The Fictional Man by Al Ewing
I would like to thank Hanna from Rebellion for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Solaris
Published - Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook
In LA, where today’s star is tomorrow’s busboy, discarded “Fictionals” - characters spun into flesh and blood by technology - are everywhere. Screenwriter Niles Golan’s therapist is a Fictional. so is his best friend. So (maybe) is the woman in the bar he can,t stop looking at. It’s getting so you can’t tell who’s real and who’s not.
Niles isn’t completely sure how real he is
I will admit I do occasionally have an internal monologue watching the world and in 2020 it has had a lot of material. There is the real me, my internal version of the world and no doubt other people’s version of who they think I am. Authors must have it worse with whole casts of people in their heads talking to one another. Us readers all have our favourite characters and our own view of what makes them definitive which may vary. Imagine if those characters could become living entities in their own right though! That’s the intriguing premise of The Fictional Man by Al Ewing where a world of fictional characters now walk the streets of the world but for one author that makes life even harder to believe.
In this tale Hollywood has found since the seventies the ability to create human simulacrums of characters. You want a God, superhero, Indiana Jones etc then they will exist - just for the studio and they will be the definitive take. Niles Golan has written a long standing series of action thrillers known less for their authenticity but more their cosy predictable formula and he’d love to see his own creation alive. The books and his dreams for glory keep Niles going but he finds himself middle aged, divorced and trying to find a new direction. Hollywood though may be calling though they don’t want his book dramatised but a strange 1960’s movie that happily Niles as a kid loved - The Delicious Mr Doll (imagine a serious take on Austen Powers with all the racism, sexism and homophobia up front). Niles now has to find a new angle on what he now knows is a terrible film, start to deal with a growing conflict with his Fictional best friend, new and old love affairs while possibly be careful as Sherlock Holmes has been murdered on the streets.
I found this a frustrating read. Two of the plotlines are fascinating. Ewing’s ideas of characters being made alive isn’t new but he has two compelling takes - one that Hollywood would of course use this technology for commercial gain without thinking of what it means for those it creates. We see a world that accepts these people can star in entertainment but we rapidly don’t want them having actual relationships with those we consider ‘human’ with Niles’ friend Bob we get a man created to be a popular TV version of a superhero who once his show ends is trying to find a life of his own. I really wanted to explore this in more detail but sadly the story isn’t really Bob’s.
Ewing also has a good idea about exploring the idea of stories that evolve. The terrible 60’s movie he finds is related tow story that sounds far more impressive from a Twilight Zone anthology which itself comes from a creepy children’s tale with a fascinating origin story. Although there are digs at Hollywood constantly eating itself there is linked to the idea of Fictionals evolving that stories themselves change with the times. Hence why in the new world we have a classic Sherlock, an action Sherlock, a WW2 Sherlock etc - no one is ever just one thing for ever both human and media. This story again I’d have loved to explore in more detail
Unfortunately everything centres around Niles who unfortunately is the classic middle aged man who cheats on his wife often, is rude to his friends and people he meets, cares only about himself and I think you can guess takes no responsibility for his actions. Annoyingly we have always seen this character in so many media and Ewing falls into the trap other people do with this character - that all women want to be with him and even his friend to whom he is horrible forgives him in the end. My tolerance for middle-aged man-child characters is fairly low these days and no one really pulls him up for it. Bad things happen to other people some of which Niles causes and yet by the end he is supposedly a new man with no actual redemption earned. Ewing plays this too safely for me and makes the plot far more stereotypical than it needed to be. I’d seen this story too many times and it lost my interest. I also have to say the lack of female characters of any depth in a book that is highlighting sexism in films feels very tone deaf.
There are some lovely ideas here and Ewing can write wonderfully from good humorous banter, website reviews to some disturbing poetry and short stories but it doesn’t easily fit around its choice of lead and therefore for me a lost opportunity to finally move this stereotype into the 2020s.
