The Man in the Maze
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4.2 • 17 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A diplomat who successfully negotiated with intelligent aliens finds his loyalty to the human race tested in this novel by a Nebula Award–winning author.
Richard Muller was an honorable diplomat who braved unimaginable dangers to make contact with the first-known race of intelligent aliens. But those aliens left a mark on him: a psychic wound that emanates a telepathic miasma his fellow humans can neither cure nor endure. Muller is exiled to the remote planet of Lemnos, where he is left, deeply embittered, at the heart of a deadly maze . . . until a new alien race appears, seemingly intent on exterminating humanity. Only Muller can communicate with them, due to the very condition that has made him an outcast. But will Muller stick his neck out for the people who so callously rejected him?
Customer Reviews
Overshadowed by its own metaphor.
Just as classic science fiction is known to have, there’s a message in this book… or so I’m told by other reviews of it. And sure, I guess I see it: the psychological study of simultaneous self-isolation, alienation, and imprisonment. But, while most everybody will praise it for this metaphor, and criticize it for being sexist (forgetting that it’s a product of its time), I can’t help but ask, where’s their sense of wonder 💭? Not the self-righteous reason they came to after reading it, but the curiosity that compelled them to read it in the first place.
This book gives a true sense of wonder that is compounded by the intrigue of why. The mystery of why Muller is on this deadly planet to begin with. What could’ve happen to him to enact such drastic isolation?! Combined with just enough world building to give you what you need, while leaving you wanting more with so many unanswered questions. The world is a fascinating character in and of itself, and it’s that fascination that stuck with me. An endless, ever shifting labyrinth where water can flow out of solid matter 🤯?! The sear concept of this book is brilliant, and that’s where I will agree with everyone, the concept is where it truly shines.
I went into this book completely blind, with no expectations. I decided I wanted to try some classic sci-fi, the cover caught my interest, so I read it… and was blown away.
I read the paperback
This is one of the few books that kept me up at night, unable to put it down. This is about a maze on an alien world but it’s full of deadly traps, space beasts and illusions beyond imagination. The way Silverburgh describes the hero, whom lives in the maze, is absolutely mind bending!