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by John E., M.D. Eichenlaub
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by Mignon Good Eberhart
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by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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(Larger Image)
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A Fire in the Sun
by George Alec Effinger
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Spectra (1990-03-01)
ISBN: 0553274074
EAN: 9780553274073
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Mass Market Paperback
Release Date: 1990-03-01
SKU: mon0000047771
Condition: Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Marid Audran has become everything he once despised. Not so long ago, he was a hustler in the Budayeen, an Arabian ghetto in a Balkanized future Earth. Back then, as often as not, he didn’t have the money to buy himself a drink. But he had his independence.
Now Marid works for Friedlander Bey, “godfather” of the Budayeen, a man whose power stretches across a shattered, crumbling world. During the day, Marid is a policeman…and Bey’s personal envoy to the police. His new position has brought him money and power which he would abandon in a moment if he could return to a life of neither owning nor being owned. Which, unfortunately, isn’t one of his options.
It’s also not an issue. For something dark is afoot. Something that is sending the city into chaos. Helping a child-mutilator to avoid arrest. Sending a killer to murder Marid’s partner. Murdering prostitutes and savaging their remains. Signs point to the hand of Abu Adil—the one man in the city whose power rivals Friedlander Bey’s. Whatever happens next, it’s not going to be good news for Marid Audran…
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Customer Reviews
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Not Free SF Reader
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-12-07
Broke, independent and criminal maybe better than ok, cop and beholden.
Marid is now basically working for the local crimelord, and doing what he is told, even if reluctantly.
This leads him to becoming a cop, and, of course, investigating people that his de facto boss would like investigated.
So, a dodgy cop story with a protagonist that doesn't want to be one.
3 out of 5
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Marid Matures
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-09-24
The primary focus of this work in the "Marid Trilogy" is the maturation of Marid. We still have the wonderful setting of the Budayeen and the cyberpunk idea of cerebral augmentation but this is really a character piece.
Marid is forced to mature in this book by essentially being surrounded by enemies on all sides. His support structure is ruptured totally by the loss of the friendship of Chirigi when he is given her club by Friedlander Bey and his sole remaining "friend" is a slave given him by Bey to spy on Marid. The rest of his former associates had long since cut him off for becoming a cop, a minion of Bey, and his violence in bringing the previous murderers to justice.
Marid grows in this novel, slowly repairing his family and friend connections as he realizes he is surrounded by various levels of evil on all sides. A crooked supervisor at the police station and a generally crooked police force, the evil of two minor kingpins, one of whom is his benefactor, and the general evil of drug-dealers, assassins and the general hopelessness of those in the lowest economic stratum. Through this Marid tries to find a way to do what is necessary to survive and provide what is demanded of him while remaining as clean as possible.
The plot is slow-paced, as I found When Gravity Fails to be, and focuses on Marid's pursuit of the killer of his partner who apparently is being hidden by very powerful forces in the city. In the midst of his investigation he realizes the level of evil that his benefactor and the rival crime-lord have sunk to. Minor plot points involve his relationship with his mother, and other familial plots such as the alleged daughter/granddaughter of Friedlander Bey.
Where the wonder of the first novel is lessened due to familiarity, the greater depth of characterisation in this book makes it at least equal if not a better effort.
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The first was an easy read, this one its harder to stomach.
Rating (3)
Date: 2007-07-26
If you read the first one and loved it, that's good, but don't expect too much of the same from this one. Its a good book don't get me wrong, but it doesn't live up to the fun and intrigue of the first. The biggest issue is much of the mystery of the Budayeen has been taken out, because Marid rarely gets to frequent the place anymore. Alot of this stuff takes place in Frielander Bey's home which is not nearly as interesting. There's more political action in this, but for me that's not as much fun as the grim noir of the first one. Its still worth reading because it does shine in moments, especially in the opening sequence. Just stomach through the first half and you'll be rewarded when the story starts picking up.
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Living With the Devil
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-12-28
2 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
A Fire In the Sun (1989) is the second SF novel in the Budayeen series, following When Gravity Fails. In the previous volume, Friedlander Bey paid a large sum of money for Marid to have cerebral augmentation, with both anterior and posterior connections. Marid found the personality modules and add-ons to be quite helpful, especially when he confronts two killers that have been haunting the Budayeen.
In this novel, Marid Audran travels to Mauretania to see his mother and ask a few questions about his father. Saied the Half-Hajj accompanies him on the bus and they pull the lost diamond scam at stops along the way. When they reach Algiers, Angel Morgan insists that his father was Bernard Audran, a French sailor, who had left them when Marid was four. But Friedlander Bey's records state that this man had died before Marid was conceived.
Returning to the Budayeen, Marid visits Chiriga's club for a few drinks. Chiri is a big kaffir -- a black woman -- with filed teeth and ritual tattoos. Nobody wants Chiri to be angry with them. However, she still welcomes Marid into her bar despite his prior violence and his new job as a cop; she serves him a shot of White Death, the drink that he had invented.
Sipping his liquor, Marid watches the dancer as she finishes her set. Afterward, Indihar solicits a tip from him and he stuffs a kiam bill in her cleavage. She moves on to the other customers for more tips, but returns to Marid and asks him what it is like to work for Friedlander Bey. She stays with him until he leaves.
Arriving at Friedlander Bey's estate, Marid notices an unknown woman going up the stairs. He is told that she is Umm Saad. When he asks Friedlander Bey about her, Marid is told to destroy her and her son.
The next morning, Marid is awaken by his sleep control daddy to find that he now has a slave of his own. Kmuzu is a tall, well built kaffir, with a long, serious face and a shaven head; he is a practicing Christian. Kmuzu refuses to admit that he is a spy for Friedlander Bey and insists that he is Marid's friend, yet he has been told to limit Marid's drug use.
In this story, Marid is assigned as the partner of Jirji Shaknahyi by Lieutenant Hajjar and tasked with investigating Reda Abu Adil, a competitor of Friedlander Bey. Shaknahyi is not happy about having a rank amateur as a partner, but they both make the best of it.
Marid buys a Complete Guardian moddy to provide the background he needs as a street cop; Laila also sells him a Wise Counselor moddy. After almost getting them both killed in a bomber incident, Shaknahyi crushes the Complete Guardian moddy and threatens to do the same to any other personality module that Marid uses while they are patrolling. Later, Shaknahyi invites him to supper and Marid finds that Indihar is Shaknahyi's wife; he also learns that they have two sons and a daughter.
Friedlander Bey presents Marid with the title to Chiri's club. When he gets there on the way the copshop, Chiri throws a fit and leaves. Marid appoints Indihar as day manager and goes to work. Later, he regains his friendship with Chiri and hires her as night manager.
One day, Shaknahyi and Marid follow up on a call about a baby buyer. Then they are sent after an escaped murderer. Shaknahyi is shot by Paul Jawarski with a .45 automatic and dies on the way to the hospital. Marid is very upset with the situation and blames himself, but the Wise Counselor moddy provides some perplexing advice on that.
Lieutenant Hajjar tries to team Marid with Sargeant Catavina, but Audran continues his efforts to find Shaknahyi's murderer and to complete the Abu Adil investigation. He hires an American detective to locate Jawarski and searches the archives for clues on something called the Phoenix File.
Marid isn't a very good cop, but he is fairly competent on data analysis. Since he is very good at obtaining other people's passwords, Marid does find out some interesting information about Reda Abu Adil and Friedlander Bey.
Highly recommended for Effinger fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of foreign societies, noir mysteries, and cyberpunk.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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urban noir inside a futuristic science fiction
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-03-01
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
In the twenty-second century, private detective Marid Audran wonders if he gave up too much of his independence when he agreed to delete the adjective private from his occupation and work exclusively for two century old Budayeen kingpin Friedlander Bey. Marid lives much better as the pay is excellent compared to the scraps he earned before he became Bey's man, but he feels guilty, having sold out to the system, dropped all his former friends to become a "cop" with a Christian slave Kmuzu.
Taking time off though still on call Marid travels to the Mauretania region of Algeria looking for his family especially information on his North American mother Angel Monroe. However that proves a big bust though he meets her so he quickly returns to Budayeen to investigate the gruesome cases of someone mutilating and murdering children and prostitutes. Having experience with a serial killer (see WHEN GRAVITY FAILS), he feels he can stop the culprit though clues lead to Bey's dangerous and powerful rival Abu Adil and an unwanted partner is fostered on him.
This is an intriguing sequel that combines elements of an urban noir inside a futuristic science fiction. The story line is action-packed from the moment Marid returns to the Budayeen following his disappointment upon meeting his mom and never slows down until he confronts the killer, but unlike the first tale, WHEN GRAVITY FAILS, the investigation takes away from rather than enhances the twenty-second century ambience. Still this is a fine who-done-it starring an interesting protagonist whose conscience never lets him fully relish his rise in materialism at the cost of his freedom.
Harriet Klausner
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