Machine Man (novel)

Machine Man

First edition
Author	Max Barry
Cover artist	Matt Roeser
Language	English
Genre	Novel, Thriller, Science fiction
Publisher	Vintage
Publication date	9 August 2011
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print Paperback & E-book
Pages	288 pp (Paperback)
ISBN	0-307-47689-8 (Paperback)
OCLC	687652342
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Class	PS3552.A7424 M31 2011
Preceded by	Company
Followed by	Lexicon

Machine Man is a novel written by Max Barry. Published in 2011, it is Barry's fourth novel, following 2006's Company . It was initially an online serial, before being updated and published in 2011 by Vintage Books. The film rights have been picked up by Mandalay Pictures. ^[1]

Characters

• Dr. Charles Neumann – mechanical engineer
• Dr. Angelica Austin – Charles Neumann's medical doctor
• Lola Shanks – Physical Therapist and Charles Neumann's love interest
• Cassandra Cautery – A middle manager, Better Future
• Carl LaRussos – Security Guard, Better Future
• The Manager – Better Future's CEO

Synopsis

Charles Neumann is a mechanical engineer working at Better Future, a military research company. After losing one of his legs in a hydraulic clamp, he begins to tinker with leg prosthetics. The replacements he builds are so advanced that he amputates his remaining leg in order to make full use of them. Better Futures provides him with his own research division in cybernetics, first aimed at selling medical prosthetics, then at augmentations for private customers and finally at creating augmented soldiers. This eventually leads him to accidentally cut off his hand. Meanwhile, his assistants invent all new things involving the body. He falls in love with Lola, and befriends his bodyguard Carl.

Over the course of events, Neumann gradually replaces more body parts with machinery, suffering various psychological side effects in the process. After first being rebuilt from the neck down as a machine soldier, his mind is eventually uploaded into a computer. At the end of the book, he realises what he has done. He has turned himself into a soulless artificial being with no soul whatsoever. And that he has lost his humanity forever.

References

1. Graser, Marc (4 November 2009). "Mandalay wants to build 'Machine Man'". Variety . Archived from the original on 8 November 2009.