infoquake!

penny on December 25, 2006

On shabbos at the hotel in ridgecrest, ca I finished Infoquake by David Louis Edelman. This book was a random library grab, the good type that will make sure I do NOT fulfill my By the Stacks Winter Challenge. You see, when I walk into a library… I often feel I must have /something/ because the books might not (gasp!) be there the next day when I’m back. So I must take them out. And I often go for the new books, or randomly choose a letter for either title or author. There are so many books out there that we don’t hear about. This will be one we will hear about, but I hadn’t when I took it off the bookshelf and decided to put it in my suitcase instead of any of the other books I’m currently reading ((It won because of its size, large, but not too large. Neither E nor I expected that I’d have read so much of it by the time shabbos came. I had some very nice long baths. This post was pre-written to post on "book Monday" so hopefully sometime on Sunday after writing this I found a new book. I am eager to return home to my reading list. Well, not too eager. but uhm.. anyway, carry on!)).

Anyway, this is the first in a trilogy and I will impatiently wait for volume two.

At a distant time in the future (though I see much of this happening in my lifetime) we meet bio/logic master Natch, a gifted programmer/entrepreneur who knows how to pick his enemies. He wants his company (a fiefcorp) to be number one on the listings. He doesn’t necessarily want to play dirty tricks to get there. He wants to be number one NOW. Natch has some tendencies which make his apprentices want to quit yet they also are in awe of his genius. He teams with his hivemate and long-term friend, the programmer Horvil and analyst Jara and dive right into this brand-new technology MultiReal. Natch must face rivals both known and unknown and continue to the top.

Confused about the terminology? Curious about how this story fits into the history of "the" world? Don’t worry, there are some really great resources on Edelman’s website (and in the book):