Rock Manning Goes for Broke
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Vikings vs. Steampunks! Ice cream sundae hearse disasters! Roman gladiators meet vacuum-cleaner salesmen! Inappropriate uses of exercise equipment and supermarket trolleys! Unsupervised fires, and reckless destruction of public property! Nothing is off limits.
Rock Manning lives and breathes slapstick comedy, and his whole life is an elaborate tribute to the masters, like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Jackie Chan. With his best friend, Sally Hamster, he creates joyfully chaotic short movies that are full of mayhem and silliness.
But Rock and Sally are becoming famous at a time of unrest, when America's economy has collapsed and people are taking refuge in highly addictive drugs. America's youth are being drafted to take part in endless wars against imaginary enemies overseas, while at home, a fascist militia known as the Red Bandanas is rising to power. As America becomes more mired in violence and destruction, Rock Manning's zany comedy films become the escapist fun that everybody needs.
Over-the-top physical comedy and real-life brutality collide, as Rock and Sally find themselves unable to avoid getting sucked into the slow implosion of their country. The Red Bandanas want Rock Manning to star in propaganda films promoting their movement, and soon Rock and Sally are at the center of the struggle for the soul of America. The trauma and death that Rock witnesses begin to take a toll on him.
When a botched weapon test plunges the world into deeper chaos, Rock and Sally must confront once and for all the outer limits of comedy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hugo and Nebula winner Anders (All the Birds in the Sky) glances sideways at current political and social issues in this jittery, vigorous science fiction novella set in a near-future United States. Rock Manning's mix of ADHD and PTSD renders him not so much an unreliable narrator as too reliable, at least when the topic is himself. He tells the reader exactly what he's thinking about, but his narration zips past the grim science-fictional elements of his environment, such as soldiers in robotic suits and militarized gangs. Rock's personal world is all about watching and making slapstick movies. His attention span is short, but his ability to fall down in the most hilarious way possible is legendary, and his best friend, the brutal but creative Sally Hamster, craves the fame that comes from filming his antics. Meanwhile, the world around them is at war; pratfalls and the quest for notoriety are the only way Sally and Rock have to cope. At times hilarious, at times brutal, this is an extremely personal look at how one person tries to survive constant tragedy.
