WHEN GRAVITY FAILS

by George Alec Effinger

Book Overview

In a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hardway. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he's available...for a price. For a new kind of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055325555X
• Release Date: December 1987
• Publisher: Spectra
• Length: 289 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Step aside, Gibson.

For my money, this is the definitive work of the cyberpunk genre. All the classic elements are there: just-beyond tomorrow technology, drugs, sex, and a casual disdain for human life. Style is far more important than substance, as eloquently expressed in the form of moddies, jackable personality recordings that make you whomever you want to be. Hard, objective truth is by turns an inconvenience or a victim to practicality and hypocrisy.The two most engaging things about this novel are, in fact, the two things that should stand out in any novel: the characters and the setting. Most often in scifi these both take a back seat to technology. In "Gravity", the technology exists only to enhance the characters, as we see how they use (and abuse) its capabilities. Best of all, Effinger captures the film noir quality of cyberpunk with style and elegance. The good guys might win, but it is a pyrrhic victory.If you're looking for the feel-good hit of the summer, take a pass on this one. If you want a novel with style, grit, and integrity (and not a little cynicism), this is an excellent choice.

OOP but still a classic SF thriller worth chasing down

George Alec Effinger wrote three books about Marid Audran, a private investigator living in the Budayeen, the red light district of an unnamed Arab country in the 23rd century (but in actuality modeled on the French quarter in New Orleans, where Effinger lived). When Gravity Fails is the first of the three books, which introduce us to Marid, who was raised in Algeria by his mother, an Algerian prostitute, and who never knew his French father. Considered a barbarian north african by the Arabs in his city, Marid lives on the fringes among the drug dealers and users, and the strippers, protitutes, sex changes and outcasts that live just outside the law, working as a private detective when he can find a client. Marid prides himself on being unwired, that is, unlike most residents of the Budayeen, Marid has not adapted his brain to accept personality modules, or Moddies, or add-ons, better known as Daddies. Nor does Marid work or live under the largesse or protection of Friedlander Bey, better known as Papa, who controls most the business, legitimate or otherwise, in the Budayeen.When a client is killed in front of Marid's eyes and Marid's acquaintances start dying horrible deaths, Marid is drawn into an uneasy alliance with both the police, whom he does not trust, and Papa, to whom he does not want to be beholden.Effinger has created a world that is unlike most science fiction books, keeping the actual science light, and letting us believe that this is how the Arab world might be in the 23rd century, with not much changed except a bit of technology. Effinger offers both an interesting who and why-dunnit, while examining the issues of faith and identity. Is Marid, a heavy drug and alcohol user who lives by his own code and is committed neither to Allah nor any other human, the faithful one, or is it Papa, who kills and extorts in the name of business but who faithfully prays 5 times a day? What is it like to be an outsider, and how do you find yourself?This book is sadly out of print, but easily available used on the internet. Still compelling after all this time and well worth tracking down.

Or how Islam went cyberpunk

Effinger has created what might at first seem an impossibility -- a cyberpunk, film noir murder mystery set in the Middle East. Where is the Budayeen? That's not important (although from references it seems to be near Egypt); what is important is the characters. The people, from Audran to Papa to Half-Hajj all fit in this world. You know what they look like, feel like, smell like, and if ever they act out of character you know something is wrong. This is a world of shadows and sand, one where there is trickery and deceit around every corner. The mullahs call you to prayer and people wire their brains to alter their personalities. Life is cheap, sex is cheaper, and everyone has to look out for himself. There is nothing heavy-handed in the way Effinger puts this together. He is stylish without being self-conscious. You will be drawn in and only want to read more about this world he has created. This is a fantastic book.

The Arabian Nights meet Cyberpunk

A unique and original work that is part science fiction and part mystery, and is a novel worthy of many reprintings. Effinger has done his homework as he depicts a city (called the Budayeen) that recalls the days of Euro-French colonization in Arab-Berber North Africa, where millions of denizens lived in Casbahs from Casablanca to Tunis. The truly international flavor, intrigue, and cyberpunk technology conjure up a realm that is more magical then the Baghdad of a thousand years ago. Truly a landmark Sci-Fi novel worthy of recognition and the status of being referred to as a classic.

A decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death.

Marid Audran has kept his independence and his identity the hard way. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he is available.....for a price. For a new kind or killer roams the streets of the decadent Aribic ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. The 2 hundred year old godfather of crime in the Budayeen has enlisted Marid as his insturment of vengeance. But first Marid must undergo the most sophisicated of surgical implants before he dares to stop a killer with the powers of every psychopath since the beginning of time I thought this book was fantastic, there is a sieres of books centered around this character, but most of them are hard to find. If you are lucky enough to find them, do so.