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Marîd Audran #1-3
The Audran Sequence
3 novels in one hardcover edition.
When Gravity Fall, A Fire in the Sun, The Exile's Kiss.
"In the 23rd century, when plug-in personality modules are as easy to obtain as gender reassignment, pleasures are cheap and death is easy. Marid Audran has kept his independence the hard way, selling his detection skills in the slums of the Budayeen. By his standards, it's a comfortable life. But his hard-won freedom is about to be tested ..."--Jacket.
When Gravity Fall, A Fire in the Sun, The Exile's Kiss.
"In the 23rd century, when plug-in personality modules are as easy to obtain as gender reassignment, pleasures are cheap and death is easy. Marid Audran has kept his independence the hard way, selling his detection skills in the slums of the Budayeen. By his standards, it's a comfortable life. But his hard-won freedom is about to be tested ..."--Jacket.
712 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
3 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 20, 2018
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February 27, 2022
The series is a mix of cyberpunk and hard-boiled detective stories. They are an interesting chronicle of a man's rise from being independent, alone and poor to developing a sense of community, responsibility and self-worth. Excellent!
July 17, 2013
My only complaint about this book is that it is finished and there will be no more. What wonderfully realized characters, and a marvelous setting. This is cyberpunk at its finest!
September 12, 2015
I don't read as much as I used to, and I feel good that I finally finished this one. It was only ok; not as good as I had hoped when I bought it.
There's a sort of mystery/detective story but the resolution of who-dun-it isn't quite satisfactory. It's almost discovered accidentally.
It was somewhat unusual in setting - an Arabic/Muslim culture; I had to get used to it, and then I rather liked that feel, just learning these phrases, traditions, etc. The religion doesn't play a huge role in the book, but gets a bit more prominent in the "Kiss of Exile" especially during the part where Audran and Papa are stuck in the middle of the desert with just a gallon of water and no guide. Their faith in the darkest moment was unshaken, giving them hope. Though I'm not a Muslim, I could appreciate that.
The other elements of the story; the technological brain implants that could change your personality or give you certain knowledge you don't normally have, or play fantasies, etc. etc. - interesting concept, but also kinda "meh".
There's a sort of mystery/detective story but the resolution of who-dun-it isn't quite satisfactory. It's almost discovered accidentally.
It was somewhat unusual in setting - an Arabic/Muslim culture; I had to get used to it, and then I rather liked that feel, just learning these phrases, traditions, etc. The religion doesn't play a huge role in the book, but gets a bit more prominent in the "Kiss of Exile" especially during the part where Audran and Papa are stuck in the middle of the desert with just a gallon of water and no guide. Their faith in the darkest moment was unshaken, giving them hope. Though I'm not a Muslim, I could appreciate that.
The other elements of the story; the technological brain implants that could change your personality or give you certain knowledge you don't normally have, or play fantasies, etc. etc. - interesting concept, but also kinda "meh".
February 11, 2025
George Alec Effinger's beautifully deep jaunt around a Cyberpunk North African city called The Budayeen was a lovely time. A red light district drench in timeless grime that he based around his home of New Orleans? Sure! Oh, I was hesitant at first but the amount of love and care he put into getting Islam right, and where it would fit in a cyberpunk setting should be commended.
We follow a P.I. named Marid as he goes from no mods and living off his wits to a major player in the day to day running of the Budayeen. A product of the 80s and 90s some of the tech and spec fiction doesn't hold up all that well in a post War of Terror, post watching a genocide on Tiktok world. In the third book he honest to god trying to sell the reader, as well as the scum of the Budayeen on the concept of "The Internet" Only a dollar a search guys, everyone's gonna want one, Wallahi.
Effinger also couldn't have foreseen the desertification of North Africa and the Gulf. At 46c during the day these lands, in our life times, will become uninhabitable. Let alone 2255.
The lovely progressive (For the time) take on the LGBTQ in the year 2255 was what allowed me to have so much fun in this world. Marid's main squeeze is a trans girl named Yasmin. Their hot and cold relationship, that sadly never blossoms into marriage by the last book had me ululating with joy.
I only wish there was more.
Inshallah maybe one day.
We follow a P.I. named Marid as he goes from no mods and living off his wits to a major player in the day to day running of the Budayeen. A product of the 80s and 90s some of the tech and spec fiction doesn't hold up all that well in a post War of Terror, post watching a genocide on Tiktok world. In the third book he honest to god trying to sell the reader, as well as the scum of the Budayeen on the concept of "The Internet" Only a dollar a search guys, everyone's gonna want one, Wallahi.
Effinger also couldn't have foreseen the desertification of North Africa and the Gulf. At 46c during the day these lands, in our life times, will become uninhabitable. Let alone 2255.
The lovely progressive (For the time) take on the LGBTQ in the year 2255 was what allowed me to have so much fun in this world. Marid's main squeeze is a trans girl named Yasmin. Their hot and cold relationship, that sadly never blossoms into marriage by the last book had me ululating with joy.
I only wish there was more.
Inshallah maybe one day.
August 1, 2019
It's been nearly 30 years since I read the three main component novels that formulate _The_Audran_Sequence_; it has been a refreshing return to the Noir/Cyberpunk genre trilogy, along with other included Audran ephemera. Effinger had a raw, Chandlerian-Spillanean narration style, and his exploration of a late 22nd Century Arabic/Muslim world, where the West has been in decline for at least a century, reads differently in the intervening decades and world events since my first trip through. I continue to wonder what kind of cinematic exploration these novels could provide....
Effinger was never a great novelist, but he could be a damn good one. He lived a hardscrabble life, often getting by on selling snippets and short stories to _Playboy_, and died before his time. I would have loved to see where he went, both with these characters and others, but we have to be satisfied with the rough and unpolished gems that remain.
Effinger was never a great novelist, but he could be a damn good one. He lived a hardscrabble life, often getting by on selling snippets and short stories to _Playboy_, and died before his time. I would have loved to see where he went, both with these characters and others, but we have to be satisfied with the rough and unpolished gems that remain.
June 8, 2024
Okay, I reviewed the books individually but there are my thoughts on the series as a whole. I love the progressive, rich setting GAE created and Marid Audran is a very complex character, as are most of the primary characters in the series. Each of the three books is quite different, a rarity in series characters. I know there are fragments of the fourth book Effinger was writing when he passed in Budayeen Nights but I'm not going to give myself literary blue balls by reading them and thinking about what might have been.
January 24, 2019
Book 1: When Gravity Falls (rated 4 of 10)
Book 2: A Fire In The Sun (rated 4 of 10)
Book 3: The Exile Kiss (rated 5 of 10)
I started this years ago. Finished book 2 about 2 year ago. Finally decided to finish it. Book 3 actually got a little interesting (but only a little).
Book 2: A Fire In The Sun (rated 4 of 10)
Book 3: The Exile Kiss (rated 5 of 10)
I started this years ago. Finished book 2 about 2 year ago. Finally decided to finish it. Book 3 actually got a little interesting (but only a little).
April 11, 2013
Three short novels about Marid Audran, a one time small time crook who has been elevated to be the favored successor to Friedlander Bey, the godfather of the Budayeen. Mix New Orleans sleaze with Islam and cyberpunk and plunk it down in an unnamed Middle Eastern city and you have the setting. I was a bit confused because bits and pieces had been published as short stories in Budayeen Nights, but the three novels were quite satisfying. When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, and The Exile Kiss are the three short novels.
September 6, 2010
The writing is superb, still deciding on the story.
April 14, 2011
This was a great gift.
Thank you Paula!
I almost want to read it again..(right now)
Thank you Paula!
I almost want to read it again..(right now)
July 8, 2013
POp/Ed piece over at PopTardsGo says it all...
January 26, 2014
Strange stories but fairly enjoyable although I could never really bring myself to care much about the characters and felt that the ends of each part of the trilogy were a bit anticlimactic.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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