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It felt like the first two books in Edelman's Jump 225 series had twisted reality about as far as it could go. However, with the last book in the trilogy, Geosynchron, we realize we were only peeking into the rabbit hole before. Now we get a swift kick that sends us tumbling all the way to the bottom.
While I've enjoyed the Jump 225 series for its futuristic depictions of society, business and marketing, what I enjoyed more were the journeys each character experienced. The high-tech warfare, the virtual-reality coding...all fun and provide an excellent read, but it's the evolution of the people and how they face their increasing crisis that draws you along. Which is why the end was as hard to accept as it was for me. I can't say much about it without giving away spoilers, unfortunately.
Suffice it to say that I'm not sure how else Edelman could've ended it without potentially expanding the series another three or more books. The end provides a definitive conclusion that poetically resolves all the major conflicts--but at the same time it left me with an odd feeling that it was almost too easy. That all the effort put into reaching this end didn't come to real fruition. I guess I was looking towards a conclusion that would be broader in scope, when, in reality, it boiled down to one man's discovery of his own humanity and ability for self-sacrifice.
While a lot of the other characters are intriguing to watch, the main focus is Natch, who has been with us from the start. Warning: Spoilers for the first two books. In Infoquake, Natch took his software company to top ratings (often through unscrupulous or malicious means), and in the process got his hands on a powerful program called Multireal that let a person choose particular paths in reality that they wanted to live out. The second book, Multireal, shows the chaos that erupts as political, military and private factions all vie to gain control over Natch and the program he possesses. In Geosynchron, Natch gets the chance to see how each tiny choice in life can have enormous consequences, and, while undergoing his own soul-searching adventure, becomes the final arbitrator in determining whether humanity is ready for the responsibility of choosing its own future.
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David Louis Edelman
Edelman certainly has some fun with his characters. Quell is one I enjoyed reading whenever he popped up, often wreaking violence and havoc. The overall society, full of black code weaponry, Creeds and low-tech factions is fascinating and involved. The story whisks you from orbital prisons all the way down to the depths of a fractured human mind. It is a pell-mell dash from start to finish, and you'll hardly get a chance to breathe along the way. The ending, when it comes, makes you look back over the course of the entire series and wonder how it might've all turned out differently if some of the characters had just chosen different paths from the start. The ending fits, but recognize that your taste for conclusions is going to determine whether you read it as a happy one or not.
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