Uncle Sam's On Mars: Frederik Pohl 'MAN PLUS' and Beyond (100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels)
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- #sciencefiction #bookrecommendations #booktube #sciencefictionbooks #bookcollecting
Steve talks you through his preferred Pohl title and the great man's career, with some sidebar digressions into the satiric thrust of his collaborator C.M. Kornbluth.
Music: Steve Holmes (C)steveholmes.ba...
Man Plus is a gem. First read it when it was published and it made a lasting impression.
Agreed, excellent SF novel.
Love the blurb at the bottom of Gladiator-in-Law: Whitehorn says, "I wish it seemed as fantastic now as it did in the sixties." Hardly a ringing endorsement. 🤣
Dude!
I'm still trying to figure out what to write on yesterday's video, I'm feeling remiss that I didn't offer anything more insightful on the video before that!
You are a MACHINE!
Just the opening lines from chapter 1. Prescient. It gives one chills.
It is necessary to tell you about Roger Torraway. One human being does not seem particularly important, when there are eight billion alive.
Man Plus. 1976
I love 'Man Plus'. I find Pohl wildly inconsistent, but that one really does it for me.
Yes my choice too from those three especially Kim Carsons' gang eg. the Crying Gun: 'Whatsa matter? Somebody take your lollipop?' 'Oh Senor, I am sorry for you.."
Btw, both The Space Merchants and New Maps of Hell were favored with terrific cover art by Richard Powers in their paperback editions.
I've long had a hunch that Man Plus was to some degree influenced by an innocuous little Asimov short story from the 1950's: Victory Unintentional. That aside, my introduction to Pohl was via this very novel that is the subject here. Great perspective on its impact, OB, your take on this is as always, extraordinarily spot-on. Thanks so much for this one, it really hits close to home. I also read Midas World (I own both this and Man+). I just might add this to my winter TBR. Great stuff old chap, keep it coming! Can't get enough. Cheers.
Thanks Rick - I don't know that story, I must dig it out and give it a read!
Yep...Man Plus is great....especially considering the year it was written!!
Yes, it is great, but you'll find that most of the really great SF novels were written before 1990. 1975/6 was late in the development of sophisticated Genre SF- I'd suggest reading more Hard SF from the 1970s by people like Gregory Benford, Algis Budrys and Joe Haldeman to 'check your historical thinking' as they'd say. But yep, it's a killer.
Pohl is on my List of Shame! I have a few of those books on my shelves (a relief, an OB video that didn't cost me ££!), so no excuses in 2024!
Do 'Man Plus' and 'Space Merchants' first, I'd say.
Adding to my reading list… again!
I read Gateway and enjoyed it enough to keep Pohl on my radar so based on your recommendation I read Man Plus earlier this year an excellent read many thanks.
Have yet to read my copy of The Last Theorem, which I believe may have been the last published work of both Pohl and Clarke. Sadly lost track of my Way the Future Was memoir years ago.
I really enjoyed The Years of the City, which I read recently, and I've got his autobiography on my radar.
I've read five Pohl books (three solo and two with Kornbluth) but the last time I read him was nearly 20 years ago. Of the three solo Pohl books I read, two were sequels that are a step down from the original books (Beyond the Blue Event Horizon and The Merchant's War). His books still turn up frequently in second-hand bookshops so I've been wondering if I should dip back in, avoiding sequels this time. Wolfbane sounded interesting, but a copy of the Gollancz Classic SF edition that I came across said "Newly revised by Frederik Pohl" on the cover, which made me hesitate. I ended up getting a 60s Penguin paperback online instead.
Hi Steve, thanks for another great video and on one of my favourite novels. I have the SF Masterworks edition which I feel is even nicer than your paperback.
What I really liked about Man Plus was Pohl's emotional maturity. I really feel like he understood people a bit better than most of us do.
I took this into Gateway and had quite the shock which still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't like violence against women and wheedling excuses for it less so. Nevertheless, I read Beyond the Blue Event Horizon and will read the other two, because I'm intrigued by the premise. I already have all the volumes in matching Orbit paperbacks.
Great too to see mention of John Gribbin. I still have my copy of In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, which I read for the first time nearly 40 years ago. A classic.
Yes, 'Man Plus' is a great book- I'm sticking with my first and the SF Classics versions though, but the Masterwork does have better art than many of its brothers and sisters.
It has been a long time since I read Jem, but I have a feeling that the background might have come from the Harlan Ellison Harlan's World collection of shared world stories. I don't have that book, but the world with the three different alien races feels familiar to me. Let me know what you think.
I'm very fond of Pohl and Kornbluth. I think Pohl had a sort of rebirth after the New Wave which gave him the freedom to write more adult themes, starting with Gateway, which I enjoyed despite the slightly silly Freudian therapist.
I also think that Pohl was a very important magazine editor. I have a full run of his time at Galaxy, and despite several run-of-the-mill filler stories, he really did publish some great stuff by Silverberg, Ellison, Cordwainer Smith, Sheckley, Leiber and many others.
You may disagree, but I think there were more and better American New Wave stories in Galaxy than in Dangerous Visions. There's controversy for you!
Yes, it has a certain similarity to 'Medea: Harlan's World' which I didn't like either. Agree re DV versus Galaxy.
Man plus has been on my tbr all year. And judging from the comments a very well loved book I shall push it forward. C M Kornbluth on my list of shame 🥴
'Man Plus' is great. Kornbluth is not for every taste, but he is incredibly revered- I'll be heretical and say I don't always enjoy his work, but he's super-important as an influence in his time and afterward.
Interesting run down. I'm a big fan of Pohl (and have been ever since I read Gateway as a teenager). I can see how it isn't your type of book but I loved it. Pohl is one of the writers who I will always by if I see it in a charity shop, leading to me to read an old short story collection called "Galactic Cluster" which I would say held up well given the age.
It's good to be reminded of Man Plus as I haven't reread it for quite a few years, so thanks for that, Steve. It's also good to see you (re)discovering Pohl a very important writer even when not writing at his peak. I had some dealings with him through World SF, he was an old-fashioned American gentleman and an all-around great guy. His work on the Galaxy family of magazines was as important to the development of modern SF as was that of Campbell at Astounding and Moorcock at New Worlds.
If you haven't read it, you should look at Pohl's solo follow-up to The Space Merchants, The Merchant's War.
I have wondered about that one, James. It just struck me when thinking about 'Man Plus' that I've not read him for years and owed him more respect. Met him briefly at the Worldcon in 87, seemed like a cool guy.
I probably haven't read any Pohl since Man Plus came out, other than his autobiography "The Way the Future Was" which was a good read. I didn't think much of whatever Gateway/Heechee books I encountered.
Read it many years ago. I was so impressed by it that I often think about the guy's predicament whenever the subject of Mars comes up. Amazing how SF about space travel can inspire works like this, isn't it?
A(any) reference to JG Ballard seems to be mandatory in your videos these days...
Ballard references are inevitable in our contemporary world, I find.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Why?!
@@luiznogueira1579 Read his work and you'll find out. Also, watch my videos about New Wave SF and an upcoming video which is an SF readers guide to BAllard's work.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Read The Crystal World not too long ago. Wasn't impressed very much. Not terrible, but not great, either. Most of his books are about catastrophes of some sort; there's more to SF than that.
Gateway works as a standalone. The second book in the series has some interesting moments. I read the third book and don't remember much about it. Wolfbane is a very good Pohl Kornbluth collab.
Yes, I like 'Wolfbane'. 'Gateway' didn't do it for me, but I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Space Opera.
The Syndic:
Walt: "I've never heard of it,nor seen it refrenced in a book before."
Steve: "Kornbluth's most famous novel is 'The Syndic.'"
Walt: "Well . . . shit."
I guess a person's perception of these two authors, especially Pohl, has a lot to do with where you "got on the bus" as it were. When I was growing up I always saw "Space Merchants" listed as each's best / most important novel; as though the other was involved in name only. I'm sure this opinion was fostered by the Science Fiction Book Club and every blurb trying to sell me on the Gateway trilogy. I could not get into it. It felt like the most boring way to execute an awe inspiring idea. Reviews from humans I spoke to, who either read them or tried, seem to match up.
Popular opinion seemed to be that "Jem" was his Most Important novel. And "The Cool War" as being significant Kornbluth, But truly, what do I know? This video is FILLED with books I haven't heard of. Good Job on your penetration and sampling of the subject!
And I know you love your yellow jackets but damn some of those paperback covers that you would get rid of to keep your yellow jacket are simply stunning!
Love the video, reminds me I have a lot to learn about those two.
'The Syndic' is Kornbluth's most celebrated solo novel- but 'The Space Merchants' is the one collectively as it were. 'Jem' didn't do it for me, 'Man Plus' still rules!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Good to know! Jem never sparked my interest, so I didn't pursue it. But part of that was due to the over ubiquity of the comic book Jem with Gene Colon art that looked like "Sad Tales of the Martian Manhunter" - they're a bit interwoven in my head and leave me with a confused memory, like a dodgy Curry shop you'll not return to. . .
I recently picked up and read Pohl's memoir The Way the Future Was - got a UK first at Oxford Book Fair. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the history of US SF. Pohl did so much as editor, writer, fan and agent that he seemed to live multiple lives. Sadly he died before he could write a second volume of memoirs.
It's long been a book beloved of serious SF readers.
Also -- Burroughs' later 'spiritual' trilogy is part SF too & really funny; being -- Cities of the Red Night / The Place of Dead Roads / The Western Lands.. miss these and miss out!
Most of WSB's fiction was SF. Read them when they first came out and re-read the first two a few years back 'Dead Roads' is one of my favourite novels of all time, I love it.
I read Gateway some years ago, enjoyed it, went on to the sequels, but they didn't do it for me. I have a Pohl omnibus, The Eschaton Sequence which includes three novels, The Other End of Time, The Siege of Eternity, and The Far Shore of Time. This omnibus has been sitting on my TBR pile forever. I read and enjoyed The Space Merchants. For once the hype was on target, but I haven't read Man Plus, so on your recommendation...
That's what I was implying by the fact the three sequels are OP, tells you everything! Written for money...you'll like 'Man Plus', I'd say, a tough book without pity.
Shoals of dead fish float on the lakes but uncle sams on mars and science is making the same mistakes but Uncle Sams on mars ! Sorry Couldn’t resist that one of my favourites !
A complete classic.
Interestingly enough I recently found a lot of HC's of Pohl and bought it some of which are first editions. Was lucky enough that the price of the lot was very friendly indeed. "Man Plus" was one of the novels amongst them as well as "Jem", "The Starchild Trilogy" (in one ombinus hardback) and "The Cool War" (one of them that is an American 1st edition). So far I've only read "Gateway" and its direct sequel, so I've also planned that I'm going to read some more Pohl... maybe I'll start with "The Space Merchants" and its sequel that I got in an ombinus hardback edition as well called "Venus Inc." which I added to my collection earlier than the others as a single buy some time ago.
Lucky you. I haven't read any of Pohl's novels yet, but going by his short story collections, he's very good.
The idea for Gateway originally came from a novella called "The Merchants of Venus" where he introduced us to the tunnels, & what was left behind in them, under the surface of Venus - by a long-extinct race called the Heechees - looking forward to reading Gateway & others by him.
@@kufujitsu ah, I didn't know that, thanks. Maybe I'll look up the short story some time to get some more background on the "Gateway" story.
Absurdists like P.K.Dick have got great satire. These writers dwarf the standard spaceship / alien writers by simply being much more interesting. My latest book Quantum Nipples is a storm of absurd stories such as the man who married a tree, the beer bottles who drank the bears, how the earth became a pizza and visiting the cafe in my brain. Amazon kindle. 😊
Try John Sladek.
Hi again Stephen -- have you read Schrodinger's Cat trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson? Its not as long-winded as Illuminatus! I assure you and John Gribbin called it "the most scientific of SF novels".
No, never got around to it, will do one day as I like Gribbin
I have read Mars Plus and I would say meh. It isnt really a continuation of the story in man plus. We find the lead character about a 120 years later where he is a bit of an old relic and largely ignored. Hd needs money for some replacement parts and is trying and failing to generate so interest. The main character is a normal human and I am afraid that's about all i can remember about it.
I'm always very wary of sequels per se.
Thanks to ILM for the effects in this
yes, amazing, right?
I have been disaappointed by modern SF. It has become so narrow minded and repetitive. It's either some kind of war, post apocalyptic or stupid future technology such as wrapping stars in balls of steel. The older SF just smashed all the barriers and showed real diversity. Today, we have diverse culture but limited imaginations.
That's the thing, today's SF is not 'Modern', but Contemporary- watch my video 'Why The Modern Science Fiction You're reading isn't Modern' from a month or so ago.