Supported by the ubiquitous medium of the Data Sea, the multi is virtual reality and augmented reality rolled into one. Not only are there many channels of total digital existence, but even in normal waking life the multi-user interacts with projections of other users mapped directly onto his or her senses, projections mostly indistinguishable from flesh-and-blood interlocutors.

Along with this omnipresent super-internet, which is mediated by the OCHRES in everyone's blood and tissues, devices that also allow almost total physiological control, humanity has built a host of new institutions, from the ethically based Creeds to the Meme Cooperative to the L-PRACGS to the powerful Defense and Wellness Council.

Our main protagonist in this strange world is one Natch, an entrepreneur and programmer of the bio/logic hacks that permeate the multi before being downloaded into the bodies of consumers. In the first book we watched him scramble to the top of his profession—aided by his partners Jara and Horvil, and his step-father Serr Vigal—and then receive as a burdensome bequest the biggest bio-logic hack of all, MultiReal. Created over decades by the Surina clan, those geniuses who established the modern world, MultiReal allows the human mind to run simulations of any and all courses of action and select the most desirable outcomes. It's a tool with literally reality-warping potential.

The new novel opens a few weeks after Natch's miraculous demonstration of the potential of MultiReal. And he's in big trouble. The "black code" infection delivered into his bloodstream by unknown assailants is wreaking havoc with his body. Likewise, the deadly infoquake disruptions continue to roil the Data Sea. Len Borda and his assistant Magan Kai Lee, rulers of the Defense and Wellness Council and all the soldiers thereof, want to shut down Natch and MultiReal as a threat to humanity. Natch's rival hackers, the Patel Brothers, have their own version of MultiReal almost ready for sale. Margaret Surina, inventor of MultiReal, has gone all Howard Hughes on Natch. His powerful childhood foe Brone wants to get his hands on MultiReal too. And even loyal Jara is having second thoughts about Natch's plans.

But worst of all, the MultiReal wetware in Natch's head is warping reality out from under his feet.

Classic corporate intrigue

Readers of this distinctive and well-conceived series are sure to spot resonances with past classics of the genre. We could step through the ancestors of Edelman's clever synthesis in chronological fashion (with me reserving one name out of the time scheme for last).

The notion of MultiReal as a power-leveling weapon seems rather van Vogtian to me. The amount of attention and insight paid to the workings of political and social institutions would please a Heinlein or a Brunner. There's a definite Spinradian New Wave anger at authority and also a cynicism at work here as well. And the MultiReal experience resembles Paul Atreides' precog abilities, as described by Frank Herbert.

Moving into more modern times, Edelman—an IT guy professionally—brings all the intellectual firepower and verisimilitude of the digerati like Sterling, Stross and Doctorow to his text. And the ontological twists and implications of MultiReal would do honor to Greg Egan.

But the strongest overall vibe I get is that of Alfred Bester—although stylistically Edelman never quite reaches Bester's pyrotechnical heights. Natch is in many respects a villain and bastard, the complete businessman antihero, like Bester's Ben Reich. Yet so vivid and fierce are his desires and drives—think Gully Foyle, too—that you can't help rooting for him. Now, Bester is much admired verbally, but very few authors really try to emulate him in print—he set the bar so high—and Edelman's success is commensurate with his ambitions.

By placing his tale 400 years ahead instead of the day after tomorrow (one could easily imagine a different story where the necessary tech was plausibly invented about 50 years from the present), he gave himself space to radically re-imagine the ways and means by which civilization could be managed and sustained. This world-building is at least as important as the MultiReal thread.

The only drawback to Edelman's story is its perhaps over-intense focus on meetings, corporate and govermental schemes and boardroom maneuverings. Although there are significant moments of pure action—when, for instance, Natch goes into Matrix-style MultiReal mode—the vast majority of time is spent in elaborate hacking and/or social engineering. This is a series, after all, that features product rollouts as climactic moments!

But once you realize that Natch is less Neo than he is Steve Jobs, you're in for a swell ride.