Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed!
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 13th August 2024
Goodreads
A debut novel of remarkable beauty and invention, The Fortunate Fall is back in print for the first time in almost three decades as a Tor Essential, with a new introduction by Jo Walton
Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure.
On its first publication in 1996, The Fortunate Fall was hailed as an SF novel of a wired future on par with the debuts of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. Now it returns to print, in advance of forthcoming new work by the same author. It is one of the great underground classics of the last several decades in SF.
Maya Andreyeva is a "camera," a reporter with virtual-reality-broadcasting equipment implanted in her brain. What she sees, millions see; what she feels, millions share.
And what Maya is seeing is the cover-up of a massacre. As she probes into the covert political power plays of a radically strange near-future Russia, she comes upon secrets that have been hidden from the world...and memories that AI-controlled thought police have forced her to hide from herself. Because in a world where no thought or desire is safe, the price of survival is betrayal - of your lover, your ideals, and yourself.
This new Tor Essentials edition of The Fortunate Fall includes a new introduction by Jo Walton, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.
I didn’t read The Fortunate Fall when it was first published – I was all of three years old at the time! – but we’re getting a new edition next week, and I am VERY glad, because I don’t know if I’d ever have come across it otherwise!
And that would clearly be a shame, because it sounds amazing. Especially since it was written decades before vloggers became a thing! (Vlogging being the closest comparison to being a camera-reporter that I can come up with.) It is always incredibly cool to me to see fiction that predicted the future!
Since Tor announced the reprint, I’ve seen so many recommendations for Fortunate Fall, heard so much praise for it: it’s been called the quintessential cyberpunk novel in my hearing, which is exciting, and I’ve been promised excellent worldbuilding and massive twists and turns. Plus, it’s a queer love story – I think the MC is a worman in love with another woman, and I’ve even seen mentions of some kind of nonbinary rep?! I didn’t look into that too much because I want to avoid spoilers, but EEE!
Fair warning: Fortunate Fall is also, apparently, a ‘feelbad’ book. Not 100% what that means, but I think it’s safe to assume this won’t be all sparkles and rainbows. Which I had inferred from the blurb, but it might be that we’re looking at the sci fi equivalent of grimdark here…
I still want to read it, though: I checked out the sample on the book’s Big River page and was hooked immediately. And if you’ve hung around here for any length of time, you know how obsessively picky I am about prose! But Reed’s writing is gorgeous, and I must have more of it. Ultimately it’s as simple as that!
Did you read the original edition? Are you interested in reading the new one? Let me know!
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