win the state for the GOP.”

Same contest rules apply as before. Email your response to dedelman@gmail.com with the subject line “Summer Giveaway Contest 3″. Entries are due Sunday, July 20 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. Submit as many entries as you like. Winning entry gets:

• One signed copy of the Solaris mass market of Infoquake
• One signed copy of the Pyr trade paperback of MultiReal
• One signed copy of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two (containing my story “Mathralon”)
• One signed copy of the new Overlook Press edition of Mervyn Peake’s Titus Alone (containing my introduction)

My pal John Joseph Adams, who seems to have become the charter member of the Edit a New Anthology With Great Authors Every Month Club, has posted a brief interview with me on SCI FI Wire discussing MultiReal. Excerpt:

When writing MultiReal, Edelman challenged himself to stay away from conventional action scenes. “With Infoquake, I tried to bring out the drama and excitement in ordinary day-to-day business interactions like sales meetings and fund-raising pitches,” he said. “The climax of the novel took place at a product demo. MultiReal does contain one big action set piece — a chaotic dartgun battle between three different factions in the middle of a crowded auditorium — but for the most part, the action and dramatic tension takes place in governmental hearings, press conferences and product-development meetings. Trying to find ways to keep the reader on the edge of his seat while reading about a governmental hearing was incredibly challenging.”

When you’re done reading the interview, go check out JJA’s website and read about his anthologies Wastelands, Seeds of Change, and The Living Dead.

In last week’s contest, I asked for unpublishable blurbs for my novels, and you did not disappoint. I’m now ready to declare a winner. That winner? Frank Schiavo. Mr. Schiavo submitted this unpublishable (and borderline unbloggable) blurb:

“MultiReal is the biggest and best thing I’ve held in my hands this year. It is filled with a white-hot explosion of goodness that literally comes up from every page in a burst of salty yet sweet power. An earth-shaking winner that will be stiff competition for awards come next season and that I’m sure to tell all my friends to strap on and try out for themselves.”
– Award-winning actress & author Tera Patrick

I thought this blurb was hilarious even before I had any idea who Tera Patrick was. Then I Googled the name and discovered that this woman on the right is Tera Patrick, star of such films as Teradise Island and Asian Street Hookers 6. (Perhaps I might have recognized her if I hadn’t stopped watching the series after the disappointing Asian Street Hookers 4: Electric Boogaloo.) Even more amusing was the fact that Frank sent this blurb from his work email at a law firm in New Orleans, complete with ridiculous law firm confidentiality disclaimer in the footer.

Such shameless and enterprising genius has earned Mr. Schiavo a copy of the Complete David Louis Edelman Canon, consisting of:

• One copy of the Solaris mass market of Infoquake
• One copy of the Pyr trade paperback of MultiReal
• One copy of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two (containing my story “Mathralon”)
• One copy of the new Overlook Press edition of Mervyn Peake’s Titus Alone (containing my introduction)

I will say that Mr. Schiavo did have some tough competition. I thought the best runner-up was this clearly well-thought-out blurb, submitted by Mick Summer:

“MultiReal is tonight’s word! Have the literati snobs left yet? Just for us sci-fi readers, MultiReal is real meat for hard science fans! David Louis Edelman’s godless, liberal future cleverly masks an explosive expose of today’s mediascape, with truthiness and balls by the spadefull. Get MultiReal! Don’t forget Infoquake, the prequel. For a two-patty brain-shaking read, get the pair! MultiReal — and so can you!”
– Stephen Colbert

In a similar pseudo-political vein was this one, submitted by David Crampton:

“MultiReal? Liberal propaganda! Everyone knows there’s only one real! More than one real is un-American! This Edelman character is probably terrorist fist-bumping with sleeper cells! Now, I’m not saying that he’s a criminal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up in Gitmo! How many reals will he have then, huh? What do you mean, did I read the book?”
– Bill O’Reilly

There were even some good quick one-liners, like this one from Steven Klotz:

“Forget steak. I’d go Judas on Neo’s ass for just a glance at MultiReal.”
– Cypher

Jim Haley put a smile on my face with this twofer from James T. Kirk. The ellipses are a nice touch.

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 07032008. Bones gave me a… copy of this… MultiReal book and I just… can’t seem to put it down. Not even an… Orion slave girl could… tempt me away.”
– James T. Kirk

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 07032008.1. As it turns out… a Orion slave girl… COULD drag me away. But not for long.”
– James T. Kirk

Overall, a very nice batch indeed — and there were more worthy entries than those I published here. Thanks to all who entered.

* * *

As for the approximately 6 billion people out there who are not Frank Schiavo… here’s your next chance to win the complete DLE canon.

This week’s contest: inspired by Frank Schiavo (and Tera Patrick), I want to see the best science fiction or fantasy-related porno parody title. You know, like:

• Star Whores III: Revenge of the Tits
• Rod Emperor of Dooin’
• J.R.R. Pokien’s The SeeMoreJillian
• MultiFeel: Book 2 of the Hump 269 Trilogy

Bonus points if you stay away from the old stand-bys. I mean, come on, we’ve all thought of a million porno parody titles for The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by now. Let’s see some good porno parody titles for really uber mega geeky works that only a confirmed SF/F addict would recognize. Where are the parody titles for C.J. Cherryh’s The Pride of Chanur? Or Philip K. Dick’s Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said? Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron?

Submit as many titles as you want. I’ll be picking the winner based on the single best title. Once again, you’ll be competing for the four books you see here. Deadline is Sunday, July 13 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.

Submit entries via email to dedelman@gmail.com, with “Summer Giveaway Contest 2″ in the subject line. (Really, use that subject line. I had to fish a couple entries out of the spam filter last time. Having a subject line to look for really helps.)

As if telling Abigail Breslin to “suck it” wasn’t enough for one day, I am also on record praising Adolf Hitler in my “Big Idea” piece on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. The piece is about the inspiration for my books Infoquake and MultiReal, and it’s not quite as offensive as it sounds. An excerpt:

Could Adolf Hitler ever have been the good guy?

The man was a warped, murderous bastard who ordered the slaughter of millions of people, started an unnecessary war of conquest, and permanently 86′d the dreams of an entire generation or three. But seriously — let’s say you hop in a time machine, track the dude down as a teenager, and put him through a serious reeducation program. And maybe give him a heavy dose of Prozac. Or better yet, hand him a Macintosh. Could he be redeemed?…

That was one of the Big Ideas behind my novels Infoquake and MultiReal. Create a character with Hitler-like strategic genius, with Gates-like business savvy, with Clinton-like personal magnetism, with Machiavelli-like disregard for ethics. Stick him on the fence between the ultimate selfishness and the ultimate selflessness, give him a technology that could revolutionize the world or destroy it, and see what he does.

Locus and Fantasy Book Critic have both weighed in on MultiReal, and they’re both more or less rave reviews. Ergo, I am pleased.

In the Locus review — which unfortunately is not online — Paul Witcover clearly engaged with the book and gave its political themes some deep thought, as witnessed by the opening paragraph:

What David Louis Edelman celebrates in MultiReal, the sequel to his highly acclaimed first novel, Infoquake, and the middle book of the Jump 225 Trilogy, is laissez-faire capitalism and enlightened self-interest, as epitomized by the heroic entrepreneur, standing alone and resilient against doubters, do-gooders, and the evil forces of governmental regulation. This novel begs to be considered as a piece of science fiction and as a political screed.

And he’s got some pretty darn complimentary things to say about the book in the rest of the review. This is the excerpt I’ve posted on the MultiReal reviews page, ellipsesed to show only the good stuff:

A brilliant imagining of a near-future that not only extrapolates convincingly from current technology and culture but fills in the gaps with world-building so detailed as to verge on the tedious… Others have imagined a future in which nano-machines have colonized the human body, and indeed every other nook and cranny of the physical world… but few have done so as convincingly as Edelman does in these books. His portrayal of that world is richly evocative… I’ve never encountered an SF writer whose focus is so relentlessly on the nuts and bolts of the entrepreneurial world, from the boardroom to the factory to the sales office, and who — pontification aside — can make the minutiae of that world seem as exciting and dangerous as a military operation.

Of course, behind those ellipses are some critiques over the novel and its (perceived) political slant. There are a few passages in the review like this, which knocks the protagonist Natch for his extreme libertarianism and compares the book to the heroes of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. (Can you believe I’ve never actually read either of those books?)

As political screed, MultiReal is a lesser book: blunt and dogmatic, very much in the vein of Ayn Rand, with the hero-entrepreneur, an omnicompetent megalomaniac named Natch, who runs the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp, playing the Galt/Roark role. I found this aspect sophomoric and irritating, but I have no doubt that others will be enamored of a novel in which the main character is frequently referred to as “the entrepreneur,” as if there were no higher accolade available, and no one else worthy to bear it. Whenever I came across this descriptor, I simply replaced it with “the demigod” and read on.

Overall, a very satisfying review indeed, with caveats. (And incidentally, if you click through to the Locus website right now, you’ll see a very keen banner ad for yours truly, sponsored jointly by Pyr and Solaris.)

In his review on Fantasy Book Critic, Liviu C. Suciu engages in quite a bit of setup and plot summary (including not a few spoilers, for those who care about such things):

It took me some time to fully get into MultiReal, since the motivations, choices and actions of the characters depend a lot on this wonderful Jump 225 world built by Mr. Edelman, and it’s been two years since I read Infoquake… Once I immersed myself in the world of Natch and Jara, the book became 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 review is mostly summarization, although if you skip to the end, you’ll see that Liviu did enjoy it quite a bit:

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…

So looks like MultiReal has gotten six highly complimentary reviews and one pan, or 86% positive in Rotten Tomatoes terminology. Which is 6% higher than Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, in case you’re keeping track. So suck it, Abigail Breslin!

“The Summer of Jump 225″ is here! Or at least, I’m declaring it “The Summer of Jump 225,” because I really want people to buy the books from my Jump 225 trilogy this summer. Towards that end, I’m starting a four-week-long Jumbo Mega-Bonanza Giveaway contest.

Here’s how it works. Every week for the next four weeks, I’m going to hold a contest here on my blog. You, the anonymous denizens of the Internet, will send me your contest entries. And every week, I’m going to pick one winning entry who will win the stack of books pictured to the right, namely:

• One copy of the Solaris edition of Infoquake
• One copy of the Pyr edition of MultiReal
• One copy of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two (containing my story “Mathralon”)
• One copy of Overlook Press’ new edition of Mervyn Peake’s Titus Alone (containing my introduction to the book)

Yes, that’s right: I’m giving away four sets of four books each. That’s a total of… uh… hold on, let me dig out my calculator… forty-two sixteen books! And not only that, but you’re winning the entire David Louis Edelman ouevre to date. The “DLE Canon,” as it were.

So here’s the first contest.

You may be aware that I’ve gotten some nice advance blurbs from authors. Kate Elliott said that Infoquake was “inventive and provocative, with a surprisingly emotional kick.” Peter Watts called MultiReal “a thoroughly-successful hybrid of Neuromancer and Wall Street.”

But did you know that there were a number of author and celebrity endorsements that my publisher decided to turn down? For instance, President George W. Bush weighed in on Infoquake with this advance blurb:

“David Louie Eldermint’s Info-Quake just might be a weapon of mass destruction all by itself. If Eldermint was out to eliminate all my free time trying to finish his book, then mission accomplished! All I can say is, heckuva job, Davey!” — George W. Bush, Presimadent of the US of A

Pyr wisely decided that they didn’t want to publish an endorsement from such a controversial public figure. Likewise, they turned down this one from DNC Chairman Howard Dean:

“Edelman’s gonna sell books in Borders! And then he’s gonna sell books in Barnes & Noble! And then he’s going on to Books-a-Million, Waterstone’s, Powell’s, Waldenbooks, and B. Dalton… AND ALL THE WAY TO WAL-MART! YEEEEEEEEHAAAGH!” — Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee

I can understand why my publisher decided to turn down blurbs from such political figures as Bush and Dean. You don’t want to go around alienating half of your potential audience. But why would they have turned down this perfectly acceptable blurb from lovable ol’ Jar-Jar Binks?

“Meesa bustin’ with happiness at readin’ dis-a book, MultiReal! My afraid that my not been reading such good tings for a long ol’ time! Infinito possibiliteez is only a state in da mind, indeed!” — Jar-Jar Binks, Irritating Orange Asshole

So your mission for this week is: email me some more blurbs that were too controversial to print on the jackets of my books at dedelman@gmail.com. Whoever submits the best, funniest, most offensive, most shocking, or just plain weirdest blurb between now and 11:59 PM Eastern time on Sunday, June 6 will win the complete David Louis Edelman book set. Put “Summer Giveaway Contest 1″ in the subject line so I know what you’re emailing me about.

You can enter as many times as you see fit, but you can only win one set of books. I’ll be the sole judge, jury, and executioner (but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that). I’ll post the best blurbs here on the blog. Unfortunately, due to the prohibitive cost of shipping, I’m going to limit this contest to the United States and Canada.

(And no, in case you’re wondering, I’m not going to use your email for nefarious marketing purposes. Unless, I suppose, you count this contest as a nefarious marketing purpose, which is fair.)

Ready? Go!

Two new reviews for my new novel MultiReal have hit the web.

Because this is my blog, I’ll start with the review on the Grasping for the Wind blog, which is about as good a review as one could hope for. Here’s how John at Grasping for the Wind sums up the book:

MultiReal is an exciting and excellent sequel… This is one of those rare cases (like The Empire Strikes Back vs. A New Hope) where the second movie far surpasses the first in quality and level of enjoyment. Fans of stories that mix philosophy and ethics, with action and technology will enjoy Edelman’s works. It is a Matrix fans’ delight, and a worthy successor to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. I highly recommend Edelman as an author, and suggest you read Infoquake and its sequel MultiReal if you are looking for high-octane action, deep thinking, and eloquent writing.

John also praises the turn towards more action he sees in MultiReal:

Edelman has maintained the high level of energy from the previous novel and even ratcheted it up a bit higher… Edelman relates the action with the same skill as the speeches and it is both exciting and epic. Some readers may feel that the way the MultiReal program is used by Natch and some of the other characters may be a little too similar the action of The Matrix. However, it is amazing that a probability program could have such far-reaching implications, and cause so much upset.

Fair enough about the Matrix comparison. Unfortunately, the Wachowskis did such a good job with the concept of biologic software that it’s impossible to talk about the concept now without referring back to The Matrix. Kind of like you can’t write about a heroic quest without looking over your shoulder at J.R.R. Tolkien. Good thing I took out all of the stuff in the early drafts about Magan Kai Lee being a master of martial arts…

Finally, GFTW has some good things to say about my prose style in the book:

The writing in MultiReal has also gotten more adventurous. Edelman is willing to try new ways of writing, including a whole chapter written as a letter from one character to another… [I]t shows that Edelman is willing to take chances with his writing. An author willing to push himself to new heights in style can only be doing the same in the substance of his story, reminding the reader that he or she will never really know what is around the next bend of the story.

All the great things GFTW had to say about MultiReal took the sting out of the review by the UK website SFCrowsnest. Read it for yourself — it’s not good. I couldn’t find a single complimentary thing in GF Willmetts’ review, not even enough for a blurb on the reviews page.

Willmetts starts off by complaining about plot confusion:

It’s been a little while since I read the first book, ‘Infoquake’, in the ‘Jump 225′ trilogy and throwing myself in without a recap at the front of the book wasn’t a good idea… It wasn’t until I was a third of the way through the book that I spotted the recap as the first of eight appendixes… [M]uch of this information really needed to be incorporated within the confines of the story. It’s like looking at a painting and being told about what you haven’t seen. The skill in any storytelling is in putting the information in context and letting the picture build up in the reader’s mind. I frequently came away from reading this book thinking Edelman has internalised too much. He knows what is going on but hasn’t confided enough knowledge to the reader which is a big mistake. None of this is helped by the fact that he’s pushing so much material into the story that there is little room for the characters to breath so this time we don’t see so much depth with their personalities.

Ouch. Willmetts elaborates from there, but it’s clear to me that the reviewer never recovered from his initial plot confusion and thus never invested in the story. Which is fair criticism.

This is a reaction I’ve long been expecting from some reviewers (but I won’t pretend it doesn’t still sting). The problem is that you’ll be totally in the woods trying to read MultiReal if you haven’t read Infoquake first. And even if you have, you’ll still be in the woods if you don’t remember it very well. MultiReal not only picks up soon after Infoquake leaves off, but it extends the themes and metaphors of that book, and makes references to things that happened in the margins of it. I tried to ameliorate this problem by including a four-and-a-half page synopsis of Infoquake in the appendices of MultiReal, but I knew that wasn’t going to please everybody.

For better or worse, I’ve written the entire trilogy to be read in close proximity, preferably in one long pass. In this I was inspired by the ballsy way that Peter Jackson handled The Two Towers. Lost? Confused? Tough. Go rent The Fellowship of the Ring, and come back when you’re done.

Unfortunately, as much as I think it’s worth your time to read Infoquake and MultiReal one after the other so you can pick up the delicate interplay of plot and metaphor, I can’t very well insist that you read them that way. Pyr would never go for it, because they’re planning to, you know, sell these things. All I can do is suggest.

Sometimes when you’re trying to promote a book, you have to resort to some, uh, unconventional tactics. And so, I gave some of the characters from MultiReal my blessing to go out there and do some personal interviews on their own.

This afternoon, I discovered that Jara, the co-protagonist of Infoquake and MultiReal, has landed an interview on novelist Jackie Kessler’s website. Jackie, the author of Hell’s Belles, The Road to Hell, and Hotter Than Hell — not to mention a fellow member of SFNovelists.com — has given free rein to a former demon named Jezebel in a section of the website called Cat and Muse. Jezebel proceeded to ask Jara all kinds of questions about MultiReal, the Sigh virtual sex network, the rising cost of apartment rentals, who would play her in a Hollywood movie, and whether David Edelman is the epitome of all evil. (The answer to that last one, at least according to Jara, is no.)

An excerpt:

JEZ:
Well then, since we’re on the subject, what’s your romantic fantasy?

JARA:
Honey, why would I need to fantasize? You’ve got access to the Sigh virtual sex network as well as I do.

JEZ:
[BLINKS] Say what?

JARA:
Hundreds of thousands of channels of specialized programming at your fingertips. You can have any body or any scenario you want. And it’s all virtual, so there’s no messes and no hard feelings…

Personally, I’m a fan of a channel called Doppelganger. It’s easy. You send them a photo or a video of your lust object, and they use their algorithms to track down that person’s look-alikes. There are tens of billions of people in the world hooked up to the Data Sea — chances are that one of them is looking for someone who looks just like you too.

JEZ:
Sweet!

JARA:
The closer the match, the higher the fee.

JEZ:
Ah, nothing that good is cheap. Trust me.

I’m a little surprised to see Jara open up to some strange former succubus like this. Luckily she seems to have gotten in some good words about MultiReal, and she didn’t castigate me too badly for misrepresenting her character. I was all prepared to have her jump off a cliff in Geosynchron. Oh, wait, she already does, in the very first chapter…

Go visit Jackie Kessler’s website and blog, and go read up on her books Hell’s Belles, The Road to Hell, and Hotter Than Hell on Amazon, damn you.

Harriet Klausner, the #1 customer reviewer on Amazon, has given her stamp of approval to MultiReal. Says Klausner in her review on Speculative Fiction Reviews:

MultiReal seems unreal as a mind-altering reality-changing technology. The tool merges biology with the infinitive of quantum physics in a way that no one ever dreamed of before…

Except for Natch, the cast (including his assistant, Jara, and even Lee) seems two-dimensional, yet no one will care as MultiReal continues the fascinating look at the future possibilities of nanotechnological human bio/logics. Natch is still the same ambitious rogue he was in Infoquake, as he will try anything and risk everything to be number one in his field. Other just as unethical executives act likewise as business and political values are actually singular: the end of being numero uno justifies any means, especially if the cost is paid by others.

I haven’t seen it crop up on Amazon yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

Of course, if you know anything about Harriet Klausner, you’ll take her word with a 2001 monolith-sized chunk of salt. The woman has published over 16,600 reviews on Amazon at an average of 5.56 reviews per day (according to this Wikipedia article about her). She’s also known for frequently spoiling major plot points and getting major plot details wrong. And, pardon my French, but she can’t write for shit. (I’ve cleaned up the citation above slightly for grammar and style.)

In her review of MultiReal, there are no plot spoilers, thankfully. But Lieutenant Magan Kai Lee has mysteriously changed gender and become a woman. (I suspect she’s confused Lee with his right-hand woman, Rey Gonerev.) She also says that “Natch pleads with the Melbourne legislature to no avail,” which is not quite accurate — though it’s an element of the plot that’s not actually on the back cover, so I’d score that as evidence that she’s actually read the book.

Whatever. A review’s a review, and praise is praise, right?

It’s here.

I mean, a copy of MultiReal is literally sitting in my lap as I type this. The stack of my author copies is sitting on the ottoman in my living room right now, as this photo here can attest. They were waiting for me, all tidy and snuggling in a box of styrofoam peanuts when I got home from work.

The book’s so hot off the printer, you could make pancakes on it. It’s so slick, those pancakes would slide right off the book cover without leaving a trace. And I feel so sweet, I wouldn’t need any syrup. (Anybody else suddenly in the mood for an IHOP run…?)

My first thought on opening the box was wondering how long it’s going to be before men can have children, like Arnold Schwarzeneggar in that stupid movie or that weird George Michael-looking dude on Oprah. Because seeing the cover of MultiReal with this fabu Stephan Martiniere artwork, I was struck by a sudden urge to bear the man’s children. Really, it’s that good. It’s also a little darker on laminated cardboard than it is on a computer screen, which somehow seems to lend the book a bit of gravitas.

My second impression, just as I had when I saw the finished trade paperback of Infoquake for the first time, was that the book is both taller and thinner than I had imagined it would be. I found myself holding the book up and pinching the entire section 5 (called “Possibilities 2.0″) between my thumb and index finger. It’s 70 pages packed full of intrigue, drama, and intellectual stimulation, yet it’s about the thickness of an issue of Playbill. How can that be?

Once I’d gotten over staring at the book in isolation, of course the next thing I had to do was stack it next to both versions of Infoquake. As you can imagine, the Solaris Infoquake with the complementary Martiniere painting looks super keen next to MultiReal. But what was totally surprising to me was how well the Pyr trade paperback with the original cover looks side-by-side with the new book 2. Witness:

(Yes, I did take those photos myself on my cell phone. Sorry, Annie Leibowitz isn’t returning my calls anymore, that minx.)

So I now officially have two published books to my name, and I’m feeling as high as a zeppelin right this moment. Hey, lookit me! I’ve got an oeuvre!

In addition to thanking Stephan Martiniere for the fabulous cover, special mention should also go to my editor, Lou Anders, whose fabulous instincts are what make Pyr books look as special as they do. Also at Pyr/Prometheus, Jackie Cooke, who is responsible for the marvelous type treatment and overall layout of the book. (She used a font called “Tall Films” for the titles, and a font called “Am Sans” for the rest of the cover text.) And finally, Peggy Deemer, who shepherded the book through production and put up with about 400 paranoid emails from me about things I misspelled and section breaks I mistakenly left out of the final Word documents.

The “official” launch date for MultiReal is July 8, but if you know anything about this business you know how meaningless those official launch dates are. Amazon is claiming they already have it in stock and can deliver it to your door by Monday morning…

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, the fine SF review website that brought you the recent Infoquake giveaway — not to mention the fine SF review website that recently called said book “one of the very best science fiction debuts I have ever read” — is now giving away three copies of MultiReal. All you have to do to enter is go to the website and send an email to the guys running the giveaway contest.

But better yet — if you haven’t yet read book 1 of the Jump 225 Trilogy, Infoquake, Pyr will throw in a copy of that book as well. Go! Enter! Encourage these people to pay me lots of attention and thus encourage more sales.

And if that’s not excuse enough for me to dust off the ol’ Adobe Photoshop and stick a copy of MultiReal in a sleazy used car salesman’s hand, I don’t know what is.