On 27/10/2026 04:09, Don_from_AZ wrote:
bliss <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> writes:
Hi Denizens of rasfw,
"The Fourth Wall" by Walter Jon Williams
Well I had never seen this book from 2012
published by Orbit Books.
A former child star Sean Makin is reduced to Celebrity Pitfighter,
a reality TV show with unexpected obstacles. He is being trained
by a master of KungFu but he is trained to kick and ends up in
a pit with 8 inches of cottage cheese which is a definite disadvantage
and he is soundly trounced. But it turns out that the winner is
blood-tested and found to be on performance enhancing drugs.
So he is obligated as a winner to return to the show.
Now his star career was over at 17 as his former agent told
him and the successor to that agent got too neurotic to
work. Sean grew up to over 6 feet tall with a big head and
arms and legs that seem out of proportion. He has done
one major film, "Mr.Babyhead" in which he plays a serial killer
who burns womens faces off with a blow torch. But that
film has been tied up in litigation. Which maybe good.
But his agent calls and says one Dagmar Shaw wants him for
a new production she is planning to be done with lots of local
background from Asian and other points of interest in front
of a Green Screen. She was a game promoter but her past is
checkered with lots of terrorist action which makes him a
bit nervous. But people are dying and he does not want
to join their number. Dagmar wants him clean and free of
obvious damage from pit fights so he arranges with the other
actors and all but the last opponent to avoid facial damage.
Meantime he is busy filming "Escape from Earth" as the
star in Augmented Reality. This is going to be a serial production
as his character searched for a way back to his own parallel
world line. There are enemies in the film as someone is attempting
to kill our Sean. Near misses with SUV and death.
Not really a futurist or SF tale but a lot of suspense and fun.
He defeats two of the people trying to kill him and more.
Worth a read if you have missed it. Sold at $13.99 but
of course I got the copy I read at the SF Public Library.
285 pages of interesting stuff. Plus an ad for another
SF book in the back. I don't think I will look for that one.
bliss
This is the third book in the "Dagmar Shaw" series by Williams. As you
said, not really SF but more of a techno-thriller series.
From Wikipedia:
Dagmar Shaw series
A sci-fi thriller series involving crowdsourcing and alternate reality
games.
This Is Not a Game (2009)
Deep State (2011)
The Fourth Wall (2012)
"Diamonds from Tequila" (2014), short story published in Rogues
Thank you for this. I have "This is Not a Game" together with a
reference to James' review but have not read either yet as well as
Bliss's review which I will save till I have read the book.
His "Metropolitan" series and the stand alones, "Aristoi" and "Angel
Station" were brilliant reads, I enjoyed the "Dread Empire Falls" and
"Praxis" series but bounced off the first of his "Maijstral" series
which was terribly boring.
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