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Extra Trilogy #2
Assault on Sunrise
Pollution, economic disaster, and the rapaciousgreed of the corporate oligarchy have brought America to its knees. Curtis,Japh, and Jool are film extras who survived being players in a deadly "live-action"film. It made them rich enough to escape the postapocalyptic hell that is Los Angeles,but their survival was not what Panoply Studios CEO Val Margolian had in mind, asit cost his company millions. Now he's taking his revenge. The former extras'new home of Sunrise, California, is soon subjected to Margolian's invidiousplan to punish them and make a fortune doing it. With their haven besieged,the exiles are faced with a grim task: take back their town and freedom.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
1 pages, Audio CD
First published August 13, 2013
About the author
Michael Shea
73 books202 followersFor the British author of thrillers and non-fiction see Michael Shea
Michael Shea (1946-2014) was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author who lived in California. He was a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award and his works include Nifft the Lean (1982) (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) (later republished together as The Incomplete Nifft, 2000), as well as The ARak (2000) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985).
Michael Shea (1946-2014) was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author who lived in California. He was a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award and his works include Nifft the Lean (1982) (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) (later republished together as The Incomplete Nifft, 2000), as well as The ARak (2000) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 7, 2013
A follow-up (actually the second in a trilogy) to his previous novel, THE EXTRA, ASSAULT continues the world established in that book - in the future L.A., the poor and disadvantaged are weeded out by becoming fodder for studio blockbusters... in THE EXTRA, a giant spider invasion is filmed and the spiders are sophisticated machines; however the carnage is real. ASSAULT kicks off with the survivors from the first book who've found peace and quiet in a small rural community being framed as cop killers by a studio head looking for revenge, in complicity with the State, who wants the land they occupy. They're given the choice of either surrendering to life imprisonment/death sentences; leaving town and any claim they may have towards property; or they take part in another invasion blockbuster to be filmed, with new and improved tech monsters.
I liked this more than the previous book (which was originally a short story, and which was superior in that form), and the next book, STORMING HOLLYWOOD, might be fun, also... the satire is pretty caustic, but overall, I prefer Shea's Lovecraftian themed stories.
I liked this more than the previous book (which was originally a short story, and which was superior in that form), and the next book, STORMING HOLLYWOOD, might be fun, also... the satire is pretty caustic, but overall, I prefer Shea's Lovecraftian themed stories.
June 13, 2022
In the first book of this trilogy (sadly never to be completed because of Shea's untimely death), set in a bonkers near-future California were the lowest ranks of society can only hope to better their position by surviving spectacular bloodshed as extras in nightmare movie shoots, the action took place in the huge lots of the competing studios. Now, in Assault on Sunrise, our heroes from that first instalment live contented lives in the independent titular town. But the studios haven't finished with them yet - and in the constant need for horrific spectacle, Sunrise and all its residents must become a filmset, it's residents pray to the studio's latest monster evolution.
There's a -welcome- retro eighties feel to AoS, with larger-than-life blue collar characters, a protracted A-Team prep. sequence, and then a protracted action sequence (each taking up roughly half of the novel). And then, toward the very end (and nothing to do with the eighties), a trademark Shea super-monster that is a Lovecraftian Shoggoth in all but name.
Not Shea's best, but nevertheless very enjoyable - a fast, fun read.
There's a -welcome- retro eighties feel to AoS, with larger-than-life blue collar characters, a protracted A-Team prep. sequence, and then a protracted action sequence (each taking up roughly half of the novel). And then, toward the very end (and nothing to do with the eighties), a trademark Shea super-monster that is a Lovecraftian Shoggoth in all but name.
Not Shea's best, but nevertheless very enjoyable - a fast, fun read.
July 10, 2018
I really dug The Extra, so I had high hopes for the sequel. Sadly, this was a wholly unnecessary endeavor, imho. It lacks any of the verve and intensity of the original. The narrative bounces from first to third person in a jumble, breaking any flow that might have occurred. It also takes way too long to get to the action, which sadly pales compared to what Shea delivered in The Extra. He also tends to glomerular onto certain words and then over uses them (scythe, cooking, entr'acte). He also has a tendency to introduce new characters without any development; theyes just show up. There are moments of colness, but overall it is just not as insane or engaging as its predecessor. Oh, and the APPS are a weak riff on the T1000.
July 16, 2017
Val Margolian is back. Back to bring death once again to people for the sake of art. Art? Well in Val’s mind the death of extras is cinematic art and needs to be seen by all on the silver screen, or any screen available.
This time he has used the Justice System to enact his form of revenge against the Town of Sunrise. Sunrise is where surviving extras of live action movies choose to live. Not all survivors want to live there but many do. The extras from his last movie Alien Hunger and the traitors from his crew have chosen to live out their lives in peace there. Living off royalties from the movie and all the money they earned surviving the shoot.
How Val was able to work the system to his will proved easy.
A group of strangers enter Sunrise demanding the surrender of some of the citizens living there. They are there to arrest them for a conflict that ended in the death of another that happened over a year ago. I know strange. It wasn’t an incident that was unknown. The fight was well publicized and deemed self-defense. Yet these individuals are claiming to be there so that justice can be served for the incident.
Well like the things don’t go so well and a few of the men are killed in the ensuing gunfight. To the citizens involved and those learning of the unfortunate encounter, the men that were killed by Sunrise’s citizens seem to have been police officers. Or were they? In fact was this a set up by Val? Because of this all the citizens of Sunrise are under the hammer of the Justice System. All are giving a choice, either leave their land thereby surrendering it to the government or have a large number of its people volunteer for a decent prison stay. Then there is the option of allowing the studio Val works for to film another Live Action movie that has the entire town and all it citizens, old, young, sick just everyone living there fighting for their lives. This shoot will last for 2 days and very strange and deadly AAPs will be unleashed upon them.
I enjoyed this book, just not as much as The Extra. I must insist you read The Extra first. If you don’t you might not enjoy this book because it picks up with the already established characters from the first book, mixed in with several new ones. YOU NEED TO READ THE FIRST BOOK FIRST! THIS IS THE SECOND BOOK IN THE TRILOGY!
This time he has used the Justice System to enact his form of revenge against the Town of Sunrise. Sunrise is where surviving extras of live action movies choose to live. Not all survivors want to live there but many do. The extras from his last movie Alien Hunger and the traitors from his crew have chosen to live out their lives in peace there. Living off royalties from the movie and all the money they earned surviving the shoot.
How Val was able to work the system to his will proved easy.
A group of strangers enter Sunrise demanding the surrender of some of the citizens living there. They are there to arrest them for a conflict that ended in the death of another that happened over a year ago. I know strange. It wasn’t an incident that was unknown. The fight was well publicized and deemed self-defense. Yet these individuals are claiming to be there so that justice can be served for the incident.
Well like the things don’t go so well and a few of the men are killed in the ensuing gunfight. To the citizens involved and those learning of the unfortunate encounter, the men that were killed by Sunrise’s citizens seem to have been police officers. Or were they? In fact was this a set up by Val? Because of this all the citizens of Sunrise are under the hammer of the Justice System. All are giving a choice, either leave their land thereby surrendering it to the government or have a large number of its people volunteer for a decent prison stay. Then there is the option of allowing the studio Val works for to film another Live Action movie that has the entire town and all it citizens, old, young, sick just everyone living there fighting for their lives. This shoot will last for 2 days and very strange and deadly AAPs will be unleashed upon them.
I enjoyed this book, just not as much as The Extra. I must insist you read The Extra first. If you don’t you might not enjoy this book because it picks up with the already established characters from the first book, mixed in with several new ones. YOU NEED TO READ THE FIRST BOOK FIRST! THIS IS THE SECOND BOOK IN THE TRILOGY!
May 25, 2014
This is a book set in the world of _The Extra_ ; I thought this worked reasonably well as an action novel in a dystopian setting with science fiction/horror trappings. A town is sentenced by a corrupt government to facing assault by a Hollywood movie studio, which is allowed to kill townspeople in the interests of creating a cinematic spectacle. Although it's never billed as a sequel (at least that I saw), many of the characters apparently first appeared there; accordingly, this had some problems of assuming readers cared about some of the characters.
Even with that, it doesn't take much to get up to speed, and at least the relevant facts are always fed in by dialog. It manages to capture the feel of an action movie -- a definite plus given the layers of cinema involved in the book. (There's the book describing a movie being made, with another movie being filmed in the sidelines; in some scenes, there are the people on the ground considering layout for tactics, multiple layers of directors considering layout for shots and assault; and above it all, the near omniscient book. The writing kept this working well.
The book's faults might be rectified had I read _The Extra_ first; I never felt like I truly understood why the world was set up as it was (particularly given how utopian the rural town is painted; why were conditions so bad everywhere else?). And, to get things done, people kept throwing around sums of money; in the plutocratic world painted, I never felt like I truly understood the amounts being thrown around. (Every kill of the studio's "monsters" was worth 150,000 "clacks"; is that a lot? Some of the people were paying out millions of clacks to stock up on suppplies and information).
Even with that, it doesn't take much to get up to speed, and at least the relevant facts are always fed in by dialog. It manages to capture the feel of an action movie -- a definite plus given the layers of cinema involved in the book. (There's the book describing a movie being made, with another movie being filmed in the sidelines; in some scenes, there are the people on the ground considering layout for tactics, multiple layers of directors considering layout for shots and assault; and above it all, the near omniscient book. The writing kept this working well.
The book's faults might be rectified had I read _The Extra_ first; I never felt like I truly understood why the world was set up as it was (particularly given how utopian the rural town is painted; why were conditions so bad everywhere else?). And, to get things done, people kept throwing around sums of money; in the plutocratic world painted, I never felt like I truly understood the amounts being thrown around. (Every kill of the studio's "monsters" was worth 150,000 "clacks"; is that a lot? Some of the people were paying out millions of clacks to stock up on suppplies and information).
Did Not Finish
September 25, 2013I made the mistake of picking up this book when I hadn't read the first book in this series (The Extra). In my defense, nowhere on the blurb or publicity that came with it specifically said it was the second book of a trilogy. This is one of the reasons it's being put down unfinished. The other is that it just didn't work right for me. I can't put my finger on it, but it was missing that little something that would make me enjoy it more. This could be because I haven't read The Extra, but either way it's a book I probably won't get back to any time soon.
December 14, 2013
Life is so worthless in the future, according to Michael Shea, that the extras in the epic movies of the future really die. Of course the public is easily sated. So a small town in the mountains is framed for murder and attacked by giant nanotech insects while being filmed by camera crews on anti-gravity rafts. The Assault on Sunrise (hard from Tor) is spread over two days with directorial surprises for each of the three acts of each day. Fun and exciting. I just find it difficult to believe that liberal California would get so hard-nosed.
Review printed in the Philadelphia Weekly Press
Review printed in the Philadelphia Weekly Press
June 7, 2014
“Everything that rises must converge,” said Jesuit philosopher Teilhard de Chardin. But he was talking about humanity and Christ–not pizza and bagels, not Star Wars and Shakespeare, and definitely not Assault on Sunrise, the new novel by Michael Shea, which marries reality programming to B-movie horror.
Marries via sawed-off shotgun, of course. The rest of my review lives at http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/boo...
Marries via sawed-off shotgun, of course. The rest of my review lives at http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/boo...
October 11, 2016
A fun adventure in a dark future where Hollywood controls the government, this was Shea's last book. I have enjoyed many of his books, Lovecraft fans will enjoy The Color Out of Time while Vance fans will enjoy Nifft the Lean and its sequels.
July 19, 2016
Book two in a Trilogy. I won't be buying the third book. The book does not add anything to the story arc. This is sad as I normally like Shea's writing.
Read
January 29, 2014Unfinished. I never got into it. The characters were uninteresting and the plot confusing.
November 8, 2014
excellent mind candy
October 12, 2015
Quick fun read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews