Reviews

The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed

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radishark's review against another edition

5.0

the text felt pretty hard to get through and i didn't understand the setting at first, but i eventually got around to appreciating the beautiful language and the worldbuilding! even though this was originally published in 1996, i found the scifi elements still absolutely believable. the book deals heavily with the consequences of a world that lives more in the digital realm than the physical and a tragic lesbian romance. unfortunately, it's pretty hard to get a hold of this book and it's the author's only novel.

and since this is something people do, i will add a quote that i particularly liked

'There will be no whales.'
'But we need them,' I said.
'We need them? Is that the best reason you can come up with?' He laughed, a rasping, mechanical sound. 'The kings of the ocean are gone, and what is our argument for their return? We need them? We? Their murderers? The ones that made the water bitter in their mouths, and killed the food they ate? The ones that made the ocean boil red with their blood for miles around? Men need them? Those vermin? Those stinging insects? Struggling pustulent humanity—needs them? Do you think a whale cares? You might as well need the sun to rise at midnight because you're feeling a bit chilly. Yes, of course, certainly we need them. But the question is, do we deserve them?'

cskot's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

gracklesflying's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.25

I was struggling with this book in the beginning, but I had read so many good reviews that I kept going and it was so worth it. The final 100 pages are honestly kind of incredible, pulling together all of the small amounts of world building into an ending that just leaved me wordless.

the speech Voskresenye gives to Maya towards the end is so long yet so good

ambience's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

2.0

librarybean's review against another edition

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3.0

I don’t know what to make of this book. I thought the technology was really cool and the setting, but I finished the story and I don’t really know what the plot was trying to convey? I feel like this went over my head in a lot of ways, so maybe I will revisit it again sometime in the future. I really enjoyed the writing style and pacing was good.