Rating: 
Summary: A decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death.
Review: Marid Audran has kept his independence and his identity the hard way. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he is available.....for a price. For a new kind or killer roams the streets of the decadent Aribic ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. The 2 hundred year old godfather of crime in the Budayeen has enlisted Marid as his insturment of vengeance. But first Marid must undergo the most sophisicated of surgical implants before he dares to stop a killer with the powers of every psychopath since the beginning of time I thought this book was fantastic, there is a sieres of books centered around this character, but most of them are hard to find. If you are lucky enough to find them, do so.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent story, but hindered by an uneven narrative
Review: The elements that make this novel a cyberpunk classic are all here: the sharp story concept, the sleaze-noire environs, the eccentric yet honorable anti-hero, and the morally hazardous technology. I read this book upon hearing about Effinger's recent death, so I came to this novel well past its original release, and my perspective is affected by the 14 intervening years of evolution in cyberpunk.In an unnamed Middle Eastern city's criminal enclave, the Budayeen, Marid Audran artfully plies his trade as a freelance underworld "fixer." Need someone found; need to make a break with your pimp; need to negotiate with the local godfather? Audran's your man. His essential feature is his independence, even from the cerebral implants that are universally popular: plug-in modules that alter your personality to any fictional or real person, and add-ins for instantly acquiring expertise on any subject. Audran even eschews the expedient of firearms. He relies only on his functional drug habit, and his occasionally useful crew of acquaintances comprising the barkeeps, bent policemen, prostitutes, and ne'er-do-wells of the Budayeen. Effinger renders the future of 400 years from now quite softly (nearly as an afterthought, except for the implants), but the intricate beauty of the Arab backdrop is vivid, with its ancient mores and formalisms coexisting with criminal enterprise. Discordant as Audran's techno-phobia is for a sci-fi novel, Effinger plays this intriguingly as the basis for the dominant theme of the book: the contest between humanity and inhumanity, bridged as it is by consciousness, which can be altered by a technology that remakes who you are and what you know as easily as swapping a plug. I also think it was a deft distinction that Effinger made between modules and add-ins, because he clearly wants to keep the issues separate, with personality encompassing morality. Audran, who would be nearly amoral but for his own code of honor, becomes the agent for justice in the Budayeen and eventually embraces the means he fears in order to resolve the dark mystery of exceptionally brutal serial murders that threaten to unbalance the criminal order of the Budayeen. An inspired story, one that is worth the read, but it does suffer from unnecessarily raw transitions in the narrative and an uncompelling international contest that motivates the murders. These shortcomings sap energy from the story and leaves the reader feeling a bit flat at the conclusion. And because of this, Effinger's work falls short of William Gibson's of the same period, but then again it's better than any of Gibson's later work (e.g., "All Tomorrow's Parties").
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story, but hindered by an uneven narrative
Review: The elements that make this novel a cyberpunk classic are all here: the sharp story concept, the sleaze-noire environs, the eccentric yet honorable anti-hero, and the morally hazardous technology. I read this book upon hearing about Effinger's recent death, so I came to this novel well past its original release, and my perspective is affected by the 14 intervening years of evolution in cyberpunk. In an unnamed Middle Eastern city's criminal enclave, the Budayeen, Marid Audran artfully plies his trade as a freelance underworld "fixer." Need someone found; need to make a break with your pimp; need to negotiate with the local godfather? Audran's your man. His essential feature is his independence, even from the cerebral implants that are universally popular: plug-in modules that alter your personality to any fictional or real person, and add-ins for instantly acquiring expertise on any subject. Audran even eschews the expedient of firearms. He relies only on his functional drug habit, and his occasionally useful crew of acquaintances comprising the barkeeps, bent policemen, prostitutes, and ne'er-do-wells of the Budayeen. Effinger renders the future of 400 years from now quite softly (nearly as an afterthought, except for the implants), but the intricate beauty of the Arab backdrop is vivid, with its ancient mores and formalisms coexisting with criminal enterprise. Discordant as Audran's techno-phobia is for a sci-fi novel, Effinger plays this intriguingly as the basis for the dominant theme of the book: the contest between humanity and inhumanity, bridged as it is by consciousness, which can be altered by a technology that remakes who you are and what you know as easily as swapping a plug. I also think it was a deft distinction that Effinger made between modules and add-ins, because he clearly wants to keep the issues separate, with personality encompassing morality. Audran, who would be nearly amoral but for his own code of honor, becomes the agent for justice in the Budayeen and eventually embraces the means he fears in order to resolve the dark mystery of exceptionally brutal serial murders that threaten to unbalance the criminal order of the Budayeen. An inspired story, one that is worth the read, but it does suffer from unnecessarily raw transitions in the narrative and an uncompelling international contest that motivates the murders. These shortcomings sap energy from the story and leaves the reader feeling a bit flat at the conclusion. And because of this, Effinger's work falls short of William Gibson's of the same period, but then again it's better than any of Gibson's later work (e.g., "All Tomorrow's Parties").
Rating:
Summary: When Does Gravity Fail? Near the end.
Review: The innovation of this book is the setting. The author challanges (and in some ways surpasses) William Gibson in creating a world rich with atmosphere and character. However, speaking of character, I got the distinct feeling that the author wrote himself into a corner. Our hero is, at first, dead set against modifying himself in a world where it is almost necessary to survive. This eccentricity makes him interesting and easy to like. He retains his integrity and individuality while everyone else is mutable. Then the author chucks that idea, writes our hero into an impossible situation that necessitates the violation of his principles and the mystery is wrapped up in short, brutal order. No imagination seemed necessary to write the end of the book, I'm sorry to say. Which is surprising in the face of how incredibly meaty the book was up to that point. I'd recommend the book, but it slips down my list for failing to hold my respect through to the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Too bad it's out of print
Review: This is a fun book, worth hunting down. I must admit it has its problems...primarily that the plot is weak and the author goes into long tangents that don't forward the plot and are occasionally painful to read. For instance, a perpetually hallucinating taxi driver occupies several pages for no purpose, and just isn't funny. The sci-fi Mid Eastern setting of the book is probably the most interesting world I've ever seen in science fiction. Effinger writes in a smooth, readable style, and doesn't get bogged down in over-explaining the science, as most science fiction authors do. The scenes of the protaganist tryng to get information out of the crime boss, while carefully observing all the required pleasantries of Middle Eastern social ettiquite, are alone worth reading the book. The sequels aren't as good, but the setting of the book is intriguing enough to keep you wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: Too bad it's out of print
Review: This is a fun book, worth hunting down. I must admit it has its problems...primarily that the plot is weak and the author goes into long tangents that don't forward the plot and are occasionally painful to read. For instance, a perpetually hallucinating taxi driver occupies several pages for no purpose, and just isn't funny. The sci-fi Mid Eastern setting of the book is probably the most interesting world I've ever seen in science fiction. Effinger writes in a smooth, readable style, and doesn't get bogged down in over-explaining the science, as most science fiction authors do. The scenes of the protaganist tryng to get information out of the crime boss, while carefully observing all the required pleasantries of Middle Eastern social ettiquite, are alone worth reading the book. The sequels aren't as good, but the setting of the book is intriguing enough to keep you wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This novel is, in my opinion, one of the best SF efforts of the 80s. The writing is modern, dynamic and more refined than in the average cyberpunk novel. The narrative progression is vigorous but the reader never gets out of his depth, because Effinger's aim, beyond the solving of the "mystery", is to show how a man can be framed by his own capacities: Marid Audran, indeed, is chosen by Friedlander Bey because he's the only man in the Boudayin to have the sufficient amount of shrewdness / charism / guts to find the killer. Against his will, he accepts to have his brain wired, succeeds but will get no reward in the end (to say the least). A tragic destiny, quite unusual in SF. Nevertheless, as another reviewer wrote, Effinger was smart enough not to insert too many digressions or metaphysical considerations (like many other authors would have done): on the contrary, he punctuated the plot with wellcomed strokes of black humour. All the characters are colourful and unforgettable. In the end, I felt like I was one of them, like I belonged to their community. It's really hard not to get involved personnally in this book (... the sign of a good book). The description of the Boudayin is amazing: it avoids most of the usual exotic cliches about North Africa (where I've never been to), but in the same time, the reader catches very quickly who does what and why, even if he's not familiar with arab civilization. In other words, Effinger plays intelligently with the western unconscious perception of this culture. I think this novel may appeal to many sci-fi readers: the unexperienced readers will certainly appreciate the fast pace and the unusual setting; the more experienced readers will appreciate the numerous references and, in a way, the fidelity to the spirit of the golden age of SF. The only problem I see with WGF is: what's next? Is this the end of a cycle or the beginning of another? Effinger seems to have reached his top with this book: the two sequels, written in 1989 and 1991, are in my opinion very inferior. I wish someone took up the gauntlet soon.
Rating:
Summary: Cyber-rabia!
Review: Unreal! This and the other two Marid Audran books transport the reader to a fantastical Muslim world of the near future where principles, religion and technology become throwaway commodities available to the highest bidder. Audran's fall from independence to virtual slavery is exciting and damning of the protagonist all at once. A worthy peer of the cyberpunk gods!
Rating:
Summary: Cyber-rabia!
Review: Unreal! This and the other two Marid Audran books transport the reader to a fantastical Muslim world of the near future where principles, religion and technology become throwaway commodities available to the highest bidder. Audran's fall from independence to virtual slavery is exciting and damning of the protagonist all at once. A worthy peer of the cyberpunk gods!
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