| Title | : | The Exile Kiss (Marîd Audran, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
Sentenced to exile and abandoned to die in the vast Arabian desert, Marîd and Bey must somehow survive the searing sands and make their way back to the now-hostile Budayeen—and, then, take their vengeance.
By turns thrilling and philosophical, The Exile Kiss is the culmination of one of the great works of modern SF.
The Exile Kiss (Marîd Audran, #3) Reviews
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Truly fascinating. While I can't quite place the entire trilogy in the category of must-read, I can honestly say it has been an interesting and subtle ride when it comes to character arc.
Things start in the way of a true tragedy in this book, with all things looking up, and then, all of a sudden, comes the great fall. It doesn't kill him or Friedlander Bey, his grandfather, the one who has staged Audran's new life, but it does eventually land them in exile in the desert and then among the Beduin, and this is some of the most interesting passages in the any of the three books.
Audran learns valuable lessons and it pushes him even further from his humble beginnings, happening to groom him even farther along the path of becoming the *godfather* to replace Friedlander. Most interestingly he'd progressed from humble independent enthusiast of freedom, to an enforcer and con man, to someone who no longer sweats the small stuff at all, taking success and setback with equal poise.
As I said, extremely interesting as a series of character development novels.
His return and rise shares quite a bit of the first novel's noir beginnings, making him a detective again, but this time the stakes are much higher and it has everything to do with how he is being set up to be the murder victim, too. His balanced poise was the polar opposite from the first book, and while the second presented so many options of how to behave, it was the third where it was always his choice, his desire, his agency that led him to the end.
These books are still very much the Muslim Cyberpunk, although it works equally well on all the other levels, too. I think I can easily recommend it for anyone who'd love to see this kind of character challenge pulled off in such a unique setting and not be limited by noir preconceptions. :) -
I'm sorry to say I could only give this 3 stars. The first half to two-thirds was worth a higher rating, but something strange happened in the end. It makes you wonder what was going on in the author's life as he was finishing up this book.
I feel very sad about the way the story ended. I loved this character and the characters that surrounded him. It was Casablanca mixed with Blade Runner and better than both. I feel very sad that this was the end of the story.
The first part where Marid and his "godfather" are trapped in the desert with the Ben Salim (aka the Bedouin) is the best part of the whole book. You just get sucked in. But, unfortunately, when Marid and Friedlander Bey return to the Budayeen, it just loses its way. -
When Gravity Fails is a minor cyberpunk classic that I heartily recommend to sci-fi fans, yet the second and third entries in the trilogy go in a different direction, largely leaving behind the gritty, hardboiled street action that I initially found so compelling.
In The Exile Kiss we see Marid and Friedlander Bey exiled to the vast Arabian desert after being falsely accused of murdering a policeman. Near death, they are rescued by a tribe of Bedouin and subsequently learn first hand of their austere culture and direct manner of confronting challenges. Upon their eventual return to the city Marid puts this newfound Bedouin wisdom to work in the name of justice and revenge.
It's an interesting, if not fairly predictable journey. Yet, what bothered me most is the way things hung together just a bit too loosely to make the characters' motivations and actions seem credible, with some, even critical, story points hastily glossed over. Plus, an ending that felt hurried and crammed into the last few pages. -
Unfortunately it seems this series never regained the heights the first book achieved. This volume, the final full length Audran novel, is a fairly generic, boring, detective story. Once again set in Effinger's brilliantly realised future North Africa this book introduces nothing new to the Audran saga. The section set in the Saudi desert was good but in the end didn't really change anything.
Audran was still the same. There was no true growth. In a way this book reminded me of another book I read recently,
The Lies of Locke Lamora, in that the book sets itself up for an intricate, devious battle of wits but it's all over before you know it. After a long, protracted setup within a matter of pages it's all done and they've moved on. I was left wondering if Amazon didn't give me the full book. It was disappointing after the series started so well. I have the final book which is just a collection of short stories and the only chapters written of the planned fourth book but I'm wondering if I really should read or will it just lower this series in my eyes even further. We shall see. -
There is no doubt that George Alec Effinger created a unique setting for his Marid Audran series, where instead of usual tropes of neon-bathed rainy streets brings Middle East flavored cyberpunk full of sex, violence, drugs and noir with a dash of LGBT. What makes his writing authentic is his knowledge of Arab customs, the way they talk and their mentality in general as if he spent some time living among them as some Lawrence of Arabia of cyberpunk. His Budayeen, even though modeled off a quarter where he used to live, bears resemblance with Dubai or Kuwait or any other capital in the Gulf area as you'll find all those things there: alcohol, drugs, sex workers, gays and transgenders with a bit of crime in the backdrop. However, neither
A Fire in the Sun or this novel reaches the brilliance of
When Gravity Fails, which is a damn shame. Bear in mind, even When Gravity Fails wasn't the perfect novel since Effinger in the last third loses the momentum of the previous two-thirds and can't finish the novel without deus ex machina solution, still it was fresh and brave and different.
The Exile Kiss finds Marid and big crime boss, Marid's grandfather, Friedlander Bey exiled to the desert for a crime they didn't commit and the first half of the novel is about their wandering with a Bedouin tribe as Marid recollects of events that led to their exile. The second half feels like a different novel, having our heroes back in Budayeen to clear their names. Effinger again reaches for deus ex machina solution making it another Scooby Doo mystery ending as in previous novels.
The only thing that saves this novel is Effinger's knowledge of culture and writing style. Plot-wise it's lacking. -
4.5 rounded up to 5, because... Wow*.
Wow =
• Effinger's world building
+
• his understanding and incorporation of Islam not only as a religion, but also as a cultural foundation and societal underpinning
+
• his writing this book 30 some odd years ago and having the prescience (although perhaps not 2021 "correct" terminology) to have people on the Transgender and Queer continuum as everyday characters
+
• (Mystery + Tension + Humour)
+
• The main character, Marid - the anti-hero who really is more "hero" than he realises
And oof. 😟 My realising that there are no more Marîd Audran novels to be read. (I'm off to find "Budayeen Nights")
* this review based on / applicable by and large to all books in this series. I happened to enjoy the plot of this one the most of the three. -
Kidnapped and dumped in the middle of the desert, Marid and Friendlander Bey fight for survival with only the thought of revenge keeping them alive...
Okay, it's not as cut and dry as all that but what do you want? The evolution of Marid Audran continues as he finds himself once again in the soup. Or several soups.
It greatly pleases me that Effinger wasn't content to just write the same story with the names changed three times like a lot of series end up doing. In this volume, Marid experiences a variety of hardships and eventually comes out on top with a lot of character development along the way.
I don't want to spoil too much. This was a satisfying third entry to the saga and I'm sad GAE only wrote three Audran books in his lifetime. -
The Exile Kiss is the third book in Effinger's series about Marid, a Middle-Eastern cyberpunk series that is the best known part of Effinger's legacy. It's the third and last book he completed of the five he had planned before ill health kept him from completing the project. This one is more of an adventure story than the two previous books, finding Marid and crime lord Bey stranded in the desert and having to fight their way back to the Budayeen to reclaim their position. It's a fascinating book, filled with philosophical speculations and reflections as well as a fast-paced and suspenseful plot. The characters are quite well portrayed, and we see and understand their changes as the story progresses. We sadly never got to see the end of Marid's journey as Effinger envisioned it, but this serves as a fine and fond farewell.
-
-Remate involuntario a la serie.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Marid Audran ha pasado en poco tiempo, casi sin desearlo ni planificarlo, a estar mucho más cercano a Friedlander Bey, a ascender mucho en su organización, a alejarse de su entorno habitual, a ser un hombre casado y padre simultáneamente. Pero todavía más rápido, pasa a estar en medio del desierto junto a Papa con su vida en juego por haber sido ambos declarados culpables en una pantomima de juicio y sentenciados al destierro, pero la sentencia es ejecutada con la intención de que mueran. Tercer y último libro de la Trilogía de Marid Audran.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/... -
I read this more than 10 years after the other stories in the series. If I'd read it right after those, maybe I'd be disappointed that it didn't build very much new into the story. But as it is, I really enjoyed re-acquainting myself with the world and characters. The first 1/3rd of the book takes place in the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, which is a very harsh environment. That felt new and fresh to me and was my favorite part of the story. The rest is a sort-of detective story set back in the city. It was nice, but the resolution of the mystery was too obvious and too easy. Still, I wish Effinger had lived to create more of these stories.
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Original, edgy spin on the cyberpunk genre. Been a long time since I read this series, so I'll lay off the details, but Marîd Audran is one of science–fiction's underappreciated protagonists, and Effinger one of its underrated authors.
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The Exile Kiss closes the Budayeen trilogy on an ambiguous note. The book starts like a rocket, when a formal dinner sees Marid and Friedlander Bey being kidnapped, hustled to the air field, summarily convicted of murder, and then dumped in the Rub al'Khali, the empty quarter of Arabia. Separated from all their resources, death will be a matter of days in the vast desert.
Of course, they run into a band of Bedouin nomads, living much as Bedouin have lived for centuries. Marid and Friedlander Bey wander with them for a while, witnessing tribal justice over a murdered girl. Then it's back to the good old corrupt Budayeen, to clear their names and get revenge on their political enemies.
As always, the Budayeen is beautifully drawn. But there's an odd slackness in the plotting. Marid never seems properly concerned about clearing his name until the very end, and there's no clear end to the covert war between Friedlander Bey or his nemesis. Marid finishes his transformation from independent hustler to criminal factotum, but he doesn't seem much of a worthy successor to the godfather. He lacks strategy, relying on the ability to punch his way out of a tough spot. -
review of
George Alec Effinger's The Exile Kiss
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 4, 2018
I just wrote a review of the 2nd bk in this series, A Fire In The Sun, wch The Exile Kiss is the sequel to. My opening paragraph of that is:
"Yet another writer I'd never heard of. I liked the cover art. Got the bk cheap at my favorite local used bkstore. Was reluctant to get it b/c it's the 2nd bk in a series & the store didn't have the 1st one. Turned out the novel's setting is Africa. That was a bit strangely coincidental b/c I'd recently read Evelyn Waugh's Black Mischief (see my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... ) wch had an African setting, AND I read Mack Reynolds's Blackman's Burden / Border, Breed Nor Birth wch ALSO had an African setting. It seems that I'm on a little Africa roll. None of the authors, as far as I know, are African." -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Early on, there's a description of a traditional wedding that I found interesting:
"I merely dressed in my best white gallebeya and robe, but Indihar had to endure much more. Chiri, her best friend, helped her prepare for the ceremony. Early in the day, they removed the hair from Indihar's arms and legs by covering her skin with a mixture of sugar and lemon juice. When the paste hardened, Chiri peeled it off. I'll never forget how wonderfully fresh and sweet-smelling Indihar was that evening." - pp 5-6
""Please, refresh yourself," said the amir. A servant offered a tray laden with small cups of thick coffee spiced with cardamom and cinnamon, tall glasses of chilled fruit juices. There were no alcoholic beverages because Shaykh Mahali was a deeply religious man." - p 11
Yep, alcohol's taboo but having servants is fine.
"The sweet and warming flavor of cinnamon is matched by an equally rich history. Once considered more precious than gold, cinnamon was offered as a gift to ancient kings. In Arabia, priests offered the first harvest of dried cinnamon quills to the sun god. Egyptians, perhaps aware of its anti-bacterial effect, added cinnamon to embalming mixtures. Moses combined Chinese cimmamon ("cassia") with olive oil to anoint the tabernacle. Nero burned a year's supply at the funeral of his wife.
"Essential oils found in the sweet bark simply ooze with medicinal benefit."
- p 126, The Spirit at Your Elbow - A Happiness Pony Quinquennial Reader
Our anti-hero, Marid Audran, is aligned w/ the competition to Shaykh Reda Abu Adil, Friedlander Bey. The Shaykh tries a variety fo techniques to kill or entrap Audran. One of them is an unwanted gift:
""I have used my influence with the Jaish to obtain a commission for Marid Audran. He's now an officer in the Citizen's Army!"
"The Jaish was this unofficial right-wing outfit that I'd run into before. They liked to dress up in gray uniforms and parade through the streets. Originally their mission was to rid the city of foreigners. As time passed, and as more of the paramilitary group's funding came from people such as Reda Abu Adil—who himself had come to the city at a young age—the aim of the Jaish changed. Now it seemed that its mission was to harass Abu Adil's enemies, foreigner and native alike." - p 13
Adil attempts to kill both Audran & Bey but they survive, largely thanks to the enhancements that Audran has:
""Yes, O Shaykh," I said. "Then I will carry you."
"He protested but he didn't do a very good job of it. I begged his forgiveness, then picked him up and slung him over my shoulder. I wouldn't have been able to haul him fifty yards without the daddies, which were damping out every last unpleasant signal my body was sending to my brain. I went on with a blithe, completely false sense of well-being. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't thirsty. I wasn't tired, and I didn't even ache. I even had another daddy I could use if I started to feel afraid." - p 63
Longish stories are told out in the desert & morals are reached:
""The king was so pleased that he pardoned Salim, and then gave him his daughter's hand in marriage!"
"I waited a moment to be sure the story was finally over. "I'm supposed to cut Dr. Sadiq Abd ar-Razzaq's heart out?" I said.
""Yes, and feed it to a dog," said Noora fiercely.
""Even though we don't do that kind of thing in the city anymore? I mean, we're talking about a theologian here. Not Hitler or Zarghis Khan."
"Noora looked at me blankly. "Who are they?" she asked." - p 72
It's ok as long as you don't soak the theologian's heart in alcohol.
Some of you have probably heard of this next place, esp if you read the bible when you were a kid like I did:
"Damascus, the world's oldest continually inhabited city." - p 130
Really? That's practically enuf to tempt me to live there for awhile. I wonder if they have good used book stores, libraries, an experimental moviemaker's community, & a large new music scene?
"By January 2012, clashes between the regular army and rebels reached the outskirts of Damascus, reportedly preventing people from leaving or reaching their houses, especially when security operations there intensified from the end of January into February.
"By June 2012, bullets and shrapnel shells smashed into homes in Damascus overnight as troops battled the Free Syrian Army in the streets. At least three tank shells slammed into residential areas in the central Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, according to activists. Intense exchanges of assault-rifle fire marked the clash, according to residents and amateur video posted online.
"The Damascus suburb of Ghouta suffered heavy bombing in December 2017 and a further wave of bombing started in February 2018, also known as Rif Dimashq Offensive.
"On 20 May 2018, Damascus and the entire Rif Dimashq Governorate became fully under Government control for the first time in 7 years after the evacuation of IS from Yarmouk Camp."
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus
Oh, well, so much for my fantasy of even visiting the place. I guess I'll have to go somewhere else instead:
"I went to the small souvenir shop, thinking to buy something for myself and maybe something for Indihar and something for Chiri. I was disappointed to discover that nearly all the souvenirs had "Made in the Western Reserve" or "Made in Occupied Panama" stickers on them. I contented myself with a few holocards." - p 133
One of the clichés of Cyberpunk is the omnipresent drugs-of-the-future. Bill the Cabbie is the author's excuse-for-describing-an-extreme:
"He had no use for cosmetic bodmods—appearances meant nothing to Bill. Or for skull-wiring, either. Instead, he'd done a truly insane thing: he'd paid one of the medical hustlers on the Street to remove one of Bill's lungs and replace it with a sac that dripped a constant, measured dose of lightspeed RPM into his bloodstream.
"RPM is to any other hallucinogen as a spoonful of crushed saccharin si to a soingle granule of sugar. I deeply regret the few times I ever tried it. Its technical name is l-ribopropylmethionine, but nowadays I hear people on the street calling it "hell." The first time I took it, my reaction was so fiercely horrible that I had to take it again because I couldn't believe anything could be that bad. It was an insult to my self-image as the Conqueror of All Substances.
"There isn't enough money in the world to get me to try it again." - p 135
Moving on, let's destroy the internet a little more, shall we?
""We've been contracted by the city," Tariq explained. "The amir's special commission decided that it couldn't afford to run Info any longer. Within weeks, all the free Info terminals will be replaced by our machines, inshallah.""
[..]
"["]When we have the whole Budayeen covered, we can begin to exercise even closer control. We can tell who is using the service, and what questions they're asking. Because they have to use an official identification card to log on, we can monitor the dispensing of information. We could even prevent certain information from getting to some individuals."
""But surely, we won't do that," I said.
"Papa was silent for a second or two. "Of course not," he said at last. "That would be contrary to the principles of the holy Prophet."" - pp 169-170
Wd it? Somehow I doubt it.
Effinger stimulates my interest w/ this one:
"When I awoke, I eased into the morning. I took a long, hot bath and reread one of my favorite Lutfy Gad urder mysteries. Gad was the greatest Palestinian writer of the last century, and I guess now and then I unconsciously imitate his great detective, al-Qaddani. Sometimes I fall into that clipped, ironic way al-Qaddani spoke. None of my friends ever noticed, though, because as a group they're terribly well read." - p 183
Welcome to my world. Oh, Effinger, you fiend, I bothered to look for Gad online to see if he's fictional or not & it appears that you invented him. Maybe you shd write a novel by him written in collaboration w/ Kilgore Trout. Effinger's fictional literary world manifests again:
"When I tired of watching the coverage, I turned it off and watched a performance of the mid-sixteenth century A.H. opera, The Execution of Rushdie. It did nothing to cheer me up." - p 255
Ha ha! Remember when the usual bunch of religious nutters announced a fatwa against Rusdie b/c his Satanic Verses were found to be blasphemous against some old fart or another's 'teachings'? I read it after that. I never did understand what all the fuss was about. Some people just don't have a sense of humor.
"The publication of the book and the fatwā sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed. Many more people died in riots in some countries." -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_...
Dare I say To heck w/ these fuddy-duddies!?!
Anyway, this was a good'un. Keep 'em comin' there, Effie ole boy! -
Diferente de los otros por la parte del desierto
-
Ultimately, the third installment of the Budayeen cycle fell short of expectations, expectations finely tuned in the two previous, superior installments. Effinger is an author that will immediately strike a chord with most readers: taut, thrilling, and cheeky. Sure, none of the books reach majestic heights. But the Budayeen is not about world-altering discoveries or discursive themes of the zeitgeist. The Budayeen is about rollicking through a cyberpunk dystopia in an exotic locale, with exotic characters both hugged and smacked by a singular voice of reason.
At the conclusion of the final page, I mulled over what felt missing in Exile Kiss. As I wrote this review, I kept noting an equal number of pros and cons. Systematic was my dissection of the third installment. Since there ended up being an even number of pros and cons, that would make one think I should rate Exile Kiss 2.5 stars.
However, the pros do slightly outweigh the cons, therefore I would tip the narrative scales towards a 3.5. The book is still classic Effinger in all his verbose glory. He picks up right where he left off, venturing around the Middle East with a well-established panoply of great characters. This time, just like the previous two books, the trials and tribulations endured by our man Audran feel genuine, inevitabilities in the corrupt world established by Effinger. Newer to Exile Kiss is the humanization of Freidlander Bey, making the tweener more three-dimensional; an additional [sometimes] voice of reason to root for. The overall dialogue and exposition and action are taut and exciting. As mentioned before, Effinger is a quality descriptive author in the genre. Audran is more a reflection of the reader this time, as he tries to reconcile hypocritical positions of honor and social expectations from his colleagues and friends – just as a sane, rational person would.
There are cons, though. Enough to drag Kiss into Exile behind its predecessors. An overriding hollowness pervaded the pages. I would summarize its origin as stemming from a lack of compelling supporting cast and a lack of compelling new faces. Nothing really new was introduced in terms of technologies & society’s adaptations to them; Effinger rested on laurels of those elements established in previous two installments. The sidereal taking Audran and Bey to the bleakest deserts of the Arabian peninsula, shedding light on the subsistence existence of herders eking a living out there, ultimately felt futile and a waste of time. The author tried to get across a moralistic message, yet it fell flat (even Audran admits the futility of the venture). Upon returning from the desert, the last act unfolded too much by the numbers. I never really felt scared for the protagonists against the antagonists that exiled them. Effinger expecting a fourth installment felt like a sure thing, thus he left many subplots and unfinished business hanging by the end.
Exile Kiss doesn’t match up to its predecessors in terms of overall satisfaction. But in the realm of punk sci-fi, Effinger’s least effort is still something to raise on a pedestal made of sand and blood. Closing out on a slight whimper is not unusual (I’m looking at you, Return of the Jedi), so fans of Effinger would be remiss not to forgive the mustachioed bloke. May he rest in peace. -
The Exile Kiss begins with Marid letting us know that he has been forced to marry Indihar, his partner's widow, by Friedlander Bey. It seems to be a loveless marriage with neither side desiring to be together. Marid and Friedlander attend a party thrown by the local ruler of the city. Marid gets a gift from Friedlander's rival Abu Adil, which doesn't seem to be for any reason other than a convenient ending. The two are then framed for murder and exiled to an inhospitable desert. They meet some nomads that save their lives and there is a murder that takes place in the tribe. But most of the beginning of the book feels rather boring. A lot of details that add nothing to the story.
All this time they are trying to return to the city and exact their revenge, but their return is so simple it's ridiculous. They make it to an area and then bam their back. The blurb on the back of the book is misleading, it seems like a story that will have Marid and Friedlander fighting to get back, barely making it. Then absolutely destroying everyone who caused them to be exiled. This couldn't be further from the truth, after they get back to the city Marid lackadaisically investigates the murder that they were framed for.
The Book The Exile Kiss by George Alec Effinger
Along the way, he's threatened to stop the investigation but that's mostly it. He finds out who killed the man and conveniently kills off the murderer with a plot contrivance. Then they have their names cleared and the end. The ending was completely rushed and there was going to be another installment but the author passed away before completing it. There is a set of short stories that takes place in this universe that I won't be reading, I'm not a fan of short stories and I really didn't care for this series.
Let's just say I was completely disappointed in this book: I thought that it would be an improvement over the second book since that was an improvement over the first. But no the author dropped the ball on this one. This tale of revenge fell flat. The next book review will probably be another David Gemmell novel. Check out the Youtube channel if you like classic video games. -
No, no, no, no, no! This book started so well. This series was so good. And the first 2/3rds of this book was so good. Then, it all just fell apart. The book starts out with the protagonist, Marid, being exiled along with his "boss." They are abandoned in the Rub Al Khali Desert. This part is great. But then, he returns to civilization, and the story takes on an almost dreamlike quality. New subplots come and go out of nowhere. Characters start acting out of character. The story seem to lose its focus on the whole exile plot that it began with. There is some potential here as the story seems to be about Marid becoming a Michael Corleone figure, but even that seems to go nowhere.
And then there is "the gun."
***SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH***
For me, the most unforgivable plot point in the story is the gun. Marid's boss gives him a gun used in the murder for which Marid and his boss were framed. The boss tells Marid that he cannot tell him anything about the gun, like where he got it from. This would have saved Marid a lot of work, but it seems the author wants to maintain suspense with the gimmick of "I can't tell you that, nor will I give you a reason why." But this is not the worst part. Later, the owner of the gun seems to miraculously have it back in his possession as he tries to use it to kill Marid. Finally, Marid has magically repossessed the gun for the climax of the story that was really overly simplified and had the feel of an all night term paper that had to be quickly finished an hour before class.
***END SPOILER***
To be fair, I did some research, and it seems Effinger, the writer, had health, financial, and leagal issues. This may have been the source of his wandering plot. It's a shame because I really loved the first two books and would continue reading this series, but this work seems to come at the end of his writing career.
While I don't recommend this book, I do recommend the first two books in the series. If you like them, you can give this one a try. It does have its merits, but in the end, it was a disappointment. -
A solid end to the series.
-
I’m afraid that for me this was another step down from the second book, which was itself a step down from the first.
The society that was intriguingly original in
When Gravity Fails now comes across as just more of the same, and the incessant displays of pseudo-Islamic culture were more tedious than ever this time around. If you question this, go ahead and mentally substitute “Praise Jesus” or your favorite familiar Christian saying for the numerous occurrences of “May Allah reward you” and similar Islamicisms and see how it reads then.
The characters are largely obnoxious, cruel, or miserable, and the overall tone is deeply cynical. The story is bland, with little in the way of interesting plot. There were minimal science-fictional elements here beyond what was introduced in the first book.
I have to admit that the writing itself is polished and professional, and the skill that drew me in to the first book is clearly still present, so it wasn’t as if it was amateurish or painful to read, but that only makes it worse that this time Effinger used his obvious talent on a story that was uninspired and unenjoyable. -
It was very good. Perhaps not quite as good as the first two because less time was spent on creating and solving a mystery, but I still love the characters and culture. It just made me really sad at the end knowing that the author died way too young. I'm going to read his short stories set in this world next, and the book doesn't end on a cliffhanger or anything, but there was definitely so more story that could have been told. And more importantly, there was so much more life that could have been led. Sad.
-
Adding up the number of things that haven't gone right for Marid Audran over the course of this series could make up another book entirely. He's had a brain plug-in system installed against his will, he's been forced to take a job with a guy whose sole goal in life seems to be to win the Jerk Move of the Year Award every single day, he's been given his best friend's bar to the dismay of everyone on the staff, his brief go at being a cop (also not his idea) wound up getting his partner killed, he's been assigned a slave-servant that he doesn't want that helpfully reports on his moves so he doesn't have to and he's been forced to marry his partner's widow, which thrills no one, including his girlfriend. Oh, and his mother's come to live with him again.
Its a lot of undesirable outcomes to cram into a series and to Effinger's credit he never allows it to come across as comical . . . the tone at times through Marid's narration is light but serious things are almost always taken seriously, even as Marid has to constantly scramble to play damage control for all the stuff that's out of his hands (or that he causes himself). Its that sense of trying to make the best of bad situations that gives the novel its weight at times . . . Marid is trying to do the right thing despite being not being as totally altruistic as he wants to be and apt to save his own skin by reflex.
Over the course of the first two books the Budayeen district itself became another character, with the flavor of its bars and locales and the rhythms of daily survival practiced by everyone who lives there, whether its running their own petty schemes or staying clear of the overarching underworld, doing their jobs and staying clear of the police. Its certainly a place worth exploring but its possible that Effinger was starting to get bored of it, which may explain why he decided to take Marid and his benefactor/boss/overlord Frielander Bey out of the city and dump them in the desert.
That happens right in the beginning of the book, as Bey and Marid are framed for a murder they didn't commit and are exiled from the city presumably to die (its done so easily you wonder why someone didn't bother to do it earlier), which they obviously don't do because the book would be ten pages long and end on a bit of a down note, unless you're into experimental films where the wind just softly blows sand over a set of bones.
Indeed, they don't die thanks to the intervention of nomads and this to me is where the book loses its focus slightly . . . as good as those scenes are and Effinger's writing is very consistent, the nomads sequences almost exist as a separate novel inside the novel where the whole idea of "maybe we should get back and clear out names while plotting revenge on those who wronged us" gets kind of sidetracked while everyone recovers and handles the various domestic dramas that arise when people hang out in the desert all day and forget how cool it is to hang out with camels. The little detour we take inside the detour while our friends attempt to solve a murder is actually one of the more affecting sections of the book as Marid has to deal with both the grieving process and the modes of justice for a culture he's not familiar with and after spending so much time with the extraordinarily grey morality of the Budayeen seeing people sincerely handling a bad situation is almost refreshing.
That said, almost none of it has anything to do with anything when Bey and Marid actually get back to the city. While the pace gets a bit more intense as you get the feeling that things are about to get real (assumed dead, we see the normally self-possessed Bey for the first time on the back foot), it also makes the preceding hundred pages in the desert seem a bit superfluous, just a way to kill time until we get back here.
However, even here the pacing seems off. Effinger seems like he's starting threads (one regarding having money stolen, another about his relationship with Yasmin) and gearing up for a bit climax involving Bey's main rival and a showdown with Marid as they try to manipulate him into a bad position . . . but when the ending comes the climax is literally all of two pages and simply a speech that resolves the immediate issue but addresses none of the concerns that the book itself had only recently brought up. Its clear now that Effinger didn't mean his series to be a trilogy and that he was in the process of writing the next book when he died tragically early (one chapter of which survives in a short story collection) but to have so much started without even a hint of resolution makes the back half of the book feel strangely wonky and misshapen.
In that sense the book could be classified as a disappointment but that certainly isn't Effinger's fault . . . even if he couldn't give us the complete story of all the plans he had for Marid's development and a satisfying arc, what we did get were three books set in a distinctive world with messy characters and a look into a culture (albeit through a futuristic SF lens) that many of us aren't familiar with. If SF is going to take us to places we've never seen before, or give us new ways of looking at the world then it needs to take us to worlds where we don't see what we see when we look in the mirror (I think that's maybe one or two Americans in the whole series) and not simply make those worlds understandable for us but make it so we can figure out for ourselves how to understand those worlds and the others that will eventually come along. -
Am not clear on why I so love these three novels by Effinger, but I certainly do. They're a happy marriage of Chandleresque mystery with Gibson-era cyberpunk, but recast into a Muslim world with which we've all become quite familiar. They're written with such breezy charm and clear love for his characters that we don't even mind when the mysteries are wrapped up a bit too easily, and our only real cause for regret or sadness is that the story eventually comes to an end.
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3/10. Media de las 3 obras leídas del autor: 2/10
Con la fama que tuvo en su día caí en comprarme la “trilogía ciberpunk” de este autor. Error, no me gustó nada. Y eso fue todo con este autor.
Jajaja, curiosamente el que más me gustó -por poc- fue este último que leí. -
Scroll down for the English version.
La trilogia del Budayeen - George Alec Effinger
Il cyberpunk è un genere con cui non ho mai avuto grande affinità. I miei precedenti tentativi di leggerlo (“Luce virtuale” di Gibson e “Criptosfera” di Banks) non mi hanno particolarmente entusiasmato, benché, per ironia, mi sia cimentata nella scrittura (anche) di questo sottogenere della fantascienza. Sospettavo insomma che non fosse il sottogenere in sé il problema, ma che mi fossi imbattuta nei titoli sbagliati, almeno per ciò che riguardava i miei gusti personali. Infatti, leggendo libri più recenti in cui l’elemento cyberpunk era sì importante ma non predominante (come la Trilogia del Vuoto di Hamilton) mi sono sempre molto divertita.
Per fortuna, quando ho iniziato a leggere i libri di Effinger non avevo idea di trovarmi di fronte a uno dei padri del cyberpunk nel suo periodo di massimo sviluppo, gli anni ’80. Ciò dimostra come le etichette certe volte facciano più male che bene. Avevo solo due dei libri della serie, procurati in tempi diversi, senza neppure sapere che fossero collegati. Appena ho iniziato a leggere il primo, e ne sono rimasta rapita, mi sono subito prodigata a trovare una copia del terzo, poiché sapevo che mi sarebbe servito molto presto.
Avendoli letti uno di fila all’altro, ho deciso di recensirli insieme, anche perché mi è difficile giudicarli separatamente senza farmi influenzare dalle letture precedenti o successive.
La trilogia del Budayeen (sarebbe più corretto chiamarla serie, poiché l’autore aveva progettato almeno altri due libri, che purtroppo non ha fatto in tempo a scrivere prima di morire) non è solo cyberpunk. La storia è ambientata fra due secoli, in un quartiere malfamato, il Budayeen, di una città del mondo arabo non meglio specificata. Nel futuro immaginato da Effinger la gente si fa “circuitare” il cervello per potervi inserire dei moduli che permettono di fornire all’individuo nuove nozioni, capacità e persino personalità. L’elemento cyberpunk è fornito da questa tecnologia, che è di fatto uno dei pochi elementi fantascientifici presenti nella storia. Qui la fantascienza è solo uno strumento per raccontarci la storia dei personaggi e soprattutto per gran parte del primo libro (ma anche per ampie parti degli altri) la stessa storia funzionerebbe altrettanto bene se raccontata in un contesto al di fuori del fantastico.
Riguardando adesso, dopo trent’anni, questo futuro immaginario, esso appare costellato di elementi anacronistici, quasi fosse un universo alternativo o semplicemente al di fuori del tempo.
Il Budayeen in realtà è una metafora del quartiere francese di New Orleans (Effinger non l’aveva mai nascosto), con i suoi night club, dove pare sia abbastanza difficile trovare una donna che sia geneticamente tale, e con la sua malavita organizzata. A ciò si aggiunge il tocco esotico dell’averlo inserito nel mondo islamico, che viene rappresentato in maniera accurata con tutte le sue contraddizioni, ancora più evidenti se viste fra duecento anni. Il rapporto dei personaggi con la religione islamica, il rispetto verso di essa, accompagnato alle azioni più efferate è un astuto richiamo al contraddittorio ma tristemente reale binomio cattolicesimo-mafia, che non può far che sorridere. È un po’ come dire che anche nel futuro, pur cambiando le persone, i luoghi e persino la religione, i risultati che si ottengono sono sempre gli stessi.
Al di là di questa ambientazione, i romanzi di Effinger girano tutti intorno alla figura del protagonista, Marîd Audran, un investigatore drogato, cauto (per non dire codardo), pieno di difetti, ma estremamente umano, che cerca di sbarcare il lunario facendo lavoretti più o meno legali, tra un’ubriacatura e l’altra, coadiuvato dall’assunzione di pastiglie tra le più varie (a seconda delle occasioni: una per dormire, una contro l’ansia, una per stare sveglio e così via), e rischiando di farsi ammazzare a ogni istante. In tutto questo Marîd, che ci racconta la sua storia in prima persona, non perde mai la sua autoironia, neppure nelle situazioni peggiori. Insomma, è una simpatica canaglia, anzi un simpatico antieroe.
Ho riso tanto nel leggere questi romanzi, ma ciò che li rende così belli è la loro imprevedibilità. Effinger non segue schemi. La storia è realistica grazie al modo in cui gli eventi si susseguono quasi casualmente, proprio come nella realtà, senza una logica. Non sai mai cosa accadrà nella pagina dopo e non puoi fare altro che continuare a leggere. Così ogni giorno mi ritrovavo ad attendere con trepidazione il momento in cui sarei andata a letto e avrei preso in mano il libro.
Marîd si infila in un guaio dopo l’altro. Quando pensi che peggio di così non gli potrebbe andare, be’, gli va peggio. Ma bene o male se ne tira fuori, nel senso che sopravvive.
Nel primo libro si trova a investigare su degli omicidi, cerca di tenere in piedi la sua storia con la bella ballerina Yasmin (di cui lui è molto innamorato), che non è sempre stata una donna, cerca di evitare di finire sotto il controllo di Friedlander Bey, il “capo mafia” del Budayeen, e ovviamente di non farsi ammazzare.
Nel secondo si trova a scoprire un oscuro programma, chiamato Fenice, a causa del quale molte persone vengono uccise, e si ritrova a lavorare con la polizia.
Nel terzo finisce in esilio nel deserto arabico, dove vive per un certo tempo con i nomadi. Questo libro sembra quasi diviso in due, con una parte ambientata nel deserto e un’altra nel Budayeen che sono completamente separate.
Effinger era un grande autore e lo dimostra la maestria con cui usava le tecniche narrative più disparate.
Una cosa che ho particolarmente apprezzato è l’artificio narrativo con cui ci mostra le scene in cui Marîd indossa un modulo di personalità (detto moddy). Di colpo si passa dalla prima persona alla terza, creando una distanza tra il lettore e il personaggio che simula la sensazione che questo deve avere mentre il controllo di se stesso viene filtrato da un software, mentre la sua coscienza è quasi messa da parte, come se fosse uno spettatore. Nel leggere queste scene si ha davvero l’impressione di vivere in una sorta di stato alterato, un po’ come capitava allo stesso Marîd. Particolarmente divertente è quando il protagonista prova il moddy di Nero Wolf e si sente più grasso e del tutto disinteressato alle donne.
Lo stesso artificio viene utilizzato nelle due scene ambientate nella realtà virtuale (nel secondo libro), mentre Marîd e Chirinda stanno facendo un gioco. Le scene di per sé non portano avanti la trama, ma Effinger le ha scritte lo stesso e sono comunque molto godibili proprio per via della sensazione di “partecipazione filtrata” che esse danno e che le distingue dal resto del romanzo.
Altro aspetto che ho apprezzato è la tendenza dell’autore di mostrarci Marîd a un certo punto della storia e poi far sì che lui ricostruisca, tramite i suoi ricordi spesso offuscati, cosa è accaduto prima, con una transizione verso il flashback che imita alla perfezione il modo associativo con cui la memoria funziona. Marîd torna indietro nei suoi pensieri e ci mostra tutto ciò che è accaduto, anche per molte pagine, fino ad arrivare al punto di apparente tranquillità da cui il capitolo è iniziato. Così pian piano scopriamo che si trova in un grosso guaio da cui è impossibile immaginare come lui riuscirà a venire fuori. Spesso questa consapevolezza viene seguita da un colpo di scena che peggiora ancora di più le cose, se possibile.
Proprio per l’assenza di schemi e per la sottile vena di imperfezione che attraversa tutti i libri, ognuno di essi è caratterizzato da un finale malinconico o al massimo dolceamaro, ma comunque sempre aperto. E, considerato che Effinger è morto prima di scrivere i libri successivi, questi finali ci autorizzano a immaginarne noi il seguito.
A questo proposito aggiungo che esiste una raccolta postuma di racconti, purtroppo mai pubblicata in italiano, “Budayeen Nights” (la recensirò a parte), che include tutta una serie di scritti di Effinger tra cui l’inizio del quarto libro e soprattutto un racconto che ha come protagonista Marîd (benché il suo nome non venga mai pronunciato) che ci permette di dare uno sguardo al suo futuro in cui a quanto pare si è liberato dal controllo del “capo mafioso” del Budayeen e ha una vita abbastanza tranquilla, anche se ogni tanto viene coinvolto in qualche investigazione pericolosa.
I tre romanzi della trilogia del Budayeen sono: “Senza tregua” edito dalla Nord, che è poi stato ripubblicato da Hobby & Work col titolo de “L’inganno della gravità” (fedele all’originare “When Gravity Fails”); “Programma Fenice” della Nord, poi ripubblicato da Hobby & Work come “Fuoco nel sole” (originale “A Fire in the Sun”); ed “Esilio dal Budayeen” della Nord e la sua riedizione di Tascabili Nord intitolata “La guerra di Marid Audran Esiliato dal Budayeen”.
Se avete l’occasione di procurarveli, non fateveli scappare.
The series that made me revalue cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a genre with which I have never had great affinity. My previous attempts to read it (“Virtual Light” by Gibson and “Feersum Endjinn” by Banks) failed in impressing me, though, ironically, I have ventured into writing (also) this sub-genre of science fiction. In short, I suspected that the problem wasn’t the sub-genre in itself, but that I had come across the wrong titles, at least for what concerned my personal tastes. In fact, I have always had a lot of fun in reading more recent books in which the cyberpunk element was important but not dominant (as the Void Trilogy by Hamilton).
Luckily, when I started reading Effinger’s books I had no idea of being in front of one of the fathers of cyberpunk in its period of greatest development, the 80s. This shows how the labels sometimes do more harm than good. I had only two books of the series, which I got at different times, without even knowing that they were connected. As soon as I started reading the first, and I was captured by it, I immediately strove to find a copy of the third, because I knew I would’ve needed it very soon.
Having read all of them in a row, I decided to review them together, because it’s hard to judge them separately without being influenced by previous or subsequent readings.
The Budayeen trilogy (it would be more correct to call it a series, since the author had planned at least two more books, which unfortunately he had no time to write before his death) is not only cyberpunk. The story is set in two centuries, in a rough neighbourhood, the Budayeen, in an unspecified city in the Arab world. In the future imagined by Effinger people get their brain “circuited” to be able to insert some modules that provide the individual with new knowledge, skills, and even personalities. The cyberpunk element is provided by this technology, which is in fact one of the few science fiction elements in the story. Here science fiction is just a tool to tell the story of the characters and especially for much of the first book (but also for large parts of the others) the same story would work just as well if told in a context outside of speculation fiction.
Regarding now, thirty years later, this imaginary future, it appears full of anachronistic elements, like an alternate universe or just a universe outside of time.
The Budayeen is actually a metaphor for the French Quarter of New Orleans (Effinger had never hidden that), with its nightclub, where it seems it’s quite difficult to find a woman who is genetically such, and with its organised crime. Added to this is the exotic touch of having inserted it in the Islamic world, which is represented accurately with all its contradictions, even more evident when imagined in two hundred years. The relationship of the characters with the Islamic religion, the respect towards it, accompanied with the most illegal actions is a smart reference to the contradictory but sadly real Catholicism-mafia binomial, which cannot help but make you smile. It’s a little like saying that in the future, while changing the people, places and even religion, the results you get are always the same.
Beyond this setting, the novels by Effinger all revolve around the figure of the protagonist, Marîd Audran, a private detective, who is a drug addict, a cautious (not to say cowardly), flawed, but very human character, trying to make ends meet by doing more or less legal chores, between a hangover and the other, supported by various kinds of pills (depending on the occasions: for sleeping, against anxiety, for staying awake, and so on), and risking to be killed at any moment. In all this Marîd, who tells his story in first person, never loses his self-deprecating humour, even in the worst situations. In short, he is a likeable rogue, indeed a very nice antihero.
I laughed so much in reading these novels, but what makes them so good is their unpredictability. Effinger doesn’t follow patterns. The story is realistic thanks to the way in which events happen almost randomly, just like in real life, without logic. You never know what will happen in the next page and you cannot help but keep reading. So every day I found myself waiting with trepidation for the time when I would go to bed and pick up the book.
Marîd slips into a mess after another. When you think it couldn’t become worse than that, well, it becomes worse. But for better or worse he pulls himself out, meaning that he survives.
In the first book he investigates some murders, tries to prop up his affair with the beautiful dancer Yasmin (of which he is very much in love), who hasn’t always been a woman, tries to avoid ending up under the control of Friedlander Bey, the “mafia boss” of the Budayeen, and of course not to get killed.
In the second one he finds out about an obscure program, called Phoenix, because of which many people are killed, and finds himself working with the police.
In the third one he ends up in exile in the Arabian Desert, where he lives for a while with the nomads. This book seems almost split in two, with one part set in the desert and another in the Budayeen that are completely separate.
Effinger was a great author and this is proved by the skill with which he used the various narrative techniques.
One thing I particularly liked is the narrative device which shows us the scenes where Marîd is wearing a personality module (called moddy). Suddenly it goes from first to third person, creating a distance between the reader and the character that simulates the feeling that the latter must have while the control of himself is filtered by a software, while his consciousness is almost put aside, as if he were a spectator. In reading these scenes you really have the impression of living in a kind of altered state, a bit as it happens to Marîd himself. Especially fun is when the protagonist tries a moddy of Nero Wolf and feels more fat and totally uninterested in women.
The same trick is used in the two scenes set in virtual reality (in the second book), while Marîd and Chirinda are playing a game. The scenes do not make the plot advance, but Effinger wrote them anyway and they are still very enjoyable just because of the feeling of “filtered participation” they give and that distinguishes them from the rest of the novel.
Another aspect that I appreciated is the tendency of the author to show Marîd at some point in the story and then make him put the pieces together, often overshadowed by his memories, of what happened before, with a transition to a flashback that imitates the way with which memory works. Marîd goes back in thoughts and shows us everything that happened, even for many pages, up to the point of apparent tranquillity from which the chapter has started. So little by little we finds out that he is in a big trouble from which it is impossible to imagine how he will manage to come out. Often this realisation is followed by a plot twist that worsens even more things for him, if possible.
Due to the absence of patterns and for the thin vein of imperfection that crosses all the books, each of them is characterized by a melancholic or bittersweet ending, but which is always open. And, given that Effinger died before writing the books that followed, these endings entitle us to imagine what happens next.
In this regard, I would add that there is a posthumous collection of short stories, “Budayeen Nights” (I’ll review it separately), which includes a series of writings by Effinger including the beginning of the fourth book, and above all a story starring Marîd (although his name is never pronounced) that allows us to take a look at his future where apparently he has freed himself from the control of the “mafia boss” of the Budayeen and has a fairly quiet life, even if sometimes he gets involved in dangerous investigations.
The three novels in the Budayeen trilogy are: “When Gravity Fails”, “A Fire in the Sun”, and “The Exile Kiss”.
If you have the opportunity to get them, don’t miss it.
