The Man in the Maze

By: Robert Silverberg

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Once a hero, now a pariah, Richard Muller is humanity's last hope.

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 that 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?

©1969 Robert Silverberg (P)2016 Skyboat Media, Inc., and Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Very

Strange disposition of what I expected to it to be. Then it turned out to be a totally different story than I expected!

Interesting thought provoking

Unique story line a bit disappointing ending. Well read and creatively done . An easy listen

Published in 1969, this story did not age well.

While the story has an interesting premise, it is painfully dated. Only men explore space, as it is "too dangerous." Explorers satisfy their urges with "women cubes," whatever those are (it was never explained). What really drive it home was that there are no real women characters, only brainless sexual companions who idolize the male protagonist and antagonist. Seriously, the most significant description of the main character's companion was of her nipples. This overt sexism made it difficult to enjoy what was otherwise an interesting story.

Predictable and racist

in a universe where anyone who makes enough money alters themselves to be blonde and blue-eyed we meet our protagonist deep inside of a maze built by aliens and out to kill anyone who enters it. I know, the metaphor for a tortured man's mind is right on the cover. I just hope that the rest of it wouldn't be so obvious. What is essentially an allegory about a futuristic foreign Service chewing men (and poignantly only men) up and spitting them out on the other side we did not get any nuanced geopolitics or character building. There are exactly two women in the entire book, only one of them gets a name but both serve as little more than objects of desire or that nagging voice begging men to settle down and stay on one planet. the tortured man who is the only one that can save us trope was played out in the past, this book about the future doesn't give us anything new.

Flawed, dated, but still enjoyable

There are great aspects of this book--the alien maze is fascinating, and the psychology of the interplay between the man in the maze and the people who are trying to get to him. A lot of the book feels like unnecessary padding though. Why so much sex when there aren't any real female characters? I suppose there is the parallel between the power of sex and conquering the universe, but really, how many times do you need to make that point in one fairly short book? I'm guessing that this was originally published in serialized format for Playboy and needed to have a certain amount of sex to be considered for that publication. Those parts just feel out of place. There are also lots of dry, dry passages where not much happens that also feel unnecessary. I admit I zoned out during a few parts while I was doing other things. I grew up reading this kind of science fiction, so I was prepared for the treatment of women as objects. Plus Playboy used to publish a lot of science fiction stories and paid fairly well, so I think that tended to influence the style of many old science fiction tales. Take it for what it is--it's an artifact from another time, and it's not going to read as if it were written in 2020. If I were editing this book, however, I'd probably cut 25% of it!