Cameron Reed

Today, we have a substantial, two-chapter excerpt from What We Are Seeking, the “soaring novel of queer hope and transformation” by Cameron Reed. Pitched as “perfect for readers of Ann Leckie and Amal El-Mohtar”, I think a lot of people are going to like this. Here’s the synopsis:

On the planet Scythia, plants give birth to insects and trees can drag you to your death. Artificial monsters stalk the desert, and alien basket-men have wandered into town.

John Maraintha has been abandoned here, light-years from the peaceful forests that he loves.

The desert is harsh and the people in thrall to a barbaric custom called marriage.

He must find some way to make a life here.

But on Scythia, survival means transformation — and not everyone is willing to change.

And now, on with the excerpt…

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This summer, Tor Books are due to publish the new, Essentials edition of The Fortunate Fall, Cameron Reed‘s debut novel. This edition also marks the book’s return to print after a few decades. With a new introduction by Jo Walton, this looks like a perfect way to (re)visit this classic science fiction novel. To celebrate the upcoming release, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share. Before we get to that, though, here’s the synopsis:

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.

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