The wait is over. Geosynchron is here! Which means that the trilogy which began as a gleam in my bio/logically-enhanced eye way back in 1997 or 1998 is completely in print, and you can now judge the entire story on its merits. Or you can simply stare at the gorgeous Stephan Martiniere cover for hours on end and try to figure out who the heck that guy is sitting Indian style on the cover, which is what I do. (The answer? I really don’t know. I’m guessing it’s either High Executive Len Borda or it’s Ian Holm fresh off the set of The Fifth Element.)

Anyway… boy, am I gonna need your help on this one. This is the last launch of a Jump 225 book, which means it’s the last best time to spread the word about the trilogy. So please, forward to your friends and family members, post reviews online, write blog posts, tweet, spray paint Geosynchron-related graffiti on the front of government buildings! Just tell them that Neil Gaiman sent you.

Oh yeah, and why don’t you read the book too, and let me know how you liked it?

“So, Dave, How Do I Buy Geosynchron?”

Glad you asked. Most writers (the smart ones, at least) will tell you to buy their books in whatever way makes the most sense to you. Amazon and Amazon UK are both selling it (both in paper and on the Kindle). If you’re not partial to Amazon, you can always order from Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million. Want to support an indie bookstore? Try Borderlands Books, Mysterious Galaxy or Powell’s — or search for it at the independent bookstore nearest you on IndieBound.

If you really feel like going out of your way — and this is totally optional — probably the most helpful thing you could do is to walk into an actual Borders or Barnes & Noble store and ask for Geosynchron by name. If they’re not carrying it, express your shock and amazement loud enough for everyone in the store to hear you, and then special order it from the counter.

Geosynchron: A “Seminal Work of 21st Century SF.”

Man, the critics are saying all kinds of things that are making me blush from my bald head down to my hairy toes. This may be the best-reviewed book of mine to date. Here are the highlights since the last newsletter. And no, I haven’t slept with any of these people.

• Locus Magazine: “This smart, idiosyncratic blend of cyberpunk, libertarian entrepreneurship, and social engineering will, I think, stand as a seminal work of 21st century SF.” (Full Review Forthcoming)
• Fantasy Book Critic: “Geosynchron achieves a rare feat for a trilogy-ending volume, namely it takes the series one level higher, beyond mundanity to true sense-of-wonder SF, so it finally plays on the level of the masters of modern SF… An A+ and so far the best core-SF novel I’ve read in 2010.”
• io9: “More warped than ever… Geosynchron is an engaging conclusion to a thrilling, thought-provoking saga.”
• Library Journal: “Taking cyberpunk to the next level, this conclusion to Edelman’s trilogy… presents a drama of future technology that combines action with psychosocial intrigue. Tension comes as much from the clash of ideas as from physical confrontation. Highly recommended.”
• Grasping for the Wind: “Just amazing. How anyone could make a boardroom discussion so exciting is beyond my comprehension. With words, not lasers, Edelman produces a fiction that has no peer… David Louis Edelman’s Jump 225 trilogy is one of the best space operas currently in print… If you read no other science fiction story this year, read the Jump 225 trilogy.”
• Rob Bedford of SFFWorld: “Today I finished what is, so far, the best SF novel I’ve read this short year and probably best overall — Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman. A fine finale to what is a superb SF trilogy.” (Full Review Forthcoming)

Interviews and Guest Blog Posts.

If reading the reviews isn’t enough for you to get your Geosynchron fix, then click on through to some of these interviews and guest blog posts:

• John Scalzi’s Whatever hosts a “Big Idea” blog from me today about how a scene from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 helped inspire the Jump 225 trilogy, and why humanity is powered by dissatisfaction.
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist hosted a guest blog from me this week wherein I divulged why the initial letters of the Jump 225 books spell out IMG. (Hint: think HTML.)
• Grinding to Valhalla talks to me about my RPG, videogaming and boardgaming past, the rewarding and not-so-rewarding things about writing, and Yars’ Revenge. Yes, Yars’ Revenge.
• The DC Speculative Fiction Examiner’s Josh Vogt interviewed me about the writing process, things about the books I would change in retrospect, and which settings of the books I’ve actually visited. (Hint: pretty much none of them.)

GoodReads Jump 225 Giveaway.

GoodReads members can register to win (separately) a signed copy of Infoquake, MultiReal, and Geosynchron. All you have to do is sign up for, or already be a member of, GoodReads. Contest is scheduled to start today and end Friday, March 5. For more details:

• The GoodReads page for Infoquake
• The GoodReads page for MultiReal
• The GoodReads page for Geosynchron

Upcoming Appearances.

• March 19-20: Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville VA.

Thanks for all the support over books 1, 2 and 3! Now go ye and spread the word about Geosynchron. Go thee thou and spreadest the word, I say.

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.

Update 12/20/08 @ 5:07 pm: Added embedded Google video.

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.

Jon’s strategy with these podcasts is to steer away from the typical bland interview questions (“what was your inspiration for [insert book title]?”, “who were your biggest literary influences?”, etc.). So our 20-minute chat covered the coming death of the novel, the MacBook Air, the similarities between Infoquake and Grey, the pantheon of superheroes I created when I was a kid, my editor Lou Anders, how my dad taught me to always be the devil’s advocate, how 9/11 changed Infoquake, and the engineering of foreign toilets and doorknobs.

(Our conversation was actually over an hour long, and we talked about a ton of great stuff. I regret that our talk about David Lee Roth’s vocal track for “Runnin’ with the Devil” didn’t make it in.)

I’m quite pleased with this interview. Go give it a listen.

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.

Quick excerpt:

The political factions in the Jump 225 trilogy are divided between governmentalists and libertarians. If you were a character in the books, which would you be?

A lot of people who’ve read Infoquake assumed that my sympathies lie with the libertarians, because that’s where Natch’s sympathy lies. But I’m definitely more conflicted in my politics. I like to pick and choose among the different parties and philosophies. I have some definite liberal tendencies but a number of conservative ones as well.

You’ll discover in MultiReal that the political situation is much more nuanced than Natch makes it out to be in Infoquake. The central government, which really seems like the epitome of evil in Infoquake, is a conflicted organization itself with some do-gooders working in the fringes. And the libertarians are full of self-interested schemers who’ll stab you in the back.

Update July 8 @ 1:10 PM: SF author Mike Brotherton (Star Dragon, Spider Star) has posted the interview as well, and therefore deserves canonization.

Update July 11 @ 2:25 PM: And now my fellow Baltimore/Washington-area SF/F novelists Jeri Smith-Ready (Wicked Game, Eyes of Crow) and Mindy Klasky (Sorcery and the Single Girl, The Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft, the Glasswrights series) have posted the interview on their LiveJournals as well (link to Jeri’s LJ, link to Mindy’s LJ).

Update July 16 @ 8:35 PM: Also look for the interview at the Wyrdsmiths blog of Kelly McCullough (WebMage, Cybermancy) and the LiveJournal of David B. Coe (Rules of Ascension, Seeds of Betrayal).

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.

• B&N Rave Review and Interview Now Online. Paul Goat Allen’s rave review of Infoquake (where he calls the book “one of the most impressive SF debuts to come along in years” and the author “the love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge”) is now online at Barnes & Noble Explorations. Paul also conducted an in-depth interview with me about the relationship between fiefcorps and dot-coms, whether Infoquake is a cautionary tale, and what’s at stake in the next two books in the Jump 225 Trilogy. My favorite quote from the interview: “There’s a part of Infoquake that’s a cautionary tale, but I’ve been very careful not to go too far down that road. The book isn’t a polemic. Like with the character of Natch, there are things to both admire and fear about the future I’ve come up with.”
• Infoquake Discussion Forums Now Open on Yahoo! Groups. Online discussion forums for Infoquake (and anything else I’ve written) are now open on Yahoo! Groups. Post questions for the author, discuss Infoquake, or just talk amongst yourselves. The group is moderated by the author, but there’s no filter; as long as you’re not trying to pitch Cialis tablets or online gambling, your views (critical or otherwise) are welcome!
• Rave Review for Infoquake by Amazon’s #1 Reviewer. Harriet Klausner, Amazon’s #1 ranked customer reviewer, gave a rave 5-star review to Infoquake. “The reason this futuristic science fiction seems plausible is the depth of detail interwoven into the cat-and-mouse story line, so much so that the audience will accept nano-technology bio/logics as happening today…. In the first Jump 225 tale, David Louis Edelman writes an exciting thriller that grips the audience.” (Harriet’s reviews appear all over the web, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Alternative Worlds.)
• Appearances and Readings Scheduled. I’m starting to book in-person readings and appearances to promote Infoquake. Here are a few places you’ll be able to find me:
  • August 23-27: WorldCon in Anaheim, CA
  • September 1-4: Dragon-Con in Atlanta, GA
  • September 5: Reading and signing at Barnes & Noble in Baltimore, MD (time TBD)
  • September 7: Reading and signing at Barnes & Noble in Reston, VA at 7:30 P.M.
  • October 20-22: CapClave in Silver Spring, MD

Coming soon: another in-depth interview on LiveJournal, more appearances, and more online content.

Meanwhile, have you reviewed Infoquake on Amazon.com yet? Well, why not? (Okay, I’m not going to be that much of a self-publicity fiend to give you guilt trips for not posting online reviews.) (But seriously, why not?)