The Man in the Maze

By: Robert Silverberg

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

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!

a great listen

The narrator is one of my favorites. He always does a great job with the dialogue.
The story is an interesting one which I found to be able to capture my imagination as is true for most of this author's work.
I highly recommend this book.

Stirring, Emotional, Great Sci fi

I loved it, the character of Muller was very well done, I felt for him and with him all the way through to the end.

its a story

.....without an ending. must be nice to just stop writing when you feel like it.
seriously, there is nothing that can really be extrapolated from tue context clues about what actually occurred in the last 5% of the book.
unless you just imagine doomsday. and if so, why not actually write it?
I am fine with some ambiguity in and ending but not straight up, 'build your own ending as it means something different to each person'.
lazy.

Written 1968. Prophetic Science but Sexist Mindset

At its core this is an interesting story. Obviously has been deeply plagiarized by modern works such as the Maze Runner.

There is revealed the Male/Female cultural split that still existed in 1968 when this was written. The author has prophetic scientific predictions in this book. Holographic Pornography, Anti Aging Treatments etc. But you can also see how divided life must have been in 1968 with men talking to men and women only interpreted for their sexual value to the bossman. Its laughable but then again some men and women happily play these roles today and its their free will so who are we to judge. As long as we have free will and access to knowledge and education we can make our own best choices for life.

The book tends to drag on for the firsr half as you learn more about the maze. Ultimately the deeper plot blossoms and succeeds but its over in an instant with no resolution and you return to the maze not really feeling like any questions were answered about the maze or aliens etc. You end with the main character being a moody selfish dude who bemoans humanity outwardly but acta exactly the same way he complains about. So in that there is a reflection of human reality but as a book, I really prefer some journey or transcendence. Not just moody cry baby characters and no plot resolutions.

Classic sci-fi

Robert Silverberg at his inventive best. A must read or listen. Classic science fiction tale.