First edition, 215 pages
English language
Published August 1976 by Random House.
The screen showed a man.
He did not look like a man. He was an astronaut, a Democrat, a Methodist, a husband, a father, an amateur tympanist, a beautifully smooth ballroom dancer, but to the eye he was none of those things. To the eye he was a monster.
He did not look human at all. His eyes were glowing, red-faceted globes. His nostrils flared in flesh folds, like the snout of a star-nosed mole. His skin was artificial; its color was normal heavy suntan, but its texture was that of a rhinoceros' hide. Nothing that could be seen about him was of the appearance he had been born with. Eyes, ears, lungs, nose, mouth, circulatory system, percep- tual centers, heart, skin-all had been replaced or augmented. The changes that were visible were only the iceberg's tip. What had been done inside him was far more complex and far more …
The screen showed a man.
He did not look like a man. He was an astronaut, a Democrat, a Methodist, a husband, a father, an amateur tympanist, a beautifully smooth ballroom dancer, but to the eye he was none of those things. To the eye he was a monster.
He did not look human at all. His eyes were glowing, red-faceted globes. His nostrils flared in flesh folds, like the snout of a star-nosed mole. His skin was artificial; its color was normal heavy suntan, but its texture was that of a rhinoceros' hide. Nothing that could be seen about him was of the appearance he had been born with. Eyes, ears, lungs, nose, mouth, circulatory system, percep- tual centers, heart, skin-all had been replaced or augmented. The changes that were visible were only the iceberg's tip. What had been done inside him was far more complex and far more important. He had been rebuilt, for the single purpose of fit- ting him to stay alive, without external artificial aids, on the surface of the planet Mars.
I enjoyed this, got the ending come over me gradually which was an interesting feeling. I haven't read much of his work, but this certainly holds a candle to other stuff of the period.
