Machine Man

by Max Barry

Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It's not a tragedy. It's an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts.Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon.A story for the age of pervasive technology, Machine Man is a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man's quest for ultimate self-improvement.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Satire, Audiobook, Cyberpunk, Thriller

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have become a little Max Barry fanboy. Everything he has written has so far tickled all my iterative parts, whether they were augmented or otherwise, and I found myself chuckling with all the delights a well-crafted tale can often bring.

I mean, the IDEA is an old one, but damn if Max Barry didn't up it a notch or ten by being written really well, have very excellent science sense, and even make it more interesting by casting the main character in a light Autistic-spectrum.

What can I say!? I loved the steady build-up from an awkward engineer with no social skills to an amputee on a mission to improve his equipment. Transhumanism always did start out with humble beginnings.

Of course, what I love most about this book is the writing. It's always interesting, clever, and steady and fun. So many prior writers who do cyborgs never really start out at the truly humble beginnings and most either stick with the military angle or with the post-revolution. I think of the Deus Ex games. Or even RoboCop. :) But this takes it in a very fun direction because we're reading all about the possibilities of enhancement and we're focused entirely on the balance between wondering how we're going to perform some horrific body-chopping on ourselves and what kind of toys we're going to fit ourselves with.

You know. Like a video game. And it's FUN. :)

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes all a book needs to excel is the proper reading method. Although we all have our preferred way of reading, usually in our head as fast as we can, there are other ways to read.

I always loved The Old Man and the Sea, but when I first read it aloud to my baby girl, the morning after she was born, I discovered that the writing is even better when it can be heard in the world. The rhythms were the rhythms of real speech, poetic speech, and they need to be heard to be fully appreciated.

Just recently I started Jeff Vandermeer's Shriek for the third time, and the experience began as poorly as my first two attempts, but I stumbled upon a way to circumvent my issues. I started reading it in the shower one morning, shortly after my restart, and since I was only able to read a couple of pages, I would put the book away, let the misted pages dry, and wait for the next day. It became a morning ritual for six months of the year, and I found that I loved reading it that way. I lived with the book for a long time, as long (relatively) as I imagine the grey caps would plot the overthrow of Ambergris, and that long relationship, my days spent thinking about a very small, specific moment in the text, created a love for the book that is stronger than anyone else's I know.

I know Max Barry has turned Machine Man into a novel, but I'll have none of that. I bought my own serial feed, and I don't ever want to know what "happened" in the novelization. For me, this is the book the way it was meant to be, and reading it in serialized installments was part of its brilliance.

Much like my time spent with the Shrieks, my time spent with Dr. Charlie Neumann, Cassandra, Lola and Carl was richer for its methodical unfolding. It was conceived as a serial. It was meant to be read as a serial. I would have it no other way. Each development in the story was more intense for my day long, or weekend long wait. The nature of Barry's cliffhangers, over a hundred of them, kept me guessing and fully invested me in the story. I doubt I'd have felt the same way if I had read this as a standard novel.

I need more serial, true serials. I need to read more books (not have them read to me) that were meant to be read out loud. Perhaps it is time to break out Wordsworth's Preludes and do both. Thanks to you, Max, I may just do that.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up after I read Lexicon. I liked it so I thought I'd try another book by Mr. Barry.

Not bad. This is an odd book about an odd character. Charlie Neumann ("new-man"?) is a PHD/Mechanical Engineer...obsessive compulsive, thinking problem solver. He's in a job that isn't really challenging him but he's doing it as if it were the most important job out there. He and his assistants are "testing" material.... See Better Futures (the company where he works) is largely a military research company. One morning Charlie wakes up and can't find his phone! See like so many people today Charlie's life os pretty much on that phone. He looks everywhere at home, then everywhere in his office. The phone is nowhere to be found... Charlie is also a bit, absent minded. During the testing that morning Charlie sees his phone laying in plain sight.

Oh well, he goes to pick it up. Sadly his absentmindedness kicks in just then...and he steps into the hydraulic clamp, and crushes his leg, beyond repair.

Strangely after amputation and recovery (as the people from Better Futures hover around) his major concern is the lack of sophistication and functionality in the state of the art prosthesis. He's always been bothered buy what he sees as, limitations in his body and sees this as...well, as an opportunity. He's sure he can do better for a prostheses than what's out there.

Then of course there's the little matter of the other parts of his body that just are what they might be...

This book is a strange one. It's a strange story, it's a strange romance, it's a strange adventure...about a strange little guy. I like it...strangely.

I can recommend it, enjoy.

[Mary ~Ravager of Tomes~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

What happens when a socially challenged scientist, Dr. Charlie Neumann, becomes obsessed with improving the logical functionality of prosthetics? An odd,fascinating, and unique adventure, that's what.

Max Barry has become master of characterization. He really fleshes out his characters even if they are minor. He uses nuance in dialogue & action to give the reader a thorough sense of each character's individual personality. It really makes for a warm & fuzzy reading experience.

This book made me feel things about my body that I hadn't felt before (both good & bad). I was very aware of my legs on my bed, of my hands holding the book, of my toes and fingers. We really take a lot of our functionality for granted, and I was really aware of that while reading.

It was interesting to take this journey with Charlie through a first person perspective. The only issue I had with this book was that I had a tendency to zone out for some of the technical paragraphs, but that type of writing is expected when the subject matter is scientific.

I would definitely recommend this book if you're looking for something different from your run-of-the-mill novel.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really didn't like this book. The main character was remarkably unlikable, his love interest was not much better, the "love story" was absurd, and the black humor got flat out annoying. The only reason I managed to finish it was because it was only 274 pages.

I need to banish the irritation.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another, albeit much more recent, addition to my to-read shelf courtesy of io9, Machine Man is sardonic exploration of the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology. I happened to see a copy on the library’s “New Books” shelf, so I took the opportunity and grabbed it. Unlike Fragment , Machine Man seems a little more plausible, which makes it much scarier. Max Barry’s main character isn’t someone with whom everyone will identify—he’s rather asocial and unable to empathize—but I think we share more in common with him than we would care to admit. In general, I had a very visceral, conflicted reaction to the ideas and questions raised by Machine Man, and that went a long way to helping with an otherwise mediocre plot.

I wear a prosthesis: I wear glasses. It’s a device I attach to my body to correct for a loss of function. Although not as invasive as contact lenses or, say, an entire prosthetic limb, my prosthesis is still a sign of disability and a significant part of my identity. I have resisted getting contacts both because I’m not comfortable with the idea of slipping something against my eye, and because I just don’t want them: “I wear glasses” is a core attribute of how I see myself. I’ve had the same pair of frames since grade 8; they are somewhat worse for wear, but I am going to keep them for as long as possible, because they are a part of me.

Now, the onset of my vision problems (near-sightedness) was gradual. I had trouble seeing the blackboard from a distance; I had trouble reading text if it was a certain distance from my face; suddenly people looked blurry if they weren’t close to me. (I don’t know my “20” rating, but my eyes are pretty weak. Other people try my prescription and go, “whoa”.) And glasses are a fairly advanced and stable technology, as far as prosthetics go: one trip to the optometrist, and I could see again. It’s miraculous, in a way. So unlike Charles Neumann’s accident in Machine Man, my experience wasn’t sudden and traumatic. Charles chooses to cope with the loss of his leg in a very original way: he builds a better leg. Not just “better” than the prosthesis, but a leg that is better than human legs. Because we can do that now. Our legs could have WiFi!

Many people do not have any prostheses (although, at least in developed countries, I feel like that number is shrinking, depending on how one defines prosthesis, as our technology advances). However, for those who don’t, how many are dependent on, say, a smartphone? That number is going up too. Barry begins to get us thinking about the relationship between humans and our technology with a simple event: Charles can’t find his phone. And he’s lost without it. The poignant part is that Charles doesn’t actually use his phone to make or receive calls—when this happens later in the book, he is puzzled by the sound his phone is making—he just depends on his phone to provide him with information, such as news. In fact, it’s this obsession with finding his phone that causes the inattention and results in the accident where he loses a leg.

I wouldn’t say I’m as desperate as Charles when I’m without my phone. I’m now accustomed to having a smartphone, so I would miss it, but it helps that I’m in class for several hours during the day and do not actually check it, except between classes or during a break. Nevertheless, I can certainly empathize with Charles’ discomfort when he does not have his phone: we become accustomed to using certain technologies as extensions of our minds and bodies, and when those technologies change or go missing, we struggle and flail before we adapt. Losing one’s phone is, for some people, like losing a limb.

There is really only one place to go after building a better leg, of course: build a matching leg. Charles realizes this quickly, and it is the start of a somewhat unsurprising slippery slope. This is where Machine Man becomes, for me, less interesting as a novel. None of the characters are quite real; to Barry’s credit they are dynamic people who grow and change, but I can’t shake the feeling that they are more like archetypes than individuals—most obviously, the CEO being called “the Manager” and being demonstrably an interchangeable cog in the corporate machine. (Austin Grossman provides a blurb for the back cover, and that’s so appropriate, because this novel’s style reminds me a lot of Soon I Will Be Invincible ). The veil between the big ideas in Machine Man and the plot itself is just so thin that the very weight of those ideas overwhelms the story. Of course the company’s going to misuse Charles’ research! Of course Charles is going to become the company’s “property” in some way. Of course he’s eventually going to go on the run. There are very few surprises in Machine Man, at least in terms of the story.

So bear that in mind when I say that there are parts of this book I can’t shake off. It’s rather like my experience with The Dervish House, where I eventually decided to give it five stars because I could not stop thinking about it. Machine Man isn’t quite that good, but like McDonald, Barry discusses the choices we face as a society and as individuals that I feel are particularly relevant to us today. Although much of the technology in Machine Man is exaggerated, the spirit of Charles is very much something that is happening now, and our technology will get there soon. Already we must confront the use of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics, as well as decide which types of prosthesis convey an unfair advantage. The question usually becomes one of distinction: where do we draw that line between “fair” and “unfair”. How much assistance is just enough and how much is too much? Should we just care about replicating the human experience with a prosthetic limb, or should we, like Charles, perhaps think about augmenting and improving upon that experience?

This are all huge issues, and they aren’t, if you will forgive my turn of phrase, science fiction. Brain-computer interfaces are also an item of hot discussion these days, and as those improve, so too will our capabilities to augment ourselves cybernetically. All those jokes about being connected directly to the Internet? Those might not be jokes in a decade or two.

Personally, I find this terrifying.

That might sound weird coming from a self-confessed technology geek. I should clarify right away that terrifying does not inherently mean “bad”; I’m not saying that we “must stop this at all costs!” Of course, one of the reasons this change is so terrifying is precisely that we can’t halt it. Humans love to innovate, and if the idea and knowledge is there, we will build it. It is only a matter of time and resources.

So here’s the thing: I love technology, and I dislike biology. The fact that I’m a squishy bag of water freaks me out constantly: thinking about how fragile and necessarily ad hoc my respiratory and circulatory systems are, contemplating the various fluids and other things my body excretes, and of course, sex. Corporeal existence is weird and sometimes very inconvenient. So why aren’t I the first in line for mind uploading? Why don’t I want to wire myself for WiFi?

Despite my reservations about this whole sack of meat thing, I am equally weirded out by the idea of putting technological devices into that body. It might be a fear of the implantation itself, the surgery, but I think on a larger level it’s just that we use technology and love technology, but we can’t trust technology. I’ll give my body kudos: it is remarkably resilient. It regenerates itself constantly; its capacity for healing is amazing, and it is in many ways very redundant. Simply put, we still can’t really design a “better body”. We might be able to design better parts, but the execution remains problematic.

All of this speaks from a specific socialized viewpoint. The next generation, or the generation after that, might view me as an outmoded conservative, even as they are downloading music directly into their cortices. But I want to illustrate why Machine Man strikes a chord with me: these choices might not be imminent yet, but they are lurking beneath the surface of our society. We are entering a period of sustained tension between biology and technology, and it will be interesting to see how we navigate that.

The actual experience of sitting down and reading this book was extremely moving—and perhaps, in a way, the predictability of the plot freed me up cognitively to consider the implications of Charles’ radical self-modification agenda. I have probably spent more time ruminating on these ideas than discussing the novel itself. That happens. Usually it happens because the novel broaches these ideas, and I get so carried away with them that it eclipses the story itself. That’s the case here: Machine Man was entertaining, but its substance is nothing compared to its subtext. Great novels manage to include both of these elements in abundance; managing one out of two is still good, especially when it’s a subtext like this. Machine Man is not an amazing book, but it is a product of a stunning imagination and fruitful food for thought.

[Ryandake · Rating 5 out of 5]

boy, nobody knows how to take a what-if to the very furthest point of its logical conclusion better than max barry.

in this book, the question begins with a dissatisfaction: the flawed engineering of the human body. then it asks: what if we could re-engineer it? via mechanical and computer engineering, not nano- or biotech. max barry's answer to that question will undoubtedly surprise you.

this book is both thoroughly outrageous and logically relentless. the main character is a nerd on nerd steroids: ruthless, addicted to logic, emotionally AWOL. he lives for the puzzle--how to improve things. when he is injured in an accident, he turns this tunnel-vision attention to improving the human body.

you won't believe how often you'll be saying: i want that feature. if you are old enough to have arthritic knees and trifocals, you'll be drooling over the possibilities.

but all these improvements come with a price, often paid in blood and pain. in barry's book, the escalating consequences of re-engineering the body start out horrible and end up unspeakably gruesome. but through it all, the voice of our narrator-engineer is just sublimely funny. he is such a geek. an absolutely unforgettable, oddly tender, emotionally tone-deaf geek.

the book also features a wonderful send-up of corporations (of course, does anybody do that better than max?) and some inspired character names (really, you should read it just for the character names). give this one a chance, and i promise you'll never look at your body the same again.

ps: even better the second time around.

[Hank · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character was unlikable without anything you could come up with to mitigate his dickness. The author tried to setup the fact that he was an "engineer" and didn't deal with people well but mostly it seemed like an excuse for poor behavior. The love affair was unrealistic, the tech not explained well and the whole reason for the novel (I think), that of how many human parts do you have to have left to be human, was not well represented.

I liked Lexicon but this was a miss.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice cautionary tale along the oft-drawn lines of "just because we can, should we…?" Part "Robocop," part "Murderbot origin story," if the original human bits had belonged to a nerdy engineer who was definitely on the spectrum. And while our clueless engineer is solely concerned with building better prosthetics, his corporate overlords immediately and inevitably redirect his results into more profitable military and cosmetic applications, (just like in the real world!). Hijinks ensue.

As noted in most other reviews, Barry has fun with his characters' names here. Not just Charles Neumann ("new man," get it?), but also his prosthetist love interest Lola Shanks — and probably also his corporate manager, Cassandra Cautery, (although I haven't quite figured the Cautery/cauterize connection yet).

Another nice (and earlier) story from Barry, who continues to write consistently original tales that are all wildly different from each other — so while not his best, am still rounding up to 4 stars, just because you gotta admire that level of and commitment to originality.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Max Barry, his vision and his writing. I've read all his books so far and have enjoyed each and everyone of them. I had read the beginning of Machine Man when Barry started writing the book and was sending the first chapters as a newsletter. I enjoyed this first glimpse into the book and was intrigued by the story so I couldn't wait to get my hands on the final version of the book. Unfortunately the story just didn't do it for me.

It is a satire, just like every other book Barry has written, but this one was much too dark and disturbing for me. Some people say this story is light-hearted and/or funny but it isn't. The characters simply lack humanity and I simply didn't like any of them. Still, I've decided to give this book a two-star rating because I do love Max Barry and can't wait to read his latest book, Lexicon :)

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm... a bit of a quirky story. Charlie Neumann (cute name, there) was a bit too ignorant, at all the wrong times, for my taste. He was also a bit too obsessed, or maybe a bit too flippant about his obsession, at other points. Still, I could see all the coincidences and toxic personalities and danger lining up to make this a reality.

[Dimitris Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first audiobook I ever, uh, heard. It took me 9 hours over 3 days and it was a unique experience, just walking around while at the same time reading a book, or should I say, following a story. The added layer of voice and sound effects makes it more of a temporal experience than reading the book, with all the good and bad that fact might imply.

Machine Man tells the story of a thirty-something end-all be-all nerd, the kind of person that wanted to be a train when he was a child (yes, be one), loves describing the world with adjectives like "inefficient", replies to everyting with an "OK" and manages to score zero at any social skills test thrown at him. Give this guy mad engineering skills and an amputated leg and sit back and watch (or read, or listen).

It was very engaging after the third or so chapter, I could see where this was going, but I'd need Z-specs to see how FAR it might go. The plot follows Charlie Newman's addiction convincingly. I don't like giving much away when writing my reviews, but I can't help but applaud the side characters, they are particularly strong here; the ambitious but unappreciated Cassandra Cautery, Lola Shanks (Charlie's prosthesiologist) and maybe my favourite character in the book, Carl.

Actually, the side characters are so strong they serve to underline Charlie's single-dimensionality. So comparatively shallow is he that it's easy to see him merely as the character carrying the plot's central idea, its gimmick (I don't like this word). This is perhaps the book's single biggest problem for me, Charlie's actions often seem unrealistic and his thoughts completely alien. I cringed all the time when he spoke, or at least when he attempted to. It's no accident others -- even his own self-- compare him to a machine even from the start of the book. Are all labcoat-donning specialists so close-minded and awkward? If so, that might explain a lot about science in our world today.

I should however cut Charles Newman's tormented existence a little slack. It might very well be that Max Barry wanted him to be so exaggeratedly awkward and obsessive-compulsive for comic relief (the book has many dark, uncomfortably funny moments), but also maybe to indirectly comment in his own way on the very foundation of the book's premise: "biological vs mechanical", "inefficient vs superior" and perhaps even "mind vs body", the kind of dualist dilemma that is very natural to follow such what ifs as the one portrayed in Machine Man. What part of us is "us", and what isn't "us"? Is the brain more part of us than the rest of our body? Is it, then, that houses our consciousness? These questions are the delicious driving force of the plot and the thinking it provokes.

For example, in a part of the book, Charles says that when people achieve or pull off something (obviously --but exactly because of its obviousness, often overlooked-- using their bodies), it's we, as in our self, our consciousness, that achieved whatever it is that was achieved, the body shrinking into the tool used by the mind/brain it was and has always been, whereas in our failure or when an uncontrolable situation goes bad, we become disassociated with our bodies, they're Others, and as all typical Others receive the blame for any problem. It reminds me of Heidegger's take on how Dasein interact with things, the difference between ready-to-hand and present-at-hand. When our body works well, it's ready-to-hand, it disappears in the background, too obvious to consider, only working as a tool. When it fails to serve us perfectly, its short-comings made obvious, it breaks, it becomes present-at-hand: welcome for optimization, as if it never belonged to us a tall. Machine Man gives food for many such enjoyable parallels.

In fact, Machine Man is one of the most sophisticated cultural items that deal with cyborgs I have encountered and had the pleasure to dive into. It's definitely filled with all the appropriate nerdy scientific jargon that would satisfy any sci-fi fan (I wonder how many readers will find themselves identifying, even a little bit, with Charles!). But more interistingly, it goes beyond respecting the deep ontological problems that arise from the idea of cyborgs, prosthetics, implants and bio-enhancements, and their implications, if any, for (Cartesian) dualism. It uses these philosophical connotations and gives an interesting and believable story of what meddling with all this might bring about. In other words: it's not as simple as it looks -- it never is -- but this time there's a realistic, (super)human story behind it.

I almost forgot to mention that it has bits of horror and and it's sprinkled with romance and action and a lot of suspense. You just keep reading, wondering if Max Barry will go all the way. He goes all the way... and then some.

~
I wonder when that had happened, that we had started making better machines than people.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cyborgs are one of the most recognizable tropes of science fiction, enshrined in the public imagination in films like "Robocop" and in television series like the "Six Million Dollar Man". Any diehard Trekkie or Whovian may speak eloquently about Borg drones and metallic Cybermen; deadly foes, respectively, of Star Trek's Starfleet flagship USS Enterprise and the Time Lord Doctor Who. It is no wonder then that Max Barry has offered his own contribution, a fast-paced Cyborg love story, "Machine Man". But his is a trite contribution best suited for the cinematic multiplex big screen, reading more like an extended Hollywood screen treatment than as an artistically decent science fiction novel (Not surprisingly, the book boasts that a screen adaptation is underway with Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") chosen as its film director; cinematic trivia which will no doubt warm the heart of Harry Knowles of Aintitcool.com.). It is a fast-paced, rather grotesque, take on the mad scientist/inventor trope, with its protagonist Charles Neumann as a representative example of a self-indulgent narcissist all too willing to "improve" his body by destroying limbs and replacing them with artificial ones of his own design. He soon finds a kindred spirit in prosthetist Lola Shanks, who, like Charles, is a cyborg too; neither one is as intriguing as legendary characters like Molly and Case in William Gibson's "Neuromancer", whose very character flaws are the key reasons why they are so compelling as protagonists. Barry opts all too often for morbid humor instead of character development, resulting in a tale best suited as a short skit on "Saturday Night Live" or "Monty Python". If there is anything truly redeeming in Barry's novel, then it should be seen as a sterling example of a science fiction novel written by someone unfamiliar with this genre's rich literary legacy, a missed opportunity in writing a genuine literary classic of a kind comparable to William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling or Michael Swanwick's greatest works.

[Trike · Rating 4 out of 5]

So here's a story about a guy, an engineer, who suffers an industrial accident and has to get an artificial leg. He decides that's asymmetrical and arranges to "lose" the other one. Then he gets the idea that maybe other parts of him could stand some improving....

I had my doubts early on because the story seemed to get more and more preposterous, but danged if Barry didn't stick the landing. I would have enjoyed it just for its absurdist commentary on body modification and plastic surgery, but then he brought all the weird ideas to an explicable conclusion, tying off the various subthreads into a neat package.

Parts of this reads like the Wallace & Gromit short film "The Wrong Trousers," which neatly segues into something more Robocop-esque. I was less interested in the action scenes than delving into the odd personality of the lead character, who is accidentally snarky and has a genuinely logical yet utterly bizarre outlook on life.

Every once in a while it's very funny. To wit:

I wished I was better at reading faces. Whenever someone looks me in the eye and speaks earnestly, I believe them. I have no siblings.

Or

“Good man.” For a second I thought he was going to punch my arm. But he didn’t. He strode briskly away, to do whatever it was the managers did. Have meetings, I guess. Make phone calls. It was hard for us on the technical side to understand why the company required so many managers. Engineers built things. Salespeople sold things. Even Human Resources I could understand, kind of. But managers proliferated despite performing very few identifiable functions.

When all is said and done, I really liked the end result.

[Eva Sinner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Αυτο το βιβλιο ξεκίνησε σαν τέλειο! Συνέχισε σαν βαρετό. Κάπου πριν το τέλος έγινε πάλι ενδιαφέρον. Τελείωσε κάπως περίεργα. Δυό και κάτι αστεράκια θα του έβαζα αν μπορούσα. Αλλα δε μπορώ. Ακούς Goodreads ? Κάνε κάτι επιτέλους γι'αυτο.
Η ιστορία σαν ιστορία έχει ενδιαφέρον και γιαυτο και όταν το έπιασα στα χέρια μου στην αρχή ήταν όλα πολύ ελπιδοφόρα. Έχει λίγη φλυαρία παραπάνω όμως κατ'εμε. Και πολλές, πολλές μηχανολογικές λεπτομέρειες. Και λίγο σε κάποια σημεία βαρέθηκα.

[Bennett Gavrish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade: B+

L/C Ratio: 20% Literary / 80% Commercial

Thematic Breakdown:
25% - Engineering
20% - Love
15% - Action thriller
15% - Humor
15% - Corporate America
10% - Medical procedures

Addictiveness: Medium
Movie Potential: 2 Thumbs Up (Darren Aronofsky will direct it)
Re-readability: Low


The scope of Machine Man expands at a wildly fast pace, yet somehow that acceleration doesn't ruin the book's literary merit. Even as the novel leaps from a workplace satire into a pseudo-superhero action thriller, it never feels like the story is out of control. Max Barry's plot is strong enough to make outrageous developments within scenes and characters seem natural.

Machine Man is told from an engineer's mindset, and although the narrator's wry humor and binary outlook on the world hampers the descriptions in action-heavy chapters, his character arc is madly entertaining to follow. Barry dares to intersect the worlds of technology and love, and the result is a novel with plenty of laughs, adventurous ideas, and surprising depth.


Noteworthy Quote:

I hesitated. Is anyone really perfect? You can’t be mostly perfect. You can’t be perfect some of the time. You are either perfect or not. And I don’t think biology does perfect. Biology is about efficient approximation. It’s about good enough. A vacuum is perfect. Pi is perfect. Life is not.

[Kelly (imaginemorebooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another Max Barry novel that I absolutely loved. It was nothing like I have ever read before. It was dark and twisted in all the right ways. It tapped into your emotions and made you think wtf 90% of the time. Quite honestly, I have no idea how I'd even begin to sell this book to someone. All I can say is please read it. It's worth the twisted ride. Highly recommend.

[John Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Max Barry's latest acid trip of a book, Machine Man, was a break-neck thriller with a fine dose of ego-checking commentary about our society's dependence on technology.

Barry captures the epitome of said dependence in his main character, Dr. Charles Neumann, a brilliant recluse. His insistence on efficiency leads him to some odd, and very grotesque, decisions.

The story opens with Dr. Neumann neurotically looking for his cell phone and begs readers to view themselves on this ritualistic hunt and how absurd it really is to depend so much on something so small.

As usual, Barry pulls no punches as this oft bouncy story has a tendency to make its readers squirm with unease in several pivotal scenes. But Barry doesn't go over the top just for shock value, also a trademark of a Barry book, he does so tastefully and emphasizes the decisions that lead to those horrific moments.

After reading Machine Man (don't worry, this isn't a spoiler), readers will view their day-to-day increasing dependence on technology with either disdain or expansive optimism. Barry pushes the boundaries of our imagination with what could be possible for humans and their next stage of evolution and integration with technology.

Just make sure you have a block of time set aside for after to start reading this book, because once you stop it's not easy to put down Machine Man.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to decide what I thought about this book, and it left me with an extremely unsettled feeling. I think that what Barry is trying to do here is the same thing JG Ballard was going for in The Atrocity Exhibition - that is, to tell a disturbing story from inside the head of someone who is mentally ill. The body dysmorphia shown by Charles is extreme, and the out-of-control pacing of the events of the story leaves the reader with lingering unanswered questions about the nature of consciousness and being - as we as a society embrace more and more augmented perceptual reality (reading glasses are a primitive version of this), it is worth asking who the "we" or "I" is who is doing the perceiving.

Barry apparently wrote the story and published it online one page at a time (!) and this book is the edited second draft. Some of this remains in the disjointed nature of some of the relationships, especially the ones seen at the end of the book.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Machine Man is okay. It's entertaining, moves along sharply, and definitely leans more towards the action than the ideas. That's a pity, in some ways, because the ideas it raises are provocative, and I would have enjoyed more thought about them. Ah well. That is not this book.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

My local book store sold an ARC copy of this book in a charity drive. You donate a certain amount of money and you get ARCs in return, and I always get something random and cool that I never would have found on my own. I have to say, this one was a rare science fiction book that I really enjoyed. The first little bit I found hard to get into, but about 1/3rd of the way through, I was hooked.

The ending is what really gets you... So keep reading. Binge it. Honestly, it's worth it. It really had me guessing that something else was going to happen, but this unexpected ending blew me away and I applaud Max Barry. Rarely do authors take me by surprise anymore!

Anywho, long story short - Charlie Neumann loses a leg, but he's a scientist so he is determined to build himself a new one. And like all good crazy, mad scientists... He's not going to stop there. And, of course, like all good science fiction books... Things get out of control.

I love this book! Finally, a sci-fi book that I can say I was really into... I mean, I've had a few of them, but it's been a little bit and I read so many books...

Four out of five stars!

[Tyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe my neurotransmitters meant for understanding structured words that come together to formulate stories have fried. Or, in my sleep, someone restructured my brain surface (can you restructure someone's brain surface?) to cause me lots of confusion. At least, that's how I felt after finishing this thing.

Maybe it was because I read it while sitting under a tree on a patch of grass during a sunny day, and the metal, electronic, android theory mental images weren't enough to get me to believe that someone would actually want to give up feeling a breeze on their face or the touch of human contact for anything. In fact, that seemed to be the theme for me throughout this novel- unbelievability. Yeah, that's not a word. But Bobby Flay makes shit up all the time and he's a millionaire.

Do you think Bobby Flay would want to give up his human senses, the smells he relishes, the feel of the heat off the grill, the sight of a nicely plated dish at a restaurant, in exchange for metal body parts and a chance to "improve" everyday functions like walking? Despite whether you like B. Flizzle or you're like me and you kinda wish he would replace his legs with two pieces of heavy kitchen equipment and then take a long walk off a small oil rig, one thing is clear- the answer would be no. He would not want to replace his senses with an empty space of chrome and titanium. So why would anyone who has felt any miniscule amount of enjoyment from the things they experience in life every day want to do that either?

I get it's fiction and beyond that I get that it's SCIENCE fiction. And that's totally ok. I've read enough science fiction that has a full grasp around the ability to combine human-related emotions like relationships with the actual science part of the story. I've read enough science fiction that has a stable mental grasp on why nobody that isn't on the ledge already would want to voluntarily put their leg in a machine clamp and let it squash your flesh and bone like a tick, but is still able to drive it's points home. Machine Man fails in that regard.

It's not even that the science fiction part is unbelievable. I mean, it is pretty unbelievable, and perhaps that was on purpose so whatever, but it was lazy which is a much worse flaw. It's like everything feels like it all happens so quickly that it's sort of like this guy walks into a scientific lab with what I'm assuming is billions upon billions of funding and in the time it takes you to say "what the fuck am I reading?", he's developed fully functional, improved-beyond-belief prosthetics that all of a sudden give him the same powers as Optimus Prime.

There was no direction. I couldn't tell if Barry wanted us to root for the relationship between Lola and Dr. Neumann or if it was done on purpose to leave us in some weird sort of hazy cloud of ambiguity when it came to their "love" for each other and the qualities that attracted one to the other. If I ever met Lola in real life, I'd be quick to assume that maybe she saw the "Doctor" prefix in front of this guy's name and dollar signs appeared in her greedy eyes. It couldn't have been the endearing qualities of the Dr. Neumann because there WERE NO endearing qualities to our main character. He was whiny, selfish, lazy, rude, stupid, and confused about what seemed to be everything from his priorities to how to breathe correctly.

It has been a long time since I read a Max Barry book. I don't remember the other ones being this hard to like, but now I'm beginning to believe that I don't think I'd like his other works as much if I were to go back and read them again. It was all so disconnected and disjointed. Maybe if I had read it on a tablet instead as an old fashioned paperback, it would have made way more sense.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρον μυθιστόρημα επιστημονικής φαντασίας με λίγο από σάτιρα και μαύρο χιούμορ. Σαν ιστορία και ιδέες έχει κάτι το διαφορετικό, το ξεχωριστό, κάτι που δίνει τροφή για σκέψη και ευκαιρία για συζήτηση και προβληματισμό.

Πρωταγωνιστής της ιστορίας και αφηγητής σε πρώτο πρόσωπο είναι ο επιστήμονας και μηχανικός Τσαρλς Νιούμαν, που δουλεύει στα εργαστήρια προηγμένης τεχνολογίας της εταιρείας Καλύτερο Μέλλον. Μετά από ένα εργαστηριακό ατύχημα, ο Τσαρλς χάνει το πόδι του. Εκεί που κάποιος άλλος θα πάθαινε ταράκουλο από το γεγονός, ο Τσαρλς βλέπει μια ευκαιρία. Θεωρεί ότι τα υπάρχοντα τεχνητά, προσθετικά μέλη της αγοράς είναι κατώτερης κατασκευής και τεχνολογίας, οπότε καταφέρνει και φτιάχνει ένα σούπερ πόδι, καλύτερο από το βιολογικό του. Ε, εκεί του μπαίνει η ιδέα ότι το τεχνητό πόδι λειτουργεί καλύτερα με ένα άλλο ίδιας τεχνολογίας πόδι. Οπότε κόβει επίτηδες και το δεύτερο πόδι... Και αρχίζει να φτιάχνει και άλλα μέλη, μπράτσα, χέρια, ακόμα και όργανα. Η εταιρεία βλέπει στο πρόσωπο του μια μεγάλη επιχειρηματική ευκαιρία που θα ταράξει όλο τον κόσμο. Και τα πράγματα δεν θ'αργήσουν να ξεφύγουν...

Ο Τσαρλς είναι ένας αντικοινωνικός άνθρωπος, απόλυτος στις ιδέες και τις δυνατότητές του, δεν έχει φίλους ούτε κάποια σχέση με κοπέλα. Εδώ θα γνωριστεί με μια προσθετικό, την Λόλα, που λατρεύει τα άρτια τεχνητά μέλη, και κάτι θ'αλλάξει μέσα του. Ίσως. Ο πρωταγωνιστής θα γίνει ένα cyborg, σιγά-σιγά, θέλοντας και μη. Πολλοί άλλοι επιστήμονες, νεαρής ηλικίας και βοηθοί του Τσαρλς, θα δηλώσουν εθελοντές και θα δοκιμάσουν διάφορα τεχνολογικά μπιχλιμπίδια που αναβαθμίζουν το ανθρώπινο σώμα. Καλύτερο Δέρμα, Καλύτερα Μάτια, Καλύτερα Αυτιά και ούτω καθεξής.

Μέσα στο βιβλίο υπάρχει δυνατό, τεχνολογικό background που δίνει βάθος στις ιδέες του συγγραφέα, υπάρχει περιπέτεια με δυνατές σκηνές βίας και υπάρχει και ένα ρομάντζο ανάμεσα στον Τσαρλς και την Λόλα. Όμως έχει κάποιες αδυναμίες: Οι χαρακτήρες μου φάνηκαν κάπως επίπεδοι και τα κλισέ στην εξέλιξη της πλοκής και τους χαρακτήρες δεν ήταν λίγα, ενώ με κούρασε λίγο και το τεχνολογικό μπλα-μπλα, αν και δεν ήταν πολύ.

Παρόλα αυτά σίγουρα το βιβλίο είναι πολύ καλό και θίγει διάφορα ζητήματα όπως η εταιρειοκρατία, η επιρροή της τεχνολογίας στον άνθρωπο και τις ανθρώπινες σχέσεις, η ανάγκη του ανθρώπου για την "αναβάθμιση" του σώματός του, το πόσο μια επιστημονική ανακάλυψη είναι ηθική και πόση σημασία έχει η ηθική κλπ κλπ.

[Tez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comparisons with Eric Garcia's The Repossession Mambo (republished as Repo Men) are inevitable, but Max Barry's Machine Man is a different beast. Dr. Charles Neumann's leg is amputated in a workplace accident, and he's less than impressed with the prostheses on offer - though he rather fancies the prosthetist, Lola Shanks.

Charlie designs a better prosthetic leg, so good that his remaining human one seems ridiculously inefficient. And so he recreates the initial accident to amputate his human leg.

Machine Man shows that there is a very thin line between self-mutilation and self-improvement, and it's all objective. Max Barry excels in creating excellent female characters, and fans will be cheering for Charlie and Lola to work things out.

The dialogue is smart and snappy, exampled by this from Lola: "But I don't think there's a way for people to fall in love that isn't weird." So true. There's also a meta section discussing a novel's cover art. Quote Charlie: "Why would they make the cover wrong like that?" My theory is that publishers depict what they WANT a novel to be, rather than what it IS, though that should be worked out in editing...

But I digress. Machine Man is a great read, up until the point where the military becomes involved and I lost interest a bit, but it's still well worth picking up. I still love Eric Garcia's The Repossession Mambo so much more, though - that book has my heart.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interestingly, this book was born on a blog and grew into a novel. An interactive achievement occurred when fan followers and the ever-accessible author, Max Barry, collaborated. What started as a rouse to get Barry off his butt and writing turned into a philosophical science fiction marvel that is both compelling and thought-provoking. The main character, Charlie, as part of Better Future cannot help but view human biology as flawed and with the aid of a freak accident perpetuated by the misplacement of his cell phone, he's given an opportunity to improve that, which is inadequate. The novel is a technology-heavy, sci-fi experiment with nerdy humor and a side of transformer-like vision. Machine Man asks are we greater than the sum of our parts? But, it doesn't stop there. Barry takes it to another level--transcending the physical body. By thinking outside the box, Charlie might just find himself stuck in one. There is no doubt this story will give a reader a lot to mull over and it won't entertain everyone. Hardcore techie sci-fi fans with a taste for philosophy will likely be pleased with this selection. Comparable style to Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.Perdido Street Station

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still not quite sure what to make of this book. It felt very rushed and at times I really wished it would slow down and allow other parts of the story to come forward, especially the technology. Even though it was a major part there was a lot more avenues to it that I would have liked seen explored.

As for the main character at first I really liked him. His awkward, socially-stunted ways were humerous but as the story progressed I found myself liking him less and less. I also would have preferred more about Carl and Lola. They just didn't have enough time in the spotlight to get much from them.

There's a lot of potential here and I would like to see something further from it, especially with that ending which I didn't like. It was such a rushed ending it left me with the feeling of "Is that it?". Never a good way to end a book.

A decent read I think it needed a bit more time and a bit more story to push it higher.

[Blaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are scenes In this book that are interesting, but in the end the whole is less than the sum of the parts. After Dr. Neumann (get it?! New Man!) amputates his other leg, which is a strangely believable choice, he gets less believable as a character for the remainder of the book. It's not really clear why Lola is in the story at all, as she doesn't do much beyond her conveniently artificial heart. An ultimately unsatisfying story.

[Richard Buro · Rating 5 out of 5]

The short version first from December, 2016 . . .

The concept of improving the working parts of a man is something that has captured the imagination of both writers and readers. Many consider the idea to be grotesque, others bizarre, while still others think it might be a good idea. The most successful human improvement ideas using cybernetic components are the stuff of the Borg from several areas of the half-century-long franchise, specifically: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager as well as Star Trek: First Contact. There are also enhancements in recent films especially Elysium where Matt Damon wore an enhancement rig similar to the actual parts that are so well described and used by author ( Max Barry) in ( Machine Man).

The enhancements that ( Mr. Barry) uses go far beyond the exoskeleton suits from Elysium. In Machine Man, Mr. Barry’s protagonist, Charles (Charlie) Neumann discovers by an industrial accident (of his own deliberate intent) that he can improve human parts by using his team’s abilities to build “better” parts, with far more functionality, strength, resilience, and capability than the “poorly” engineered flesh and blood limbs that they had grown from conception until the temporal “present.” They worked on various enhancements, replacements, all superior to the original, flawed, poorly engineered, flesh and blood appendages and structures.

Dear readers, you know how this has to wind up, I am sure. Of course, the enhancements create all sorts of problems and opportunities for strange and unexpected events. In the final analysis, Charlie learns about love -- one human emotion that cannot be improved by engineering. He finds that the entire output of his creative genius was never really his to use or control whatsoever. It is this discovery that truly sets him on a collision course with fate and engineering gone awry, with significant deaths, company failures, prison time, and eventually, the discovering that at the end, when engineering has gone over the edge of über design, superior functionality, and improvements beyond imagination, in the final analysis, it was never about the creation of things, or the over-abundance of engineering prowess, or any other aspect of Charlie’s department that made these “miracle” machines. No, it was the corporate “entity” which owned all the fancy ideas, creations, and the results of their use. In the end, Charlie became not the improved so much as the improved, not the tested, but the guinea pig. And that was about the best single dystopic universe that I have ever seen in five decades of reading science fiction and (more recently) fantasy. Truly it was “the best of times and the worst of times.”

Recommendations? Several come immediately to mind. First, this is a book that does use a degree of profanity far less than other more recent works, and that is a welcome plus in my mind. Second, it has an engaging plot structure and truly well-developed characters. Third, it has a really well thought out moral story to tell about the conquest of technology winding up in the ultimate destruction of one’s body not to mention the soul within it. Is it dystopic, on a personal scale yes, on a larger scale, the planet remains relatively unchanged, so not so much on the planetary side? Still, it is a good read, and sad at the end. You will laugh at this goings-on until the reality sinks in, and you will shed tears about it all as well.

1-11-2019 -- Re-read. Minor revisions to original 2016 version. Still a great read, and a thoughtful answer to should we consider enhancements to originalo equipment, including ourselves. Sometimes a powered exoskeleton sounds like a good idea especially this time of year, with the overall colder temperatures even in the Heart of Central Texas, where home is -- at least for me.

I am recommending it as a five by five-star read, but it is best read by mature readers and with special dispensation with students below the age of high schoolers. It isn’t rough, but some of the enhancement sections are a bit difficult to get through. As far as quality as a piece of science fiction, it is exceptionally strong and well thought out. It is definitely “hard science” fiction. It is clear that Mr. Barry wanted to tell a story without a lot of hoopla about the fancy stuff, rather he took the primal, mundane, and by improving on the original, he succeeded in killing the spirit and the soul of those most enhanced. Sad story, but strong in the message. Machine Man needs to be read by anyone who ever thought of enhancing one’s self just for the grins and giggles of it all. Never a good idea, that; nor, was it here either? Still, it is worth your while, in my honest opinion.


Review of Machine Man by Max Barry by Richard Buro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6634696-machine-man.
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[Tasula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Max Barry's books. He seems to start with an idea of "what if"and then runs with it into weirdness. In this novel, a man (Charlie) who has serious difficulty with personal relationships has a terrible accident which gives him the idea that machine parts may be better for you than organic parts. I would only wish that Charlie was a nicer person, although some of his comments were quite funny (remind me a bit of Sheldon on Big Bang Theory).

[Bailey Loveless · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book asks some interesting questions and the main character is well developed of static. Conceptually this was unique. However, the execution in terms of the rest of the plot and other characters falls flat.