Customer Reviews

Man Plus

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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).

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.

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).

In his book Man Plus, Frederick Pohl mixes the worlds of medicine, cybernetics, and political intrigue into a well thought out tale of a man's journey to Mars. Roger Tarroway, who is a backup in the Man Plus project, suddenly finds himself next in line to be turned into something both wonderful and horrific: a human that can live on the surface of Mars without the need of a suit. But the changes he must go through transform him into something hideous and powerful. Can Roger's mind withstand the changes that he has to go through on an accelerated course? Can he trust his best friend? Will it work? Pohl sets this admist and Earth in peril of destroying itself, and many think that the Man Plus project and the colonization of Mars is the only way to save it from the brink of disaster...and there are other interested parties involved...watching.

Some may find it a little slow or dry in places because there is little action throughout. Pohl's use of the first person "we" at times was a little strange to me in a book written entirely in the third person, but there is a reason for it. While not as tight or emotionally gripping as Pohl's masterpiece Gateway, Man Plus is a well written and executed award winner and deserves to be on the shelf of most sci-fi readers.

Man Plus won the Nebula Award in 1976. This tells you a couple things, in and of itself. 1) It's got something worthwhile in it, and 2) It may feel dated, as older science fiction sometimes does. Well, both of these points bear out upon reading.

The basic plot revolves around an American astronaut who becomes a cyborg so that he can live on Mars, and what this does to his humanity. I find that, when the book sticks to this premise, it's solid. Moving along with the experiences of our protagonist, Roger Torraway, as his body is ripped apart and replaced with artificial "upgrades" that will make the first human to live on Mars, in actuality, not very human at all is interesting. This is a fascinating topic, and I'd be interested in reading similar stories.

Where the book falters is the peripheral, dated factors. The exact date is not stated, but based on dates of referenced events and ages of characters, the year the action takes place is around 2025. Despite that, and the availability of technology to build a cyborg, computers are still-room sized, and a critical plot turn relies on not being able to get hold of a scientist, since there are apparently no cell phones. On the non-tech side, the characters' attitudes towards gender and sex are a strange mix of free love and chauvinism that could only have come from the 1970's. Other jarring and dated factors include the fact that the pressure to put an American on Mars derives from the U.S. slowly losing the Cold War to the ever-increasing dominance of the USSR and New People's Asia, and smoking in the NASA lab where the cyborg is being created (sure, he may not have normal lungs anymore, but that can't be good for the project).

All in all, I'm not sorry I read Man Plus, and I plan to read the sequel, Mars Plus, as there's an interesting twist at the end of Man Plus and I want to see where it leads. Both are short in page count quick reads, so it's not a huge investment, but Man Plus definitely doesn't rank with other Nebula winners I've read.

Man Plus is a decent story about creating a cyborg to live on Mars. Presumably, the world is going to crumble unless we can begin to colonize Mars (according to computer projections), and so a cyborg is built and sent. Although a little less time might have been spent on Earth, and a little more on Mars, this is still a compelling tale. In particular the science of turning man into machine was page turning. Some of the subplots though were a little weak.

This book is not only a genuine science fiction classic, but also a poignant commentary on the human spirit. Roger Torraway's transition from a normal human being to cyborg is one of the most powerful statements in imaginative literature.

I read Man Plus as part of a compilation that combined Man Plus and Jem in one book, so this review may be affected by the contrast created between the two stories. I found Man Plus to be far superior to Jem, though Pohl makes use of many of the same devices and themes in both books. Pohl's adept handling of the scientific end of the story was reason enough to read this book. Unfortunately, he spends far too much time with the political situation on Earth and some of the more superfluous details of the scientists' sex lives. This angle succeeds because it grants the characters a personality that extends beyond vague political goals and imparts a sense of urgency to the project. And it is obvious that Pohl is comfortable with the characters, as they surpass the stereotypes of ivory tower scientists too involved with their work to show any real emotion. Some believe the ending was too abrupt and ambigiuous, but I think Pohl did an incredible job concluding the story. The ending provides a new dimension to the proceedings of the project, a goal higher than human self-preservation. The thing that keeps Man Plus from getting a five star rating is its length. The book is too short to have anything less than a totally focused vision for the characters and the plot. Despite Pohl's efforts, we don't get to see enough of the characters to truly relate to them, though Pohl's limited description does wonders with the pages he devotes to them. Man Plus is a great book, but the story is too hurried and the plot too unfocused to be considered epic.

Man Plus is the story of a project to adapt (a) man to be able to live on Mars. Thus, this man would have to be able to survive in a carbon dioxide atmosphere, at very low pressure, and be able to extract water and oxygen from the soil. In addition, the extreme temperatures would have to be overcome. Pohl proposes that such a man would have to be extensively modified with robotics (creating a cyborg) - a modern writer might use genetic enngineering - with the result that the Man Plus of the title scarcely resembles a human by the time he's fully modified.

The strength of the book is the scientific setup - some of the problems of creating such a cyborg are addressed, from both the physical and emotional points of view. It's fascinating to watch the creation of the Man Plus - Pohl obviously put a lot of thought into the process and what should be involved.

Unfortunately, the use of this new creature is inadequate. At 270 pages, there's not a lot of room for detail, and the end of the book seems very rushed. A lot of that precious space is also used up in describing a future world where communism has taken over all of Eurasia and a virtual state of war exists between these states and the United States. From our post-Cold War viewpoint, it seems quaint, and I can't help being impatient with it. There is a crisis at the end that is artificial and is never explained (perhaps it was a "teaser" for a future sequel?), and there is far too much of the soap opera lives of some of the scientists. Therefore, I give the book 3 stars on the strength of its novel idea and care of implementation, the other 2 stars are lost because it doesn't follow through particularly well.

Very detailed descriptions of the gradual process of transformation from man to man-machine. After the first test subject ends in tragedy, another man volunteers, with reservation, to undergo the transformation. The purpose of this is to make him capable of living in the Mars environment on his own for a prolonged time, to study the potential for human colonization. It is a race against time, as earth's war threatened future is believed near. The story is at times stirring, as we witness the process of a man leaving his life as he knew it and coping with new realities of his situation. The "man plus" is the attraction here, as there is not much provided to allow for interest in the outcome of the project.