Fortunate Fall (Hardcover)

An enormous dark world springs into life on the pages of "The Fortunate Fall", leaving this reader wanting much more, I first read this book (not much more then a novellete) 3 - 4 years ago, and like all great sci-fi does, it stuck with me, but after re-reading, and finding it just as good (I think the third time) as the 1st, I was much disappointed to find that there is no follow up work.

I too felt that the geekness of this dark and forbidding place was much better technically then Gibson, but then again Gibson himself has stated often that he was not much into tech when wrote his seminal work Neourmancer. I especiallly like the plugs and sockets described in this book, and you need no go further then recent headlines news (May, 2002) describing how rats brains have been hardwired (cabled!) in experiments aimed at creating remote "camera's" how prophetic can you be?

I love grand epics, like Julian Mays classic series, but this was is a great little book.

There's really no action and the last 30-40 pages are a long dialogue explaining the motives of all the characters and the basic plot. Then it cuts off dramatically with not even an epilogue.

It was interesting at times, the writing was good and the plot fairly original but it just didn't do anything for me.

Maya's latest story is about some of the key events in the liberation of Russia from the Guardians. As she begins her story, her old screener quits and she gets a new one. This new screener is revealed to have quite remarkable abilities, and also seems to quickly fall in love with Maya, which is difficult for Maya to handle because her sexual emotions are suppressed. Maya and Keishi (the new screener) begin to investigate some details of the defeat of the Guardians, details which are for some reason potentially embarrassing to the "new world order". Staying one step ahead of the law, Maya travels across Russia and through the net in search of an interview with a man who has some secrets about the Guardians, their successors, and the nature of the world and the net.

Carter pulls off a number of exciting, brilliant things. The nature of this new world and its history are carefully and slowly revealed, along with Maya's own past, and the resolution is well integrated, the tragic ending is both a surprise and not a surprise, and is "earned".

The technological and social details of life in the FHN are wonderfully well realized. In many ways, this book is reminiscent of Bruce Sterling in the way future tech and future society are densely integrated with the narrative, and seem so possible. The terminology (Postcops, Weavers, greyspace, etc.) is intriguing, and is introduced in such a way as to seem natural (there are very few lectures), but also be part of the mysteries which are slowly revealed. The realization of the how "mindlink" technology might really affect the world, and also the images of cyberspace, are believable and original.

The prose is very good, mostly clean and elegant, not showy, but occasionally erupting in apt and memorable images. In addition, the story has true momentum: it makes you want to keep reading. This is a gift that not all good writers have, and it's a great plus.

The book falls slightly short in a couple of areas (mere quibbles, really). Much of the second half of the book is a long narrative by the interview subject, and this method of telling the story seemed to me to create a bit of disconnectness. The story really has two protagonists, Maya and Voskrosenye (the interviewee), and their stories are well integrated, but still there is a slight slackening in that the two stories (Maya's personal one, and the story of the nature of Maya's world, which is mostly told through Voskrosenye) don't quite end in synch. Also, the Guardians are a bit stock as villains (though to be sure they are not the only villains). And I thought Maya's original crime was, well, not likely to be such a crime in the 23rd century. But I could be wrong about that.

This book really provokes thought. One virtue is that much is implied and never told, and we have a sense of a whole fascinating underpinning to this world (such as what the African culture is really like) which is hinted at but not explained. Also, the main themes of guilt and personal responsibility are well handled, and there is some very good stuff about the nature of love, and the nature of love on the net, or in Cyberspace, or whatever.