The Exile Kiss

infobox Book |
name = The Exile Kiss
orig title =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of First Orb Edition
(Tor Books, 2006)
author = George Alec Effinger
country = United States
language = English
series = Marîd Audran series
genre = Science fiction (cyberpunk) novel
publisher = Doubleday
release_date = April 1991
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-385-41423-4
preceded_by = A Fire in the Sun, (1989)
followed_by =

"The Exile Kiss" is a cyberpunk science fiction novel by George Alec Effinger published in 1991. ["The Exile Kiss" copyright notes, First Orb Edition: June 2006] It is the third novel in the three-book Marîd Audran series, following the events of A Fire in the Sun.

The title of the novel comes from The Tragedy of Coriolanus, a play by William Shakespeare: "O! a kiss" /"Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge!"

Plot introduction

Married to Indihar, though from his perspective in name only, Marîd Audran gets invited to a reception at the palace of the amir of the city. Shaykh Mahali, the amir, wishes thusly to end the rivalry between Friedlander Bey and Reda Abu Adil, two of the most powerful men in the city. Both Marîd and Friedlander Bey, or 'Papa' as he's known in the Budayeen, get suspicious when their sworn enemy Reda Abu Adil designates Marîd as an officer of the "Jaish", an unofficial right-wing outfit working for Shaykh Reda.

However, it isn't until after the party that Abu Adil's scheme unfolds: Marîd and Papa are put under arrest by Lieutenant Hajjar and charged with the murder of a police officer named Khalid Maxwell. They're sentenced on-the-spot into exile, never to return to the city under pain of execution. Left to die amongst the burning sands of a vast desert, their luck finally turns as they're rescued by a nomad tribe of Bani Salim, allowing them to start planning the vengeance they'd exact upon the treacherous Shaykh Reda Abu Adil and prove their innocence — if they ever make it back to the city alive.

References