The Fortunate Fall

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.

Maya Andreyeva is a reporter on the Net?a "camera." Everything she sees, hears or feels is immediately broadcast to millions. Now she's got a handle on the story of a lifetime, the government-led coverup of a series of massacres. Urged on by her mysterious new partner, Keishi Mirabara, the wired technician in charge of editing her broadcasts for public consumption, Maya seeks an interview with Pavel Voskresenye, a survivor of one of the massacres. She finds, however, that she has put her life at risk simply by contacting Pavel, because he is also being sought by the Weavers, the all-powerful Net police. Carter's repressive future Earth is a strange place. The U.S. lies in near ruins after a failed attempt at world domination. And in this world where virtual reality makes almost everything possible, it's hard to be certain of anything. Like many first novels, Carter's suffers from occasional problems of pacing and structure. Even so, this highly literate, grim and gripping example of latter-day cyberpunk counts as one of the most promising SF debuts in recent years.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A future historical concerned with virtual reality, computer networks, war crimes, and mind control, set in 23rd-century Russia. At one time most of the northern hemisphere was controlled by the fascist Guardians, who slaughtered millions in pursuit of unguessable goals. But then the Net developed a program that plugged into human brains, turning them into the unstoppable, robot-slave Unanimous Army; millions more died before the Guardians were extirpated. Now, Maya Tatyanichna Andreyeva is a ``camera,'' implanted with broadcasting equipment that provides her audience with full sensory virtual reality of everything she experiences; her new on-line editor, researcher, and gofer is Keishi Mirabara. While presenting a series about the atrocities committed by the Guardians, Maya contacts the ancient, crippled scientist Pavel Voskresenye, once a dissident, then a victim of Guardian experiments that left him sharing his mind with that of a whale-- the last whale on Earth. Maya's emotions and memories have been suppressed in punishment for a crime she can't remember having committed; drawn deeper and deeper into Pavel's murky world, she learns that he intends to destroy the repressive Weavers, who control the Net. And there will be further shocks for Maya when she recovers her memories and discovers who Keishi is. A stunningly imagined and developed backdrop, with three hardworking characters, one plot absurdity (the impossible whale), and a flatfooted, tedious chunk of exposition to finish up. All in all, though, an assured, noteworthy, auspicious debut. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In one of the most brilliant sf debuts in years, Carter offers an unforgettably original vision of the news media's future in cyberspace broadcasting. Maya Andreyeva is a "camera" ; that is, she is wired with microchips and nanobugs to transmit her on-the-scene reports, with complete input from all five senses, to a global audience. Viewers equipped with "moistdisk" can even read her thoughts, which is why Maya needs Keishi, a "screener," who edits out unwanted memories and feelings. Besides the immediate psychic intimacy of their relationship, Keishi quickly discovers Maya's secret: a 10-year memory shield slapped in place by Net police in punishment for Maya's previous life of crime. Unfortunately, those same 10 years, into which Maya must eventually delve somehow, also contain the secrets behind a story she and Keishi are investigating about a genocidal massacre that rivals the Holocaust. Carter's vision of a twenty-fourth century dominated by intelligence-enhancing microchips and twisted political ideologies is as breathtakingly imaginative as the accompanying story line is gripping. A mind-boggler than ranks with Gibson's Neuromancer and Stephenson's Snow Crash as one of the best novels about virtual reality. Carl Hays