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The Extra Audiobook
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(3.20) - 10 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The Extra is set in a future California where members of a desperate populace sign contracts to participate in reality death films, knowing that less than twenty percent of them will survive. It’s a view of the future—and Hollywood—as delightfully cynical as Kurt Vonnegut, with sympathetic characters, Hollywood executive sleazeballs, and much more.
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"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. "
— David (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“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 -
“Shea offers a combination of gifts unique to him, I think: an innately edgy feel to the writing; a descriptive ability comparable to that of Jack Vance; a wild, blazing imaginative capacity; and a sense of humor permanently set to what rifleman used to call “rock and roll.” The Extra starts out at a dead run and accelerates from there, effortlessly wrapping the reader into its tale of gone-to-hell LA and a little bank of gutsy starvelings with blood on their hands.”
— Peter Straub -
“Horror, humor, action, pathos, bread, circuses, giant mechanical spiders—oh, hell, where can I buy a ticket?”
— Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Tim Burton’s Batman -
“Michael Shea’s The Extra offers intensity, great characters, action, satire that may well be prescient, fine writing, and intelligent nonstop entertainment. What do you want, dammit? This is the one!”
— John Shirley, author of Bleak History -
“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 -
“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.”
— Publishers Weekly
The Extra Listener Reviews
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" If The Hunger Games wasn't violent enough for you...wooden characters with unconvincing motivation and a laughable premise. YA dystopia officially jumped the shark with this one. "
— Joel, 2/26/2012 -
" George Saunders does this kind of thing better. Not much conviction here... by the end, The Extra becomes what it is satirizing. "
— Andrew, 6/10/2011 -
" 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. "
— David, 2/23/2011 -
" George Saunders does this kind of thing better. Not much conviction here... by the end, The Extra becomes what it is satirizing. "
— Andrew, 2/16/2010
About Michael Shea
Michael Shea is the World Fantasy Award–winning author of Nifft the Lean and other novels. He has also written many short stories for major fantasy and science fiction magazines. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
About William Hughes
William Hughes is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. A professor of political science at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, he received his doctorate in American politics from the University of California at Davis. He has done voice-over work for radio and film and is also an accomplished jazz guitarist.