The Fictional Man Press Release

The Fictional Man
By Al Ewing

Reality is not what it seems on
May 7th (US & Can) and May 9th (UK)

£7.99 (UK) ISBN 978-1-78108-093-1
$9.99/$12.99 (US & CAN) ISBN 978-1-78108-094-8

Available in paperback and ebook


How does it feel, not being real?

“A disturbing, self-reflective type of brilliance … cross Joe Lansdale with Grant Morrison, and you start to get close to Ewing” – Pornokitsch on Death Got No Mercy

Al Ewing is a writer of extraordinary talent and with his first novel for Solaris, The Fictional Man, his incredible imagination has created a work of disturbing, fascinating insight and power.

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. 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. But 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 to figure it out...

Having already produced some of the most celebrated work in the shared-worlds fiction of Abaddon Books, this much-anticipated book is being tipped for cross-over success as Ewing lays claim to the legacy of Philip K. Dick while also stamping his own unique vision on the genre.

This is a major new author whose career should be watched and whose writing must be read.

About the Author

Al Ewing is a major new writer whose work in US and UK comics has seen him hailed as the most exciting new voice in the field. His work for Abaddon Books has been equally lauded and his unique visions of pulp fantasy have found their home in five different novels for Abaddon Books. This is his first novel for Solaris and is one of the list’s most keenly awaited books.