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The Fourth Wall by Walter Jon Williams (view source)
Revision as of 12:44, 9 March 2018
, 12:44, 9 March 2018no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=The Fourth Wall
|sort=Fourth Wall
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1841498256
|pages=384
|publisher=Orbit
|date=February 2012
|website=http://www.walterjonwilliams.net
|summary=Sean Makin wants more meaningful acting work and is desperate enough not to ask too many questions. Action packed science fiction, mixed with ‘whodunit’ and served up with a large side order of cynical satire.
|cover=1841498254
|aznuk=1841498254
|aznus=B006WQRX24
}}
Indeed, talking about back catalogues, this author is both prolific and versatile. The list of sci-fi genres in which he's proficient includes military, fantasy, the intriguingly classification post-cyberpunk space opera plus he's written a ''Star Wars'' novel. He's also an online gamer and here ''The Fourth Wall'' merges his hobby and livelihood beautifully as he explains the mechanics and background of ‘Alternate Reality'.
The characters are as three-dimensional as necessary for a fast moving book like this. Sean is superficial, but beneath the ego he harbours a dark secret. So dark that, as bad things begin to happen, he wonders if he instigated them. Dagmar is as distant and cold as anyone with her past or her future plans would be. The twists come thick and fast towards the end. One or two may be obvious but the sruprises surprises compensate for this nicely.
This is a hybrid book. Along with the satire and the chilling possibilities that encouraging today's trends may bring, there co-exists a good crime thriller. This may not be a book that sets the literary world alight, but its good shut-out-the-world escapism that may just leave you a little anxious as you realise that Sean Makin's fictional journey has already started to bleed into real life.
If you haven't had the pleasure, may I suggest [[This Is Not A Game by Walter Jon Williams|This Is Not A Game]]. If you've read this and fancy another light movie-themed crime thriller, try [[Bloodthirsty by Marshall Karp]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1841498254}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=8451014B006WQRX24}}
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[[Category:Crime]]
[[Category:Thrillers]]