Killerbowl

by Gary K. Wolf

It’s thirty years in the future. In the Boston Minutemen locker room, Street Football League quarterback T.K. Mann prepares himself for the biggest, riskiest, most dangerous game of his life. At the age of thirty-four, T.K. is the oldest player in the ultraviolent sport of Professional Street Football, a phenomenally popular twenty-four-hour-long athletic event combining pro football with mixed martial arts and armed combat. From its outlaw beginnings as a gang game played on urban streets, the SFL has rapidly risen to become the nation’s most popular spectator sport. On every Sunday, armed and deadly players on SFL teams main and murder one another in front of huge television audiences. The International Broadcasting Company, the network that owns exclusive telecasting rights to SFL games, is not satisfied. The network wants more viewers, more team merchandise sales, more advertisers, more profits. To get that, they need to give the fans what they want, -- more violence and more death. Even at his relatively advanced age, T.K. is still mentally sharp, still quick, still able to play the game at the highest level. But he’s old school, inclined to show mercy to injured and vanquished foes. He’s not bloodthirsty enough to please IBC. He’s not the modern-day stone cold killer IBC wants for a marquee SFL player. Pierce Spencer, arrogant, autocratic, ruthless IBC President, dreams up an ingenious scheme. He manufactures a season-long personal rivalry between T.K. and Harv Matision, the San Francisco Prospectors’ young, tough, inner-city-bred quarterback. Matision is heartless, mean, and viciously murderous, IBC’s ideal star athlete. IBC’s manipulations have all been designed to lead up to this final championship game, Mann against Matision, may the better man live. Pierce Spencer and his IBC cronies aren’t taking chances. They know the game’s outcome even before it begins. IBC plans to insure that this is T.K.’s final game. In the locker room, T.K. and his teammates go through the intensely personal rituals of men preparing to face death. Some listen to jarring rock music. Some shoot themselves up with painkillers or speed. Some, like T.K., operating under the theory that you can never be too prepared, go over their playbooks one last time. The time comes to suit up. Each player dons his lightweight body armor. Player by player they pass by the team armourer who gives each player his standard equipment, a long knife, a club, a bolo, a javelin, and to one player, a rifle. The players head for the street. The league’s championship game is being played this year In Boston, on a six block by eight block section of the downtown city. Everybody who lives there has been temporarily relocated. The two teams come out onto the eerily silent street. The Minutemen, with T.K. at the helm, and their opponents, the Harv Matision-led Prospectors, line up at the intersection of Myrtle and Garden. At the stroke of twelve midnight, the Minutemen kick off. The season’s championship game begins; the game known by street football fans around the country simply and accurately as……Killerbowl! This is the first novel by award winning author Gary K. Wolf, famed creator of Roger Rabbit.

Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia

149 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Gary Kenneth Wolf

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Praticamente la versione temu di Rollerball ad opera del creatore di Chi ha incastrato Roger Rabbit, confezionata a tavolino per cavalcare il successo del bellissimo film con James Caan uscito nelle sale pochi mesi prima.
Nonostante tutto, la storia intrattiene che è un piacere, e le due linee temporali che si alternano in stile cinematografico fino allo scoppiettante (ma non troppo) finale sono un gran bel tocco di classe.
Probabilmente il miglior euro speso in vita mia per un libro trovato su una bancarella romana.
Tre stelle e mezzo arrotondate a quattro.

[Francesca kikkatnt 'Free Palestine, Stop Genocide' · Rating 3 out of 5]

È il secondo titolo dell'autore che leggo per puro caso questo mese. Sebbene Quarto: uccidi il padre e la madre non mi abbia convinto, questo libro non mi è dispiaciuto. Ambientato in un futuro rispetto a quando è stato scritto (per noi oramai è passato), parla di un giocatore di football da strada, una variante del football normale in cui il campo da gioco è una parte della città di Boston e ,per dare pepe alla partita, è consentito fare falli se non addirittura uccidere i propri avversari pur di non perdere la palla.
Sebbene sia un tema già visto sia in letteratura che in TV, il libro mi è piaciuto. Mi dispiace non si sia dato spazio all'ambiente distopico in cui è calata la narrazione - se non qualche sprazzo qua e là. Ad esempio traspare la penuria di carburante e solo i ricchi possono permettersi auto a benzina e il pellame scarseggia - quindi le palle del football sono fatte principalmente di materiale sintetico.

Per questo motivo non posso dare più di 3 stelle e mezza

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gary K. Wolf is an excellent writer who takes a very different slant on everything. This time it was violence and killing as a required part of football and the Superbowl of 2010. He creates some very memorable characters and a situation that is very easy to believe would happen. I hope his vision of the future never comes to pass, but we are heading that way fast.

My only criticism would be how long it takes to get to the end. He spends a lot of time describing a lot of games in detail and it slows the momentum too much.

It's a very enjoyable read, and you can get it for a steal at Amazon for the Kindle.

[Massimo Foglio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fortunatamente il football non e' diventato cio' che preconizza questo racconto. La storia é comunque gradevole, anche se forzatamente cruenta. Molto bello l'intreccio "da film" tra il presente ed il passato che vi ci ha portato.
Finale atteso, ma ugualmente amaro, forse l'unica cosa che il racconto ha previato nei minimi particolari del football del nuovo millennio.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I’m 60 years old now, and I read this aged 13 after buying it at a road stop on my way to a weeks holiday with my parents.
13 yr old me found it fascinating. Being in the UK , American Football was alien to me in ‘75 , but I loved all the armour, the helmets, the padding. This book took a sport I knew little about and turned it into an ultra violent sporting even with high powered rifles and brutal combat. All played out across a city’s streets and buildings.
Typical tropes, honest hero battles against cheating opponents in cahoots with big business. Yep, it’s Rollerball using an egg shaped ball without skates.

I bought it again as a novelty, a bit of nostalgia.
In the ensuing 47 years since my first read, I’ve read quite a few more books over the years and even to this day entertain the idea I may one day have one of my novellas published.

So, what’s it like? How does it fare in 2021 , whilst being set in the futuristic year of 2010 ?

It’s turgid. Haha!
I mean, seriously, it really is absolute junk of the lowest Calibre. Mr Wolf obviously saw the huge success of Rollerball, wondered if there was a way to cash in on a sporting violence novel, and came up with this bilge over a slack weekend.
Characters? Cartoonesque caricatures. The dialogue, like something out of a Dick Tracey cartoon.
I’m not sure if Mr Wolf ever intended his novel to be laughed at, but it did make me laugh at its unintentional hilarious seriousness.

13 yr old me is scowling at 60 yr old me….
“Stupid old fart, don’t know great quality literature when it’s right in front of you! “
“ indeed young man! Indeed”

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wrote notes for this one like I do for most every book I read, but I'm throwing them all away. Basically pretend someone came up to you (or in this case came up to Gary K. Wolf) and said, "Hey, so what if football was played on city streets instead of on a field oh and also players can kill each other. Write as much as you can about that, until you've exhausted everything there is to say. Should take you, I dunno, 200 pages or so."

$0.99 on the Amazon Kindle store will get you this experience. I'm debating whether or not to imply it's worth it.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Totally engrossing and somewhat silly evocation of a future blood-sport.

[Tom Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Combat football in the streets (and in the surrounding buildings), with knives and clubs -- and each team gets a one-shot armed sniper. This 1975 short novel is set in the far future of 2010-2011 and projects a future where sports is big, big money and players will do anything to stay on top. In many respects, it was rather predictive of the trajectory that professional football has been on since the book was written.

The immediate comparison is of course, Rollerball. And yeah, I see it. Impossible not to make that connection. There's a star player that's getting old and they want him out. Maybe it's "inspired by" or a "rip-off money grab" or unconscious, parallel creation. 1975 was a fairly grim year for most involved, so a satirical and somewhat cynical commentary on a modern bread and circus theme doesn't seem all that particularly unique of a premise to think up. After all, for folks in 1975, they had spent the last several years witnessing the horrors of the Vietnam war on the news every night, the economy was a wreck, etc.

Unlike the film Rollerball (which is one of my fave 70s sci-fi flicks), there is greater world building and Wolf does something very fun by including snippets of TV scripts, news reports, and league stats in an almost proto-multimedia manner. And I may be biased here as my book, Pax Titanus (intergalactic gladiator/sport satire) included play-by-play and some commercials, so yeah, it was a treat. I think this kind of story just sort of demands the writer to go beyond the action and into the larger scope the culture and business of professional sports if the commentary is going to be complete.

The writing style is plain and direct and as such it took some time for me to become emotionally interested in the characters. Three stars because although I enjoyed it quite a bit, I can only summarize it as decent, with some fun touches.

[Paul Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolf is the author who wrote the book WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT is based on and this is a Sci-Fi take On football. Its written in 1975 and I want you to keep that in mind... the same year as the original Rollerball was released and I can tell you that there is real similarity in feel between the two. Almost Uncanny.
Killerbowl Takes place in 2010(and New Years day 2011) and is the evolution of football where the games are played over a 24 hour period and over a whole section of the city. Its now Street Football. Weapons are legal for certain players and include Knives, Clubs and One player. A hidden safety who has a Sniper Rifle and ONE Bullet and he can hide in any building on the "field" waiting for the right time. And the Players are Ironmen playing both ways.

When Looking at Sci-Fi I love to see what they got right and this is pretty amusing. Remember 1975! Other than things Like EPA and electric cars lets talk football.

Wolf Predicted that Football Would be the New American sport an almost obsessive level of love, in 1975 Baseball was still #1,
He Predicted 24 hour sports channels, in 1975 there was no tv broadcast on any of the 3 only networks after Midnight at the time. Not only that but that football would make TV networks billions.
He Predicted in 2010 there would be 32 football teams there were only 26 then (wow accurate call!).
He also predicted that The Lowly shitty at the Time New England Franchise would become a dynasty...and get this... let by a Douchebag, cheating, golden boy. Got to give it to Wolf Here. Also The Rise of a SF Dynasty which did happen in the 80s so he gets points.
It Seems Wolf really does Know his Football though and that part was well Done But it does have that 1970s sci-fi feel...still very good.

[Grump · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dystopian future where everything sucks and the only thing people have as a source of joy in their life is Street Football. The whole vibe of the book is very much Rollerball. One old guy player vs a dirty organization running the sport. But instead of rollerskating around a track with motorcycles, it's football on a few blocks of city streets where the players have knives and the free safety has a rifle. The book is broken up with media bites and jumps back and forth in time. It ends sort of abruptly and with a bit of a whimper but it is, according to the cover the FIRST SCI-FI NOVEL FROM THE CREATOR OF ROGER RABBIT. Big shit. My copy was riddled with typos. Fun stuff tho.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never watch the Super Bowl, or any football, but this weekend I read this novel. It's is about a Super Bowl of the future. It takes place in the years 2010-2011, which are long past, but it was writing in the mid 1970s, so back then the 2000s were the fairly distant future. In this novel, football is played on city streets, the players are armed with knives and clubs, and killing a player in the course of a game is legal. It is a faced-paced and powerful novel and an effective condemnation of corporate greed, political corruption and human bloodlust.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"In some ways SF comparisons between modern sports and Roman arenas, where blood and guts are spilled in obligatory fashion, might come off as a soft target. Imagine if the football players had knives! Pass. Imagine if one of the players had a gun! Double pass. Yes, we know sports can be violent and taxing on the mind and body. A quick browse through the current NFL injury list and articles such as The Boston Globe‘s six-part series on Aaron [...]"

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being almost certainly a cash-in on the movie Rollerball, this is a sharp, smart bit of sci-fi action adventure, briskly characterised with functional stereotypes and filled with some clever satire of the media.

Relies a little too much on familiarity with the rules and terminology of American football, which seems much like rugby, except played by men who wear padding so they don't get hurt, and stopped by the ref every thirty seconds so they don't get too tired. This is that, but with knives and guns.

[Made DNA · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you loved "Roller Ball Murder" (or the stunning 1975 film starring James Caan), then this book is for you. It's a Max Headroom-esque look at the future where evil corporations run football in the 20oos, whipping fans into a frenzied watch-fervor with pay-per replays and murder/mayhem reel highlights of street football during the week. Mix in a bit of political satire and you have for a lean, mean, gutsy novel.

[Thom Brannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary Wolf is mostly known for Roger Rabbit, but this is his first novel and a much better picture of his ability. At least, I think so. The book is written in present tense, which I usually cannot stand, but is so engaging that I definitely forgot about it as I read.

There is a scene late in the book, a confrontation between two of the characters, and I literally forgot I was doing anything else. I got chills. I never get chills.

I really loved this, and hope I can find more like it.

[Brent Millis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you loved "Roller Ball Murder" (or the stunning 1975 film starring James Caan), then this book is for you. It's a Max Headroom-esque look at the future where evil corporations run football in the 2000s, whipping fans into a frenzied watch-fervor with pay-per replays and murder/mayhem reel highlights of street football during the week. Mix in a bit of political satire and you have for a lean, mean, gutsy novel.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read that shows again that science fiction is a great genre for social and political commentary. Great writing, nice pacing and still hauntingly relevant in 2021 as it was in 1975. I enjoyed it more than Rollerball Murder.

[David Coombes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good. It could have just been a sci fi sports story for kids but like a lot of seventies sci fi, it has social comments to make and makes them effectively. Still relevant today with the rise of social media etc.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should sports be a business?

Some font based glitches, still legible. Very similar to Roller ball. Violent and pointless death, lone wolf heroism. Interesting glimpses of the new world kept as background information. You could run a killer bowl with various rpg rules.

[Tom Fredricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Killerbowl is about a distopian future where a hyperviolent football league has become Americas primary entertainment. Really made me think (which was not what I expected).

[Aron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fun, but if you don't like or know about American football there is a lot that is boring.

[Zeusthedog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Niente male questo romanzo dell'autore di Roger Rabbit... se non fosse che è uscito nel 1975 subito dopo Rollerball...e mi sembra tanto una mera operazione commerciale per cavalcarne il successo.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea that is poorly written/executed

[Alex Vandivier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was paced well and the flashbacks helped a bit with shock value, but I was never really invested and didn't find the action exciting.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) Didn't know the guy who wrote this also wrote Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the basis for one of my all-time favorite movies. Killerbowl was an interesting, at times prescient read, probably a rip off of Rollerball but entertaining in its own right. The blurb tells you all you need to know about the book going in and reading it does exactly what its supposed to.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Umm, this is awesome (4.5). It's in the future and football is played across entire cities and to the death! I admit that some of my extreme love is because of the football thing, but the book is good in any case.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, so I was a kid and read this during my summer library reading club. It was the first "science fictiony" book I ever read so I pay it an homage for that if nothing else :)

[Elerwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letto parecchi anni fa, truce e violento al punto giusto.
Una lettura consigliata

[James Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it again this month. Very interesting format and a wonderful read.