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Manna
DAW Collectors #561. Cover art by Vincent Di Fate.
Manna is a story set in a future where the world is split into military/economic factions, competition for energy and resources, and the struggle for people to remain free. It is a world where Stine's vision of an industrial revolution in space is well under way: routine commercial and military space flight, solar power satellites, orbital factories, bases on the moon - and orbiting laser cannon.
The story begins with ex-US Aerospace Force pilot Sandy Baldwin traveling to a job interview in a small country in Africa of which he knows little. He's been cashiered — when targeted by a Russian military spacecraft, he was the one who survived — but only because he exceeded his authority by defending himself. Now unemployable in the US, he arrives worrying about his job prospects but does really well in the interview by managing to break up an assassination attempt against the people he's come to see.
From there Baldwin begins a personal journey of discovery, finding out that the world is not what he thought it was. As his new employers begin to use his space and military skills, he finds they also need him as a leader in a war he's stumbled into. The human race is on the verge of changing the rules of the game completely. His new employers and soon adopted countrymen have begun to realize an economy based on the near limitless resources available in space; the entrenched powers that be who are still treating the world as a finite pie that can only be sliced up so many ways are determined to reign them in.
Mankind is on the verge of a new age — but the old one is loath to give up its grip. The story of Baldwin finding his own place in this new world and doing his best to make it happen is good, engrossing entertainment. The larger picture of what the world could be is engrossing in its own right. Although this book was written several decades ago, recent events make it even more timely.
Manna is a story set in a future where the world is split into military/economic factions, competition for energy and resources, and the struggle for people to remain free. It is a world where Stine's vision of an industrial revolution in space is well under way: routine commercial and military space flight, solar power satellites, orbital factories, bases on the moon - and orbiting laser cannon.
The story begins with ex-US Aerospace Force pilot Sandy Baldwin traveling to a job interview in a small country in Africa of which he knows little. He's been cashiered — when targeted by a Russian military spacecraft, he was the one who survived — but only because he exceeded his authority by defending himself. Now unemployable in the US, he arrives worrying about his job prospects but does really well in the interview by managing to break up an assassination attempt against the people he's come to see.
From there Baldwin begins a personal journey of discovery, finding out that the world is not what he thought it was. As his new employers begin to use his space and military skills, he finds they also need him as a leader in a war he's stumbled into. The human race is on the verge of changing the rules of the game completely. His new employers and soon adopted countrymen have begun to realize an economy based on the near limitless resources available in space; the entrenched powers that be who are still treating the world as a finite pie that can only be sliced up so many ways are determined to reign them in.
Mankind is on the verge of a new age — but the old one is loath to give up its grip. The story of Baldwin finding his own place in this new world and doing his best to make it happen is good, engrossing entertainment. The larger picture of what the world could be is engrossing in its own right. Although this book was written several decades ago, recent events make it even more timely.
- GenresScience Fiction
239 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 4, 2021
I remember reading this shortly after it was published, in 1984. G. Harry Stein was writing Alternate View columns for Analog Magazine at the time, which I enjoyed. So when this novel turned up at Waldenbooks, (remember them?) naturally I picked it up. And I remember loving it. The Goodreads synopsis covers the story pretty well, so there's no need to tread over that again. (Though I seem to remember the story taking place in South America, not central Africa, probably my memory fading). It reminded me of Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. While not as good as Heinlein, it still carried the same themes of a plucky band of outcasts who, once they have found the true path to enlightenment, go on to establish a new nation based on those principles. Sort of a retelling of the American foundational mythos, without all that messy business of slavery and just who counted as a person.
It's 2021 now, and I still have the book. But I can't bring myself to reread it. Libertarian "Just So" stories do not have the same appeal to me now as they did when I was 20. I only read two or three of Stein's other novels after that, and none of them were as engaging as Manna. He was strongly ideologically driven, it showed up in all his writing, and eventually became tiresome. Were I to read Manna again, I fear all I would see is a sermon with a tissue of story wrapped around it.
It's 2021 now, and I still have the book. But I can't bring myself to reread it. Libertarian "Just So" stories do not have the same appeal to me now as they did when I was 20. I only read two or three of Stein's other novels after that, and none of them were as engaging as Manna. He was strongly ideologically driven, it showed up in all his writing, and eventually became tiresome. Were I to read Manna again, I fear all I would see is a sermon with a tissue of story wrapped around it.
March 27, 2025
Forgettable.
1.8
1.8
November 8, 2014
1986 grade B
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews