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The Fortunate Fall

The Fortunate Fall is another book about the "wired world" in the future, but unlike some of the other such books I've read recently this one takes place almost entirely in the physical world, and only briefly in "cyberspace". Since this effectively forces the novel to focus on how people use the technology, rather than the nature of the technology itself, I found this made the novel more viscerally enjoyable.

Maya Andreyeva is a woman who's been wired as a "Camera"; she can transmit images and sensations she experiences over the network, and she's employed to this end for a news network. She lives in 23rd century Russia, a vaguely totalitarian regime (though the actual ruling authority is not really identified) rife with behavior-police, both on and off the net. This future Russia's development was strongly influenced by its occupation a generation earlier by the fascist-seeming Guardians (who are strongly hinted as being the US-led Western powers), and its subsequent liberation by the Unanimous Army, a worldwide phenomenon which was essentially a computer virus which took over the minds of various wired individuals and forced them to set out to surgically bring other individuals under the Army's control. (The Army is reminiscent of Star Trek's Borg, and the Comprise from Michael Swanwick's Vacuum Flowers.)

Maya's story becomes more complex when Keishi Mirabara her "screener" - the person who filters out the Camera's broadcast to remove undesirable or irrelevant elements - turns out to be in love with her. Keishi also turns out to be an ace hacker who is able to use Maya's implanted hardware as she wishes, effectively meaning that Maya has no secrets from her. Maya's investigation leads her to Pavel Voskresenye, an old soldier who had helped rebel against the Guardians, and who has been conducting his own subtle rebellion against the current regime for several decades.

The book's themes focus mainly on the efforts of Maya (and others in society, more generally) to preserve their privacy, and on Voskresenye's notions of intellectual and personal freedom. And in the end, another wrench is thrown in the works when Keishi is revealed to be the virtual persona of Maya's late lover. (This last seems a bit unnecessary and disingenuous, I felt.) Much of the book's emotional power comes from the fact that Maya is largely a pawn in Voskresenye's and Keishi's plans, and the largely isolated environment in which Maya lives (there are no major characters other than these three). This might be unbearable were Carter not so adept at expressing Maya's thoughts and feelings, which opens up the book's world a lot more than might otherwise have been.

The Fortunate Fall is a bit more of a polemic than an adventure, which is by no means a bad thing. Given that it is so strongly rooted in the contrast of different philosophies, I think it suffers somewhat from the rather abrupt ending (all plans of the characters are set in motion, but we see nothing of their results and aftermath). Nonetheless, it's well worth reading.