The Extra [Hardcover]

Michael Shea (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2010

Books and films have skewered Hollywood's excesses, but none has ever portrayed one man's crazy vision of the future of big action/adventure films as The Extra does. As over-the-top as Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles, as savagely dark as Robert Altman's The Player, and more violent than Rollerball, this is the story of the ultimate, so-insane-it-could-only-happen-in-Hollywood formula for success, a brave new way to bring the ultimate in excitement to the silver screen. Producer Val Margolian has found the motherlode of box-office gold with his new "live-death" films whose villains are extremely sophisticated, electronically controlled mechanical monsters. To give these live-action disaster films greater realism, he employs huge casts of extras, in addition to the stars. The large number of extras is important, because very few of them will survive the shoot.

It's all perfectly legal, with training for the extras and long, detailed contracts indemnifying the film company against liability for the extras' injury or death. But why would anyone be crazy enough to risk his or her life to be an extra in such a potentially deadly situation?

The extras do it because if they survive they'll be paid handsomely, and they can make even more if they destroy any of the animatronic monsters trying to stomp, chew, fry, or otherwise kill them. If they earn enough, they can move out of the Zoo--the vast slum that most of L.A. has become. They're fighting for a chance at a reasonable life. But first, they have to survive . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

World Fantasy Award–winner Shea takes his 1987 short story of the same name and turns it into a trilogy of which this is the first cataclysmic volume. Imagine the Roman Coliseum expanded to encompass the whole of Rome with the Christians replaced by thousands of extras, who volunteer in search of enough wealth to escape their poverty, and with gladiators replaced by animatronic aliens. All the action in this artificial set designed by the head of Panoply Studios, Val Margolian, is filmed continuously and turned into mega-grossing vid entertainment for the masses. Attempting to survive the chaos and reap bonuses dropped by payboat pilots for alien kills are L.A. book lovers Japh, Curtis, and Jool. They're aided by a group of pilots, who are secretly sabotaging Margolian's spiderlike machines. SF fans and thriller readers alike will go for the furious action on the ground and in the air, with carnage galore, hairbreadth escapes, and heroic sacrifices. (Feb.)
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Review

Horror, humor, action, pathos, bread, circuses, giant mechanical spiders--oh, hell, where can I buy a ticket? --Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Tim Burton's Batman

The Extra packs more violence, hilarity and speed-freak action in its throw-away asides than most science fiction books build an entire story around. This is a hot ticket. --Patton Oswalt, actor and comedian

Michael Shea puts his people in the damndest nightmares. He puts you in there with them, and drives the whole lot of you through a delirium of breakneck action and mad invention--hilarity and Hellfire itself. Wanna be in the movies? Step inside... --Stuart Gordon, Producer, Screenwriter, director of TV series Fear Itself --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765324350
• ISBN-13: 978-0765324351
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,467,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael A. Shea's writing career began when he was thirteen, and his published writing career commenced in 1973 with the publication of A Quest For Simbilis--an hommage to the great Jack Vance, and sequel to his Eyes of the Overworld. Shea callowly offered Mr. Vance co-credit if he allowed Shea to publish it. Mr. Vance, graceful and kind, assured the novice that he should sell it if he could, and the neophyte contented himself with an acknowledgment that introduced the text.

Shea quit his natal L.A. and repaired to Frisco's Mission District, where he met his life-mate, artist and author Linda Cesar. They lived by teaching, painting, and writing--preponderantly the former two. Through the years of their union, and the growth of their remarkable son and daughter, Shea produced his works of science fiction and fantasy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Roman Coliseum Has Been Reborn In "The Extra" - Superb Science Fiction Horror From Michael Shea, May 1, 2010

By 

J. B. Hoyos (Chesapeake, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Extra (Hardcover)

Welcome to a horrifying vision of the future. In an overpopulated, amoral Las Angeles, life is cheap. Curtis and Japh are middleclass tough guys living in the high rise buildings known as the 'Rise. Jools, Chops and Cap are streetwise thugs living in the outside slums known as the Zoo. Kate Harlow, Val Margolean and Mark Millar are upper-class executives at Hollywood's Panoply Studios, which is involved in making live action films. The desperate poor from the 'Rise and the Zoo are hired as extras who are herded like cattle into enormous sets built to resemble cities. Today, Panoply is filming "Alien Hunger" in which giant mechanical spiders are let loose to attack the extras. Like the gladiators of the Roman coliseum, the extras must fight for their lives. Their actual deaths are filmed in what becomes a legalized snuff film where thousands die for large sums of money.

Michael Shea's "The Extra" is a tightly written, fast paced nightmare that is soon becoming reality. The differences between our modern society and that of the Roman Empire are becoming slimmer each day. At an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), crowds cheer while watching men mercilessly beat and kick each other inside a cage. There are those who attend NASCAR races in hopes of witnessing a crash. Generations of children have been raised on violent video games. Our society has a craving for violence that is becoming increasingly more difficult to satisfy.

Panoply Studios of Hollywood, California is satisfying an addiction for live action violence with its creation of vids. In a world where 60% of the human population is impoverished, Panoply can easily recruit extras willing to risk their lives for a chance at a normal, healthy existence away from the perpetual violence of the Zoo. "The Extra" consists of a wide variety of characters from all walks of life who find themselves thrown into a pot boiler of mayhem. Not only are extras fighting the giant mechanical spiders known as APPs (Anti-Personnel Properties), but they are also fighting other extras who seek vengeance and the tags that must be retrieved from destroyed APPs. Curtis is a heroic extra from the 'Rise. He assists his friend, Japh, and other extras. Much of the novel is told in first person from his point of view.

Kate Harlow is another likeable, heroic character; an assistant director for Panoply Studios, she is copiloting one of many payrafts (hovercrafts) that swoop down from the sky to pay those extras who capture tags. She sympathizes with the plight of the extras. When her payraft crashes, Kate teams up with Curtis and his friends to help them destroy APPs, retrieve tags and survive the shoot. Setting aside their differences of race, gender and social status, they must work as a team in order to survive. "The Extra" is more than just a science fiction action adventure, it is also a political and social commentary. This novel is trying to tell the reader that in order to survive the economical and environmental issues that plague this world, the races and nations must set aside their differences and unite together as one body.

"The Extra" kept me spellbound. During the filming of "Alien Hunger," the shoot involving the extras lasts for only a few hours. However, all hell breaks loose as thousands of men and women dash through the set, searching for weapons they can use for defending themselves against the hordes of mechanical spiders emerging from the buildings. Chaos and pandemonium reign as they struggle for survival. Automobiles driven by robots careen wildly through the streets. Flaming debris rains down from the sky. Buildings fall, crushing both extras and monsters. Many of the weapons that are found are useless props; only a few are genuine. The entire set is a cruel, inhuman death trap. I was kept in suspense, wondering who would live and who would die.

In a futuristic Las Angeles where novels are a rarity, citizens have become more obsessed with the visual media, especially the live action movies produced by Hollywood. Panoply, along with many other studios, is a doomsday-type device similar to the one depicted in the cult classic "Logan's Run." In "Logan's Run," Carousel offered its Last Day participants the hope of renewal; however, all of them were being exterminated with lasers. In "The Extra," Panoply Studios seduces the extras with enough money to begin new lives in the nearby mountains; unfortunately, most are killed by the APPs. The murderous rampage provide a type of Roman "bread and circuses" that can be enjoyed by the masses. This theme has been explored in such science fiction thrillers as "Roller Ball" (1975) and "Futuresport." These films involve dangerous athletic competitions where many participants risk their lives for huge sums of money.

Michael Shea is the author of the popular science fiction sword-and-sorcery series, "Nifft the Lean." Perhaps Shea suffers from arachnophobia. In his latest Nifft novel, "The A'Rak," Nifft must battle a spider god. Shea has authored several science fiction short story collections that include "Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales" and "The Autopsy and Other Tales." "The Extra" is the first novel in a trilogy and Shea is busy at work on its next installment, "The Siege of Sunrise."


Joseph B. Hoyos

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkly Brilliant, October 26, 2010

By 

picky pickt - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Extra (Hardcover)

This is dead ahead, straight on SATIRE. The masses as cannon fodder for violent entertainment holo-vids....they "suck tube", "suck vids" so completely that they do not know the difference between predigested pablum lives..immersed as they are in virtual reality... and their real lives. Yeah, this sounds familiar but this is a Future Thriller and because it is Shea, the concept is on steroids. The little band of characters are tough and resourceful and choose to fight. It comes out darkly brilliant. Check out his other recent releases: Copping Squid, The Autopsy and Other Tales. Good Writing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always a good read!, October 20, 2010

By 

Nightowl "Carina" (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Extra (Hardcover)

Intense horror stories are generally not my genre of choice since blood is the main, and usually only, event. I do read sci-fi and fantasy though, and Shea's Nifft the Lean is one of my all-time favorites.
The Extra did not disappoint me. On a movie set where the actors are food for monsters, things move fast and some of it is pretty grim, but the characters are great and make up for it. This would make an amazing movie, not your usual same old horror at all.