Updated 2000.04.25

Man Plus
by Frederik Poul
Copyright 1976
Publisher: Random House
ISBN:
Book Club Edition

Rating: 62 (1-100 scale)

Review

Man Plus takes place in near future time after a landing on Mars, but before colonization. It shows a characteristic of the time in which the book was written. The war looms on the brink of nuclear war. Roles of the female characters are one dimentional and follow the steriotypes of that era. The men in the story also are somewhat "flat", and follow the steriotypes of astronauts of the Apollo launches. The story does, however, manage to keep one's curiosity piqued. The story goes quite a way toward bioengineering, without using cloning or gene manipulation.

Synopsis   [Spoiler Alert!]

The story is that of Roger Torraway. He is backup man on the first colonization effort to Mars. Colonization of Mars is considered urgent. All computer simulations point to humanity destroying itself in a nuclear war within a decade. This is much too short a time to terraform Mars, so the decision is reached to alter humans to fit the martian conditions. The first such "Man Plus" Willy Hartnett. Cybernetic implants are used to replace much of Willy's body. He no longer looks human (and is refered to by the narrator as "Monster"). When Willy dies, the duty falls to Roger. The rest of the book deals with the trials of the conversion (physical and psychological) and the race against the clock to get him to Mars.

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