The Man in the Maze (Paperback)

by Robert Silverberg (Author), Neil Gaiman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

During his heroic first encounter with an alien race, Dick Muller was permanently altered, hideously transformed in a way that left him repulsive to the entire human race. Alone and embittered, he exiled himself to Lemnos, an abandoned planet famed for its labyrinthine horrors both real and imagined.

But now, Earth trembles on the brink of extinction, threatened by another alien species, and only Muller can rescue the planet. Men must enter the murderous maze of Lemnos, find Muller, and convince him to come back.

Will the homeless alien, alone in the universe, risk his life to save his race the race that has utterly rejected him?

About the Author
In his illustrious forty-five-year career as a novelist and author of short fiction, Robert Silverberg has belonged in the company of the best writers of the 20th century. His writing has been compared to Conrad, Huxley and Orwell.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: I Books (November 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743452747
• ISBN-13: 978-0743452748
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,641,160 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragic Tale of Self Induced Exile, October 16, 2003

By	happilyoblivious (Simi Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Dick Muller was a hero... that is, until an encounter with an alien race left him unable to be tolerated in a human's prescence. When the human race rejected him, he left...to a planet with a giant maze on it. No one has ever reached the center of the maze. Now the human race needs Dick Muller to save the planet but first they must find him and convince him to come back and save the race that sent him into exile.
This book is great. My favorite book of all time. I highly recommend it to everyone!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an amazing tale, May 10, 2002

By	kenneth d Ritchie (Mareeba, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews

it is some 18 years since I heard this book broadcast as a series on "Morning Book Reading" on ABC Radio back in the days when it was heard at 9a.m. it has remained fresh in my mind ever since, it is an enthralling tale which kept me listening day after day and waiting for the next episode. It always struck me as being an ideal book to be turned into a film but, as far as I know it hasnt been-yet!
The tale involves an astronaut who has been 'infected' by aliens in a manner which makes it impossible for anybody to be close to him without feeling psychological pain. Taking himself off to an uninhabited planet which has been arranged into a deadly maze by previous aliens, he defeats the maze and lives comfortably, on his own - until Earth needs him.
An expedition is sent out to bring him back and the book deals with the efforts of the Earth crew to also beat the maze and make contact. The maze has a whole series of grizzly traps, which keep the reader guessing as to what will be next.
The astronaut returns to Earth fixes up the problem and in doing so is 'cured' but prefers to return to his planet instead of remaining on Earth.
A super good story. I will be reading it again

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A complex and fascinating epistemological web, October 18, 2002

By	Platonism (Montreal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man in the Maze (Paperback)

After an encounter with an alien race that leaves him with a strange `disease', Richard Muller exiles himself to Lemnos, a place famous for a vast, deadly maze that was built there long ago. He alone succeeded in getting to its center; now, veteran Charles Boardman, the one who convinced Muller to go on that ill-fated mission, and the young Ned Rawlins, whose late father was Muller's friend, must get Muller out of the maze and back to Earth for one last, heroic task (to do so, they, too, must master the maze). Getting through the maze won't be as difficult as it will be to actually convince Muller to follow them; thus, a psychological battle plays out during most of the book. In my mind, this isn't as fascinating as are all the different paths leading to different sorts of knowledge: in the first third of the work, Boardman's crew uses robots programmed to replicate the information that was saved during earlier, unsuccessful tries to get through the maze - that way, human lives are saved while the crew can afford to lose dozens of robots; some of the maze's sections are easier for the robots to go through, because they can more easily doubt their sense perception, whereas humans must close their eyes so that they won't be confused by appearances; meanwhile, Muller, having lived nine years in the maze and thus knowing it better than anyone, is still speculating about its possible origin, hidden secrets and traps. The only limitation to the various speculations is, plainly... death.