Scifi book help: former child actor doing Shakespeare for fifty years at a time?
January 5, 2005 7:59 PM Subscribe
[Can'tSeeTheForestFromTheTreesFilter] I'm trying to recall the author and title of a scifi novel I read a few years ago. [specific details inside]
The plot was a few hundred years in the future, about an aging actor past his prime doing Shakespear plays in remote corners of the solar system. He was a former child star (I think his name was buddy) who through the use of hormones and whatnot stayed a child star for fifty years. He had the ability to change his face to play different roles in the same play through the use of screws and motors in his skull that could alter his physiology.
He was being hunted down in the outer part of the solar system by an assasin from a penal colony on Pluto, and heads towards the moon.
I can remember more details than this, but these are the pertinant ones to the plot, and obviously too vague to give much in the way of results from google.
The plot was a few hundred years in the future, about an aging actor past his prime doing Shakespear plays in remote corners of the solar system. He was a former child star (I think his name was buddy) who through the use of hormones and whatnot stayed a child star for fifty years. He had the ability to change his face to play different roles in the same play through the use of screws and motors in his skull that could alter his physiology.
He was being hunted down in the outer part of the solar system by an assasin from a penal colony on Pluto, and heads towards the moon.
I can remember more details than this, but these are the pertinant ones to the plot, and obviously too vague to give much in the way of results from google.
biscotti wins for added link-providing goodness.
if you liked that, you should also try his Steel Beach or The Ophiuchi Hotline, set in the same universe. Also some shorts in a few collections including the recent omnibus.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:07 PM on January 5, 2005
if you liked that, you should also try his Steel Beach or The Ophiuchi Hotline, set in the same universe. Also some shorts in a few collections including the recent omnibus.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:07 PM on January 5, 2005
Response by poster: Wow, that didn't take five minutes! Kudos to all of you, and thanks for the suggestions ROU_Xenophobe
posted by furtive at 8:11 PM on January 5, 2005
posted by furtive at 8:11 PM on January 5, 2005
If you like John Varley, you might want to check out some of his earlier books. Steel Beach was OK, but I have a special place in my heart for the trilogy - Titan, Wizard and Demon - which I read as a teenager. They are on my all time list of top 20 Sci-Fi books.
posted by Dag Maggot at 8:51 PM on January 5, 2005
posted by Dag Maggot at 8:51 PM on January 5, 2005
Titan/Wizard/Demon are indeed good as well.
I'd say that if you like the Eight Worlds stuff -- the universe that The Golden Globe is set in -- you might want to try The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. While they're not directly similar, the Eight Worlds books and the Culture books share a certain... special... SOOMTHIN'.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:58 PM on January 5, 2005
I'd say that if you like the Eight Worlds stuff -- the universe that The Golden Globe is set in -- you might want to try The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. While they're not directly similar, the Eight Worlds books and the Culture books share a certain... special... SOOMTHIN'.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:58 PM on January 5, 2005
Shakespeare
posted by armoured-ant at 8:07 AM on January 6, 2005
posted by armoured-ant at 8:07 AM on January 6, 2005
Shakespear, Shaxbard, Shake-Speare are all acceptable variants (the 16th century was less concerned about consistent spelling than are we).
posted by vraxoin at 8:52 AM on January 6, 2005
posted by vraxoin at 8:52 AM on January 6, 2005
The novels are good, but his short stories (many of them in the same 8 Worlds series) are outstanding. And there's a new collection The John Varley Reader: Thirty Years of Short Fiction out. Most highly recommended.
I read Titan/Wizard/Demon recently, and was underwhelmed. I think I might've liked 'em a lot better if I'd read them when they were new when I was a teenager.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 3:52 PM on January 6, 2005
I read Titan/Wizard/Demon recently, and was underwhelmed. I think I might've liked 'em a lot better if I'd read them when they were new when I was a teenager.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 3:52 PM on January 6, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Pockets at 8:05 PM on January 5, 2005