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.