George Alec Effinger

[direstraits]

George Alec Effinger, late husband of author Barbara Hambly, wrote a wonderful scifi series centered on a scruffy-looking scoundrel of a detective called Marid Audran set in the fictional city of Budayeen. The first book is called When Gravity Fails, and the second A Fire Under the Sun, both of which I've read and enjoyed. The 3rd book is called Exile Kiss.

He also wrote a prize winning short story called Schrodinger's Kitten.

Anyway, he made a jump to the computer world when a computer game was made set in his Budayeen with Marid. The game is called Circuit's Edge and it was this game that brought him to my attention. I still have this game (it's very old).

Anyone else heard of him and enjoyed his works?

ds

 

[funes]

ds,
I read When Gravity Fails several years ago. I have to admit that I thought, at the time, the novel was dreadful. The pace of it seemed all wrong.
I suppose that I do owe it to him to read it again. I mean, either it really was that bad, or I just missed the boat entirely.

 

[direstraits]

Well, first impressions count for a lot, and if you remembered it being bad, then unless you're really sure, I'd say give him a miss. There are plenty of other stuff out there.

My first exposure to his work is through the game, and while the game is not a sophisticated piece of gaming that you'd see nowadays, with fancy graphics and whatnot, it did have an effective interface and a bloody good storyline. I was enthralled in that world, and it's actually so good that I replay the whole thing in its entirely almost annually.

I supposed my perception is coloured when I approached the book, but that said, I still enjoyed it - the seedy dangerous world he lives in is facinating, and the nature of his work quite interesting as well.

I'll say that I enjoyed When Gravity Fails more than A Fire Under the Sun, though.

ds

 

[funes]

I seem to remember that I read him back when I was reading William Gibson, and had prob'ly just finished Zelazny's Lord of Light. So, there was a let down factor involved. I also think that if I approached the book as a kind of alt-future/noir mystery rather than a work of science fiction, I might have a different reaction.
At the time, with all due respect to the late Mr. Effinger, I also thought his prose tended to be florid and over-wrought.
Anyway, there are plenty more out there to read, as you say.