Infoquake (The Jump 225 Trilogy)

by David Louis Edelman (Goodreads author)

book data

117 ratings, 3.64 average rating, 32 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		32%
3		30%
2		9%
1		3%

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published

July 5th 2006 by Pyr

binding

Paperback, 421 pages

isbn

1591024420 (isbn13: 9781591024422)

description

How far should you go to make a profit? Infoquake, the debut novel by David Louis Edelman, takes speculative fiction into alien territory: the corpora...more

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08/07/08

Eoghann rated it:

bookshelves: science-fiction

Read in August, 2008

A remarkable work of future world building. The biotech is very convincing as is the future history that Edelman has constructed. The world may in fact be the most complex and compelling character in the book.

It's surprisingly engrossing for a novel in which (when you boil it down) relatively few things actually happen. I spent most of the time waiting for the inevitable revelation of what was really going on and I had to keep reading to find out.

Hard to avoid the feeling...more

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1 comment

07/26/07

Jason Pettus rated it:

Read in July, 2007

(Much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Regular readers of the CCLaP website know that I am a fan of science-fiction; and when it comes to what I like most about the genre, I have to admit that for me it mostly boils down to the concepts, to the grand ideas on display versus the author's writing style or other technical issues. And this of course is something else that regular readers already know, that I see the a...more (Much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Regular readers of the CCLaP website know that I am a fan of science-fiction; and when it comes to what I like most about the genre, I have to admit that for me it mostly boils down to the concepts, to the grand ideas on display versus the author's writing style or other technical issues. And this of course is something else that regular readers already know, that I see the actual mechanics of writing (grammar, style, plot, etc) as fairly pedestrian topics, the least important part of what makes a writer good or not; since in my opinion it's the one thing about writing that literally anyone can master given enough practice and/or education, versus things like grand concepts and compelling characters that a person is either born with an ability to conjure or not.

It's something to keep in mind while reading through Infoquake, the first novel by Washington-DC web developer David Louis Edelman, which last year became not only a surprise sleeper hit but also a surprise Campbell Award nominee; because make no mistake, some of the ideas Edelman bandies about here are insanely great enough to make your head pop right off your neck, even as he displays only a basic mastery at this point over the actual mechanics of writing a novel, a fact that will drive heavy readers of so-called "literary fiction" a little crazy. It is ultimately a very good example of something I've said here before about genre work, which is what makes genre work both loved and reviled by most; that it delivers in spades everything a lover of science-fiction wants in a great science-fiction novel, but simply never transcends that and into the world of general interest, like the absolute cream of the crop of genre work does. It's a great novel to be sure, an infinitely smart page-turner that will have your brain spinning for days afterwards; but it's obvious that Edelman is still trying to find his mature voice as a writer, something that lovers of great books need to be warned of before diving in.

In fact...(less)

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06/28/09

Chris rated it:

Infoquake has a few interesting ideas - "fiefcorps" as the future of entrepreneurial ventures, "bio/logics" software paired up with nanotech to help people modify or amplify their bodily functions, vestigial government entities reduced to marketing their sign-on promotions and benefits packages to attract clientele. The majority of the novel seems to be a rather long read with little actual content, however.

The main character is the largest problem for the author...more Infoquake has a few interesting ideas - "fiefcorps" as the future of entrepreneurial ventures, "bio/logics" software paired up with nanotech to help people modify or amplify their bodily functions, vestigial government entities reduced to marketing their sign-on promotions and benefits packages to attract clientele. The majority of the novel seems to be a rather long read with little actual content, however.

The main character is the largest problem for the author, as he tries to portray some sort of genius anti-hero and explain how he came to be such an ambitious, morally ambiguous player... however the author's biggest problem is, and continues to be, providing some sort of rationale for why the reader should care. More could have been done with the secondary characters and why they choose to hang around with and work for this emotionally immature tyrant, and this would have possibly shown him to be not necessarily more likable, but maybe worthy of being concerned for.

The plot drags until the end, being a mostly empty tale illustrating the main character's ambitions and sort of how he came to be in the position he's in. Towards the end of the novel, the action picks up and it appears as if something interesting is actually going to happen - and then the main character is dropped out of most of the end sequence with little explanation, as a teaser to further novels I suppose.

I had a hard time grasping what exactly the author was trying to say with this novel, unless maybe it was all a lead-up to the one bit of wisdom at the end that actually stuck out from the rest of the novel, perhaps because it was the clearest, truest statement of a goal or ideal in the entire book:

You see this happen every day. A business triumphs over its rivals and gets stronger. Others become jealous and resentful. Eventually, the company's enemies conspire together to bring it down, or it rots from within. It's the same thing that happens with animals...plans...trees. Why? Because there's some mystical force guiding our actions? No, because too much power concentrated in one place creates stasis. And stasis is anathema to a universe that desires constant motion and change. (379)

Overall Infoquake is well-written, but the characters, plot, and timing could use another revision.

06/14/09 CSL(less)

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05/10/09

Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 1844165825)

bookshelves: sciencefictionfantasy

This book takes place many years after the collapse of civilization. A group of sentient computers called the Autonomous Minds rebelled against mankind in the Autonomous Revolt. Now, Earth is dominated by bio/logics, the science of programming the human body.

The programs have names like Eyemorph 1.0, DeMirage 24.5, Poker Face 83.4b and AntiSleepStim 124.7. The average person has thousands of such programs in their bodies, courtesy of microscopic robots placed at or before birth. Natc...more

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10/31/08

Wendymoon rated it:

(review of isbn 1844165825)

bookshelves: read-or-reread-in-08, sci-fi

I just finished Infoquake and am trying to decide how I feel about it. On the one hand, it has a very unique worldview, which is what got me interested in the first place. The book is set in a futuristic world where programmers work on code for tiny, ability-enhancing machines inside the human body. The book is filled with a ton of other ideas which were often PKD-like in their presentation - mentioned with limited explanation, very interesting in their own right, yet relegated to lesser importa...more

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02/26/09

Kyle Brady rated it:

bookshelves: scifi-cyberpunk, scifi-realistic

Read in May, 2009

Wow.

This book was considerably better than I was expecting. The short-form review is easy to put as "The way William Gibson should have learned to write".

This is a fusion of cyberpunk and SciFi, focusing on a future that's heavily involved with nanites and the internet. It's cyberpunk because it uses madeup terms without explanation, focuses on minute details of technology, and has a highly tech-oriented focus... but it's SciFi because it looks at larger issue...more

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01/18/09

Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 1844165825)

Read in April, 2009

Bursting with ideas, set in an undefined medium term science fiction future, in some ways, Infoquake, a first novel by David Louis Edelman, is very much in the classic mode of science fiction. It also has strong elements of the corporate thriller, post-cyberpunk and even post-failed-singularity science fiction.

Oh, and it all takes in a hypercapitalist future.

Some several hundred years after some very bad history for humanity, the world of Infoquake is at once very fami...more Bursting with ideas, set in an undefined medium term science fiction future, in some ways, Infoquake, a first novel by David Louis Edelman, is very much in the classic mode of science fiction. It also has strong elements of the corporate thriller, post-cyberpunk and even post-failed-singularity science fiction.

Oh, and it all takes in a hypercapitalist future.

Some several hundred years after some very bad history for humanity, the world of Infoquake is at once very familiar, with its undeniably human characters, and at the same time, has that alien future feeling that allows a SF reader to dive in and explore a futuristic world. The action centers around Natch. He runs a corporation which develops bio/logics, programs that can hack the human body, ones perceptions, abilities, strengths.

Flashbacks in the novel allow us to see how this ruthless and indefatigable competitor was molded into the character we see. Events bring Natch into contact with Margaret Surina, whose family and ancestors are very much responsible for the re-welding together of society after that bad history several centuries back. Margaret has some more and new revolutionary technology, but in this hypercapitalist cutthroat world, she turns to Natch as one of the few people she can trust to deploy and use this technology: Multireal.

And thus hangs a tale.

This world of human-altering software infuses and changes the nature of society, with Edelman following through the implications of how this sort of technology would alter society. We get to see several different types of technology at play here, as well, including a method of virtual porting to other places which makes Second Life look like a primitive toy.

There is a lot going on in this world, and its clear that Edelman had a lot of fun writing this book. There are the titular Infoquakes themselves, for example, the ultimate and deadly crash of the world's equivalent of the Internet, which complicate the plans Natch has set in motion. The novel leaves for sequels what these Infoquakes might actually be and what they mean. The corporate and economic politics in this world are timely. Like the best science fiction, it holds up a mirror to the present by showing an extreme version in the future.

It's difficult to sum up this complex world, but perhaps if I describe it as "Wall Street (the movie) meets Vernor Vinge", I can come close to capturing what the characters and the world is like.

I am surprised that this is Edelman's first novel. It's clear to me that he's been thinking about and working out this universe for quite some time (there are extensive appendices in the back of the novel).

This is definitely not a first novel for those who have never read SF before. Like an old tagline for a collection of Greg Egan's stories, Infoquake is "science fiction for science fiction fans." In a climate where fantasy seems ascendant over SF, and every other book in the F/SF section of the bookstore is yet another new first novel about werewolves/vampires/faeries/demons/ghosts/wendigos in the modern world, Infoquake is unabashedly straight up 200 proof science fiction.

I look forward to reading the second and third volumes of the trilogy. If anything, like when I read Charles Stross' Singularity Sky, I suspect that this first volume is really a novel that Edelman wrote so that he could get himself, and the reader, ready to read the *real* story that he wants to tell.(less)

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07/28/08

Michael rated it:

bookshelves: sf

Read in August, 2008

A relatively fast-paced far-future science fiction tale that some are going to feel the need to pigeon-hole into a genre with the suffix "-punk."

Edelman does several things right here: his technology is original and flavorful (though I found its capabilities and limitations somewhat disbelief-stretching), his story moves quickly, and his characters are involved in trying to sell a product on a fast-paced market, rather than descending to gunplay to keep the excitement up.
...more

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12/28/07

Agrimorfee rated it:

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Neal Stephenson readers, Technology business wonks

Interesting scifi about what our civilization will be like post-Internet, hundreds of years from now: a society where nanotechnology handles most human needs for well-being, where most social interactions are accomplished via virtual reality, and the business of computer technology takes on astronomically wieghty proportions. It's in the vein of Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and "Diamond Age", but nowhere nearly as funny. This is Part 1 of a proposed trilogy, so be forewarne...more

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08/27/08

Diane rated it:

Read in September, 2008

The lead character is interesting, if sometimes unlikeable. This is the story of a group [fiefcorp] trying to market a new kind of program in a world of cyber-realities where everyone lives in the Data Sea. Natch (the head) may be a borderline psycho, but his two dubordinates, Jara and Horvil, carry our sympathy.

Edelman keeps up a fast pace as they try to program the new creation, which seems mighty abstract. Still, he makes it fun, and interweaves Natch's life in the data-flow,...more

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11/09/08

Rachel rated it:

bookshelves: sciencefiction

Read in November, 2008

I'm really not sure how to rate this--anything between 3 and 5 would be reasonable. It's a very ambitious, hyper drive into a world of megacorporations and connectivity. On the plus side, the main characters are interesting and worth reading about, and the world is well thought out (for the most part) and plausible, and different enough from ours to be exciting. On the minus side, the writing is a bit inconsistent and uneven, with characters having attributes assigned to them that they never ...more

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02/22/09

Michael rated it:

Read in February, 2009

An interesting exploration of the possibilities of nanotech, set in an unforgiving business-oriented world. Personally, I found the characters unappealing and the necessity of a massive appendix to explain background and new terms is evidence of weak narrative. For a similar, but better thought out high tech near-future, try Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge.

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12/03/08

Deathmetalroze rated it:

Best cyberpunk book EVER, since the classics that gave birth to the genre!!! I randomly picked it up at the Dallas airport and I am SO glad I did! Fast-paced with believable science set in a future that is not too difficult to imagine, many critics have said it's better than anything William Gibson could ever write.

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01/25/09

John rated it:

bookshelves: sci-fi

Not a good book for someones' intro to speculative hard science fiction. But if you are an enthusiast you will enjoy this book and presumably the whole series. DLE's universe is rich and internally consistent. The narrative is compelling and the writing style is a pleasure to read.

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01/01/09

John rated it:

(review of isbn 1844165825)

As a developer this book definitely resonated with me. I would recommend it to anyone who likes SF and works in programming or any sort of project oriented work.

Makes me want to read the other two in the series.

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11/22/08

Arcnes rated it:

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: Anyone who Like Business or SciFi

Excellent sci-fi book.
Business meets programing meets body modification.
Ethically challenged business owner takes on world and the biologic market.

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01/01/09

Frank rated it:

(review of isbn 1844165825)

Read in September, 2008

This book was fantastic. It is best described as corporate business sci-fi, which may not sound very good, but believe me, it more than is

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02/18/09

Ken rated it:

http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2006/12/in...

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10/22/08

Skunk rated it:

I didn't like this book. The author's style really just annoyed the crap out of me. The story is vaguely interesting at points but I just couldn't get past the fact that everybody is described by their job title, each and every time they are referred to. It's the first book of a series but life is too short to continue reading books you are thoroughly annoyed by, and my interest stopped there. Save yourself the trouble, and pick up something else.

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10/17/07

Karlo rated it:

bookshelves: scifi

Read in October, 2007

Some interesting ideas about the future of capitalism in a post-scarcity earth. The exclusion of post-singularity god-like AIs was a nice change. The Bio/Logics and the subscription-based govt analogs were pretty cool. The protagonist was a little too standard sci-fi in his awesome abilities, but not so cooky-cutter to irritate.

Looking forward to the other two books in the trilogy.

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