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Marîd Audran #Short stories
Budayeen Nights
A dark and gritty trip into the imagination of one of science fiction's most gifted authors, this collection presents all nine tales of the Budayeen gathered together in one archival-quality volume, available for the first time in more than 20 years. Here is the Budayeen: a gritty fusion of Bogart's Casablanca, New Orleans' notoriously seedy French Quarter, and a futuristic Muslim city, all welded together and serving as the perfect backdrop for Marid, a drug-addled policeman and anti-hero of world-class proportion. This is a collection to get lost in, from the city's sordid underbelly to the glamorous excesses of the "sex moddy" industry, from the tall, ancient mosque towers to the strong-voiced muezzin calling the faithful to morning devotions, the Budayeen leaps to sudden life, making claims to its own reality as only the best science fiction can.
235 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 21, 2021
Caution! Those who gave it 2 stars are right. This is like the cherry on the top of an ice cream sundae - much more enjoyable there than when it's sitting by itself on a plate.
Effinger has the credentials to be considered ahead of William Gibson as the father of cyberpunk fiction. Effinger's When Gravity Fails introduces us to this world and to the Budayeen which becomes embellished as we move along Effinger's trail of Marîd Audran novels.
Reading this a long time after I completed his other works, made me appreciate Hambly's commentary and her insights into Effinger's relationship to his protagonist, Audran. She also highlights his fascination with things Islamic and Arabic when such were rarely considered by authors of speculative fiction.
Satisfying.
Effinger has the credentials to be considered ahead of William Gibson as the father of cyberpunk fiction. Effinger's When Gravity Fails introduces us to this world and to the Budayeen which becomes embellished as we move along Effinger's trail of Marîd Audran novels.
Reading this a long time after I completed his other works, made me appreciate Hambly's commentary and her insights into Effinger's relationship to his protagonist, Audran. She also highlights his fascination with things Islamic and Arabic when such were rarely considered by authors of speculative fiction.
Satisfying.
May 20, 2020
I've read works by many (but nowhere near all) of the most iconic science fiction writers: William Gibson, Isaac Asimov, Philip K Dick, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, and Stanislaw Lem, to name a few. As great as they all are, I've yet to have as much fun reading any of them as I do when I read George Alec Effinger. One of the founders of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, Effinger is best known for his classic cyberpunk novel When Gravity Fails. That book is the first in a trilogy known as The Budayeen Cycle (a.k.a. The Audran Sequence). That trilogy is excellent, and I highly recommend it.
After completing the third novel in the trilogy, Effinger started work on a fourth Budayeen novel, Word of Night, but he died in early 2002, with only two chapters completed. Shortly after he died, in 2003, a collection of his short stories was published, Budayeen Nights. This collection contains nine stories, but seven of them have already been published elsewhere, either as parts of novels or in magazines.
What's here is mostly great though. I came into this book looking for one last trip to Effinger's legendary futuristic Muslim city, the Budayeen. I got that and more, but like any book there are pros and cons to it. Pros? This book is worth the entire purchase price just from two things: the spectacular foreword by Barbara Hambly, and the previously-unpublished story Marîd Throws a Party, which is the first two chapters of the unfinished fourth Budayeen novel.
Cons? One of the stories, Marîd Changes His Mind, is literally just the first six chapters of the second Budayeen novel, A Fire in the Sun. This is by far the longest story in the book, and seems like a shameful throw-in just to get the book to a length where it could be sold. I didn't appreciate this at all, and it made the book seem like a bit of a money grab. It doesn't even make sense for it to be in the book. Why the second novel? Why not the first few chapters of When Gravity Fails, when all the characters were first introduced? Then you don't have to have read the Budayeen novels to know who characters are and what's going on. I also didn't care for the last two stories in the collection, one of which, disappointingly, was one of the two previously-unpublished stories.
Cons aside, this is definitely a collection worth reading; there are some great stories in here. As I said earlier, Effinger's work is just "fun". It brings a smile to my face, and it's a true joy to read. If you love the unique world of Effinger's Budayeen as much as I do, this is really a must-read, for the first two chapters of the unfinished fourth novel if nothing else. Even if you're not already a fan, but you're a science fiction fan in general, you have to read Effinger. Though he's highly underappreciated and not terribly well known, he's one of the greatest science fiction writers ever, in my opinion. Check out The Budayeen Cycle. You will not be disappointed.
After completing the third novel in the trilogy, Effinger started work on a fourth Budayeen novel, Word of Night, but he died in early 2002, with only two chapters completed. Shortly after he died, in 2003, a collection of his short stories was published, Budayeen Nights. This collection contains nine stories, but seven of them have already been published elsewhere, either as parts of novels or in magazines.
What's here is mostly great though. I came into this book looking for one last trip to Effinger's legendary futuristic Muslim city, the Budayeen. I got that and more, but like any book there are pros and cons to it. Pros? This book is worth the entire purchase price just from two things: the spectacular foreword by Barbara Hambly, and the previously-unpublished story Marîd Throws a Party, which is the first two chapters of the unfinished fourth Budayeen novel.
Cons? One of the stories, Marîd Changes His Mind, is literally just the first six chapters of the second Budayeen novel, A Fire in the Sun. This is by far the longest story in the book, and seems like a shameful throw-in just to get the book to a length where it could be sold. I didn't appreciate this at all, and it made the book seem like a bit of a money grab. It doesn't even make sense for it to be in the book. Why the second novel? Why not the first few chapters of When Gravity Fails, when all the characters were first introduced? Then you don't have to have read the Budayeen novels to know who characters are and what's going on. I also didn't care for the last two stories in the collection, one of which, disappointingly, was one of the two previously-unpublished stories.
Cons aside, this is definitely a collection worth reading; there are some great stories in here. As I said earlier, Effinger's work is just "fun". It brings a smile to my face, and it's a true joy to read. If you love the unique world of Effinger's Budayeen as much as I do, this is really a must-read, for the first two chapters of the unfinished fourth novel if nothing else. Even if you're not already a fan, but you're a science fiction fan in general, you have to read Effinger. Though he's highly underappreciated and not terribly well known, he's one of the greatest science fiction writers ever, in my opinion. Check out The Budayeen Cycle. You will not be disappointed.
May 30, 2012
This book is the final piece in the Marîd Audran/Budayeen series. A collection of stories, both published and unpublished, included fragments of books that were never finished. Effingers' last wife, Barbara Hambly, wrote the forward as well as an introduction to each of the stories.
Schrödingers Kitten
The first story is completely unlike the Budayeen novels. Indeed the Budayeen is barely mentioned and a lot of it takes place in pre-world war 2 Germany. As such it is also in a completely different time to Auran. This isn't sci-fi or cyberpunk but more philosophy via physics about the uncertainty and endless possibities of the future. Jumping forward and back between various possibilities it's a little confusing but an interesting start to the book.
Marîd Changes His Mind
This was an odd inclusion. It's the first 6 chapters of the second Marîd Audran book and I wouldn't expect people who hadn't read that to be reading this. As I only just recently read that book I will skip over it this time.
Slow, Slow Burn
In the world of moddies and daddies one name stands out above any other. The most desired, the most adored, the most experienced - Honey Pílar. The star of the top-selling "erotica" moddies Pílars' name is on every street and every shelf but who she really is has never been explored til now. In her mid-forties and on her fourth marriage she is like Howard Hughes, rich beyond all belief but eccentric and rarely does she leave her home. Her husband Kit is growing tired of this dumb, dull woman whose only good point is her body and what she does with it and this isn't the paradise marriage others think it should be. But there seems to be something more. Is Pílar really as stupid as she seems? What is with the cryptic recording? Is the world growing tired of Honey Pílar? I feel there is a lot more to explore and it's a shame Effinger died before he got that chance.
Marîd and the Trail of Blood
So far my favourite story of this book. It reminds me of the first book. Audran is on the trail of a killer who seems to be a vampire. There is only one way to fight a vampire - by using a moddy of vampire hunter Van Helsing. I love the way the moddies alter actions and thoughts without (most of the time) stopping their own thoughts from being part of it. I wish this was explored more rather than being a minor part of the overall series. Also featuring one of my favourite characters, Bill the Taxi Driver, this is a taste of where I was hoping the series was going.
King of the Cyber Rifles
This story is set in an unnamed Persian mountain pass and tells the take of a soldier, Jân Muhammad, whose job is to live alone in his bunker and defend the pass using technology linked to moddies and daddies. It's interesting to look at a perspective of the technology that's not pleasure based but military. Apart from that though there isn't a lot of substance to it. It feels like an introductory chapter as all it does is introduce a main character and a setting then just stops.
Marîd Throws a Party
Effinger unfortunately died before he could write the fourth Audran book, Word of Night. But he did write the first couple chapters. It's frustrating in a way as he was setting up some good events. Audran and Bey's pilgrimage to Mecca, Marîd's revenge on Fuad and what gets me most, the introduction of a technology upgrade. The neural net introduced in the second book was coming back and going into Marîd's head. It would have been a return to what made the first book so great. That mix of old-school world and religion with futuristic technology. Such a shame we'll never know what Effinger had in store. I'm sure it would have been a great book.
The World as We Know It
Originally the Audran books were meant to be a 5 book series. That was cut short early but Effinger always had in mind where it was going. This short story is set after the fifth book. We don't know what happened to Marîd in the intervening time but it appears he has lost a great deal. Now working as a PI under an assumed name he's an ageing man in a changed world. Moddies and daddies are considered ancient technology and the new thing is CR - consensual reality. When a local company has issues they can't make public who else could they turn to. I think I like this story the least out of this book. It's disjointed and feels very incomplete as if whole paragraphs or more are missing. It doesn't make a great deal of sense and feels like it was included just so they could publish everything Effinger wrote about the Budayeen.
The City on the Sand
A sad, philosophical, semi-autobiographical tale of a writer/poet in exile spending his days and nights drinking in the Budayeen. Modelled on Effinger the write Ernst Weinraub came to the Budayeen for an unknown reason with hints that he was escaping some drama in his past. He spends his time drinking at scratching out meaningless writing on napkins and scrap paper hoping for some recognition or acknowledgment of his "superior" intellect. Occasionally others come by the café in inhabits - the proprietor; the leader of the Jaish (local militia) trying to persuade Weinraub to spy for them; Sandor Courane, protagonist of other Effiger stories and another representation of himself; and Kebap the possibly imaginary street urchin who is far wiser than his years. It was an OK but I found it a bit boring and was glad when it was finished.
The Plastic Pasha
The final piece of this books is a fragment of a story Effinger started in the weeks before his death. Barely a chapter in length the only thing you can get out of it is it not set in the Budayeen and seemed to be about politics. Any more than that I cannot say as it ends abruptly. Honestly I can't see why it was included. I know it was the last thing he wrote but it was extremely unfinished and probably would have been better left out.
So what are my final thoughts on this book. Firstly I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read the rest of the Budayeen books. Secondly I'm not sure it needed to be released, or at least not as it was. A collection of his stories that have previously been released, sure. But the unfinished fragments, those I'm not so sure about. I don't understand the need to publish everything an author ever wrote. If I died I wouldn't want anything I hadn't finished and been satisfied with to be published. Yes it shows where Effinger was planning on taken the Budayeen series but he died over ten years after he wrote The Exile Kiss. Maybe he didn't finish the fourth book because he wasn't happy with it, or just wanted to write something else. So here we get the scrap he left behind that he may never have wanted to be seen.
There were some good parts but overall it was a sad book of pieces and fragments that tell of potential lost.
Schrödingers Kitten
The first story is completely unlike the Budayeen novels. Indeed the Budayeen is barely mentioned and a lot of it takes place in pre-world war 2 Germany. As such it is also in a completely different time to Auran. This isn't sci-fi or cyberpunk but more philosophy via physics about the uncertainty and endless possibities of the future. Jumping forward and back between various possibilities it's a little confusing but an interesting start to the book.
Marîd Changes His Mind
This was an odd inclusion. It's the first 6 chapters of the second Marîd Audran book and I wouldn't expect people who hadn't read that to be reading this. As I only just recently read that book I will skip over it this time.
Slow, Slow Burn
In the world of moddies and daddies one name stands out above any other. The most desired, the most adored, the most experienced - Honey Pílar. The star of the top-selling "erotica" moddies Pílars' name is on every street and every shelf but who she really is has never been explored til now. In her mid-forties and on her fourth marriage she is like Howard Hughes, rich beyond all belief but eccentric and rarely does she leave her home. Her husband Kit is growing tired of this dumb, dull woman whose only good point is her body and what she does with it and this isn't the paradise marriage others think it should be. But there seems to be something more. Is Pílar really as stupid as she seems? What is with the cryptic recording? Is the world growing tired of Honey Pílar? I feel there is a lot more to explore and it's a shame Effinger died before he got that chance.
Marîd and the Trail of Blood
So far my favourite story of this book. It reminds me of the first book. Audran is on the trail of a killer who seems to be a vampire. There is only one way to fight a vampire - by using a moddy of vampire hunter Van Helsing. I love the way the moddies alter actions and thoughts without (most of the time) stopping their own thoughts from being part of it. I wish this was explored more rather than being a minor part of the overall series. Also featuring one of my favourite characters, Bill the Taxi Driver, this is a taste of where I was hoping the series was going.
King of the Cyber Rifles
This story is set in an unnamed Persian mountain pass and tells the take of a soldier, Jân Muhammad, whose job is to live alone in his bunker and defend the pass using technology linked to moddies and daddies. It's interesting to look at a perspective of the technology that's not pleasure based but military. Apart from that though there isn't a lot of substance to it. It feels like an introductory chapter as all it does is introduce a main character and a setting then just stops.
Marîd Throws a Party
Effinger unfortunately died before he could write the fourth Audran book, Word of Night. But he did write the first couple chapters. It's frustrating in a way as he was setting up some good events. Audran and Bey's pilgrimage to Mecca, Marîd's revenge on Fuad and what gets me most, the introduction of a technology upgrade. The neural net introduced in the second book was coming back and going into Marîd's head. It would have been a return to what made the first book so great. That mix of old-school world and religion with futuristic technology. Such a shame we'll never know what Effinger had in store. I'm sure it would have been a great book.
The World as We Know It
Originally the Audran books were meant to be a 5 book series. That was cut short early but Effinger always had in mind where it was going. This short story is set after the fifth book. We don't know what happened to Marîd in the intervening time but it appears he has lost a great deal. Now working as a PI under an assumed name he's an ageing man in a changed world. Moddies and daddies are considered ancient technology and the new thing is CR - consensual reality. When a local company has issues they can't make public who else could they turn to. I think I like this story the least out of this book. It's disjointed and feels very incomplete as if whole paragraphs or more are missing. It doesn't make a great deal of sense and feels like it was included just so they could publish everything Effinger wrote about the Budayeen.
The City on the Sand
A sad, philosophical, semi-autobiographical tale of a writer/poet in exile spending his days and nights drinking in the Budayeen. Modelled on Effinger the write Ernst Weinraub came to the Budayeen for an unknown reason with hints that he was escaping some drama in his past. He spends his time drinking at scratching out meaningless writing on napkins and scrap paper hoping for some recognition or acknowledgment of his "superior" intellect. Occasionally others come by the café in inhabits - the proprietor; the leader of the Jaish (local militia) trying to persuade Weinraub to spy for them; Sandor Courane, protagonist of other Effiger stories and another representation of himself; and Kebap the possibly imaginary street urchin who is far wiser than his years. It was an OK but I found it a bit boring and was glad when it was finished.
The Plastic Pasha
The final piece of this books is a fragment of a story Effinger started in the weeks before his death. Barely a chapter in length the only thing you can get out of it is it not set in the Budayeen and seemed to be about politics. Any more than that I cannot say as it ends abruptly. Honestly I can't see why it was included. I know it was the last thing he wrote but it was extremely unfinished and probably would have been better left out.
So what are my final thoughts on this book. Firstly I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read the rest of the Budayeen books. Secondly I'm not sure it needed to be released, or at least not as it was. A collection of his stories that have previously been released, sure. But the unfinished fragments, those I'm not so sure about. I don't understand the need to publish everything an author ever wrote. If I died I wouldn't want anything I hadn't finished and been satisfied with to be published. Yes it shows where Effinger was planning on taken the Budayeen series but he died over ten years after he wrote The Exile Kiss. Maybe he didn't finish the fourth book because he wasn't happy with it, or just wanted to write something else. So here we get the scrap he left behind that he may never have wanted to be seen.
There were some good parts but overall it was a sad book of pieces and fragments that tell of potential lost.
January 24, 2019
Very inconsistent collection. I skipped a number of these based on poor reviews, but of those I read the Hugo & Nebula award winning novella Schrödinger's Kitten, as well as Marîd Throws a Party, were clear standouts. The former, about a young Arab girl as she considers, with fear and trepidation, the divergent futures she's seen for herself through a series of visions, I'd recommend to all sci-fi fans.
The latter, which forms the beginnings of Effinger's never published fourth Marîd Audran book, I'd recommend to fans of his wonderful Marîd Audran classic cyberpunk series. The real allure of that series is the unique world, a sometimes quizzical juxtaposition of old world Middle East/North Africa and religion with 23rd century technology, centered around the Budayeen, a grimy city slum where crime, prostitution and drugs run rampant.
Schrödingers Kitten ****
Marîd Changes His Mind ***
Marîd and the Trail of Blood **
Marîd Throws a Party ****
The latter, which forms the beginnings of Effinger's never published fourth Marîd Audran book, I'd recommend to fans of his wonderful Marîd Audran classic cyberpunk series. The real allure of that series is the unique world, a sometimes quizzical juxtaposition of old world Middle East/North Africa and religion with 23rd century technology, centered around the Budayeen, a grimy city slum where crime, prostitution and drugs run rampant.
Schrödingers Kitten ****
Marîd Changes His Mind ***
Marîd and the Trail of Blood **
Marîd Throws a Party ****
February 14, 2020
I couldn't find it in me to appreciate this book. It's a collection of science fiction short stories that attempts to be more than the genre is known for, but in my opinion falls flat. Most stories take place in an unnamed future muslim city. A prize-winning tale sees a young girl able to perceive possible futures in a quantum continuum, but this is now the norm. A couple other stories tell the adventures of a small time criminal who climbs the ranks thanks to his grandfather, but again, only the muslim setup makes them mildly interesting. One tells the story of a lone future soldier, guarding a mountain pass all by himself. Another one described a new type of crime taking place in a kind of glorified LARP setup, but is so disjointed and inconclusive that it looks like random sections are missing. A really insufferable one follows the drunk musings of an oafish poet wannabe that has an over inflated sense of self. A potentially interesting device, mentioned here and there, is a cyberpunk interface allowing the user to overwrite his personality with one of his choosing, along with useful skills, but the author chooses to do very little with it. Finally, two tales are nothing but the start of novels that were never written.
None of the above has anything resembling a plot, they are meant to be pictures at an exhibition (minus the music) rather than stories. Except, for me they don't work very well. I prefer this kind of literature to be immersed in a historical setup rather than a fictional one, so that I can learn something while getting to know the characters and their stories. Here we learn of a city that does not exist, and is frankly pretty similar to what one can find in any number of old colonial adventures, to the point of being completely forgettable.
None of the above has anything resembling a plot, they are meant to be pictures at an exhibition (minus the music) rather than stories. Except, for me they don't work very well. I prefer this kind of literature to be immersed in a historical setup rather than a fictional one, so that I can learn something while getting to know the characters and their stories. Here we learn of a city that does not exist, and is frankly pretty similar to what one can find in any number of old colonial adventures, to the point of being completely forgettable.
February 19, 2012
A must-read for Effinger and/or Marîd fans. I found it satisfying but also utterly sad. The timing of reading this at the same time that Whitney Houston died and then watching her funeral underscored the tragedy of what addiction can do to someone. Barbara Hambly, Effinger's third wife (they were divorced several years before his death), wrote the forward to the book and an introduction to each story, and it added a great deal to the book. She clearly still loved and admired him. She said he suffered from chronic pain as well as addiction issues, which made me even more sad as that's something I deal with as well. He planned to write two more books in the Marîd series, and who knows what else he'd have been been able to accomplish if he'd been healthy and hadn't died so young. But at least this book was a gift to fans. Not only did we get to read stories that had been published in the past, but there were several stories that hadn't been published yet at the time of Effinger's passing, including two new Marîd stories. One was the beginning of what would have been the fourth book and the other takes place after what would have been the fifth. I found it reassuring somehow. This world and these characters became so real to me, it's one of the most vivid and vital worlds I've read about. So just having these few clues about the trajectory of where Effinger was going with the story really helps, it makes it more real and solid again instead of just ending after The Exile Kiss, now I can imagine Marîd's life continuing to go on out there.
July 29, 2020
Effinger's writing was always intriguing, investigative, serious, fun, and in all ways worthy. We could use his sensitivity he displays in his Budayeen Nights now. Highly recommended.
October 22, 2017
Budayeen Nights is a collection of stories all set in or derived from the setting of Effinger’s Marid Audran books which all centre around the Budayeen – the sleazy old quarter of a fictitious North African Arab city – and whilst there are a couple of excellent stories I’d suggest it is mainly for Marid Audran completeists. The thing to appreciate about this set of stories is that Effinger died when he had only a few chapters of the fourth Audran book written and only a very short passage of a fifth book about Audran’s estranged brother. And publishing these fragments in this collection frankly made me appreciate Terry Pratchett’s decision to have all his incomplete work destroyed after his death. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s that they are simply incomplete; reading them leaves you wanting more, as they are only beginnings with no middle or end. Very unsatisfactory. As such I don’t recommend this book as an introduction to either Effinger or his Audran books; rather it serves to give readers of those books some extra background and colour, and a look at where they might have gone had Effinger lived longer.
Schrödinger’s Kitten is without doubt the cream of the crop, having won the Hugo, Nebula and Seiun awards. It explores the multiple branching realities suggested (though never actually predicted) by quantum physics. Many other authors have played with these ideas but Effinger’s take is clever and well-constructed. Despite my earlier comments, a cheap copy of this book would almost be worth getting for this story alone and at around 30 pages it almost qualifies as a novella.
Marid Changes his mind: Effinger liked to begin his books with an often unrelated and almost standalone short story by way of introduction and this story is actually simply the first few chapters of the second of Effinger’s Audran books – A Fire in the Sun. As stated above, I really don’t recommend this book as an introduction, and as someone who has already read the three Audran books this feels to me like no more than padding to bring this collection up to a marketable size.
Slow, Slow Burn is not strictly speaking a Budayeen story but is about a character – Honey Pilar – who is frequently mentioned but never met in the Audran books. Moddies are implants that feature prominently in all the books and that bestow on the user a totally different character, either fictitious or recorded from a real person, and Honey Pilar is the most successful recorder of sexual encounter moddies. A lightweight story that is still fun in allowing the reader to finally meet the enigmatic Pilar character. It’s not an explicit sexual story but it’s easy to see why it was originally published in Playboy!
Marid and the Trail of Blood is Effinger’s moddy based science fiction take on the vampire genre. An enjoyable little mystery.
King of the Cyber Rifles is again not really a Budayeen based story but rather explores how the implant technology of the Audran books could be applied to the military, with a single soldier remote controlling multiple unmanned gun emplacements. Written in 1987 and long before the modern era of remote controlled drones it feels today rather prophetic of the possible future direction warfare might take. Probably my second favourite story after Schrödinger’s Kitten.
Marid Throws a Party is the first couple of chapters of Effinger’s uncompleted fourth Audran book and, whilst it is well written and does give a feel for where the story would have been heading, its incomplete nature makes it ultimately unsatisfactory.
The World as We Know It is set after the end of the above uncompleted novel and whilst the narrator is never named it is very obviously Marid Audran. For me this is a rather confused and confusing future crime mystery.
The City on the Sand is effectively a precursor to the Audran stories. Wrtten before those stories it is the first time the Budayeen appears in any of Effinger’s works and is primarily the internal thoughts of a burnt-out aspiring poet sitting at a café table watching the Budayeen world going by. I’m not sure whether this is a masterly piece of evocative, melancholic writing or just a depressingly melancholic piece of writing! It is however interesting in that the main character is clearly modelled on Effinger himself and his habit of spending the day sitting outside cafés in New Orleans’ French quarter upon which the Budayeen itself is modelled.
The Plastic Pasha is the start of another incomplete book that is really an offshoot of the Audran books featuring his kid brother who had been sold when Audran was very young. Another unsatisfactory fragment.
Overall a very mixed bag and, with the exception of Schrödinger’s Kitten which stands brilliantly on its own, is mostly only likely to be of interest to anyone who has already read all of the Audran books.
Schrödinger’s Kitten is without doubt the cream of the crop, having won the Hugo, Nebula and Seiun awards. It explores the multiple branching realities suggested (though never actually predicted) by quantum physics. Many other authors have played with these ideas but Effinger’s take is clever and well-constructed. Despite my earlier comments, a cheap copy of this book would almost be worth getting for this story alone and at around 30 pages it almost qualifies as a novella.
Marid Changes his mind: Effinger liked to begin his books with an often unrelated and almost standalone short story by way of introduction and this story is actually simply the first few chapters of the second of Effinger’s Audran books – A Fire in the Sun. As stated above, I really don’t recommend this book as an introduction, and as someone who has already read the three Audran books this feels to me like no more than padding to bring this collection up to a marketable size.
Slow, Slow Burn is not strictly speaking a Budayeen story but is about a character – Honey Pilar – who is frequently mentioned but never met in the Audran books. Moddies are implants that feature prominently in all the books and that bestow on the user a totally different character, either fictitious or recorded from a real person, and Honey Pilar is the most successful recorder of sexual encounter moddies. A lightweight story that is still fun in allowing the reader to finally meet the enigmatic Pilar character. It’s not an explicit sexual story but it’s easy to see why it was originally published in Playboy!
Marid and the Trail of Blood is Effinger’s moddy based science fiction take on the vampire genre. An enjoyable little mystery.
King of the Cyber Rifles is again not really a Budayeen based story but rather explores how the implant technology of the Audran books could be applied to the military, with a single soldier remote controlling multiple unmanned gun emplacements. Written in 1987 and long before the modern era of remote controlled drones it feels today rather prophetic of the possible future direction warfare might take. Probably my second favourite story after Schrödinger’s Kitten.
Marid Throws a Party is the first couple of chapters of Effinger’s uncompleted fourth Audran book and, whilst it is well written and does give a feel for where the story would have been heading, its incomplete nature makes it ultimately unsatisfactory.
The World as We Know It is set after the end of the above uncompleted novel and whilst the narrator is never named it is very obviously Marid Audran. For me this is a rather confused and confusing future crime mystery.
The City on the Sand is effectively a precursor to the Audran stories. Wrtten before those stories it is the first time the Budayeen appears in any of Effinger’s works and is primarily the internal thoughts of a burnt-out aspiring poet sitting at a café table watching the Budayeen world going by. I’m not sure whether this is a masterly piece of evocative, melancholic writing or just a depressingly melancholic piece of writing! It is however interesting in that the main character is clearly modelled on Effinger himself and his habit of spending the day sitting outside cafés in New Orleans’ French quarter upon which the Budayeen itself is modelled.
The Plastic Pasha is the start of another incomplete book that is really an offshoot of the Audran books featuring his kid brother who had been sold when Audran was very young. Another unsatisfactory fragment.
Overall a very mixed bag and, with the exception of Schrödinger’s Kitten which stands brilliantly on its own, is mostly only likely to be of interest to anyone who has already read all of the Audran books.
June 12, 2015
Scroll down for the English version.
La malinconia dell’addio
È davvero triste leggere il libro postumo di un grande autore, tanto più se, come in questo caso, si tratta di una raccolta di lavori per lo più incompiuti, e che mai verranno terminati.
“Budayeen nights” solo in parte ci riporta alle atmosfere della magnifica trilogia del Budayeen, il quartiere malfamato di una non precisata città del mondo arabo del futuro. La raccolta contiene lavori spesso molto diversi tra di loro che hanno in comune il tema vagamente arabeggiante. A impreziosirla c’è la prefazione e le introduzioni a ogni racconto scritti da Barbara Hambly, terza moglie di Effinger, che spiega al lettore l’origine di ogni singola storia. Spesso si tratta di parti di manoscritti non terminati. Alcuni sembrano legati al Budayeen, ma non sono inseribili nella timeline creata nella trilogia. Vi sono inoltre inclusi, e questa è la cosa più triste, parti degli altri due romanzi che Effinger avrebbe voluto scrivere per continuare a raccontarci la storia di Marîd Audran, in particolare i primi capitoli del quarto che terminano con un clamoroso cliffhanger, che rimarrà tale per sempre.
Ho apprezzato particolarmente uno dei racconti in cui, senza mai dire il suo nome, vediamo Marîd nel futuro, dopo essersi liberato dal giogo di Friedlander Bey, ma che non riesce a fare a meno di mettersi nei guai, per poi uscirne comunque in qualche modo.
Ho dato solo tre stelle a questa libro perché non tutti i racconti mi sono piaciuti. Il titolo mi lasciava pensare che fossero tutti incentrati su Marîd, ma non è così e alcuni di quelli che non lo sono li ho trovati poco interessanti, forse un po’ troppo cerebrali o magari semplicemente confusi. Chissà cosa pensava Effinger quando li ha scritti!
Nonostante ciò, se avete letto e vi è piaciuta la trilogia del Budayeen, dovete leggere anche questo libro, anche se, vi avverto, vi lascerà con una grande malinconia.
Purtroppo il libro è disponibile solo in inglese.
The melancholy of farewell
It is really sad to read the posthumous book of a great author, especially if, as in this case, it is a collection of works mostly unfinished, and that will never be completed.
“Budayeen nights” partly brings us back to the atmosphere of the magnificent Budayeen trilogy, the slum of an unspecified city in the Arab world of the future. The collection contains works often very different from each other that share a vaguely Arabic theme. To embellish it is the preface and introductions to each story written by Barbara Hambly, third wife of Effinger, who explains to the reader the genesis of each story. Often it includes pieces of unfinished manuscripts. Some seem related to the Budayeen, but are not inserted in the timeline created in the trilogy. It also includes, and this is the saddest thing, parts of the other two novels that Effinger wanted to write to continue to tell the story of Marîd Audran, especially the first few chapters from the fourth, ending with a dramatic cliff-hanger, which will remain so forever.
I especially enjoyed one of the stories in which, without ever saying his name, we see Marîd in the future, after being freed from the yoke of Friedlander Bey, where he cannot help but get into trouble, and then get out of it in some way.
I gave only three stars to this book because I didn’t like all the stories. The title let me think that they were all focused on Marîd and his world, but this is not the case, and some of those who are not aren’t really interesting, perhaps a bit too cerebral or maybe just confusing. I wonder what Effinger thought when he wrote them!
Nevertheless, if you’ve read and you liked the Budayeen trilogy, you must also read this book, though, I warn you, it will leave you with great sadness.
La malinconia dell’addio
È davvero triste leggere il libro postumo di un grande autore, tanto più se, come in questo caso, si tratta di una raccolta di lavori per lo più incompiuti, e che mai verranno terminati.
“Budayeen nights” solo in parte ci riporta alle atmosfere della magnifica trilogia del Budayeen, il quartiere malfamato di una non precisata città del mondo arabo del futuro. La raccolta contiene lavori spesso molto diversi tra di loro che hanno in comune il tema vagamente arabeggiante. A impreziosirla c’è la prefazione e le introduzioni a ogni racconto scritti da Barbara Hambly, terza moglie di Effinger, che spiega al lettore l’origine di ogni singola storia. Spesso si tratta di parti di manoscritti non terminati. Alcuni sembrano legati al Budayeen, ma non sono inseribili nella timeline creata nella trilogia. Vi sono inoltre inclusi, e questa è la cosa più triste, parti degli altri due romanzi che Effinger avrebbe voluto scrivere per continuare a raccontarci la storia di Marîd Audran, in particolare i primi capitoli del quarto che terminano con un clamoroso cliffhanger, che rimarrà tale per sempre.
Ho apprezzato particolarmente uno dei racconti in cui, senza mai dire il suo nome, vediamo Marîd nel futuro, dopo essersi liberato dal giogo di Friedlander Bey, ma che non riesce a fare a meno di mettersi nei guai, per poi uscirne comunque in qualche modo.
Ho dato solo tre stelle a questa libro perché non tutti i racconti mi sono piaciuti. Il titolo mi lasciava pensare che fossero tutti incentrati su Marîd, ma non è così e alcuni di quelli che non lo sono li ho trovati poco interessanti, forse un po’ troppo cerebrali o magari semplicemente confusi. Chissà cosa pensava Effinger quando li ha scritti!
Nonostante ciò, se avete letto e vi è piaciuta la trilogia del Budayeen, dovete leggere anche questo libro, anche se, vi avverto, vi lascerà con una grande malinconia.
Purtroppo il libro è disponibile solo in inglese.
The melancholy of farewell
It is really sad to read the posthumous book of a great author, especially if, as in this case, it is a collection of works mostly unfinished, and that will never be completed.
“Budayeen nights” partly brings us back to the atmosphere of the magnificent Budayeen trilogy, the slum of an unspecified city in the Arab world of the future. The collection contains works often very different from each other that share a vaguely Arabic theme. To embellish it is the preface and introductions to each story written by Barbara Hambly, third wife of Effinger, who explains to the reader the genesis of each story. Often it includes pieces of unfinished manuscripts. Some seem related to the Budayeen, but are not inserted in the timeline created in the trilogy. It also includes, and this is the saddest thing, parts of the other two novels that Effinger wanted to write to continue to tell the story of Marîd Audran, especially the first few chapters from the fourth, ending with a dramatic cliff-hanger, which will remain so forever.
I especially enjoyed one of the stories in which, without ever saying his name, we see Marîd in the future, after being freed from the yoke of Friedlander Bey, where he cannot help but get into trouble, and then get out of it in some way.
I gave only three stars to this book because I didn’t like all the stories. The title let me think that they were all focused on Marîd and his world, but this is not the case, and some of those who are not aren’t really interesting, perhaps a bit too cerebral or maybe just confusing. I wonder what Effinger thought when he wrote them!
Nevertheless, if you’ve read and you liked the Budayeen trilogy, you must also read this book, though, I warn you, it will leave you with great sadness.
May 22, 2015
While there's no doubt Effinger was an interesting and even successful science fiction author (one of the short stories in this collection did actually win both the Nebula and Hugo awards), this collection as such is an uneven one. Concise, clear and with purpose in parts (namely the stories "Schrödinger's Kitten" and "Marîd and the Trail of Blood"), but hopelessly overblown and aimless in others ("The World as We Know It" and the autobiographical philosophical introspect piece "The City on the Sand").
The unevenness of the included short stories is a primary concern here and poses a question of purpose to this collection. And in fact the reasoning to include some of them together at all. Some of the stories are direly in need of editing and some have actually very little to do with Budayeen in the first place. The most interesting stories to me as a science fiction reader are the ones that deal with human augmentation. In the best short stories, Effinger deals with the concept of human augmentation as a pretext to studying the notions of "identity" and "perception". How much of our identity is enhanced, enforced and maintained by the perception of others? How much can innate abilities and thought-patterns be forcefully changed without ill-effects? And what the ill-effects exactly are?
Some of the stories are brilliant and worthy of praise. However, some are less so (specifically his autobiographical piece I personally found tedious and boring to the extreme) and a few are overblown and bloated both in content and verse as if not entirely thought through and perhaps not at all edited. While Budayeen is in the title of this book, only a handful of stories in this collection are deeply rooted in there.
The unevenness of the included short stories is a primary concern here and poses a question of purpose to this collection. And in fact the reasoning to include some of them together at all. Some of the stories are direly in need of editing and some have actually very little to do with Budayeen in the first place. The most interesting stories to me as a science fiction reader are the ones that deal with human augmentation. In the best short stories, Effinger deals with the concept of human augmentation as a pretext to studying the notions of "identity" and "perception". How much of our identity is enhanced, enforced and maintained by the perception of others? How much can innate abilities and thought-patterns be forcefully changed without ill-effects? And what the ill-effects exactly are?
Some of the stories are brilliant and worthy of praise. However, some are less so (specifically his autobiographical piece I personally found tedious and boring to the extreme) and a few are overblown and bloated both in content and verse as if not entirely thought through and perhaps not at all edited. While Budayeen is in the title of this book, only a handful of stories in this collection are deeply rooted in there.
October 7, 2010
The best material in this collection are the excerpts Effinger was going to use to in future Budayeen books. Overall it was pretty much in the same vein as the Fire In The Sun series. I've read a good deal of Effinger at this point and I have to say the Budayeen stuff was his best material.
Included in this collection is a progenitor story for the Budayeen saga ("City In The Sand"), containing some of the same characters and elements. Written in 1973, the writing isn't bad but the story is so incredibly boring compared to the rest of the material. It's actually far more comparable to the other Effinger material I've read outside of the Budayeen saga, the stuff that is boring or just poorly written. The editor of this collect lauds this piece for its hints of good things to come, but I suggest you just skip it.
Included in this collection is a progenitor story for the Budayeen saga ("City In The Sand"), containing some of the same characters and elements. Written in 1973, the writing isn't bad but the story is so incredibly boring compared to the rest of the material. It's actually far more comparable to the other Effinger material I've read outside of the Budayeen saga, the stuff that is boring or just poorly written. The editor of this collect lauds this piece for its hints of good things to come, but I suggest you just skip it.
October 7, 2014
I really enjoyed this. Some of the terminology in it could have been better, but it was refreshing reading stories based in an African continental city (never quite stated where), where the majority of the characters were Muslim. Definitely science/future fiction, with the stories set at least 200 years from now.
The book is a collection of short stories, often about the same characters, but not always, and always interesting. Each story features an introduction from Barbara Hambly, who knew George Effinger, where she talks about what she knows about the story's creation or where the characters in this story are found in the books written by George.
I now want to read more of Effinger's writing, because the realised world/city he created is definitely one I'd like to visit.
The book is a collection of short stories, often about the same characters, but not always, and always interesting. Each story features an introduction from Barbara Hambly, who knew George Effinger, where she talks about what she knows about the story's creation or where the characters in this story are found in the books written by George.
I now want to read more of Effinger's writing, because the realised world/city he created is definitely one I'd like to visit.
December 22, 2014
This was a bit of a mess.
Set in an Arab-Bedouin city along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, the first few storiues do feature small technological advances amidst a general decline suggesting the near future where some unspecified catastrophe has ovetaken mankind. No reference is ever made to Western civilisation or Europe either. The latter stories however seem set in pre-war times and nothing in them would suggest the future. Instead, anachronistic references littered throughout the story make it far more suited to in the same era as Casablanca.
I had to force myself to finish the book.
Set in an Arab-Bedouin city along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, the first few storiues do feature small technological advances amidst a general decline suggesting the near future where some unspecified catastrophe has ovetaken mankind. No reference is ever made to Western civilisation or Europe either. The latter stories however seem set in pre-war times and nothing in them would suggest the future. Instead, anachronistic references littered throughout the story make it far more suited to in the same era as Casablanca.
I had to force myself to finish the book.
September 23, 2019
This is a collection of short stories related to Effinger's cyberpunk novels. I read all the novels years ago and was sorry that Effinger's poor health and premature death meant there would be no more. Reading this book made me sad because of the biographical information that was in the forward and in the introductions that Barbara Hambly wrote for each story. I knew that he had been ill for most of his life but I was not aware of the other problems that went along with his illness. It is a shame that his body of work is so small.
January 9, 2012
I really liked the Marid Audran trilogy and had been looking forward to reading this book for some time, but I'm not terribly surprised that I wasn't that enthusiastic about it once I finished.
Much of the book is snippets of works which were never finished. I think that they would have had great promise once complete, but in general i found the stories to be rambling and a bit overblown. The extra editing that would have gone into a finished product was really needed in this case.
Much of the book is snippets of works which were never finished. I think that they would have had great promise once complete, but in general i found the stories to be rambling and a bit overblown. The extra editing that would have gone into a finished product was really needed in this case.
October 7, 2015
Diese Anthologie, größtenteils um Marid Audran, hat mir insgesamt gut gefallen, obwohl dies mein erster Kontakt mit der Reihe ist. Nicht jede Geschichte hat mir gleich gut gefallen, die Werke um Audran selbst haben mir allerdings allesamt zugesagt. Besonders beeindruckt hat mich, mit welcher Finesse die islamische Kultur mit Cyberpunk verknüpft wurde. In jedem Fall hat die Anthologie so weit mein Interesse geweckt, dass ich mir auch die Hauptreihe zu Gemüte führen möchte.
July 25, 2015
There are some good ideas about implantable personality tech and the writing is mostly good, occasionally great, throughout. But, this is a collection of stories, excerpts and unfinished snippets of things that take place in a world defined by a series of novels I've never heard of and I feel like I missed lots of necessary background to fully enjoy these stories.
September 10, 2014
A good introduction to Marîd Audran series, which I now want to read, but not very interesting in itself.
February 17, 2020
This book of short stories set in the same era (23rd century Earth) as When Gravity Fails and its two sequels was thoroughly enjoyable. I had read Schrödinger's Kitten in Omni magazine when it was first published, in 1988. However, the story did not make a strong impression on me, even though it clearly impressed the SFWA and the WSFS, winning the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novelette. Some years later, I read When Gravity Fails and declared it my favorite cyberpunk novel. I didn't learn about the sequels until recently, at the same time that I discovered this collection.
My two favorite things about this book are: 1) the insightful biographical notes written by his ex-wife, and 2) the "original" Budayeen story, The City on the Sand. I still have not read the sequels to When Gravity Fails, but have both of them on my reading list.
My two favorite things about this book are: 1) the insightful biographical notes written by his ex-wife, and 2) the "original" Budayeen story, The City on the Sand. I still have not read the sequels to When Gravity Fails, but have both of them on my reading list.
March 27, 2022
Jeez, man, I dunno. Effinger is a master of vivid, evocative, imaginative cyber-noir, and that comes through here, but Budayeen Nights is basically just a collection of scraps.
It opens with a short story that's conceptually very different from the Marid Audran novels, continues with a couple of chapters from the second Marid novel, and goes on to include a few other short stories, two chapters from an unfinished forth Marid novel, and the opening pages of an unfinished short story.
If you're desperate for more material set in the Budayeen, then I guess this is your only option, but you won't be leaving satisfied. And the cherries on top are the notes from Barbara Hambly, the editor and Effinger's friend, which seem...well, less than kind. I understand the impulse to give an unflinchingly accurate description of your late friend, but her approach is harsher than it needs to be.
It opens with a short story that's conceptually very different from the Marid Audran novels, continues with a couple of chapters from the second Marid novel, and goes on to include a few other short stories, two chapters from an unfinished forth Marid novel, and the opening pages of an unfinished short story.
If you're desperate for more material set in the Budayeen, then I guess this is your only option, but you won't be leaving satisfied. And the cherries on top are the notes from Barbara Hambly, the editor and Effinger's friend, which seem...well, less than kind. I understand the impulse to give an unflinchingly accurate description of your late friend, but her approach is harsher than it needs to be.
January 26, 2021
If Kinky Friedman, Omar Khayyam, and William Gibson ever collaborated, they might have created a city like Budayeen. Fortunately, Effinger did it first and all by himself. Effinger is one of those semi-obscure cult figures in science fiction who was something of a wunderkind like unto Harlan Ellison. He died far too young and his wife, science fiction author and editor Barbara Hambly, has been curating his work. Budayeen Nights collects some of the short stories that eventually became his celebrated Marid Audran trilogy. It's cyberpunk noir at its best and you can be forgiven if the mysterious North African walled city reminds you of a certain French Quarter.
Read
November 23, 2021An interesting collection. I enjoyed the introductions and little glimpses at Effinger's life and thinking. The stories were so-so. One very long story, almost a third of the book was the intro from the second Marid novel. Two last stories I could not get through. I might come back to the last story at some point but I just could not bring myself to read. I think Weinraub story dulled me so much that I had to be done with the book.
I do wish we got book 4 of the Marid series. The chapter included in this book looked really promising. Sigh... sad to know the author passed so early in life, he should've had many more years of writing ahead of him.
I do wish we got book 4 of the Marid series. The chapter included in this book looked really promising. Sigh... sad to know the author passed so early in life, he should've had many more years of writing ahead of him.
July 21, 2017
I already regretted that Effinger's death meant he couldn't finish the Audran series as intended, but the snippets of future, unfinished novels included in Budayeen Nights just made that regret keener. There's the first two chapters of a fourth novel, a short story set after the intended series where Audran is a washed-up detective whose tech has become obsolete, and the beginning of a book about Audran's lost brother. I really wish we'd gotten to see those completed. Effinger was an immense talent.
February 28, 2023
This was a fascinating read, but definitely had some ups and downs in the quality of the stories. The best was what would have been the first few chapters of book four of the Budayeen stories. It's been a while since I read the three released books in this series so the introductions of each story by Barbara Hamblin was very much appreciated. She also had some interesting insights in Effingers plans and personality and how that affected some of the stories.
July 25, 2019
I miss Effinger
This collection of stories from George Alec Effinger was enjoyable but made me sad that there would be no more stories of Marid and the residents of the Budayeen. For fans, these stories and related commentary offer a glimpse into the mind of an author whose talent is missed.
This collection of stories from George Alec Effinger was enjoyable but made me sad that there would be no more stories of Marid and the residents of the Budayeen. For fans, these stories and related commentary offer a glimpse into the mind of an author whose talent is missed.
December 21, 2020
Not exactly a perfect coda, but it does give you the chance to say goodbye (again) to Marîd and the gang. One of the stories, "Marîd Throws a Party" is the opening of the never-written fourth Marîd Audran novel.
The most touching aspect of the collection is the loving introduction to each story by Barbara Hambly, who clearly loved both her late husband and his wonderful writing.
The most touching aspect of the collection is the loving introduction to each story by Barbara Hambly, who clearly loved both her late husband and his wonderful writing.
July 31, 2017
Background on the Budayeen Cycle
Some entertaining background stories for Effinger's famous Budayeen Cycle. A definite mixed bag, but some of these stories really work and fill in some of the backstory of the world along with further adventures of Marid Audran.
Some entertaining background stories for Effinger's famous Budayeen Cycle. A definite mixed bag, but some of these stories really work and fill in some of the backstory of the world along with further adventures of Marid Audran.
January 13, 2019
I’d actually rate this a 3.5. Effinger demonstrates some fabulous use of vocabulary that creates vivid imagery. I became quite fond of Marid. Marid Throws a Party was my favorite of the collection. Slow,Slow Burn was a fascinating read. I wasn’t enthralled with Schrodinger’s Kitten.
August 8, 2019
I missed Marid so. It was lovely to taste the desert again, and even though I've already read one of the stories in the Budayeen novels, I savoured it slowly, unwilling to rush such damned good writing.
December 27, 2019
Effinger's Budayeen novels are early cyberpunk classics. This collects his related stories. Sadly Effinger died young and left the novel arc unfinished.
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