- Man Plus
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Man Plus 
Cover of first edition (hardcover)Author(s) Frederik Pohl Country United States Language English Genre(s) Science fiction novel Publisher Random House Publication date 1976 Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback) Pages 215 pp ISBN 0-394-48676-5 OCLC Number 2020835 Dewey Decimal 813/.5/4 LC Classification PZ4.P748 Man PS3566.O36 Followed by Mars Plus, 1994[1] Man Plus is a 1976 science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl.[2] It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1976[3], was nominated for the Hugo and Campbell Awards, and placed third in the annual Locus Poll in 1977.[4] Pohl teamed up with Thomas T. Thomas to write a sequel, Mars Plus, published in 1994.[5]
Contents
Plot introduction
In the not-too-distant future, a cold war threatens to turn hot. Colonization of Mars seems to be mankind's only hope of surviving certain Armageddon. To facilitate this, the American government begins a cyborg program to create a being capable of surviving the harsh Martian environment: Man Plus. After the death of the first candidate, due to the project supervisors forgetting to enhance his brain's ability to process sensory input to cope with the new stimuli he is receiving, Roger Torraway becomes the heart of the program.
In order to survive in the thin Martian atmosphere, Roger Torraway's body must be replaced with an artificial one. At every step he becomes more and more disconnected from humanity, unable to feel things in his new body. It is only after arriving on Mars that his new body begins to make sense to him. It is perfectly adapted to this new world, and thus he becomes perfectly separated from his old world, and from humanity.
The success of the Martian mission spurs similar cyborg programs in other spacefaring nations. It is revealed that the computer networks of Earth have become sentient, and that ensuring humanity's survival will guarantee theirs as well. In the end, the network is puzzled...it appears that something else was behind the push to space, a mystery even to the machines.
Reception
New York Times reviewer Gerald Jonas received the novel unfavorably, saying "Pohl seems to have lost his touch entirely. . . . the social extrapolation in Man Plus is simple-minded and the irony heavy-handed."[6] Spider Robinson found Man Plus to be "tight, suspenseful, at times gruesomely fascinating," but faulted it for "one dumptruck-sized hole" in its plotting.[7]
Major themes
A common theme in science fiction is existentialist isolation, whether isolation starting from within, or the separation of human beings from other species, or the effects of the isolation of Earth from the rest of the universe by great distances. In Man Plus, a human being is transformed into a cyborg being. The physical transformation is examined in great detail as it is echoed in the increasing distance between Roger Torraway and his wife, and between Roger and the rest of humanity.
Man Plus also makes much of the (assumed, rather than argued) difficulty of separating the way one thinks from what one is, and vice versa: Roger Torraway's new artificial body strongly affects how he treats the world around him.
Notes
- ^ Source: WorldCat entry on "Man plus"
- ^ Pohl, Frederik (1976). Man Plus. Random House. ISBN 0-394-48676-5. (Note: unless otherwise noted, all statements in this article regarding the contents of Man Plus are based on the book itself).
- ^ Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (2006-12-03). "Nebula Awards Past Winners". http://www.sfwa.org/awards/archive/pastwin.htm#1976. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
- ^ Locus Index to SF Awards
- ^ Pohl, Frederik; Thomas T. Thomas (1994). Mars Plus. Baen Books. ISBN 0-671-87605-8.
- ^ "Of Things to Come", The New York Times Book Review]], October 17, 1976
- ^ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, May 1977, p.142
External links
- Man Plus at Worlds Without End
Nebula Award for Best Novel (1965–1980) 1965–1970 Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) · Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966) · The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany (1967) · Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin (1968) · The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) · Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)
1971–1980 A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg (1971) · The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1972) · Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (1973) · The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974) · The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1975) · Man Plus by Frederik Pohl (1976) · Gateway by Frederik Pohl (1977) · Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre (1978) · The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke (1979) · Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980)
Complete List · 1965–1980 · 1981–2000 · 2001–present
Novels by Frederik Pohl Undersea Trilogy (with Jack Williamson) Heechee series Gateway (1977) • Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980) • Heechee Rendezvous (1984) • Annals of the Heechee (1987) • The Gateway Trip (1990) The Boy Who Would Live Forever: A Novel of Gateway (2004)Eschaton trilogy The Other End of Time (1996) • The Siege of Eternity (1997) • The Far Shore of Time (1999)Mars series Man Plus (1976) • Mars Plus (1994) (with Thomas T. Thomas)Saga of Cuckoo (with Jack Williamson) Farthest Star (1975) • Wall Around A Star (1983)Starchild Trilogy (with Jack Williamson) The Reefs of Space (1964) • Starchild (1965) • Rogue Star (1969)Space Merchants series The Space Merchants (1953) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) • The Merchants' War (1984) • Venus, Inc. (1985 Omnibus)Other Search the Sky (1954) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) • Gladiator-At-Law (1955) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) • Preferred Risk (1955) (with Lester Del Rey) • Slave Ship (1956) • Presidential Year (1958) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) • Wolfbane (1959) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) • Drunkard's Walk (1960) • A Plague of Pythons (1964) • The Age of the Pussyfoot (1965) • Jem (1979) • The Cool War (1981) • Syzygy (1981) • Starburst (1982) • The Years of the City (1984) • Black Star Rising (1985) • The Coming of the Quantum Cats (1986) • Terror (1986) • Chernobyl (1987) • Land's End (1988) (with Jack Williamson) • The Day The Martians Came (1988) • Narabedla Ltd. (1988) • Homegoing (1989) • The World at the End of Time (1990) • Outnumbering the Dead (1990) • Stopping at Slowyear (1991) • The Singers of Time (1991) (with Jack Williamson) • Mining the Oort (1992) • The Voices of Heaven (1994) • O Pioneer! (1998) • The Last Theorem (2008) (with Arthur C. Clarke) • All the Lives He Led (2011)Categories:- 1976 novels
- 1970s science fiction novels
- American science fiction novels
- Mars in fiction
- Nebula Award Winners for Best Novel
- Novels by Frederik Pohl
- 1970s science fiction novel stubs
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