The Fictional Man

Al Ewing

May 2013 · Solaris

About this ebook

“What’s it like, not being real?”

In Hollywood, where last year’s stars are this year’s busboys, Fictionals are everywhere. Niles Golan’s therapist is a Fictional. So is his best friend. So (maybe) is the woman in the bar he can’t stop staring at. Fictionals – characters “translated” into living beings for movies and TV using cloning technology – are a part of daily life in LA now. Sometimes the problem is knowing who’s real and who’s not.

Divorced, alcoholic and hanging on by a thread, Niles – author of The Saladin Imperative: A Kurt Power Novel and many others – has been hired to write a big-budget reboot of a classic movie. If he does this right, the studio might bring one of Niles’ own characters to life. Somewhere beneath the movie – beneath the TV show it was inspired by, the children’s book behind that and the story behind that – is the kernel of something important. If he can just hold it together long enough...

Ratings and reviews

As a creater it was realy thought provoking, and questions the relationship between creator and created. The overal narative was great.

a stunning narrative and commentary of modern human interaction.

About the author

Al Ewing is a talented new writer whose work for British comic 2000 AD has seen him hailed as a major voice in the field. His work for Abaddon Books and Solaris has been equally lauded.