Manseed by Jack Williamson

Manseed by Jack Williamson
Ballantine Books, ISBN 0 345 30743 7
Price paid: 1,00$

Manseed is the story of one idea, which has surfaced in the minds of all space fans since the birth of the space shuttle: to colonize the universe. This story, however, twists the idea in a new way; let's send robots with our embedded genetic code instead of humans.

Each robot is made of both organic and artificial parts and made to protect the cargo of its ship: the basic stuffs of life. Sadly, one of these guardians (and the protagonist of this story) wakes up as a defect, due to a meteorite hit. How he will survive in space and protect what is to be a new human civilization makes most of this space thriller.

Between each few paragraphs, we are given a glimpse of eons passed, which would be the present day. We see what caused the idea to come to fruition and who were the key players in the organization. This helps understand the moods and influences of the guardian, whose cognitive faculties are far too... human.

Is it worth a dollar?

It does okay as a sci-fi book. While the idea in itself is original, I feel that not enough is given to project the importance of the guardian's mission and not much action is present. In the end, most of the pages end up being about a robot and his self-pity. Because of this, I am hesitant to recommend the book. Skip it unless you feel really interested.