Audiobook13 hours
Fourth Wall
Written by Walter Jon Williams
Narrated by Andy Paris
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Walter Jon Williams regularly draws praise for pushing the limits of the science fiction genre. His third novel featuring AR (augmented reality) games designer Dagmar Shaw, The Fourth Wall follows Sean, a washed-up child actor recruited to star in Dagmar's latest movie project. But when people on set start dying, Sean wonders if Dagmar's secretive behavior is hiding a more dangerous game. "Williams and Dagmar fans will rejoice, and it should attract the near-futurists and techno-thriller crowd as well."-Kirkus Reviews
Author
Walter Jon Williams
Walter Jon Williams is a New York Times bestselling author who has been nominated repeatedly for every major sci-fi award, including Hugo and Nebula Awards nominations for his novel City on Fire. He is the author of Hardwired, Aristoi, Implied Spaces, and Quillifer. Williams lives near Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife, Kathleen Hedges.
More audiobooks from Walter Jon Williams
Angel Station Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best of Walter Jon Williams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Fourth Wall
Titles in the series (3)
This Is Not a Game Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deep State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fourth Wall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related audiobooks
The Addison Holmes Mystery Box Set: Books 1-3 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rogue Ethereal Complete Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Wave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What a Flanker Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil to Pay: Shayne Davies Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If I May Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Winning in the 21st Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rules of Backyard Cricket Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carla Collins: Recovering Nudist Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Suave Rob's Double-X Derring-Do: A Short Novel of Long Odds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWoman of Blood & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suicide Kings [Dramatized Adaptation]: Eric Carter 7 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bury Your Gays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brain Droppings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5imPerfect Fae: A Darkly Funny Supernatural Suspense Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kill Your Heroes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rant: An Oral History of Buster Casey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Extra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeroes Ever Die Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKill the Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Druid Justice: A New Adult Urban Fantasy Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wild Heir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raven Haired Rogue [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Thought You Would be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Level Zero (Alpha Rome Book 3): LitRPG Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Plutonium Blonde [Dramatized Adaptation] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's Not Nothing Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Science Fiction For You
Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ministry of Time: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Rising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Three-Body Problem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Omens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Omens: A Full Cast Production Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Systems Red Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dune Audio Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dune Messiah: Book Two in the Dune Chronicles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Live in Concert Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/520,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose The Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Rising (1 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]: Red Rising 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man in the High Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Doors: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sparrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52001: A Space Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Golden Son Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel by Bonnie Garmus: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Whalefall: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Fourth Wall
Rating: 3.5571426857142856 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
35 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked this novel in a lot of ways.The POV character, Sean, rather weird but personable and believable. The secondary characters, too. And the plot is pretty tight yet convoluted, and ends up mostly making sense.(Mild spoiler here, though it's in the firs 100 pages) One of the foci of the plot rests on Sean's guilt for "killing" a friend. And yeah, the friend died. However, I think if 2 people drunker than lords decide to drive vehicles, and while trying to avoid a collision one of them dies- well, this is not at ALL the same as premeditated murder. Culpable? oh, yeah. But it's not premeditated murder (like others were getting up to). So that struck me wrong, especially as a motive.Still, a fun twisty plot with good writing and characters.And I think I will put blocks on the cameras my various devices have. :)
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I didn't realize this was in a series. I thought there were some good points. The plot moved quickly. The protagonist is quite self-aware yet simple. There is a lot of satire but not enough science fiction.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The third in Walter Jon Williams' "Dagmar" series, The Fourth Wall is a near-future thriller featuring Sean Makin -- a child actor whose life and career cratered, and whose future seems to rest on an interactive movie being created by Dagmar (the heroine of the first two novels in the series).
In the first two installments, Dagmar was the central character; in this, the story is told from Makin's perspective.
I'll admit to a little disappointment; narrating the novel using a new character is a typically Williams-esque creative twist, but unfortunately, the Makin character isn't as compelling to me as Dagmar was in the first two installments.
The book is fun and offers more than a few zippy (and cynical) twists, though overall, the plot felt a hair contrived, especially compared to Deep State, a grippingly interesting novel with an engrossing theme.
The Fourth Wall is fun (the digs at Hollywood were hilarious, and as always Williams offers up a string of interesting observations about the future of media) and I plowed through it, but it lacks the gravitas of the prior two books, and the science fiction element felt grafted on.
I liked it and would recommend it to a friend -- but only after they'd read This is Not A Game and Deep State first. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is less the third book in the This is not a Game/Dagmar series than a third book in that universe. It is a near future seen from the POV of the gaming [and in this case movie/celebrity] industry/s. The characters are excellent. The action is wonderful. The man clearly knows the industries and types he is skewering. I thoroughly enjoyed it...until the end which was the sort of let down one frequently gets in middle volumes in series [which AFAIK this isn't]. If you ever read Heinlein's Glory Road you will understand the feeling. Enough loose ends are tied together but in the most obvious of ways and then it just sort of ends. If that disturbs you this is a pass which is sad because 90% of the way through it was a hell of a ride, enough so that someday I may reread it. Would not have even taken much more length to make the ending more fun...IMO. YMMV.