An audio book.
John Croker is talking to Rachel. There are flashbacks to his action movie past, vague memories of his boss Mascapone. He's a multiple murderer turned delivery man. Rachel makes him realise that doesn’t know the background details of his life. He’s in fact an unfinished character from an abandoned draft. He’s with many others like him. Some have been born there. There are zones for various genres and eras. Tropes and stereotypes abound. There are many James Bonds, and many characters from fanfic. Freud and Nietzsche play chess and theorize. He's having therapy.
John and a few of his new friends go by wagon out of the city, through Western Land to Middle Earth and the North Shore. The contrast of genres' moralities complicates things.
Self-publishing has caused a sudden rise in population, the new people lacking in useable skills. There are so many niche-genres that space is short. SF, being relatively new and having sub-genres matching genres, gets lumped in with everything else.
John's instincts, which he tries to keep under control, are to find his delivery van, and to read kindness from women as an invitation. He's arrested, accused of murder and repeated violence by a cunning female detective. Hope, a Sherlock Holmes character, gets him out. They begin to realise that the island is unsustainable yet there are no docks or airports. Previous doubters have mysteriously disappeared. He's arrested again for another murder. Is he being framed?
Hope's killed. The characters realise it's time to share their sad back-stories. There are clues that Mascapone's in a Tower. They find Moist a post-office worker, who leads them by wagon to the North Shore where there's a sub. The island is supplied by sub deliveries. But it's a trap. The police are there. Alice plays for time by guessing the plot - the islanders were two-timing each other, planning to escape. In the end John and friends escape, finding themselves in Story Land - a sequel?
A few longeurs but mostly fun. I enjoyed it.
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