★The Fortunate Fall. Cameron Reed. Tor. Aug. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250326690. pap. $19.99. F

Out of print since 1996 (at which time it was credited to Raphael Carter), Reed’s captivating cult classic post-cyberpunk masterpiece is restored to its rightful place in the science fiction pantheon. Maya Andreyeva is a “camera,” a journalist of the telepathically hyperlinked 24th century whose lived experiences are broadcast live into the consciousness of millions. Pursuing a risky investigation of historic genocides, the most recent of which is curiously the least remembered, Maya is assigned a hotshot young editorial “screener,” Keishi Mirabara, who seems a bit too eager to set up shop in the cranium of a suspicious Mara. Sparks and banter fly as the pair evade thought police to track down a reclusive survivor of one death camp franchise (“a uniquely American approach to holocaust, a sort of ‘McGulag’”), leading to startling revelations within and beyond Mara’s mind. Reed’s painstaking and elaborate worldbuilding is breathtaking yet intuitively sound, replete with artful coinages and believable technology, and sauced with telling metaphors. VERDICT “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.