Every now and then again at book group, a book manages to make it through our convoluted voting process against all odds. Which is what I love about our voting process. It is rare that we can say with 100% certainty that X book will win. This selection was a bit of a sleeper. Rob's brought it to the table numerous times and numerous times it's gotten voted out. But in May...in May it made it through. And I'm glad it did.
Marid Audran is an independent fellow living in the Budayeen, a rough ghetto in an Arab world. He walks the line between the whores and hustlers and those who are trying to make a more legitimate life for themselves. It's a world of plug in personalities, black market "daddies" (cheap software to run on the plug-ins"), where anything you want can be had for a price. Including your morals.
Two savage killers are stalking people and killing them in absolutely horrific ways, and unfortunately, Marid knows the recently deceased. In fact, the killer has written Marid a note saying he's next on his list. But the police aren't willing to help solve the problem and the Budayeen is getting nervous. "Papa", a two century old citizen of the ghetto, hires a reluctant Marid to solve the crimes, but as Marid will find out, it will come at a very, very steep price.
I really enjoyed this book. It was reminiscent of the 1980's cyberpunk but it didn't linger there. It also had the nuances of a private detective novel but with a futuristic twist. I loved the Middle East setting. This is a dark book, with a realistic ending - another positive in my opinion.
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3 comments:
And funny. You forgot funny. I LOVE these books. They've been out of print for ages. I was really pleased to see WGF back out on the shelves of the bookstore. I suppose it's because of Effinger's recent death.
I liked When Gravity Fails, but preferred the second book, A Fire in the Sun (possibly because I read it first). I had never heard of Effinger until he died, and everyone on rec.arts.sf.written was lamenting what a great writer we'd lost, so I tracked down a couple of his books.
Learned two things today: I didn't realize the books were considered out of print and I didn't know he was deceased. How unfortunate.
I'll definately be looking up book 2.
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