The Extra

Michael Shea

Tor Books

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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 . . .

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I

THE ’RISE

That’s right, that was us. Amazing, how many people noticed, but then, for extras, we got a lotta screen time. Remember the big white guy with me after that running-down-the-fallen-skyscraper scene? He’s my friend Japh. So. You wanted to know what drove me to make the leap into the movies. Well, it was this strange day the two of us had right before they started shooting Alien Hunger.

The first half of the day was like any other in the ’Rise.

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Michael Shea Interview for The Extra

Master story teller Michael Shea talks about writing, the genres and his new novel The Extra.

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Patton Oswalt reads THE EXTRA by Michael Shea

Hollywood actor and comedian Patton Oswalt reads about Hollywood's next box office hit: Live-Death films with expendable extras going up against extremely sophisticated, electronically controlled mechanical killing machines all in front of a live audience. A lot of people are dying to make it big in Hollywood...

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your neighborhood librarian  rated it  
Feb 11, 2010
Rip-roaring sort-of-dystopian near-future sci-fi that 1) made sense and 2) was a great story. Shea is a screenwriter as well as a sci-fi writer, and you can see that in his meticulously blocked action. It's a lot like Hunger Games for an older audience - in it, reality shows have morphed into " ...more
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Jessi  rated it  
Nov 1, 2010
First Line: "That's right, that was us."

In The Extra, the legendary film director Val Margolian discovered that the term "Live Action" could be taken to a whole new level if the extras in the film actually die. And thousands of people sign up to be extras because of the ...more
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David  rated it  
Aug 27, 2010
This was a bizarrely fun book. It is super simple as far as arc goes. It develops some likable characters and a freaky fun milieu around them. Then the action pops the whole way through. There is even a bit of a deeper issue to think about afterwards. But mostly this is a great ride. ...more
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About the Author

Michael Shea

MICHAEL SHEA is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Nifft the Lean as well as other novels and many short stories. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Michael Shea

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Available Formats and Book Details

The Extra
Michael Shea

Hardcover

Hardcover
Tom Doherty Associates
Tor Books
February 2010
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780765324351
ISBN10: 0765324350
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 288 pages
$22.99
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Tom Doherty Associates
Tor Books
February 2010
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429955423
ISBN10: 1429955422
288 pages
$10.99
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