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REVIEW: MultiReal (Book 2 of the Jump 225 Trilogy) by David Louis Edelman

MultiReal by David Louis Edelman
Publishing Information: Kindle Edition; 522 Pages
Publisher: Pyr; 3 July 2008
ISBN 10: 1591026474
ISBN 13: 978-1591026471
ASIN: B002DGRRNM
Series: Book 2 in the Jump 225 Trilogy
Copy: Out of Pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Synopsis: "David Louis Edelman's debut novel "Infoquake" was called "the love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge" and hailed as the best science fiction debut of 2006. The story continues with "MultiReal", the stunning second book in 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 return 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."

When I read the first book in the Jump 225 Trilogy, Infoquake, I was blown away. I am not a huge Science Fiction reader as I tend to prefer Fantasy but I knew I had to get back to this series as soon as I could. In MultiReal we return just a few weeks after the events in Infoquake and this time around it is a darker and grittier scene. I do caution you if you have not read the first book in the series as their may be some minor spoilers in this review that may ruin your reading experience if you want to get into it. I will try to keep them at a minimum.

The majority of players are back for this installment of the series and we have a few other additions but they are mainly minor characters that round out the cast. Because of the events that unfolded in the first novel, Natch, is not at his peak performance and is having a hard time focusing on his business as the black code is interfering with his life and is creating a rift between all of his co-workers and his mentality. Jara on the other hand becomes a much larger character this time around. We see a lot of her development and she has several scenes that have her grow. I must admit that in Infoquake she was a lot of fun and in MultiReal she makes a few decisions that have me cringe and want to yell at her but that just makes the ride that much more fun. Edelman does a great job of handling the villains in this book as well, as they are so well written it is hard to not like them. They are fully fleshed out and seem very real.

The world building is not as well crafted in MultiReal but then again you do not really have to build the world up this time around as it was well done in the first book. However, Edelman does bring old Chicago into the mix and we see how the people, or Diss as they are called live when they reject living with the internet or Data Sea inserted into their heads. While this is a new addition to the story and the history the author has created in his world, I would have liked to have seen more of it and perhaps I will once I get to the final installment of the series which I plan to do soon. Even though I did not get to see the way in which the Diss live it was interesting that Chicago was not rebuilt and incorporated into the world that Edelman envisioned.

My biggest complaint regarding this novel is a formatting issue. While reading this book on the Amazon Kindle there are all kinds of errors that make the read a bit of a hassle. The middle of a paragraph will be split up and start a new one. The spacing will sometimes allow ten words per line and other times it will be more like one or two words. Not sure how they port some of the books to the Amazon Kindle but there has to be a better version of it out there than the one I was reading. Not sure if Edelman will read this review but if he has any way of changing the way the book is formatted for the Kindle it needs to be done. Some of the things I saw were ridiculous and should have been corrected before it went to publication. I do not think it is the fault of the author but perhaps it was something the publisher or Amazon did that made certain parts of this book less than enjoyable to read do to various formatting errors. I have the third installment on the Kindle as well and hope that this problem is not found when I read it.

MultiReal is a similar to Empire Strikes Back in that everything that could go wrong for Natch and his company does. Despair is par for the course. While I am told that the end to the third book is amazing I am curious to see just how Natch and his cohorts will dig themselves out of the ditch they have found themselves in. A great sequel even though it was not as strong as the first installment but I am definitely hanging on for the final chapter.

Plot 8
Characters 9
Style 8

Overall 8/10

Thor 2 is a GO!

Thor 2 is officially a go and has been set for release on July 26th, 2013. Now all the movie needs is a director.

According to Deadline, Thor director Kenneth Branagh will not return behind the camera for the sequel. No reason was given for him not coming back to direct, although the parting with Marvel Studios was said to be "mutual and amicable." He'll probably still get a producing credit on the new movie, which is the usual consolation prize when a director is not asked to shoot the next film in a successful franchise.

Chris Hemsworth—who's currently working on the set of The Avengers—is locked to come back for a third time as the God of Thunder, although it is not known whether any of the other cast members from the first film will be back. The biggest question is whether Natalie Portman will reprise her role as Jane Foster, now that she's won an Oscar and is enjoying motherhood and all that.

The other question is which villain Thor will face. With Loki the main antagonist in The Avengers, it seems unlikely that Marvel would bring the God of Mischief back for a third straight face-off with his adopted brother.

Meanwhile, the jockeying for the director's chair starts now. With $437 million worldwide already in the bank for Thor, a lot of filmmakers will want to bring Thor 2 to the screen and get a piece of that action.

The movie will come out just two and a half months after Iron Man 3 hits screens on May 3rd, 2013, so it looks like Marvel will keep doubling down two summers from now, just like it's doing this year withThor and Captain America.

REVIEW: The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson
Publishing Information: 2006 (first publishing) 2008 (current edition)
Publisher: Tor Fantasy, Mass-Market Paperback, 1211 pgs
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-4883-8
Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen #6 (of 10)
Reviewer: Andy
Copy: Out of Pocket

Synopsis: (from back cover): The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha'ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y'Ghatan under the fanatical common of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malazan Fourteenth Army uneasy. For it was here that the Empire's greatest champion, Dassem Ultor, was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled. A place of foreboding, its smell is of death.

But elsewhere, agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves. The Crippled God has been granted a place in the pantheon; a schism threatens and sides must be chosen. Whatever each god decides, the ground rules have changed irrevocably, terrifyingly, and the first blood spilled will be in the mortal world.

A world in which a host of characters, familiar and new, including Heboric Ghost Hands; the possessed Apsalar; Cutter, once a thief and now a killer; the warrior Karsa Orlong; and the two ancient wanderers Icarium and Mappo, each searching for such a fate as they might fashion with their own hands, guided by their own will. If only the gods would leave them alone, but now that knives have been unsheathed, the gods are disinclined to be kind. There shall be war, war in the heavens. And the prize? Nothing less than existence itself…..

Having completed five of Erikson's colossal Malazan books to this point, I knew what I was getting into: epic battles, a very large dose of magic, and plenty of head-scratching. When Erikson writes, he prefers to be oblique and mysterious. There are many scenes where instead of simply naming which character is part of the action, Erikson prefers to leave that characters name mysterious, in order to make you guess who it is. Other times, characters perform completely unintuitive actions, often in supernatural ways in which the rules haven't been fully explained, while hundreds of characters and plotlines are all becoming blurred in a dull fog in the reader's mind….

Okay - maybe that is simply my experience when reading the series. But what can I say? I masochistically keep reading this series because its epic and enormous in vision - so much that I can't look away. I am simply hypnotized by the detail and enormity of the Malazan world while I'm trying to hush the fear in the back of my mind that Erikson is making it all up as he goes along…..

The Bonehunters, however, is a book that restored some faith in the overall direction of this series. Where many characters have been separated by thousands of miles and oceans, there have been more convergences in this installment. The overall storyline is starting to take shape here - emerging into what looks like a final battle. In this book, characters mention a cataclysmic war among the gods that will take place. We finally begin to understand the motives of some gods as they ally with the Crippled God, while other gods stand in opposition.

But, where other books in the series could stand alone and deliver a conflict, climax and resolution, the structure of the Bonehunters seems a bit scattered. This was probably necessary - Erikson needed to transport many of his characters to get them in the right places while forming alliances and rivalries for what will become a final battle. The book seem transitional in that sense. However, in this this book it is at last becoming more clear which side many of the characters will be on for that battle.

My advice: Don't begin this series unless you like puzzles and you are up for a major project with plenty of time on your hands. There are so many RAFO's (read on and find outs) in this series, Erikson is asking you to have enormous faith in him as an author to resolve all these questions. However, if you are up for that sort of thing you are in for a wild ride. While this particular book doesn't live up to the highlights of the series like Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice or Midnight Tides, it has has indicated that the series is finding some direction. Instead of introducing forty more new characters Erikson has found some paths for the ones he already has, and as a reluctant fan of Malazan, it has me optimistic…..


Plot……….6/10

Characters………8/10

Style………..8/10

Overall……….7.5/10

Game of Thrones Gets Casting News

Accoding to Den of Geek. The Doctor may be coming to HBO's epic. As Stannis Baratheon. Add to the news that Natalie Dormer is already signed on to star in the second season. Things are starting to warm up and it hasn't even been a month since it left the airwaves.

New "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" Novel by Paul Kearney

I just heard from Adam (The Wertzone) that Paul Kearney is writing a Spartacus: Blood and Sand novel.

A quick Web search reveals that Amazon's Kindle Store has already had an entry for the e-book version, simply entitled Spartacus Novel: #2. The publisher is Titan Books and the publishing date is March 6, 2012.

Paul Kearney is a very talented author (one of my favourites) and I think the setting of Spartacus would fit very well his style. The recent success Kearney has enjoyed with his The Ten Thousand and Corvus proves this very well.

After hearing such a news, I just rub my hands and wait for the book to be published.