When Gravity Fails cover art

When Gravity Fails

Marid Audran Trilogy, Book 1

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When Gravity Fails

By: George Alec Effinger
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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About this listen

In a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hard way. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he's available for a price.

For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. And Marid Audrian has been made an offer he can't refuse.The 200-year-old godfather of the Budayeen's underworld has enlisted Marid as his instrument of vengeance. But first Marid must undergo the most sophisticated of surgical implants before he dares to confront a killer who carries the power of every psychopath since the beginning of time.

Wry, savage, and unignorable, When Gravity Fails was hailed as a classic by Effinger's fellow SF writers on its original publication in 1987, and the sequence of Marid Audrian novels it begins were the culmination of his career.

©1987 George Alec Effinger (P)2011 Audible, Inc. Crime Fiction Cyberpunk Science Fiction Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Fast, cool, clever, beautifully written, absolutely authoritative. A kind of cyberpunk Raymond Chandler book with dashes of Roger Zelazny, Ian Fleming, and Scheherezade - but altogether original." (Robert Silverberg)
"Ingenious, layered, sophisticated, and consistently bloodcurdling, When Gravity Fails kept me awake long after I had finished reading it." (Spider Robinson)
"[Y]ou people are cheating yourselves if you don't forego food and rent to pick up on Effinger's work. Now, this time, will you for pete's sake listen to me and buy When Gravity Fails? It's as crazy as a spider on ice skates, plain old terrific; and if you don't pay attention I'll have to get tough with you!" (Harlan Ellison)
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Marîd Audran is painfully slow at working out this fairly simple mystery and the Islam motif is a little off in this literary love in which tries to be sexy and deep but only stumbles upon profundity occasionally, seemingly by accident. Finished it and got the sequal immediately though so it can't be that bad.

Performance is less than ideal as John Davis over-dramatises to the point of mis-reading. Additionally suffers from a forced Arabic accent which at times verges on the excruciating.

Mixed feelings

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Where does When Gravity Fails rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is one of the most absorbing books I have read combining innovation with new takes on old ideas and this sci-fi particularly thrives in the religious middle eastern setting.

What other book might you compare When Gravity Fails to, and why?

It is hard to pin this one down. There are echoes of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (BladeRunner)?'; echoes of Asimov's Robots and many non-fantasy works. It is about an imperfect man forced to carry out someone else's mission.

Which character – as performed by Jonathan Davis – was your favourite?

Marid Audran. Totally bought into the emotion and the balance between his old life and the pressure to reform.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Hard to say, I was particularly struck by the fact that many people think the worst of the hero no matter how well intentioned.

Any additional comments?

Thoroughly enjoyed this and the sequel for the performance, the storytelling and the sense of a credible new world.

Something New

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Great story. Listening at a little speeded up but still can't enjoy it as much as the printed version. Narrator does good voices but has affected a too laid back approach. Would probably be best read by a tough North African accent? I will not listen too next two in series but will purchase them for reading on kindle.

Narrator reads too slow

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Noir cyberpunk mystery, from the seediest back streets. Filled with murder, working girls, gangsters, brain mods and lots and lots of pills. Delivered with just the right touch of down-and-out deadpan to make it convincing.

Dresden Files meets Neuromancer

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This is a well-paced cyberpunk novel, with lots of tension as the lead character, Audran, tries to solve a series of murders in an Arab ghetto. There were enough twists and turns to stop me figuring out ?whodunnit? before the end, and I also liked the descriptions of the technology involved.

Whodunnit?

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I really enjoyed the Muslim / Arabic angle and the characters were well written but the story wasn't very good. stuff just felt like it happened to the main character and he was just along for the ride.

good performance but story was a letdown

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