This is the next book in George Alec Effinger’s Budayeen Cycle chronicling the adventures of his flawed protagonist Marîd Audran. Though the first book didn’t really feel like science-fiction, I loved the cyberpunk noir setting enough to want to read its sequels and so here I am.

Due to his great service to Friedlander Bey, Marîd Audran is no longer a low level street hustler but the power broker’s chief lieutenant in the Budayeen. The novel begins with him dealing with some loose ends in his life as he travels in the company of his friend Saied the Half-Hajj in search of his mother in Algeria. Upon his return, Bey assigns him to work in the police department, much to his confusion. He is partnered with Jirji Shaknahyi, a rare honest officer who is also genuinely pious. One of the cases that they work on is hunting down a serial killer who has escaped from prison and has been spotted in the Budayeen. Shaknahyi suspects that the killer is connected with both Bey and Bey’s chief rival Abu Adil. Inevitably not long after Audran and Shaknahyi become friends, the latter is killed in the line of duty and Audran has to hunt down the killer himself.

There are a lot of things going on in this novel and unfortunately it feels as if Effinger was flying by the seat of his pants most of the time without much of an overall plan. The main plot doesn’t even really gain much urgency until about halfway through as Audran hunts for the serial killer. The super secret Phoenix Files conspiracy that Audran uncovers is made out to be a big deal but seems pretty underwhelming to me when it all comes out. I don’t even understand why people as powerful as Bey and Abu Adil need to resort to doing anything illegal and it alls ends up being somewhat silly. Another problem is that the novel is rather short but many things need to happen and so the attitudes and comportments of different characters towards Audran shift around so fast that it’s almost enough to give you whiplash. Examples include Audran realizing that the Half-Hajj has betrayed him to forgiving him after he helps out. Then there’s the whole subplot about Audran’s mother which doesn’t really feel properly resolved. There’s an annoying helter-skelter feeling to this novel as Audran careens from one encounter to another and conversations between characters just skip past what’s really important. Overall it just feels unrealistic and unsatisfying.

The setting is as rich and intriguing as before and while Audran still makes use of the personality add-on moddies to gain confidence and skills, he also does something new in it here. One of the new moddies he obtains is that of a wise, religious leader and when Audran uses it, he sees and speaks to the Prophet Muhammad himself. I was initially somewhat skeptical about where the author was going with this but he actually plays the character’s turn to piety pretty straight. It’s decently well done and that’s clearly where the author intends to take the character, transforming him into a younger version of Bey himself. The novel also answers the question of what happens when you make a personality module of a living person. It turns out that you do copy all of that person’s skills and knowledge, which makes things like ferreting secrets out far too easy. I don’t think that this is well thought out in terms of world building as this kind of technology should completely change the world and society as seen in these books don’t reflect these changes.

I found this to be a fairly enjoyable romp and presents a reasonable picture of what real power brokers really do, which have little to do with petty street-level crime. However I actually find this to be not gritty enough and not realistic enough with regards to how rich and powerful the real life equivalents of people like Bey must be. It’s pretty laughable how little security these powerful men have in this novel. It’s also clear that this is mainly a noir novel and not really a science-fiction one. The moddies, static guns and so on add flavor to the story but don’t change the nature of society. I am going to read the next book as I understand that it will take the characters out of the Budayeen. I loved the foray into Algeria depicted here and I’m eager to see more of the wider world as envisioned by Effinger.