Hamzah is a rich industrialist, and a vengeful someone is gunning for him—with what justification remains to be seen. An attempt to make Hamzah appear a serial killer is underway, as the corpses of slaughtered women are showing up on his estate and elsewhere. His illegitimate son, Kamil—who, in a thoroughly modern manner, prefers to be called DJ Avatar—has been kidnapped. Soviet killer spies are loose in the city, and conniving diplomats from Paris, Berlin and Washington are no better than spies. Atop all these headaches, Raf also has to act as surrogate parent for his adolescent niece Hani, whose computer skills and feisty nature are enough to cause headaches of their own.
Raf begins by stopping the serial murders and rescuing DJ Avatar. His relations with Zara undergo a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows. But the more Raf discovers of the plot underway, the more it seems that Hamzah Effendi, who is hiding a horrible secret from his childhood, will indeed have to be brought down, despite any personal feelings on Raf's part. Unless the identity of a mysterious Colonel Abad can be pieced together ...
And just as Raf is struggling desperately to deal with all these burdens, he receives the worst news possible. He's in line for a promotion.
To governor of all Iskandryia.
Middle Eastern SF noir
This novel suffers the tiniest bit from middle-book-of-a-trilogy syndrome. We have already gotten past the first kick of learning about our hero and his world, and we are not yet at the definitive climax of his tale. We have to tread water with an adventure that is sufficiently intriguing on its own, but which still at the end leaves our protagonist unaware of the ultimate challenge down the line. Having said this, I would like to affirm that Grimwood delivers a subtle, topical, stirring tale that does leave his hero not insignificantly altered.
The enjoyable features of the initial book are all in place here for the second excursion. First comes the fine-edged delineation of Raf's damaged personality. Working within the constraints of his various dysfunctions—the software "fox," a neuro-implant he has always relied on, has finally gone completely offline—Raf exhibits ingenuity, good spirits and a mix of altruism and vicious self-preservation. Raf's philosophy or modus operandi might be summed up when Grimwood observes, "Had he had more time, Raf might have been kinder, gentler. ... The story of his life, really."
The character who comes in for the next-richest depiction is Hamzah, whose brutalized childhood is shown in several complete chapters. The affinities between him and Raf are cleverly drawn. And the love affair between Zara and Raf remains fascinating in its messily unresolved contours.
Grimwood's nicely interpolated travelogue of El Iskandryia, its sights and sounds, culture and politics, continues to deepen. We always get the sense of a foreign reality equal to that in the work of Paul Bowles, yet thoroughly underpinned with SF speculations. This series is another example of how the lessons of cyberpunk continue to be refined and applied in new ways.
By the novel's end, Raf has exhibited a new maturity that nevertheless doesn't trump his street-level attitude. The combination should make for a very interesting conclusion in next year's Felaheen.
One reason Grimwood's series rings so true is his own cosmopolitan background, which includes much time spent in exotic climes. There's just no substitute for firsthand experience, it seems, even when dealing with the fantastic. —Paul
