Product Description
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. "Gripping. . . . One of the most promising SF debuts in recent years."--Publisher's Weekly starred review.Amazon.com Review
In 23rd-century Russia, where the "Net" is at once a sourceof freedom and a means of control, Maya Andreyeva is the perfect reporter.The chips hardwired into her brain allow her to detail not only what she seesbut what she hears, tastes, smells, and feels, all in resonant virtualreality. When clues turn up pointing to a massacre and a cover-up, Maya,the ultimate journalist, is compelled find the truth. Along the way shediscovers answers not only to the puzzle she has set out to solve, but tosecrets about her own life. At the same time, author Raphael Carter providesa compelling and chilling story that also raises serious questions about suchissues as homophobia and censorship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Impressive first work that joins the ranks of Gibson, Stephenson, Sterling, et al.
For you William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, & Neil Stephenson fans, I have a book to recommend. I know, I know: you've seen this and that book touted as the next Gibson or the next Stephenson, yadda yadda. Well, it's not the next anything, but his own work, and he's damned good. The book is The Fortunate Fall, by Raphael Carter, and it will hack your backbrain the way the Neuromancer trilogy, Virtual Light, or Snow Crash did. I've been trying to get through Gibson's 'Virtual Light' for more than 6 months now and keep setting it aside out of boredom and frustration. 'The Fortunate Fall' took me two days and that's only because I forced myself to slow down and savor it. You might say 'Fortunate Fall' is the book 'Virtual Light' would like to be. In any case, if you enjoy post-cyber-fi that makes you think about the world in new ways, snag a copy of 'The Fortunate Fall.'

So little. but so good....
Raphael Carter shows incredible potential in his debut novel, published in 1996, but where is the sequel or prequel!

An enormous dark world springs into life on the pages of "The Fortunate Fall", leaving this reader wanting much more, I first read this book (not much more then a novellete)3 - 4 years ago, and like all great sci-fi does, it stuck with me, but after re-reading, and finding it just as good (I think the third time) as the 1st, I was much disappointed to find that there is no follow up work.

I too felt that the geekness of this dark and forbidding place was much better technically then Gibson, but then again Gibson himself has stated often that he was not much into tech when wrote his seminal work Neourmancer.I especiallly like the plugs and sockets described in this book, and you need no go further then recent headlines news (May, 2002) describing how rats brains have been hardwired (cabled!) in experiments aimed at creating remote "camera's" how prophetic can you be?

I love grand epics, like Julian Mays classic series, but this was is a great little book.

Very disappointing
I agree with one of the other reviewers 'ambivalent' is what I feel about this book.I was left confused and wanting to know (and understand) more about the background/social/political/cultural aspects of Earth in the 23rd century.I felt like I was reading a sequel and I was just supposed to know all about it already.

There's really no action and the last 30-40 pages are a long dialogue explaining the motives of all the characters and the basic plot.Then it cuts off dramatically with not even an epilogue.

It was interesting at times, the writing was good and the plot fairly original but it just didn't do anything for me.

Brilliant Post-Cyberbunk Debut Novel
This is really, really, good. Set in the 23rd century, the Russian narrator (Maya) is a telepresence "camera": she"witnesses" news events, or anything which could be a story, andher total impressions (sensorium, plus memories: the latter includingimplanted memories of research on the subject) are transmitted over the netto her audience, although the output is "screened" by anotherindividual (a "screener") who is totally linked with the camera,and who apparently filters sensitive or personal material, and makes surethat the sensorium output comes through OK (red looks red, stuff likethat). We slowly learn that Maya has a "past" which she cannotremember, because memories of it have been suppressed, and that that pastis related to her love life. We also learn that her world has emerged inrecent decades from the domination of a group called the Guardians, andthat it is now bifurcated into the technologically advanced, but isolated,African continent, and to something called the Fusion of HistoricalNations, which seems to be a shaky reestablishment of roughly 20th centurypolitical boundaries.

Maya's latest story is about some of the key eventsin the liberation of Russia from the Guardians. As she begins her story,her old screener quits and she gets a new one. This new screener isrevealed to have quite remarkable abilities, and also seems to quickly fallin love with Maya, which is difficult for Maya to handle because her sexualemotions are suppressed. Maya and Keishi (the new screener) begin toinvestigate some details of the defeat of the Guardians, details which arefor some reason potentially embarrassing to the "new worldorder". Staying one step ahead of the law, Maya travels across Russiaand through the net in search of an interview with a man who has somesecrets about the Guardians, their successors, and the nature of the worldand the net.

Carter pulls off a number of exciting, brilliant things. Thenature of this new world and its history are carefully and slowly revealed,along with Maya's own past, and the resolution is well integrated, thetragic ending is both a surprise and not a surprise, and is"earned".

The technological and social details of life in theFHN are wonderfully well realized. In many ways, this book is reminiscentof Bruce Sterling in the way future tech and future society are denselyintegrated with the narrative, and seem so possible. The terminology(Postcops, Weavers, greyspace, etc.) is intriguing, and is introduced insuch a way as to seem natural (there are very few lectures), but also bepart of the mysteries which are slowly revealed. The realization of the how"mindlink" technology might really affect the world, and also theimages of cyberspace, are believable and original.

The prose is verygood, mostly clean and elegant, not showy, but occasionally erupting in aptand memorable images. In addition, the story has true momentum: it makesyou want to keep reading. This is a gift that not all good writers have,and it's a great plus.

The book falls slightly short in a couple of areas(mere quibbles, really). Much of the second half of the book is a longnarrative by the interview subject, and this method of telling the storyseemed to me to create a bit of disconnectness. The story really has twoprotagonists, Maya and Voskrosenye (the interviewee), and their stories arewell integrated, but still there is a slight slackening in that the twostories (Maya's personal one, and the story of the nature of Maya's world,which is mostly told through Voskrosenye) don't quite end in synch. Also,the Guardians are a bit stock as villains (though to be sure they are notthe only villains). And I thought Maya's original crime was, well, notlikely to be such a crime in the 23rd century. But I could be wrong aboutthat.

This book really provokes thought. One virtue is that much isimplied and never told, and we have a sense of a whole fascinatingunderpinning to this world (such as what the African culture is reallylike) which is hinted at but not explained. Also, the main themes of guiltand personal responsibility are well handled, and there is some very goodstuff about the nature of love, and the nature of love on the net, or inCyberspace, or whatever.

A Remarkable Debut
I don't think I've seen a first novel written with this sort of authority in the past 10 years.Mr. Carter seems to have mastered the art of wrapping hypothetical technology into storytelling without ever having doneit before.

Still, it's not a perfect book.The price is obscene for apaperback.The writer has perhaps too much confidence in himself, and inthe reader's willingness to trust him for some tens of pages while verylittle happens, although that very little happens very entertainingly.

Iforesee too possible pals for Mr. Carter: either he will be one of the mostpromising writers to emerge from the last decade, or he will listen to hardto the plaudits of the letter writing who do not care whether a story istold as long as it is told with the sort of sentence-by sentence-artistrythat Mr. Carter appears to have been born having mastered. ... Read more

Product Description
Final anthology in the series of original science fiction stories. This volume includes: "Making Light" by James P. Hogan, "Horn O'Plenty" by Terry Carr and Leanne Frahm, "Excursion Fare" James Tiptree Jr., "War Movie" by Larry Niven, "Folger's Factor" by L. Neil Smith, "Pelangus" by Rick Raphael, "The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds" by Paul A. Carter, "The Two Tzaddiks" by Ira Herman, and "Identity Crisis" by James P. Hogan. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: People From Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, James Taylor, Joseph C. Carter, Joseph Raphael de Lamar, Rufus P. Spalding, Edmund C. Weeks, William Madison Wood, Johnny Washbrook, Forbes Smiley, Mandy Grunwald, Thomas Walker, Clarence A. Barnes, John E. White, Henry Marchant, Peter Foulger. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 76. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Carrboro, North Carolina. He owns a home in the Town of Washington, Massachusetts in Berkshire County . A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Baronet, Cheryl Chase, Raphael Carter, Herculine Barbin, Erik Schinegger, Jim Sinclair, Lady Colin Campbell, Eden Atwood, Edinanci Silva, Eva Robin's, Sarah Gronert, Earl Lind, Katherine Connella. Excerpt:Cheryl Chase This article refers to the intersex activist; for the American actress, see Cheryl Chase . Bo Laurent , better known by her pseudonym Cheryl Chase (born August 14, 1956), is an American intersex activist and the founder of the Intersex Society of North America . She began using the names Bo Laurent and Cheryl Chase simultaneously in the 1990s and changed her name legally from Bonnie Sullivan to Bo Laurent in 1995. Early life Chase was born in New Jersey with ambiguous genitalia that baffled doctors. According to the New York Times , her parents originally named her Brian Sullivan , noting that "Chase is XX , and the reason for her intersex condition has never been fully understood." Other sources state her original name was Charlie, since until recently Chase preferred to use pseudonyms when referring to her early life. Chase told Salon she was born with "mixed male/female sex organs" and after the discovery of ovaries and a uterus , a clitoridectomy was performed when she was aged 18 months. Her parents, as advised by doctors, moved to a new town and raised her as a girl, Bonnie Sullivan . Although she had begun speaking before the operation, she fell silent for six months after the operation. She told Salon that she developed ovotestis at age 8 (later clarified as "the testicular part of her ovo-testes"). She found out about the clitorectomy aged 10, and at age 21 succeeded in gaining access to her medical records (some sources say this occurred in her early thirties ). Education and career Chase graduated from MIT with a B.S. in mathemati... ... Read more

Product Description
Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Puig-Aubert, Marc Lièvremont, Daniel Carter, Raphaël Ibañez, Thierry Lacroix, Percy Montgomery, Franck Tournaire, Pierre Pons, Jérôme Fillol, Jérôme Thion, Joseph Pascot, Noël Brazès, Jo Maso, Julien Laharrague, Vincent Debaty, Jean Galia, Dan Luger, Thomas Lièvremont, Camille Montade, Cédric Coll, Nicolas Mas, David Marty, Matthieu Lièvremont, Mike James, Daniel Herbert, Sebastian Bozzi, Damien Chouly, Nicolas Durand, Mick O'driscoll, Grégory le Corvec, Marc Dal Maso, Olivier Olibeau, Chris Cusiter, Perry Freshwater, Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, Sébastien Pettigiani, Ramiro Pez, Joseph Desclaux, Kisi Pulu, Marcel Baillette, Guilhem Guirado, Ludovic Loustau, Florian Cazenave, Bernard Goutta, David Janin, Didier Camberabero, Sébastien Chobet, Christophe Laussucq, Viliami Vaki, Scott Robertson, Eugène Ribère, Guillaume Vilaceca, Christophe Porcu, Lionel Mallier, Ignacio Mieres, Frédéric Cermeno, Henry Tuilagi, Jérôme Schuster, Mathieu Bourret, Thomas Aniès, Laurent Sempéré, Samuel Chinarro, Julien Candelon, Frédéric Trescazes, Manuel Edmonds, Gérald Porical, Mathieu Barrau, Nicolas Laharrague, Bertrand Guiry, Joseph Crespo, André Sanac, Marius Tincu, Christophe Manas, Laurent Arbo, Nathan Hines, Patrick Arlettaz, Jean-Pierre Pérez, Yohann Vivalda, Rimas Álvarez Kairelis, Federico Martín Aramburú, Kevin Boulogne, Georges Coste, Michel Moly, Ovidiu Tonita, Phil Murphy, Andre Snyman, Sylvain Deroeux, Colin Gaston, Gérard Roucariès, Diego Giannantonio, Steve Meyer, Gerrie Britz, Philip Burger, Pascal Bomati, Samueli Naulu, Stéphane de Bésombes, Cédric Rosalen, Jérôme Porical, Raoul Got, Fernand Vaquer, Paul Porical, Alain Macabiau, Louis Carrère, Serge Torreilles, Michel Konieck, Félix Barbe, Gaël Arandiga, Roger Ramis, Jean-F...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: James Taylor, Joseph C. Carter, Joseph Raphael de Lamar, Rufus P. Spalding, Edmund C. Weeks, William Madison Wood, Forbes Smiley, Mandy Grunwald, Thomas Walker, Clarence A. Barnes, John E. White, Henry Marchant, Peter Foulger. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 80. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Carrboro, North Carolina. He owns a home in the Town of Washington, Massachusetts in Berkshire County . A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock ... Read more

Product Description
Will there be peace?Will there be war?Find out with Mundane Astrology.

Here, in one volume, are three classic books on the astrology of nations and states, by H.S. Green, Raphael, and C.E.O. Carter:

H.S. Green organizes his book planet-by-planet.He tells what each planet will do in the 12 houses.

Raphael organizes the topic by house.He tells how mundane houses work when planets are in them.

In addition, both authors deal with solar and lunar eclipses, and earthquakes.Green shows the effects of eclipses in the houses, while Raphael describes them by decanate (10 degree sections of the zodiac). Both mention the effects of comets, although little about these mysterious bodies is known astrologically.

Charles Carter, writing after WWII, discusses why astrologers failed to predict the war and what that means for mundane astrology.His plea for better data has largely been met, but the need for more study remains.

All three authors give astrological rulerships for countries and cities.These are centuries old and are weighted to England and Europe.Carter’s rulers are the most up-to-date.

These are the essential texts for serious study of mundane astrology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mundane Astrology
It could be argued that the three books combined in this volume stands as the 'Old Testament' of moderne mundane astrology. Quite indespensable for the serious student. ... Read more

Product Description
Vintage Astrological Wheels and Books Collection includes:Magnetic Astrological Transit Clock by Pearl Wardell. Has 13 magnetic pieces with it. (can go on a refrigerator or file cabinet) 12" x 14. Planetary Hour Dial by Simplex Publishing Co. Copyrighted 1910-1927. 8.5" x 8.5". Full information on back.Instantaneous Aspectarian by Dorothy B. Hughes, Seattle, WA. 6.5" x 6.5". double-sided.Small book. The Geocentric Longitudes and Declinations of Neptune, Herschel, Saturn, Jupiter, & Mars for the 1st of each Month from 1900 to 2001. By Raphael. Published in England.Small book: The Influence of the Planet Pluto by Elbert Benjamine. Including an Ephemeris of Pluto 1840-1960. Copyright 1939 by The Aries Press, Chicago, IL.The Lunation Cycle - A Key to the understanding of Personality. by Dane Rudhyar. Copyright 1967. Servire - the Hague, The Netherlands. 156 page softcover.The Houses of the Zodiac by Alex Wise. Published by American Federation of Astrologers, Washington, D.C. 1968. Heidleberg, Germany. 72 pages. Staplebound.Essays on The Foundation of Astrology. by Charles E. O. Carter. Special American Edition 1965 printed by Dorothy B. Hughes. Looseleaf in clasped folder. 106 pages.Tables of Diurnal Planetary Motion by National Astrological Library, Washington, D.C. Spiralbound 161 pages. Undated. (typewriter style print indicates 1960's era). ... Read more