When Gravity Fails

This sleek cyberpunk novel is set in the Middle East after the decline and Balkanization of the Western superpowers. It focuses on Marîd Audran, a low-level fixer in the Budayeen, the seamy red light district of an unnamed city. When a number of his acquaintances are viciously murdered, he finds himself breaking a number of his personal rules—including becoming entangled with powerful underworld figures and adopting personality-changing cybernetic enhancements—in an effort to find the chameleonic killer.

While very different in terms of subject matter, this book reminded me a bit of the contemperaneous "Hardwired" by Walter Jon Williams: solid cyberpunk fiction that includes popular cyberpunk genre hallmarks while adding some innovation of its own. Like many of the best cyberpunk novels, "When Gravity Fails" draws inspiration from hardboiled detective novels, peppering the narrative with shady cops, dangerous mob bosses, femmes fatale, sympathetic bartenders, and a world-weary protagonist. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern setting and "moddies" (personality modifying software) in particular felt very fresh. I was also pleasantly surprised to see multiple transgender characters presented as sympathetic human beings in a book published in 1987.

"When Gravity Fails" had everything I like to see in cyberpunk fiction plus some new twists. I look forward to reading the sequels.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been so amerced into a science fiction world like this; I think the last time was with China Mieville’s The City and The City. The city of Budayeen something I’ve not experienced before, the blend of Middle Eastern culture and religion really bring this to life in a unique way. Marîd Audrian makes for a great protagonist; he is hard boiled, reminds me a lot of the private detectives in the pulp genres.

When Gravity Fails is a brilliant example of Tech Noir (so Science Fiction Noir) it has a twisted case for Marîd to investigate, which leads him on a fantastic adventure. It kind of reminds me a little of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher in the sense that it takes the best elements of the pulp genre and mixes it with a hard hitting protagonist in a will build speculative fiction world.

The world is gritty and the story is full of sex, drugs and murder, it offers a lot the think about in regards to the modifications and technology on offer in Budayeen; if you can chance every aspect of your body, mind and personality, would you do it and what are the side effects? I can’t wait to dive further into this world and see what Marîd gets up to in the next book. Recommended for fans of Science Fiction and pulp novels or even just fans of The Dresden Files; actually I would probably recommend it to anyone that wants to read a captivating book.