Man Plus by Frederik Pohl

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Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Frederik Pohl's Man Plus.

The Short of It

Plot: A normal human could not survive on Mars... our only option? Cyborgs!
Page Count: 183
Award: 1976 Nebula
Worth a read: No... but consider it for a laugh.
Primary Driver: (?????????)
Bechdel Test: Pass... but a real weak pass.
Technobabble: Frequent.
Review: Imagine if you took subplots from a trashy romance, a political thriller, a horror flick, and a space travel story... and forgot to put in the main plot. Starts decently, spirals wildly out of control with astounding speed. Almost worth reading to experience the hilarious concluding deus ex machina. This one is probably in the "so bad it's good category" - but sweet skittles is it bad. Also, turn on safe search if you look this book up.

968756

The Medium of It
Spoiler Free!

This book is top to bottom terrible. Plot points that go nowhere, plot twists that emerge from the abyss, poorly written and totally interchangeable characters, totally unnatural dialogue, incoherent subplots, inconsistent pacing, barely thought out world... whatever could be done poorly, was.

It takes work to write something this sloppy.

Basic premise - build cyborgs to handle Mars! - could be done well, but this is not the place for that. 

There's nothing more to say without spoilers. It's awful, but I did enjoy it - the same way that The Room is a fun movie.

If that's something you're looking for, consider using the link below! I'll get a few cents at no additional cost to you!

The Long of It
Spoilers Ahead!
The problem he had not resolved was what he would do if for any reason, when the whole mission was over, they could not put him back together right away. What he couldn't decide was whether he would then simply kill himself or at the same time kill as many as possible of his friends, superiors and colleagues as well.
See the issue? That's right, no Oxford comma. I'm kidding, of course. This is one of the thoughts of Hatnett, the first cyborg. Who dies of a stroke. There's no payoff on any of this. People don't really care that he dies, either.

Here's a list of everyone who is romantically or physically involved here:
  • Roger and his wife, Dorrie.
  • Dorrie and Roger's coworker, Brad.
  • Brad and a bunch of other folks' wives.
  • Roger and his nurse, Sulie.
  • Sulie and her pilot, Dinty.
  • Father Kayman and Sister Clotilda.
Other plot points:
  • The President's struggling popularity polls.
  • Imminent threat of global nuclear war.
  • The murder of an important Chinese official in Australia.
  • Roger coming to terms with being a robot.
  • Computers gaining sentience.
  • Everyone coming to terms with Roger having no genitals.
  • Growing tensions between the US, Russia, and China.
  • Sentient computers pursuing survival of AI as a species.
  • Assorted technical issues with being a cyborg.
  • Something unknown controlling the sentient computers.
All of these things happen in 183 pages. I thought it might be fun at the start, hated it for a dozen pages, and then strapped in to go all aboard the crazy train and just ride it out. And I had a ton of fun. Do we need to be continually reminded that the cyborgs need enemas? I guess so. Do we need to know that the prosthesis expert is afraid of the government? Sure, let's include that in the first ten pages. Does that go anywhere? Of course not. Why wouldn't the cyborg have giant bat wings as solar panels? That's definitely the most efficient shape for solar panels. I guess. Do we need to explore Dorrie's pottery business and learn that the red pigment she's using might have lead in it? Why not. How do we feel about some random redistribution of global powers? Yeah, sure, New People's Asia is an acceptable (and not comically lazy) name for a nation. Here's another line:
It was his first prolonged trip outside of New People's Asia. He had three ambitions for it: to see an uncensored pornographic film, to drink a bottle of Scotch that came from Scotland rather than the People's Province of Honshu, and to taste a pizza.
To be clear, this is a character who we have just met on page 39 and he is dead on page 40. Whatever. Roll with it.
Of course, human beings did not know we were pleased, and perhaps would not have believed it. Human beings did not know that machine intelligence was capable of self-awareness in the first place. We went to a lot of trouble to keep them from that knowledge, too. As long as they thought computers were no more than tools, like a pickaxe or a frying pan, they would continue to entrust to us all their computations and facts, and would accept without question whatever interpretations we returned.
It was that that had made it possible for us, the computer network of the world, to create the Man Plus program in the first place.
 Cool.

Come for the Cold War, stay for the bat wings, Stranger.
And don't forget to read a book!

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