The book measures 477 pages, or about 148,000 words (including appendices). There are 6 sections, 45 chapters, and 8 appendices. The opening epigraph comes from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” The tagline? “Infinite possibility is only a state of mind.”

Now, when I say the book is done, of course that doesn’t mean it’s absolutely, completely done. That means it’s going off to my editor at Pyr, Lou Anders, for any last-minute comments. I’ll be printing out another copy of the book for myself and giving it a last read-through with red pen in hand. I’ll be incorporating those changes by the end of the month — and then the book goes off to the copy editor. But I expect the changes to be pretty minor from this point on.

(Want to know how finicky I am? The printouts after the jump below showing some of my line edits to MultiReal are from the fourth complete draft of the book.)

Here’s an example of the kind of changes I’m talking about. I discovered yesterday that, after who knows how many read-throughs and rewrites, in chapter 45 one of my characters was “threading her way through the throngs of Thasselians.” I’ll admit I’m not always above allocating an assortment of alliteration in my writing, but this one was totally unintentional. And it sounded ridiculous, so it needed to be fixed. (The even more ridiculous part is that I had misspelled “throngs” as “thongs.” Freudian slip?)

So having completed the book, I can definitely say this: you have never, ever read a book like MultiReal before.

MultiReal might be the most exciting book you’ve ever read that contains both a series of Congressional speeches and a three-way dartgun battle. It has both a granular discussion about the ethics of different software pricing models and a virtual sex scene with four-breasted mermaids.

To give you an idea of how complex this book is, chew on this: there are three main point-of-view characters, three minor point-of-view characters, one chapter in epistolary form, and one chapter from the global omniscient point of view. The prose slips from past to present tense a few times. You’re going to learn that one important piece of history mentioned in Infoquake didn’t quite happen the way you think it happened. Some of the characters speak in code. More than one have double allegiances. Oh, and have I mentioned the multiple, alternate, simultaneous, and asynchronous realities?

The plot bobs and weaves around, with a number of false starts and red herrings. There really isn’t one single narrative thread running through the book like there was in Infoquake. It’s still largely Natch’s story, of course, but Jara’s going to come much further into the foreground. And by the time the book comes to a close, you’re not going to know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, or whether some of them are still alive. If I’m counting correctly, there will be a total of eight different competing factions by the end.

In other words: MultiReal is designed to be trippy, challenging, and more than a little disorienting. One of the major themes of the book is the difficulty of making tough decisions based on incomplete information — and what if you didn’t have to? So if I’ve done my job correctly, you the reader will get a taste of what the characters are going through.

It’s a delicate tightrope for a writer to walk. The book has to be daunting enough to surprise you and confuse you at times; but it also has to be easy enough to follow that you don’t need a pad of graph paper and a scientific calculator. It’s got to have the meat of a grand political saga, the seasoning of a science fiction thriller, and the special sauce of old-school Wired magazine.

But that’s not to say MultiReal won’t be a lot of fun. You’ll meet a Natch look-alike named Geronimo who plays for a band called Dregs of Nitro. You’ll see Robby Robby with a big, frizzy Afro. You’ll see Quell opening a six-pack of whoop-ass with a big, electrified shock baton. You’ll see the top floor of the Revelation Spire (the world’s tallest building), which houses the remnants of the Venus de Milo. You’ll get a taste of what a MultiReal-fueled soccer match would look like. You’ll see how the diss make coffee. You’ll get to meet the infamous Aunt Berilla and see what happens when the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp crashes her estate. You’ll see a drudge get pushed in front of a moving tube train. You’ll see the Defense and Wellness Council kicking ass, taking names, and then putting all those names on 24-hour surveillance. You’ll see Horvil using MultiReal to perform acrobatics on a darkened stairwell. And oh so much more.

I’m still a novice at this novel-writing thing, so take this opinion with a grain of salt. But book 2 was about five times as hard to write as book 1.

I had a number of false starts. At some point, I intend to post all the first drafts of MultiReal‘s chapter 1, just like I did with Infoquake. (Read the nine drafts of Infoquake‘s chapter 1.) (Update 8/25/08 @ 1:30 PM: Here they are.) But we’re not just talking about differences in style and tone here. There were entire subplots considered, begun, and abandoned. There were a few times when I polished and polished that first chapter until it was perfect… only to decide that I needed to go in an entirely different direction. My wife and I even drove out to Harper’s Ferry so I could get a good look at the setting for one of those abandoned chapters. (Luckily, it wasn’t an entirely wasted trip; Harper’s Ferry does make a short appearance in the beginning of chapter 2.)

I’m hoping that Geosynchron, book 3 in the Jump 225 Trilogy, proves to be much easier to write. I’ve got a detailed outline and some individual scenes sketched out in my head. I’ve also got a very old first draft already written, though it’s so far out of date it will almost be no help. (To put things in perspective… when I wrote this first draft, Quell was an old man who liked to smoke hand-rolled cigarettes, Brone had died during the Shortest Initiation in book 1, and Natch still had a spunky girlfriend named Ferris. Then again, when I finished this draft, the only thing special about September 11 was that Bob Dylan’s long-awaited new album was expected to be released on that day.)

Excited? Can’t wait? Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to order a copy of Infoquake and read it through before MultiReal hits the shelves. Pyr has yet to announce their final schedule for the season, so I’m not going to pretend to give you an official word about scheduling — but it looks like we’re talking about Summer 2008.

And don’t worry, I’m planning all kinds of crunchy, wholesome promotional goodness surrounding the book. There’ll be free online material, con appearances, giveaway contests, podcasts and video blogs, readings, and more. So keep your RSS feed readers tuned to this here blog now, m’kay?