A Fire in the Sun

GEORGE ALEC EFFINGER

瑪瑞德．奧德安這下成了自己曾經極度鄙視的人。生活在慘遭各方勢力瓜分的明日地球底下，不久前，他還只是個在阿拉伯貧民區布達因討生活的小騙子。當時窮困潦倒的他，身上的錢常常連杯啤酒都買不起，但他至少還擁有獨立自主。

如今的他效力於布達因教父費蘭德．貝因的麾下，其勢力涵蓋這個殘破不堪的世界。平日他是一名警察，然而實際上卻是教父之於警方的私人特使。新的職位讓他擁有財富與權勢，然而這一切的一切頃刻間他接可拋棄，只要能讓他回到那個自由自在不為人宰制的生活。但很不幸地，這遠非他所能決定。

何況這件事甚至無關緊要，因為某些陰謀正在暗地裡醞釀著，一步步地將這座城市推向失序混亂。暗地協助肢解兒童的兇手躲過法律制裁、派遣殺手做掉瑪瑞德的同夥，不只殘殺街頭流鶯，還玷汙了屍體。種種跡象都指向了費蘭德．貝因的死對頭，阿布．阿迪爾。不論後續如何發展，對瑪瑞德．奧德安而言，都不是件好事……

Marid Audran has become everything he once despised. Not so long ago, he was a hustler in the Budayeen, an Arabian ghetto in a Balkanized future Earth. Back then, as often as not, he didn't have the money to buy himself a drink. But he had his independence.

Now works for Friedlander Bey, "godfather" of the Budayeen, a man whose power stretches across a shattered, crumbling world. During the day, Marid is a policeman…and Bey's personal envoy to the police. His new position has brought him money and power which he would abandon in a moment if he could return to a life of neither owning nor being owned. Which, unfortunately, isn't one of his options.

It's also not an issue. For something dark is afoot. Something that is sending the city into chaos. Helping a child-mutilator to avoid arrest. Sending a killer to murder Marid's partner. Murdering prostitutes and savaging their remains. Signs point to the hand of Abu Adil―the one man in the city whose power rivals Friedlander Bey's. Whatever happens next, it's not going to be good news for Marid Audran…

■喬治．艾歷克．艾芬格／George Alec Effinger

A winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, George Alec Effinger is the author of What Entropy Means to Me, Schrodinger's Kitten, and the Marîd Audran sequence that begins with When Gravity Fails. He died in 2002.

作者：喬治．艾歷克．艾芬格／George Alec Effinger

系列：The Audran Sequence, Book 2

版本：First Edition

規格：平裝／Paperback，14 x 21 x 2.1 cm，294頁

出版商：TOR

品牌：Orb Books

出版日期：2006年02月21日

語言：英文

ISBN-10：0-765-31359-6

非新品書頁泛黃，附保護書套，不介意物品狀況再行購買。

Condition: Good. Pre-owned book in good condition. No obvious damage to the cover, with the dust jacket.