George Alec Effinger (1947–2002)

"When Gravity Fails' is an excellent book but it's not for me.

When it came out in 1985, this deeply Noirish tale of murder amongst the demimonde of a Twenty-third Century Arab State where gender modification surgery, and plug-and-play brain implants offering anything from language skills to a new personality, are as common amongst the hustlers, pimps and sex-workers as drink and drugs, must have been well ahead of its time.

The storytelling style makes Chandler seem like a Disney version of show more Noir and yet it offers a surprisingly compassionate rendering of the inhabitants of the Budayeen, a walled district that is part French Quarter New Orleans and part Casablancan quartiers réservés. The people and the society are beautifully and patiently drawn. The plot is subordinate to its setting. The main focus is on how Marîd Audran sees the Budayeen and his role in it.

At the start of the novel, Audran sees himself as a man whose reputation as an 'honest hustler' has earned him enough respect in the community to keep its violence at bay. Although he thinks of himself as a loner who values independence above love and friendship, it seemed to me that he entertained a fundamentally romantic view of the Budayeen and that it is this view of the place that the rest of the novel assaults as Audran's friends and associates are murdered.

'When Gravity Fails' pulled me fully into Audran's world and made it real. This was, in the end, why I abandoned the novel a third of the way through: I just can't abide the Marîd Audran or the world he loves. He leads a hedonistic, aimless, drug-using, thrill-seeking life. He's a wannabe lone wolf with a need to be loved that he lies to himself about and a view of the world that borders on the delusional. I believed in him completely, I just didn't want to spend any more time with him. show less

I don't even. This book engrossed me, sucked me in, took me to the seediest bar in town, plied me with cheap booze and left without even a kiss. Set in a debaucherous, dangerous slum in a futuristic Muslim country where the tricks might be all-girl, ex-boy or something in between, with more pill popping than Charlie Sheen on a bender, you've got to be a bit open-minded to take the ride on this one.

Think hard-boiled noir, crossed with [b:A Scanner Darkly|14817|A Scanner Darkly|Philip K. show more Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388737865s/14817.jpg|1527439] and filled in around the edges with Richard K Morgan's [b:Altered Carbon|40445|Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)|Richard K. Morgan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387128955s/40445.jpg|2095852].

Inshallah.

A Hugo and Nebula nominee deserving of its nominations. Four and a half stars, rounding up, because I'm still thinking about it and tempted to re-read. show less

When Gravity Fails is the best hardboiled cyberpunk you've never read. Marid Audran is a small-time hustler and fixer in the Budayeen, a red light district in an unnamed Arab city somewhere along the Mediterranean coast in the 23rd century. People still want the same old stuff, mostly sex and drugs, but the big technology is neural implants that give people temporary short-term knowledge and artificial personalities. Marid doesn't use them. His vanity is that he floats above the streets, show more that his natural brain is more than a match for the amped up thugs and prostitutes.

When his clients, friends, and other street figures begin dying, assassinated by a mysterious person wearing a James Bond personality, and an absolutely bastard of a psychopath, Marid has to track down the killer, and compromise every single one of his values and relationships in the service of Friedlander Bey, the crimelord who runs the Budayeen.

What's probably the best part of this book is how resolutely queer it is. It must have been supremely trangressive when published, and remains provocative today. Effinger based the Budayeen on the French Quarter in New Orleans, before it became a tourist theme park. The exotic dancers, bartenders, and prostitutes are treated with a surprising degree of tenderness. Marid's girlfriend is a trans woman, the whole Budayeen packed with people who have remade their bodies and minds in search of their better selves. show less

What an absolutely delightful, hilarious, absurd, anachronistic adventure. Underneath the parody of the classic mythological/heroic story, however, is an incredibly smart, self-aware, logical structure crafted with expert precision and growth arcs for multiple characters. Despite frequent absurdity and anachronisms (like vending machines deep in a cavern in a fantasy world), nothing was included in a hand-wavy way just to get through the plot. It's an incredible homage to the hero's journey show more and just plain fun. show less