When Gravity Fails
I saw an eulogy for George Alec Effinger on one of the SciFi literature blogs, and went “this guy is dead?” and then upon rereading the eulogy, realized that he’s passed away in 2002! I was reading a cached version of a page! This kind of blows me away because I’m pretty sure 2002 was when I started reading When Gravity Falls and I always wondered why there were no more books in this series.
With that in mind, that’s when I decided to reread the whole series, as I remembered the exotic setting and the interesting ideas presented in the series.
The Budayeen Cycle, as its known is one of the more interesting Sci Fi settings. Contrary to a lot of science fiction where the future is far off and primarily western culture dominated, the Budayeen Cycles happens maybe only a hundred or so years in our future and in that future, the western world has gone to waste and what has survived and thrived is the Middle Eastern culture. One of the reasons why this has stuck in my head for so long is because this book introduced me to a lot of Muslim and middle eastern ideas and concept, and represents one of the best things about science fiction. You can find out new things you never knew about just because the book is good.
In any case, the first book of the Budayeen Cycle introduces Marid Audran, a man unmodified in a slightly cybernetic world. This is where people can plug in modules that can give them new skills, like speaking a new language, or even have a new personality, where a meek person can become a badass with a simple plugin. This was barely a few years after Neuromancer, so body modifications with cybernetics was still a new thing, but this was still a new thing. In Neuromancer, the plugs were so you could plug into cyberspace, this was more like being able to enhance humans.
In any case, the first book is basically a mystery detective trying to find a killer story. Marid was contracted to try to find the killers of several unrelated killings. One is someone he personally knows, and the others were acquaintances but not really people he hangs out with. Its also worth stating that the Budayeen is kind of a major character in the series, the neighborhood is a seedy neighborhood where quite a bit goes on that’s clearly illegal, and the cops tolerate it because every city needs such a neighborhood. Its made clear that no one who lives there is an innocent and folks do die in such a neighborhood, but the deaths are atrocities (by Muslim standards where certain things should not be violated), and so there’s an extra element of disgust added.
The book follows the investigation while giving you the slice of life of someone who lives and breaths the Budayeen. We meet his lovers, his friends, and finally, the boss of the Budayeen, a godfather’esque character who seems to know and command all in the entire city. He commissions Marid for the investigation, and as part of the commission commands Marid to undergo surgical enhancements.
Long story short, the entire story is a bit of a mcguffin chaser. No clues are given to you to solve the mystery, and the revelations usually happens in a bit of a haphazard manner. The reader however, don’t usually care because the world building is quite fantastic. Honestly, the book can have the entire trappings of SciFi taken away and it’d still be a compelling read. I’m still unsure of how the Author got his knowledge of the Middle East and its culture so I can’t attest to how authentic the practices are, but you FEEL like you are part of the world while you are reading the book, and that’s perhaps one of the highest praise I can give to any one book.
Highly Recommended. I now remember why this book always struck me as being one of the more influential books in my life, and I am grateful that I have reread it. RIP, George Alec Effinger, know that at least one of your creations has made one of your readers immensely satisfied.