Man Plus

In the final chapter, which is about three or four pages long, there is a twist which sets this entire book in context and made me think about rereading it immediately with this in mind. This is an achievement for sure, there's no question that this book is a classic even if this piece of narrative brilliance wasnt included but it really does make it worth reading to the sentence and will no doubt make for interesting discussion with any friends who've read it too.The book itself is narrated in the third person, the characters central to the story are all introduced early on but the main protagonist does not begin in the role of the cyborg destined for Mars colonisation. I found this was a really great narrative trick although the pace and style of writing is good besides and the author does not have to rely upon tricks to keep a reader engaged with the story.I dont know a lot about cybernetics, space exploration or the hard science aspects of the novel but this content is convincing and not fantastic or too wonderous, there are just enough details ommitted to make the crazy surgerical feats involved in making the protagonist "man plus" to make it seem feasible. One aspect of reading novels like this which depict a world of tommorrow that we are closer to being in than the author was at the time of writing is discovering what innovations and developments they anticipated correctly and what they did not, for instance everyone does have the means to communicate via video calls but there are no mobile phones, these are phones like the home appliances, and folding screen covers provide privacy rather than minimising pictures as is possible with a laptop appliance in reality. While the author has anticipated flying cars, automated transport, some innovations in garage car storage they imagine a world in which everyone smokes, even in hospitals, and as I've said no one has mobile communications (car phones exist but are more like CB radios).There is more character development than world building but both are done really well, the world of the future anticipates things such as China's rise in prominance, there is a kind of internet functioning in that computers are networked but the characterisation is what I found the greatest. This is a very humane and humanising tale, the psychological aspects of it are great, one candidate perishes as a result of psychological pressure, or at least it is implied and a mainstay of the story is how Roger, the man plus subject, adapts to his transformation. It is a brilliant tale from this perspective and I would recommend it to anyone as a result, not just fans of science fiction.Its not unreasonable to mention Frankenstein perhaps but this isnt a tale of mad science and alienation in quite the same way, the pace and style of writing is pretty different too. Recommended.

Man plus comes as the forebear to many novels about the colonisation of alien worlds. Although this book is far more political in its content than many others. It would have been very easy to immerse the story in the buildup of political tension occuring in the unimpossible future of Earth, just as it could have been very easy to allow Mars swallow the story entirely and in fact turn it into a fictional account of adapting to the environment of another world (try Ben Bova for such reading). However Man Plus looks at the personal and individual costs of beginning a colonisation.As a volunteer for the Man Plus programme Roger must be stripped of his humanity, the flesh that identifies him and even his very perceptions of reality as he is remade to be a new life form. Through this the novel allows glimpses of both Roger's inner torment as well political debates that the team that must manufacture him face.In some ways I wish that there had been more of Mars in this novel, as it is relegated to just two short chapters. Though the big point about this novel isn't about how man will live on Mars, it is about what he must face before he can live there. A very intelligent piece of science fiction.

Having read my first Frederik Pohl; "Jem" earlier this year, I was keen to read more, and Man Plus doesn't disappoint. It's a precursor to many more recent Martian novels and unlike the Barsoomian nonsense of Edgar Rice Burroughs which I read as a boy, or the politically intense Kim Stanley Robinson, Man Plus explores the individual cost and emotional journey of a single Martian colonist. It really is a unique and clever approach, with Mars itself being relegated to a supporting role in the story. Pohl handles the alien [as a concept] very well and there's an overarching strangeness and a sense of isolation to this novel that could only be conjured by a writer with a soul, for which, I can only admire him.

They say never judge a book by its cover, but I did in this case and I'm so glad I decided to buy it. Easily one of the best novels, science fiction or otherwise that I have ever read. Really could not put this book down. Pohl's narrative is outstanding here. Very cinematic. I love the inclusion of the 'Carmarthenshire Freedom Fighters'! Kept me on my toes till the very last page. Definitely a 'Masterwork' for me.

Golden age SF at it's best - keeps you scratching your head until final pages THEN leaves you scratching it as wraps up