The Exile Kiss

Marid Audran Trilogy, Book 3

By: George Alec Effinger

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Mard Audran has risen from hustling on the streets of the decadent Budayeen ghetto to being the right-hand man of one of the Maghreb's most feared men. As an enforcer for the powerful Friedlander Bey, Mard is just beginning to enjoy his newfound wealth and privilege, when he and Bey are betrayed by a rival and accused of murder.

Sentenced to exile and abandoned to die in the vast Arabian desert, Mard and Bey must somehow survive the searing sands and make their way back to the now-hostile Budayeen - and, then, take their vengeance.

By turns thrilling and philosophical, The Exile Kiss is the culmination of one of the great works of modern SF.

©1991 George Alec Effinger (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Okay finish...

Well done performance. The story seems drawn out at times. The ending is anticlimactic.

The series concludes. Just buy it already!

Would you listen to The Exile Kiss again? Why?

I have read and listened to the series several times over the years. I take away some new element each and every time.

What other book might you compare The Exile Kiss to and why?

Maybe some of Wiliam Gibsons early work. They both have the flawed main characters, drug abuse and the desperation of living on the street.

What does Jonathan Davis bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He helps you put a face (mentally) to some of the characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It makes you sad a bit to see the Marid fall prey to his inner demons at times when it could easily cost him his life.

Any additional comments?

Just an awsome book and series.

Very enjoyable

The story's setting and the narrator's voice went together excellently and helped propel the experience to a new level. I wish there were more than three audio books in the series.

An enjoyable third installment.

This was definitely quite a different installment versus the first two books, but not one I enjoyed any less.

Without getting into much of a spoiler, the author definitely creates a situation where the main characters were out of their own environment — which afforded some nice character development, but created a drastically different type of story for the majority of the book.

Some definitely may not enjoy that.

I myself actually found this as a nice change, but your mileage may vary.

I wish this wasn’t the last book of the series, as I would have enjoyed continuing this journey with our characters.

Ending With a Whimper

Exile Kiss, the third book in the series, starts strong with Marid Audran and his patron cast into the desert (and stripped of Papa's wealth and influence) after being framed for murder.

The book promises a tense conflict where Marid and Papa must pit their wits against the world to regain what was taken, but the novel falls apart in its second half when it returns to the city. What I hoped would be a tense mystery meanders and unravels into fluff that is quickly tied off in an unsatisfactory fashion. This does not live up to the noir detective novels it loves to check so much.

MAN I love these books!

I am so heartbroken that there isn't another in this series. We lost a lot when the author passed. No joke, I've been savoring this one, listening 30-45 mins at a time so as not to rush through it. I think it's every bit as good as the other two, was set up beautifully for the next, and... well...

I particularly like the vast difference in social/cultural norms from what I know of western, largely secular (highly Christian influenced) culture. I enjoyed the strong inclusion of religion in general, which is normally not an issue with the characters at hand, or "outlawed" to negate the complications therein. I can't get over how refreshingly different it is. I've found nothing similar, (South American cyberpunk? Indian? Southeast Asian? Micronesia? NADA!) and hoo boy have I been trying!

I also quite like some of the character developments, in particular how the drug and alcohol use of the main character is portrayed: lots of justification, a first person perspective that doesn't recognize aspects of inebriated behavior that would escape the attention of someone in denial about their use (or acknowledge blackouts except the observation of an absence of time remembered). The beginning of the book, with the exile and the surviving and the bleakness...wow wow wow wow wow. LOVED it.

I have a lot of genre option lined up, but I fear for now nothing will fill the well written, well paced, descriptive and character fullness, the novelty of setting and character experiences, the means of resolution (It's no big fight rough 'em up jump from battle to battle), the little things and big things that are tied together, the...oh, well, read it and you'll get what I'm saying.

The narrator is perfect for it, too. That's all I have to say there, perfect. Well done. I wouldn't know a middle eastern mispronunciation if it insulted my mother, so I don't know if he got it all right but I'd not be surprised if he did.

Great insights into the middle eastern mind

Not as strong as the first two stories. Some of the Arabic stories and fables were marvellously entertaining but I just couldn't buy into Marid and Poppa being put into the predicament of the first half of the book and then the resolve of the situation was wishy washy and lacked the punch of the first novel.

Start with When Gravity Fails

Sorry to say that you really can't start with this excellent book. The trilogy should be read in order, and I speak from experience. I tried to listen to this book first and just couldn't get into it, to the point that I almost didn't go back for When Gravity Fails, the first in the series. I eventually did, however, after reading numerous passionate reviews, and I've enjoyed all three, now, one after the other.

Jonathan Davis does a fine job on the voices, but he often puts the emphasis on the wrong word in a sentence. Be prepared, and then blow it off and enjoy the story.

Sad to say, this is all there is of Marid Audran, since there was so much farther this setting and character set could have taken us. Effinger died in 2002, only two chapters into the fourth Audran novel. We'll never know all there is to know, but when do we ever. Highly recommended.