From the acclaimed author of The Fortunate Fall comes a soaring novel of queer hope and transformation, perfect for readers of Ann Leckie and Amal El-Mohtar
Humanity has scattered around the universe, in fits and starts.
On hostile planets, isolated groups of settlers eke out hardscrabble lives, second class citizens to the network of massive ships who mark their only link to the greater galaxy. John, a doctor from one of these outlying worlds, and Sudharma, his distressingly handsome Jain translator companion, find a world of absurd alien biologies that dazzle the mind… and utterly backwards people.
John's homeworld developed a communal, matriarchal society to cope with their deadly surroundings, but here, he can't even go for a walk with a woman without provoking public comment from the powerful religious authorities. His very survival is dependent on maintaining his status amongst this closed, unwelcoming group whose future is not guaranteed, with terrifying Earth, under the thumb of the "aiyi", developing a looming, alien presence and threatening them all.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Cameron Reed is a science fiction writer and the winner of the 1998 Otherwise Award (then the James Tiptree, Jr. Award). She is an avid dragonfly-watcher, a moderately skilled insect photographer, and a hopeless birder. After a long and complicated path through gender, she has come to rest as a nonbinary trans woman and uses the pronouns she or they. She lives with her found family in an old duplex full of books and cats.
Praise for The Fortunate Fall:
"Heartbreakingly beautiful…prose as rich and textured as the characters and society it describes. [Cameron Reed] combines William Gibson's dazzling talent for technological extrapolation with Theodore Sturgeon's unerring knowledge of the human heart." -Susan Palwick
"The voice of The Fortunate Fall is by turns ironic and vulnerable, clear and strong." -Maureen McHugh, author of China Mountain Zhang
"Vibrant, sweet, and tragic, The Fortunate Fall is a tailored virus that rewrote some of my code….Attempts impossible things and succeeds brilliantly."-Jonathan Lethem, author of Gun, with Occasional Music
"The best novel about wired culture since the SF debut of Neal Stephenson."-Lisa Goldstein
"Confrontations reminiscent to me of nothing so much as the 'Grand Inquisitor' sections of The Brothers Karamazov… it isn't often that we find a book which tackles dead-on the central conflicts between personal and political life, not to mention the question of the nature of the soul. Complex, strong and ambitious."-Suzy McKee Charnas, author of The Furies
"If there's a better first novel published this year, I'll eat my hard drive."-Emma Bull
"As good as books get." -Jo Walton
"A stunningly imagined and developed backdrop … an assured, noteworthy, auspicious debut." -Kirkus
"This highly literate, grim and gripping example of latter-day cyberpunk counts as one of the most promising SF debuts in recent years." -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"'Warm and human even as it's post human,' as Jo Walton observes in her introduction, Reed's remarkable debut skillfully blends mind-bending speculation with riveting intrigue, alluring romance and harrowing drama, set in a prescient de-souled future."-Library Journal, starred review
"One of the most brilliant sf debuts in years" -Booklist
