Effinger George alex 11

Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron

A Fire in the Sun – George Alec Effinger

You will no doubt recall my review of the late George Alec Effinger’s When Gravity Fails a few months ago. Basically a murder mystery, it was set in the Arab ghetto of a middle-eastern city a few years in the future when technology has ‘improved’ to the point where human brains can be enhanced with memory chips which provide additional languages and skills. Marid Audran is a bit of a coward and has never had the surgery to enable him to use memory chips. He scrapes a living in a red-light area by doing detective work – finding missing people and such like. However, when his friends and acquaintances start being murdered he feels obliged to go after the murderer.

At the start of the second novel, Marid is working for the local ‘godfather’ Friedlander Bey, acting as police liaison for him. Like the first book, A Fire in the Sun is an excellent read. One strand of the story shows how Marid copes with gaining wealth and power, but losing his friends in the Budayeen. Early on, he attempts to find out something about his parentage. But this back-fires when his mother comes to stay with him. On the work front, there is a murderer on the loose, and some powerful politics going on which he needs to get his head round.

Like When Gravity Fails, this is a great and enjoyable story, well written and richly characterised. If you enjoy hard cyberpunky SF, then it will be worth your while tracking A Fire in the Sun down. Although the second of three stories, it does not err as a weaker novel. It is as good as When Gravity Fails. I am looking forward to reading the third and final book The Exile Kiss , which is on my acquire list, and I will let you know what it’s like in due course.

Publisher: Orb
Date: 1989
Pages: 289 Pages
Price: $14.95 (£9.99 ish)
ISBN: 0-765-31359-6
Format: Trade paperback
Reviewed by: Rod Cameron
Date Reviewed: October 2006

A Fire in the Sun – George Alec Effinger
You will no doubt recall my review of the late George Alec Effinger’s When Gravity Fails a few months ago. Basically a murder mystery, it was set in the Arab ghetto of a middle-eastern city a few years in the future when technology has ‘improved’ to the point where human brains can be enhanced with memory chips which provide additional languages and skills. Marid Audran is a bit of a coward and has never had the surgery to enable him to use memory chips. He scrapes a living in a red-light area by doing detective work – finding missing people and such like. However, when his friends and acquaintances start being murdered he feels obliged to go after the murderer. At the start of the second novel, Marid is working for the local ‘godfather’ Friedlander Bey, acting as police liaison for him. Like the first book, A Fire in the Sun is an excellent read. One strand of the story shows how Marid copes with gaining wealth and power, but losing his friends in the Budayeen. Early on, he attempts to find out something about his parentage. But this back-fires when his mother comes to stay with him. On the work front, there is a murderer on the loose, and some powerful politics going on which he needs to get his head round. Like When Gravity Fails, this is a great and enjoyable story, well written and richly characterised. If you enjoy hard cyberpunky SF, then it will be worth your while tracking A Fire in the Sun down. Although the second of three stories, it does not err as a weaker novel. It is as good as When Gravity Fails. I am looking forward to reading the third and final book The Exile Kiss , which is on my acquire list, and I will let you know what it’s like in due course.
Publisher: Orb Date: 1989 Pages: 289 Pages Price: $14.95 (£9.99 ish) ISBN: 0-765-31359-6 Format: Trade paperback Reviewed by: Rod Cameron Date Reviewed: October 2006