Saturday, 21 December 2019 04:43 pm
Book Review: Man Plus
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deckardcanineFrederik Pohl was one of those sci-fi author names I'd seen many times but couldn't connect to any work. I used to get him mixed up with Poul Anderson. It won't happen again. I chose this out of all his works simply because it was conveniently being given away. Looking it up now, I see that it got a mixed reception.
By the year 2026 (again?), humans have visited Mars many times, but only now are they looking for ways to live there for the long term. The Man Plus project involves making a cyborg capable of surviving the Martian environment indefinitely. Protagonist Roger accepts the invitation to become that cyborg, but with plenty of reasons for trepidation: The transition is an ordeal, the first subject died during it, the final body will look frightful, and there's no guarantee that Roger will ever be fully human again. Or even think like one.
As sci-fi goes, this is pretty good science. Pohl put a lot of thought into how much we'd have to change for our lives on Mars to be remotely feasible. I'm not sure how doable it would be to dramatically accelerate or decelerate someone's sense of time or create other sensory mediation algorithms (and I'm only half-convinced they'd be necessary for the mission), but neurology was never my strong suit.
In some ways, Man Plus is clearly a product of its time (1976, to be precise). Pohl extrapolated from then-current trends; most notably, the project is being rushed because people fear that the Bomb will drop any day now. That said, the story as it is couldn't have been published in the '50s, because there's some swearing and a good deal of sex talk. In this future, open marriages are the rule, not the exception (and even priests and nuns are officially allowed casual nookie), but Roger still has concerns about his wife and his womanizing friend on the project, Brad, not least when Brad renders him incapable of further coitus. Brad is also in charge of the system that doesn't let Roger perceive things quite as they are, tho Roger doesn't seem to suspect that Brad would abuse that power to hide secrets.
Were I on the project, my biggest concern would be how frequently Roger is not afforded the dignity that modern humans take for granted. No matter what he looks like or what superpowers he's gained, the team shouldn't do all sorts of things to him without asking or even warning him. Then again, a few of our glimpses of events elsewhere suggest a lessening of regard for human dignity overall, perhaps as a result of rising international tensions. Roger's treatment could have been a lot worse.
Obviously, it would be a big letdown if Roger never made it to Mars. That happens in the third act. We don't learn much new about the planet, but that was never the key draw for readers anyway. I had not predicted exactly how Roger would take to the place he was "made" for. To say it gets action-packed is misleading, but it is a little more thrilling.
Midway through the book, I became aware of a jarring element: use of the first person plural but not the first person singular. This worked fine in Cheaper by the Dozen, where "we" were clearly the two authors and their siblings, but who are "we" here? The engineers? Further curiosities arise along the way, especially toward the end. Only in the last chapter could I confirm that Pohl knew what he was doing with that approach.
Several questions remain, on purpose. I don't think I'll look for the answers in the sequel, Mars Plus. This was OK as an intro to Pohl, neither boring nor depressing, but the focus kinda drifts in and out, and the characters are only so developed. I'd rather try one of his more esteemed titles.
I'm ready for another full-fledged fantasy. That will be Naomi Novik's Uprooted.
By the year 2026 (again?), humans have visited Mars many times, but only now are they looking for ways to live there for the long term. The Man Plus project involves making a cyborg capable of surviving the Martian environment indefinitely. Protagonist Roger accepts the invitation to become that cyborg, but with plenty of reasons for trepidation: The transition is an ordeal, the first subject died during it, the final body will look frightful, and there's no guarantee that Roger will ever be fully human again. Or even think like one.
As sci-fi goes, this is pretty good science. Pohl put a lot of thought into how much we'd have to change for our lives on Mars to be remotely feasible. I'm not sure how doable it would be to dramatically accelerate or decelerate someone's sense of time or create other sensory mediation algorithms (and I'm only half-convinced they'd be necessary for the mission), but neurology was never my strong suit.
In some ways, Man Plus is clearly a product of its time (1976, to be precise). Pohl extrapolated from then-current trends; most notably, the project is being rushed because people fear that the Bomb will drop any day now. That said, the story as it is couldn't have been published in the '50s, because there's some swearing and a good deal of sex talk. In this future, open marriages are the rule, not the exception (and even priests and nuns are officially allowed casual nookie), but Roger still has concerns about his wife and his womanizing friend on the project, Brad, not least when Brad renders him incapable of further coitus. Brad is also in charge of the system that doesn't let Roger perceive things quite as they are, tho Roger doesn't seem to suspect that Brad would abuse that power to hide secrets.
Were I on the project, my biggest concern would be how frequently Roger is not afforded the dignity that modern humans take for granted. No matter what he looks like or what superpowers he's gained, the team shouldn't do all sorts of things to him without asking or even warning him. Then again, a few of our glimpses of events elsewhere suggest a lessening of regard for human dignity overall, perhaps as a result of rising international tensions. Roger's treatment could have been a lot worse.
Obviously, it would be a big letdown if Roger never made it to Mars. That happens in the third act. We don't learn much new about the planet, but that was never the key draw for readers anyway. I had not predicted exactly how Roger would take to the place he was "made" for. To say it gets action-packed is misleading, but it is a little more thrilling.
Midway through the book, I became aware of a jarring element: use of the first person plural but not the first person singular. This worked fine in Cheaper by the Dozen, where "we" were clearly the two authors and their siblings, but who are "we" here? The engineers? Further curiosities arise along the way, especially toward the end. Only in the last chapter could I confirm that Pohl knew what he was doing with that approach.
Several questions remain, on purpose. I don't think I'll look for the answers in the sequel, Mars Plus. This was OK as an intro to Pohl, neither boring nor depressing, but the focus kinda drifts in and out, and the characters are only so developed. I'd rather try one of his more esteemed titles.
I'm ready for another full-fledged fantasy. That will be Naomi Novik's Uprooted.