MultiReal

David Louis Edelman’s debut novel, Infoquake, was called “the love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge.” The book was also named Barnes & Noble’s Top SF Novel of 2006 and nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best Novel. Now the story continues with MultiReal, the stunning second book of the Jump 225 trilogy.

Natch has just won his first battle with the Defense and Wellness Council for control of MultiReal technology. But now the Council has unleashed the ruthless cunning of Lieutenant Executive Magan Kai Lee. Lee decides that if Natch’s company can’t be destroyed from without, it must be destroyed from within.

As black code continues to eat away at Natch’s sanity, he faces a mutiny from his own apprentices, a legal onslaught from the government, and the machinations of enemies old and new. In desperation, the entrepreneur turns to some unlikely allies: a radical politician with an agenda of his own and a childhood enemy to whom he has done a terrible wrong.

Natch’s struggle will take him from the halls of power in Melbourne to the ruined cities of the diss. Hanging in the balance is the fate of MultiReal, a technology that could end the tyranny of the Council forever — or give the Council the ultimate weapon of oppression.

Len Borda was dying.

Or so Marcus Surina told his twelve-year-old daughter Margaret one blustery winter morning, the two of them striding through the hoverbird docks, wind at full bore, the sun a frail pink thing cowering behind the clouds.

He won’t die today, of course, said Marcus. His voice barely registered above the clanging of the cargo loaders and the yelling of the dockworkers. Not this week or even this month. But the worries hang from the high executive’s neck like lusterless pearls, Margaret. They weigh him down and break his will. I can see it...

Read chapters 1–8 online

On io9's List of Best Science Fiction Books of 2008
#4 on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist's Top 10 SFF Books of 2008
On SFFWorld's List of Favourite New Five SF Books of 2008

"Edelman brings fresh air to the technological thriller... MultiReal itself is firmly established as one of the most fascinating singularity technologies in years."
Publishers Weekly

“Just when we thought cyberpunk was dead, David Louis Edelman bursts on the scene with defibrillator paddles and shouts, ‘Clear!’"
Robert J. Sawyer

"[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... Once you realize that Natch is less Neo than he is Steve Jobs, you’re in for a swell ride."
SCI FI Weekly

More Praise for MultiReal

Infinite Possibility Is Only a State of Mind

Published Editions

Excerpt: Lessons Learned