Customer Reviews

Multiple Man

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First published in 1976 and occassionally feeling dated, The Multiple Man is a fine science fiction mystery. As the President gives a speech in Boston, a body is found in an alley outside - a body that resembles the President in every way. Who was it? Who killed it, and why? Almost (but not quite) against his will, the President's press secretary is drawn into the mystery. Ultimately, the reader ends up being way ahead of the characters, but the ride, as one expects from Bova, is entertaining.

The novel takes place in an unspecified time, but probably around the late 1990's. It is always interesting to compare how the future actually unfolded to the way an author hypothesized. Fortunately, urban America has not imploded as Bova theorized. Even more fortunately, videophones have not become the norm. Interestingly, in the background of The Multiple Man is an invasion of Kuwait - this time by the Shah of Iran instead of Iraq (and isn't it strange to think of a world in which the Ayatollah never took power?). Bova wisely kept societal and technological changes in the background, so the conflicts between his future society and our own are noticeable but not distracting.

I'm a big fan of Bova...but I've read several of his earlier works recently and they've only been passable. I finished this book just last night. The story idea was an interesting one but Bova didn't flesh it out enough. The characters were a bit too cardboardy (<--is that a word?). The novel is definitely dated...because it's a political-based novel written in 1976 I entirely expected this. There were some interesting references that I doubt many people got. For instance, one of the background characters whom you never meet but is mentioned is said to have moved to Sri Lanka...also, another briefly mentioned character had the last name of Bester. The first is surely an homage to Arthur C. Clarke who has lived Sri Lanka for many years (perhaps going as far back as 1976, I don't honestly know); and the briefly mentioned Bester character is surely an homage to Alfred Bester...his most famous work is The Demolished Man, I've never read it but hear it's quite good. Aside from Bova's homages to his fellow Scifi writers, Bova also predicted at one point in the book the development of closed-captions on TV...you have to remember that this book was written in the mid-70's...most people didn't even have cable back then. To sum up, The Multiple Man leaves something to be desired...but for hardcore Scifi and/or Bova fans it's certainly worth reading.