Customer Reviews

A Fire in the Sun

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This sequel to When Gravity Fails finds former lowlife gumshoe Marid Audran suddenly becoming the right-hand man of futuristic Cairo's godfather, Friedlander Bey. Marid's transition from near-destitute scum to wealthy and powerful is more than a little awkward for him, since he had always prided himself on his independence. It's also somewhat awkward for the reader, since after a while, it gets old watching him get treated like a marionette. Friedlander Bey reorders Marid's world to separate him from his former friends and life by placing him on the police force, giving him his friend's bar, and giving him a Christian slave. Of course, you can't really refuse gifts from Friedlander Bey, so Marid toils at his job investigating various intrigues against his master. Thus, even more so than in the first book, he's the reluctant hero with a conscience of sorts.

The story starts with Marid in Algiers, searching for his mother and his roots. It doesn't quite work out as well as expected, and soon he's back in Cairo under the thumb of Friedlander Bey, working for the police, running around trying to figure out who's murdering little children and prostitutes. The killings may or may not be linked to Abu Adil, a rival to Friedlander Bey, but Marid doesn't really get going until an obviously corrupt officer keeps thwarting him and his reluctant partner gets killed. This element gets a little hokey, as his relationship with the partner goes through all the phases familiar to us from buddy-cop movies. The action gets a little convoluted as Marid bounces around, and the setting's novelty isn't as compelling as in the first book. Still, it's an interesting mix of Chandler and Dick, and if you like it, you should definitely check out Jonathan Lethem's Gun, With Occasional Music. Followed by The Exile Kiss.

The 3 books (so far) of the Audran series are some of the best SF that has been available in recent years. Sadly often a mix of bargain bin chance find or out of print& unobtainable it can be very difficult to get hold of them, but when you do the satisfaction is all the greater.

The premise behind the series is brilliant. It places the characters in a cyberpunkesque middle east landscape but rather than in the course of one book turning characters into world beating superheroes - the characters remain grounded in an often seedy but very consistent universe. There are real shades here of Phiip K Dick at his best. It may not be SF for juveniles (wish fulfillment if any is darker and a lot more adult).

People in this series spend much of their time doing very human things (evasion of reality & difficult questions through drink, drugs or media being the most common). These books certainly live up to one valuable SF trend of holding a mirror to current daily life.

This book is the second in a series of books (3 so far) about Marid Audran. In this book, he searches for his past while trying to stay alive as a cop, investigating strings of murders... The excellent blend of cyberpunk technology, mystery, and action make it a great story, and I have read it 5 or 6 times so far.

If you read the first one and loved it, that's good, but don't expect too much of the same from this one. Its a good book don't get me wrong, but it doesn't live up to the fun and intrigue of the first. The biggest issue is much of the mystery of the Budayeen has been taken out, because Marid rarely gets to frequent the place anymore. Alot of this stuff takes place in Frielander Bey's home which is not nearly as interesting. There's more political action in this, but for me that's not as much fun as the grim noir of the first one. Its still worth reading because it does shine in moments, especially in the opening sequence. Just stomach through the first half and you'll be rewarded when the story starts picking up.

In the twenty-second century, private detective Marid Audran wonders if he gave up too much of his independence when he agreed to delete the adjective private from his occupation and work exclusively for two century old Budayeen kingpin Friedlander Bey. Marid lives much better as the pay is excellent compared to the scraps he earned before he became Bey's man, but he feels guilty, having sold out to the system, dropped all his former friends to become a "cop" with a Christian slave Kmuzu.

Taking time off though still on call Marid travels to the Mauretania region of Algeria looking for his family especially information on his North American mother Angel Monroe. However that proves a big bust though he meets her so he quickly returns to Budayeen to investigate the gruesome cases of someone mutilating and murdering children and prostitutes. Having experience with a serial killer (see WHEN GRAVITY FAILS), he feels he can stop the culprit though clues lead to Bey's dangerous and powerful rival Abu Adil and an unwanted partner is fostered on him.

This is an intriguing sequel that combines elements of an urban noir inside a futuristic science fiction. The story line is action-packed from the moment Marid returns to the Budayeen following his disappointment upon meeting his mom and never slows down until he confronts the killer, but unlike the first tale, WHEN GRAVITY FAILS, the investigation takes away from rather than enhances the twenty-second century ambience. Still this is a fine who-done-it starring an interesting protagonist whose conscience never lets him fully relish his rise in materialism at the cost of his freedom.

Harriet Klausner

The narrative in 'When Gravity Fails' is uneven; Marid in particular is supposed to be a relatively uneducated son of a prostitute, yet he compares himself to Hamlet. Eh?

'A Fire in the Sun makes no pretensions and slips like that. It is the fully contained story of Marid's struggle between his old life of the Buyadeen hustler, and the new life in "Papa" Friedlander Bey's employ. No background or further reading are required.

This book is better than both "When Gravity Fails" and "The Exile Kiss". I'll go as far as to say that it's almost criminally obscure and is one heck of a read.

Effinger often makes a point of the supposed paradox between religion and reality; in this case he chooses Islam, in part for its beauty and depth, but also in part because 'A Fire in the Sun' could happen nowhere else. It doesn't detract from the book and only pushes it higher in the ratings.

Anyone interested in a story with heartbreaking reality behind slick lines should read this one.

As mentioned, this is the second book in a (currently) three book series. Sadly, there won't be a fourth, as George Alec Effinger died last year. It looks like we'll get a taste of it, with "Budayeen Nights" being due in September 2003. From what I've read, this is a collection of short stories and is not the 4th novel we've been waiting for.

In this book, Marid works as a policeman in the Budayeen (a walled portion in an anonymous Islamic city, where pretty much anything goes) and making sure that his patron's interests within the police are taken care of. At it's heart, like the first book, it's a mystery...but one with a colorful (to say the least) cast of characters. There is a focus on cybernetics, landing the book squarely in the cyberpunk sci-fi genre, but the electronic gizmos are not the focus of the story. The levels of sex and drug use, and to a slightly lesser extent the violence, in these books is astounding but I don't feel it took anything away from the story.

Whereas Gravity Fails was a generic exposé of gritty life in a gritty Arab city, Fire in the Sun is detailed depiction of the mafia-esque underworld controlling the streets, the businesses, the law enforcement and, ultimately, the peoples' lives. Effinger has seemingly fine tuned the broader plot theme to hone in on the natural spectrum which the Budayeen intrinsically offers. There are less bar scenes yet more one-on-one scenes, there is less drug use yet an increase in moddie (modification which control mood, emotion and personality) and daddie (modifications which allow the user peripheral ability) usage, and there is less detailed grit yet there is a finer resolution of the once familiar sleaze in the Budayeen.

Gravity Fails left the reader at a spacious conclusion ripe to be written into a sequel. I had a mix of impressions from Gravity (blatant, unabashed grittiness at the cost of some finer prose versus the uniqueness of the environment) and felt that Effinger had a difficult task ahead of himself to write a decent sequel (as most books are prone to this same failure). But even in the opening pages of Fire, I was struck by the maturity of the writing and the true attempt to weave pivotal character development throughout the already richly woven tapestry from Gravity. Most of Fire is a gradual increase in design entropy; interactions become entwined, the cast becomes embroiled in strife and naturally Madríd Audran must sift through the complexity of the mafia-esque underworld to reveal to himself the true scope of the delicateness of the interdependency.

But one flaw through the novel is also one found in Gravity- that of randomly dropped-in scenes with nonessential characters, which find themselves quickly out of the limelight and never referred to again in the greater context of the plot. It's almost like Effinger has a set of supporting cast and also a stash of silly inhabitants which add nothing but comic relief.

Speaking of comic relief, I found myself giggling (umm, maybe grinning widely while silently chuckling to myself) during some scenes when Madríd Audran displays a keen wit and Effinger lets loose his exceptional observational skills. One part had me literally guffaw aloud: `...her lips looked like she bought them first and forgot to put them in the refrigerator while she shopped for the rest of her face.' Lovely piece of description that is! There are a number of gems like this which had me close my eyes to visualize Effinger's unique talent of textural conveyance.

With a rich cast, detailed social interworking, impressive cityscape and unique inclusion of the moddies and daddies, Fire in the Sun is like a boxer with a steady stream of jabs, continually keeping you alert to the nuances of change. Only during the occasional changes do you realize that the steadiness isn't as steady as you once thought, but you continue to think to yourself that regardless of the tempo change, you can still regard this piece of sci-fi as one and in itself! Its flaws almost characterize it (almost, almost)!

Broke, independent and criminal maybe better than ok, cop and beholden.

Marid is now basically working for the local crimelord, and doing what he is told, even if reluctantly.

This leads him to becoming a cop, and, of course, investigating people that his de facto boss would like investigated.

So, a dodgy cop story with a protagonist that doesn't want to be one.

3 out of 5

The primary focus of this work in the "Marid Trilogy" is the maturation of Marid. We still have the wonderful setting of the Budayeen and the cyberpunk idea of cerebral augmentation but this is really a character piece.

Marid is forced to mature in this book by essentially being surrounded by enemies on all sides. His support structure is ruptured totally by the loss of the friendship of Chirigi when he is given her club by Friedlander Bey and his sole remaining "friend" is a slave given him by Bey to spy on Marid. The rest of his former associates had long since cut him off for becoming a cop, a minion of Bey, and his violence in bringing the previous murderers to justice.

Marid grows in this novel, slowly repairing his family and friend connections as he realizes he is surrounded by various levels of evil on all sides. A crooked supervisor at the police station and a generally crooked police force, the evil of two minor kingpins, one of whom is his benefactor, and the general evil of drug-dealers, assassins and the general hopelessness of those in the lowest economic stratum. Through this Marid tries to find a way to do what is necessary to survive and provide what is demanded of him while remaining as clean as possible.

The plot is slow-paced, as I found When Gravity Fails to be, and focuses on Marid's pursuit of the killer of his partner who apparently is being hidden by very powerful forces in the city. In the midst of his investigation he realizes the level of evil that his benefactor and the rival crime-lord have sunk to. Minor plot points involve his relationship with his mother, and other familial plots such as the alleged daughter/granddaughter of Friedlander Bey.

Where the wonder of the first novel is lessened due to familiarity, the greater depth of characterisation in this book makes it at least equal if not a better effort.