Last week, in about a 24-hour period, I read Multireal, the second book in David Edelman's SF trilogy. What I found most interesting about the book is its ability to reintroduce strangeness into the science fiction experience. Frankly, most SF seems all too familiar these days, as the rate of real-world change overtakes the ability of most writers to incorporate it. Edelman's world feels distinctly odd in the best possible way. It is not a linear projection from today's lines of development. It's a world that has experienced a dramatic cultural break with its past, and has developed a radically new techno-culture. It's a possible world of the imagination, not a probable world of near-future extrapolation. Combined with its originality, this makes Edelman's future very interesting.
Because of it's alienness, another author might have set this society offworld, but I don't care much for the details of different gravities and sky colors. Keeping the story here on Earth just highlights how strange things have become.
Fri, July 25, 2008 - 12:45 PM
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Because of it's alienness, another author might have set this society offworld, but I don't care much for the details of different gravities and sky colors. Keeping the story here on Earth just highlights how strange things have become.
