It’s worth reminding folks that the book comes out in late February, 2010 (but is already available for pre-order at all of your favorite book shopping venues).

The cover painting is once again by the incomparable Hugo Award-winning artist Stephan Martiniere, whose paintings for the covers of Infoquake and MultiReal have been blowing minds for many a month.

And here is the catalog copy for the book, which provides something of a spoiler (though a necessary one) for the cliffhanger at the end of MultiReal.

DAVID LOUIS EDELMAN’S BUSINESS SCIENCE FICTION SAGA THAT BEGAN WITH INFOQUAKE AND MULTIREAL COMES TO A STUNNING CONCLUSION WITH GEOSYNCHRON, THE LAST BOOK OF THE JUMP 225 TRILOGY.

The Defense and Wellness Council is enmeshed in full-scale civil war between Len Borda and the mysterious Magan Kai Lee. Quell has escaped from prison and is stirring up rebellion in the Islands with the aid of a brash young leader named Josiah. Jara and the apprentices of the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp still find themselves fighting off legal attacks from their competitors and from Margaret Surina’s unscrupulous heirs — even though MultiReal has completely vanished.

The quest for the truth will lead to the edges of civilization, from the tumultuous society of the Pacific Islands to the lawless orbital colony of 49th Heaven; and through the deeps of time, from the hidden agenda of the Surina family to the real truth behind the Autonomous Revolt that devastated humanity hundreds of years ago.

Meanwhile, Natch has awakened in a windowless prison with nothing but a haze of memory to clue him in as to how he got there. He’s still receiving strange hallucinatory messages from Margaret Surina and the nature of reality is buckling all around him. When the smoke clears, Natch must make the ultimate decision — whether to save a world that has scorned and discarded him, or to save the only person he has ever loved: himself.

I’ll have more to say about this later, but figured that it couldn’t hurt to just post this stuff asap.

(Oh, and if you’re so inclined, the book’s now available for pre-order on Amazon.)

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…

Here’s the final version of the cover, front and back. There’s also a PDF of the cover available for download (623K).

As a reminder, yes, the cover painting is by the great Stephan Martiniere, who deserves all the accolades you can possibly shower upon him and more.

The copy on the back is nothing you haven’t already seen before, if you’ve visited the MultiReal website. At the top are abbreviated blurbs by Peter Watts, Nick Sagan, and Robert J. Sawyer. (They’re abbreviated because the full versions wouldn’t fit; the full versions will be right inside the front cover.) And the description of the book comes straight from the About page on the website. Cindy, you will be pleased to note that the phrase “the return of enemies old and new” has been changed to “the machinations of enemies old and new,” because as you rightly pointed out, a new enemy can’t exactly return if he wasn’t there in the first place.

The release date of the novel remains July 21, 2008. Since I’m not quite J.K. Rowling, bookstores will likely be stocking the book on the shelves a little ahead of that date.

Here are the front and back covers. (Forgive the lousy Treo camera pics and the even lousier attempts to brighten up the lousy Treo camera pics in Photoshop.)

The mass market edition of Infoquake is being published by Solaris Books, the folks who also recently published my story “Mathralon” in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two.

And they’ve done a bang-up job of it too — this thing looks sharp. Not only is the cover art by Stephan Martiniere crisp and stunning, but Infoquake might be one of the few books that will catch just as much attention when the spine’s facing out as the cover. It’s hard to tell from the pics above, but you can read the title on the spine from across the room. Plus the book has a nice weight and thickness to it, and it tickles my vanity by opening with several pages of rave quotes from authors and reviewers. (Not as many pages of rave quotes as the mass market of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, but one can’t set the bar too high.)

Those who have read Infoquake in the (equally stunning) Pyr trade paperback version might be interested to know that I’ve made 155 changes to the text for this edition as well. But lest I be accused of breaking my own rules for ethical self-promotion, I should point out that they are entirely minor changes. For instance, one of the most substantial changes I made was to alter this somewhat nonsensical sentence…

It became less comforting still when Natch realized that several of the dartguns pointed at him were actually multi disruptors.

to this much clearer version…

It became less comforting still when Natch spotted a few multi disruptors in the group.

Much better, don’t you think? For the edification of all those future students of literature who I predict will one day be obsessively studying my works in classes taught by stuffy university professors, here is the actual Excel spreadsheet I sent to Solaris detailing my changes for the mass market edition. Really, it’s not that interesting. I’m guessing that two-thirds of the changes are me rethinking the use of italics for emphasis in character dialogue. So, “We can’t just let people die!” became “We can’t just let people die!”

(And if you future stuffy university professors are having trouble thinking up a name for the course, might I suggest “Edelquake: Decontextualizing the Metaphorical Implications of Jump 225 in a Hyperrational Postmodern Society”?)

My only regret is that it didn’t occur to me to change the Acknowledgments section in the back of the book to thank the guys at Solaris for all their hard work. So, to George Mann, Christian Dunn, and Mark Newton, I will now put on my proper British bowler hat and tip it on your direction.

The mass market of Infoquake won’t hit the stores for some weeks yet, but have I mentioned that you can pre-order a copy on Amazon? Oh yeah, I just did.

The painting is courtesy of the brilliant Stephan Martiniere, who has also done artwork for such works as Ian McDonald’s River of Gods, Karl Schroeder’s Lady of Mazes, Larry Niven’s Ringworld’s Children, Charles Stross’ Singularity Sky… I could go on and on. Herr Martiniere has also been visual art director for Cyan Studios on their latest games in the Myst series.

I.e., the dude rawks.

And in case I failed to mention it before, the Solaris Books mass market paperback of Infoquake will also have a complementary Martiniere painting on the cover. Same style, different color scheme (although I don’t think he’s finished it yet). (Update 10/25/07: Here it is.) I believe the plan is to feature Jara on the cover of Infoquake, while Natch graces the cover of MultiReal. (Geosynchron, whenever it’s done, will presumably have Horvil on the cover.)

So what do I think about the new look? Honestly, I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl. No, I’m giddy as a very giddy schoolgirl.

It doesn’t exactly look like what I pictured the world of Jump 225 would look like. It doesn’t look much like it at all, in fact. The skylines I describe in Infoquake and MultiReal are low and curvy to take advantage of the “collapsible building” technology. It’s very difficult for tall, angular structures to automatically expand and contract, according to some bedrock architectural principle I shamelessly made up. Nor did I imagine anything like those circular mechanical things you see on the left-hand side, whatever they are. And when you enlarge the painting, Natch looks a little bit too much like Peter MacNicol for comfort.

And yet somehow, it captures the essence of the novel anyway. You’ve got Natch standing before a window surveying the city like he owns it. You’ve got a claustrophobic sense of information bearing down upon you from all sides. And you’ve got a warm color palette of greens, yellows, and browns.

Will this cover detract from the book’s crossover potential? Possibly. I’m not sure a besuited 42-year-old fund manager would feel comfortable whipping this book out on the subway, while he might feel at home with Infoquake. But the crossover strategy didn’t exactly win over the CNBC crowd for Infoquake; if you read the praise page, you’ll see that almost every blurb comes from an SF-flavored publication. Meanwhile, Charles Stross’ books are looking more and more like Atari 2600 video game boxes circa 1982, and he’s selling like hotcakes smothered with chocolate and money.

Much thanks and credit should also go to Jackie Cooke at Prometheus, who was responsible for complementing Martiniere’s painting with a wonderful, clean type treatment. And of course, my editor Lou Anders, who I predict will one day have so many Best Editor Hugos that he’ll be able to construct a large, pointy throne out of them.

So whattaya think?