The Budayeen Cycle: When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, and The Exile Kiss Kindle Edition

I'm not sure how to classify this. In some ways it feels like really dated scifi that got most tech wrong, but in spite of that feeling, it's a great story and the author has a good feel for narrative and dialogue. I didn't expect the religious element, but it offered an interesting twist.Hugely fun to read

I read Budayeen Nights a few year ago (the short story collection in the same universe) and really liked it. Over last Christmas I then devoured the Budayeen Cycle. To be honest, really getting into the story took some time, but the universe George Alec Effinger paints is really an interesting and intriguing one, so it draws you in. Unfortunately, the author never finished the last book in this series, however I still very heartily recommand it to anyone interested in more unusal SciFi. Each book is anyway more or less self-contained.

Liked the Arab-oriented world, the pop-in personalities, the protagonist. A very fun read. Recommended

Enjoyable, mostly, but in places I felt that the author was phoning it in and not paying attention to the scene he had just set. In one memorable screw-up our hero is screaming over music into someone's ear, then he goes and sits in a chair and - without turning off the music (that happens later) - he holds a conversation with the same person with no difficulty. There is not too much effort to explain how the world works, probably because if that happened it wouldn't.There is a remarkable amount of information on he Arab world in these stories, though how accurate it is by today's standards I was not motivated to research. It felt like author experience talking.Set in a post-western ascendancy Moslem world. Recreational drug use and brain-slotted software make this a "sortacyberpunk" world, but what these stories are is adventure and police procedurals. I read the three books in the bundle in a week or so, but took breaks.I doubt I'll re-read these.

Not sure why this collection is listed twice - but it's so good I'll review it twice.Buy this series. An entirely different culture from the normal "America triumphed over all" SciFi yarns.Technology has a role, but the characters are deep with significant growth over the series.Cons:The last book ends rather quickly, and sadly the author won't be writing any more.

I very much enjoyed the first entry in this cyberpunk series. Set in a future where Islam dominates the world, this series explores the hard luck life of its protagonist, Marid, who lives in a rough area of town and essentially finds himself falling into the function of a gumshoe. In fact, the whole series is styled as cyberpunk noir. The author’s devotion to research into Arab culture was impressive and the writing wasn’t too bad. In fact, the first book in the series has the best plot and writing. However, by the end, the plot wraps up pretty lamely, which is a pity for such a promising beginning. I do very much recommend When Gravity Fails but not the rest of the series.

The omnibus edition is a great value.The first book was the strongest, but it holds one’s attention throughout.The world building is strong, as are the characters. I really enjoyed it.

Good science fiction and eastern culture attempt with a small amount of cyber punk tossed into the background for the faithful

The main characters were quite believable, as was the main thrust of the story-line. However, the twists and turns were too numerous and too outlandishly formulaic for me. There was too much unnecessarily deviant behaviour for it to be taken as anything more than an attempt to, I suspect, make it more appealing (presumably, to adolescents) but it felt like padding, bored me and detracted from the story. It would have been a much better read without the sex and drugs.

Sleek writing. Interesting story at first but then becomes kind of repetitive. Bound to trigger you in all the wrong ways if you're in recovery.