Man Plus [Mass Market Paperback]

Frederik Pohl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1985

Volunteering to be the next transformed cyborg of the Man Plus Project for the colonization of Mars, Roger Torroway is unaware that the Project is being secretly manipulated by an unknown group of shadowy planners. Reprint.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Frederik Pohl, one of the old pros of the genre, never takes unnecessary risks. For him, science fiction is a form of play—an excusable indulgence since he plays it so much better than most people.” —The New York Times Book Review

“We might expect a Frederik Pohl novel to be solid, competent, thoroughly readable sf, well-plotted and brilliantly dramatized. Man Plus is all of these, and it is also horrifyingly believable, a dark mirror held up to today's world...Man Plus is probably Frederik Pohl's best novel so far, and surely one of the most exciting, brilliantly conceived and capably-written sf novels of the past decade.” —John Sladek, Foundation

“Pohl is quietly ready to discuss just about any aspect of literature, science, publishing, or politics, and his decades of experience in speculative fiction make him a trove of knowledge. But don’t let his nice-guy reputation fool you. If you’re going to brag to Frederik Pohl about not reading science fiction, you’d better duck.” —Amazing Stories

"The most consistently able writer science fiction, in all its forms, has yet produced." —Kingsley Amis, author of New Maps of Hell

“Peerless in his own generation, with few equals of any age. One of the 50 most influential people in the Chicago Book World.”—Newscity

“One of the grand old men of SF.”—Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Multiple Hugo and Nebula award–winner FREDERIK POHL was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Pohl has also been an award-winning collaborator and editor of magazines and anthologies. Most recently he won yet another Hugo Award for his blog, “www.thewaythefutureblogs.com.” He and his wife, editor and academic Elizabeth Anne Hull, live outside of Chicago.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Spectra (March 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553260642
• ISBN-13: 978-0553260649
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,575,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Its Evolution Baby, August 19, 2004

By 

cargo (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man Plus (SF Masterworks) (Sf Masterworks 29) (Paperback)

Its Evolution Baby

The evolutionary dream, the end point of human desire, the ability to leave behind the limitations of the Earth and take to the stars, is fraught with it's own limitations. Pohl speculates that, while a hostile environment may kill a person, we can survive because we take a bit of a friendly environment with us. We can take air, food, water and fuel to the Antartic, the Moon, Mars and beyond but the environment remains hostile and the human body, fragile and ill adapted. "Man Plus", as may be evident from the title, is concerned with the possibilities of adapting the human body and how the body itself is tied up with notions of identity and belonging.

The cyborg is familiar at least to Science Fiction readers and has been for many years, so, to most of these veterans, Pohl's ideas may seem rehashed, even clumsy in this age of genetic manipulation. Leaving aside these anachronisms (the book was written in 1976), we see in "Man Plus", the raw power of the cyborg as a work of imagination. This power manifests itself in the predominantly earthbound text in the emotional responses, clinical discourses, whispered asides and outright revulsion of those around the cyborg. Political intrigue as the project is kept from view, as well as carnivalesque musings on cyborg sexuality thicken the texture of Pohl's writing.

The counterpoint to the inhumanity of the cyborg is his superhuman abilities and his adeptness once in the right environment. After the death of the original cyborg, Roger Torraway goes through the intimate manipulations of surgeons as all his organs are removed or bypassed, a computer is attached to his back and "wings" containing solar receptors are installed. His life on Earth becomes miserable as the "monster" becomes estranged from his wife and friends by his grotesque appearance but, like the robot in the Asimov short story "Stranger in Paradise," is so ideally suited to the Martian environment that his life there is filled with the joy of belonging. The solar wings transform from demons' to angels' wings in this environment.

This is both a deeply personal look at the transformation of Torroway from man to cyborg and a socio-political reflection on the contingencies of the space race. The growing threat of nuclear armageddon and the sense of overcrowding and paranoia that this engenders on earth also formed the internal logic of the race to the moon. The inevitability of nuclear aggression is dealt with here (and during the cold war) as a force of nature rather than as a result of human actions. Dealt with in this way, it becomes a generic "threat to humanity" and we could almost read this, from a contemporary viewpoint, as the threat of ecological armageddon. It is the clock against which the "free world" is racing to start a Mars colony and the best computer predictions grant them a few years at most. Between the lines, there is room to question the inhumanity of a humanity unable to address its problems without some outside impetus such as the threat of war or ecological disaster or the illusion of same....

The emotional journey we take with Torroway is as pot-hole ridden and treacherous as it is full of hope and freedom. The freedom that exists in the absense of armies and nuclear arms. The relief of escape from the maddening political situation on Earth is accompanied by the discovery of a personal feeling of belonging by Torroway.

A twist at the end of tale seems to indicate that the plot had a former life as a short story but also initiates(?) an idea that has grasped many a Science Fiction imagination since. (No spoilers here).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Novel, May 7, 2002

By 

Jon (Moscow, USSR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man Plus (SF Masterworks) (Sf Masterworks 29) (Paperback)

All in all this was a very good novel. I felt that Frederick Pohl had a brilliant vision for this book, and caried it out in full detail. The story revolves around Roger Torroway, a typical astronaut married to a typical wife living a typical lifestyle. However, Roger is involved in a project which isn't typical at all. This project is called Man Plus, and is devoted to saving the human race, (wihch is, the latest simulation says, a ninety nine percent chance of destroying itself within the next ten years.) Man Plus is devoted to turning a man into more than a man. by ripping out most of his biological components and replacing them with mechanical body parts, thus enabling him to live on Mars. The result would make a super being to start a colony on Mars, thus saving the human race. When William Hartnett, the original Man Plus dies, Roger Torroway has to take his place.
This novel is full of surprises, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quick, entertaining read; ages poorly, May 19, 2010

By 

Eric Aderhold (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Man Plus (SF Masterworks) (Sf Masterworks 29) (Paperback)

This is a relatively short novel. In it, we learn the story of a US government program in the early 21st century to create a superhuman cyborg who is capable of surviving on the Martian surface, for the purpose of facilitating colonization that would save the human race from extinction in the (increasingly likely) event of a nuclear holocaust on Earth.

Though the novel won the Nebula award in 1976, I don't think it ages as well as many of the other novels that have earned this award. Pohl predicts numerous technological changes that have not yet come close to occurring (flying cars, bionic limbs that can cure any physical disability, etc.), while ignoring social and societal changes that have occurred in the meantime. This book "feels" more like it is taking place in the late 1970s than the first decade of the 21st century.

All in all, I liked this book. It has an engaging story and a twist at the end that I didn't really expect. Where it fails is in its unrealistic predictions of a future now past.

If you're looking for a little bit more "timeless" novel by Frederik Pohl, I would recommend Gateway (and subsequent novels in the Heechee Saga).