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Overview
Marid Audran has become everything he once despised. Not so long ago, he was a hustler in the Budayeen, an Arabian ghetto in a Balkanized future Earth. Back then, as often as not, he didn't have the money to buy himself a drink. But he had his independence.
Now Marid works for Friedlander Bey, "godfather" of the Budayeen, a man whose power stretches across a shattered, crumbling world. During the day, Marid is a policeman…and Bey's personal envoy to the police. His new position has brought him money and power which he would abandon in a moment if he could return to a life of neither owning nor being owned. Which, unfortunately, isn't one of his options.
It's also not an issue. For something dark is afoot. Something that is sending the city into chaos. Helping a child-mutilator to avoid arrest. Sending a killer to murder Marid's partner. Murdering prostitutes and savaging their remains. Signs point to the hand of Abu Adil—the one man in the city whose power rivals Friedlander Bey's. Whatever happens next, it's not going to be good news for Marid Audran…
Synopsis
The classic sequel to When Gravity Fails
Library Journal
Once a hustler in the Budayeen, a crowded Arabian region in a Balkanized Earth, Marid Audran now works for Friedlander Bey, the sector's "godfather," serving as his contact within the police department. Despite his discontent at losing his freedom in return for a life of relative luxury, Audran responds to the need for order in a world grown daily more chaotic. When his partner and friend Shaknayi is murdered, Audran springs into action as he attempts to track a murderous force all the way into the underworld of power within the Budayeen. This sequel to When Gravity Fails provides a much-needed look into the culture of the Middle East, emphasizing its common ground with the rest of a world that stands on the brink of deconstruction. Effinger's likably flawed hero inhabits a vivid, street-smart world of readily available cybertechnology that is both exotic and familiar. A good addition to most sf collections. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Since his premature death, George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) has become a science fiction legend, recognized as a master of cyberpunk noir, perhaps best exemplified in this classic 1989 novel about hustler/cop Marid Audran. Fellow author George R. R. Martin described Effinger's Audran stories as "wry and black and savage….there's a knife behind every smile." With their garish characters and cybernetic implants, his novels stake out a surreal terrain all their own.From the Publisher
"A major science fiction epic." —Locus on A Fire In the Sun"A Fire In the Sun proves beyond any doubt that Effinger is a master."—Mike Resnick"Like a dive into the eye of a storm."—The Washington Post Book World on When Gravity Fails