Marîd Audran
First Edition
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| Author | George Alec Effinger |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Craig Mullins |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Marîd Audran series |
| Genre | Science fiction, cyberpunk |
| Publisher | Arbor House |
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Publication date
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January 1987 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 13860315 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3555.F4 W5 1987 |
| Followed by | A Fire in the Sun |
When Gravity Fails is a cyberpunk science fiction novel by America writer George Alec Effinger, published in 1986. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1987 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1988. The title is taken from "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", a song by Bob Dylan: "When your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through".
Taking place in a futuristic Middle-Eastern setting, the series reverses some of the usual expectations of a future world order by painting the West in decline while Muslim countries seem to prosper. The book's other main themes are the effects of drug use and alternate personality technologies, as well as the personal interactions and increasing isolation of a flawed protagonist.
It is the first book in Effinger's Marîd Audran series, named after the protagonist, and was followed by A Fire in the Sun in 1989 and The Exile Kiss in 1991. Effinger started work on a fourth Audran novel, Word of Night, but died before that work was completed. The existing chapters of Word of Night are now available in the posthumously published Budayeen Nights, along with some other Budayeen and non-Budayeen short stories.
Effinger's novel, set near the end of the 22nd Century, describes an ascendant Arabic/Muslim world, where the West has been in decline for at least a century. The United States, Europe and the Soviet Union are described as having fractured into many small states, squabbling amongst themselves for remnants of former glory, with their citizens often described as visiting the unnamed city of the novel's setting as bumbling, naive tourists in awe at the wonders of the Muslim world.
The Islamic World, having grown much in economic and scientific power, still shows much of the elements commonly associated with it, such as strong religious touches, intricate rituals of conduct and relationship, and old tensions between the ethnic groups.
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Wikipedia