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A review by nigellicus
Infoquake by David Louis Edelman
4.0
There’s nothing like a slick, smart, well-written science fiction thriller to set the mind buzzing and racing with strange new ideas and brilliant, imaginative, logical leaps into the future. The reader is plunged into a world that is utterly strange and yet oddly familiar, as the old human passions and drives and desires play their old games in this future funhouse.
The future funhouse of Infoquake, gives us a world where technology is literally built into people, turning them into walking iPhones, and the big business is in creating, developing and selling apps for a populace hungry for novelty and innovation. Fiefcorps compete savagely for their share of the market, and one of the youngest, hungriest and most devious of these fiefcorps is run by a supremely ambitious young man called Natch, along with his old friend Horvil, an engineer, and an analyst called Jara, who finds her conscience under severe strain thanks to some of Natch’s more underhanded strategies. Their exploits bring them to the attention of Margaret Surina, descendant of one of the genuises who helped create the technology that shaped the world. Rumour has it that she may be set to reshape the world again with a mysterious new technology called Multireal.
With enemies and rivals closing in on all sides, Surina convinces Natch to prepare and develop Multireal for demonstration and release in only a few days. But potentially lethal rivals and a crushing deadline are only minor problems compared to the biggest of all: nobody seems to know what Multireal is.
At heart, Infioquake is a old school corporate thriller full of cut-throat boardroom poilitics, maneuvers and counter-maneuvers, back-stabbing and betrayal, all married to a vividly realised world full of wild technological marvels. It’s an adrenaline-fueled ride from start to finish as Neetch and friends fight to stay alive and stay on top.
The future funhouse of Infoquake, gives us a world where technology is literally built into people, turning them into walking iPhones, and the big business is in creating, developing and selling apps for a populace hungry for novelty and innovation. Fiefcorps compete savagely for their share of the market, and one of the youngest, hungriest and most devious of these fiefcorps is run by a supremely ambitious young man called Natch, along with his old friend Horvil, an engineer, and an analyst called Jara, who finds her conscience under severe strain thanks to some of Natch’s more underhanded strategies. Their exploits bring them to the attention of Margaret Surina, descendant of one of the genuises who helped create the technology that shaped the world. Rumour has it that she may be set to reshape the world again with a mysterious new technology called Multireal.
With enemies and rivals closing in on all sides, Surina convinces Natch to prepare and develop Multireal for demonstration and release in only a few days. But potentially lethal rivals and a crushing deadline are only minor problems compared to the biggest of all: nobody seems to know what Multireal is.
At heart, Infioquake is a old school corporate thriller full of cut-throat boardroom poilitics, maneuvers and counter-maneuvers, back-stabbing and betrayal, all married to a vividly realised world full of wild technological marvels. It’s an adrenaline-fueled ride from start to finish as Neetch and friends fight to stay alive and stay on top.