Line #5 Literature/MachineMan


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4	->''Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It’s not a tragedy. It's an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. [[BadassTransplant Better parts]].\
5	Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good [[ArtificialLimbs artificial limb]]. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a [[SuperSoldier weapon]].''
6
7	''Machine Man'' (Not to be confused with the [[ComicBook/MachineMan Marvel Comics character]] or the [[Series/SeiunKamenMachineman Japanese TV superhero]] of the same name) got its start in 2009 as a serial. From March to December, the author (Max Barry, of ''Literature/JenniferGovernment'' fame) released one page a day, freely accessible; the material was later adapted into a full-length novel, which was released in 2011. The serial can still be read for free at [[http://maxbarry.com/machineman/page.html?p=1 the author's website]], user comments and all. This article is about the novel, which [[AdaptationExpansion differs]] from the serial in a few ways. They both have the same basic story, though.
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9	The blurb above describes the story quite well. Dr. Charles Neumann is an engineer working at a cutting-edge company called Better Future. One day, he steps into a piece of machinery called the Clamp and loses his leg. Better Future provides excellent insurance, though, so he gets a top-of-the-line prosthesis! In the process, Charlie also gets to meet Lola Shanks, prostethist, and immediately develops a crush on her. It's just a normal psychological reaction in a high-stress situation, but he doesn't mind. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the artificial legs currently on the market are ''all'' awful, so he builds a better one. That works out well, but he's still frustrated -- sure, he has a great leg now, with pathfinding and all, but what good is that while his remaining meat-leg still limits him? He does the only logical thing in his situation and [[SelfHarm puts his other leg into the Clamp as well]].
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11	The hospital is less-than-understanding, of course. They put him on suicide watch. What's worse, they won't let him talk to Lola again. The Better Future shareholders think he's on to something, though. He gets his own department and essentially unlimited resources to develop a new product line of Better Parts -- for the general market, of course, but also for himself. Charlie is happier than he has ever been and looks forward to being able to continue upgrading himself at his own leisure.
12
13	And then everything goes to shit.
14	----
15	!!The book contains examples of:
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17	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The year is never given, but the protagonist uses what seems to be a 2012-style smartphone. He's not all that old, too, and he is stated to own a few reference books he "hasn't touched since Google", so the book can't be taking place all ''that'' far beyond the 2010s.
18	* AdaptationExpansion: In the words of the author:
19	-->''[The] novel is much longer than the serial and departs from it in several ways. That's partly because the serial was a first draft, and therefore terrible, but also because the formats are so different. The serial was a collection of cliffhangers; the novel I hope is deeper and less tricksy.''
20	* AnArmAndALeg: Charlie first loses one leg at the thigh, then the other. Both losses are treated realistically. The worst of it is when [[spoiler:he has to sever his own left arm at the shoulder as a LifeOrLimbDecision]].
21	* ArmCannon: Charlie is equipped with one [[spoiler:after he's become a ManInTheMachine. It's intended to be the first of an entire line of weaponry for {{Super Soldier}}s]].
22	* ArtificialLimbs: These play a quite central role, for obvious reasons. Specific examples include the bucket-on-sticks public option ("for war veterans abandoned by their own government"), the state-of-the-art Exegesis leg prothesis, the augmentations Charles and his team build (especially the Countours, which he wears for most of the book) and the Z-Specs[[spoiler:/Better Eyes]].
23	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:The Manager]]. See below.
24	* BadassTransplant: Charlie begins with one, then a pair of powerful prosthetic legs that can not only leap tall buildings InASingleBound but also kick down reinforced steel doors. His team also designs powerful arms that end up [[spoiler:attached to the security guard Carl]].
25	* BetterThanNew: Charlie does this to ''himself''. After accidentally amputating his leg, he designs a robotic prosthesis that he considers superior in every important regard. Things do not go entirely to plan.
26	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Better Future is dismantled. The artificially enhanced employees are forcefully [[NoTranshumanismAllowed brought back to 'normal']], but it's stated that people are more enlightened nowadays (which is 6 years later). Lola survives, though, as does Charlie -- albeit [[BrainUploading as a box]]. Still, the ending is essentially optimistic, and it's strongly implied that Charlie will be able to build himself a new body in time.]]
27	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Charlie repeatedly tries to explain that no, he doesn't enjoy chopping parts off people, it's just a necessary step in the process of improving someone. Also, he refuses to replace his eyes, not because of the {{Squick}} but rather because he didn't build the replacements and thus doesn't know how they work.
28	* BodyHorror: First Charlie loses his right leg in an industrial accident and builds a better prosthetic replacement. When he realizes that he's done a better job than evolution, he returns for a matching set. That is truly only the beginning.
29	* BrainUploading: [[spoiler:Charlie eventually ends up like this.]]
30	* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Cassandra Cautery has this in mind for Charlie. She plans to keep him alive [[spoiler:so that Better Future can calibrate its weaponized parts for {{Super Soldier}}s]].
31	* ChekhovsGun: Lola's Better Heart. [[spoiler:Specifically, the EMP bomb in it. Notable for going off not once but twice.]]
32	* CombatBreakdown: The final fight between [[spoiler:ManInTheMachine Charlie and crazed {{cyborg}} Carl]] sees them deal a ''great'' deal of damage to each other before [[spoiler:Charlie blasts Carl to smithereens with his {{BFG}} ArmCannon]].
33	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The only managers with any plot relevance are Cassandra Cautery (middle management) and the Manager (CEO, NoNameGiven). [[spoiler:Cassandra has a ''wicked'' case of [[IJustWantToBeSpecial augmentation envy]] and, later in the book, doesn't even bother hiding her contempt for Charlie's department. Also, after Charlie kills the initial Manager, he's apparently replaced with an almost identical executive. Really, the new Manager even looks similar.]]
34	* CrazyCatLady: Dr. Angelica, it turns out, is a Crazy ''Dog'' Lady.
35	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Really, what did you expect? ''Of course'' this shows up, although the book is at least honest enough to extend it to regular prosthetics and there's a HandWave involving neurons adapting to new functions. [[spoiler:Carl says that his arms started to talk to him. Charlie, in the end, starts referring to himself as "we", but that's after a ''copious'' amount of near-death experiences, brain damage and after essentially being reduced to, well, a head.]] Note that [[spoiler:this is ultimately {{subverted\|Trope}}, apparently, as society's attitude towards artificial parts is stated to be changing]].
36	* {{Cyborg}}: Charlie spends some time as an exceptionally powerful one [[spoiler:along with the security guard Carl before eventually just BrainUploading]].
37	* DestinationDefenestration: This is what happens to [[spoiler:the Manager]] when he jokes about [[spoiler:Lola's {{EMP}} HeartTrauma]].
38	* DudeWheresMyRespect: Cassandra Cautery has a problem with this. "Nobody ever thanks the middle-managers."
39	* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: This is an indication that Charlie's humanity is slipping away. Once he becomes [[spoiler:a ManInTheMachine]], he [[VaderBreath gasps for every syllable of speech]]. As a [[spoiler:BrainInAJar]], he [[MachineMonotone loses punctuation and inflection altogether]].
40	* EmergencyTransformation: Charlie goes to sleep [[spoiler:a paraplegic and wakes up a ManInTheMachine]]. While not a ''personal'' emergency, Better Future needed ''someone'' equipped to [[spoiler:defeat the {{cyborg}} Carl]], who had run amok.
41	* EmotionSuppression: Charlie is not very emotional to begin with. However, [[spoiler:after mapping his emotional responses with an MRI, he chemically suppresses any traces of guilt or regret]].
42	* {{EMP}}: Lola's [[spoiler:HeartTrauma]] is mended with a model that discharges an EMP when she gets excited. It does considerable damage and ends up as a [[spoiler:ChekhovsGun]].
43	* FalseFriend: Cassandra is all kinds of this to Charlie. She claims to have his best interests at heart but is clearly only looking out for Better Future.
44	* {{Fetish}}: Lola Shanks has... a thing for amputees. She sure gets excited when Charlie says that he doesn't care about a natural look and picks the robotic-looking Exegesis Archion. Later on, she spends a lot of time feeling over Charlie's ArtificialLimbs, too, [[spoiler:and over Carl's arms, for that matter.]]
45	* FreudianExcuse: Lola's [[spoiler:father deliberately self-maimed himself in a series of industrial accidents to collect insurance and pay for Lola's HeartTrauma replacement]]. As an adult, Lola finds men [[spoiler:who've lost body parts]] irresistible and works in prosthetics.
46	* FromBadToWorse: After [[spoiler:Charlie kills the Manager in what isn't quite an accident]], it's all downhill.
47	* HopeSpot: ''Perhaps Lola and I could build anonymous lives in some tiny Canadian snow town. Lola could bake pies. I could grow vegetables. I would be the man with no legs and the half-hand who was a scientist once. The townspeople would find me aloof but grow to respect me. They would call me Doc.'' Then [[spoiler:Charlie accidentally steps on a dog. Dr. Angelica (at whose house Charles and Lola are hiding at the time, and who hated Charlie to begin with) snaps and turns him in to Better Future]]. Ouch.
48	* HospitalHottie: For a man with almost no interest in his fellow human beings, Charlie finds the prosthetist Lola extremely attractive.
49	* HowMuchMoreCanHeTake: The climax involves a fight between [[spoiler:ManInTheMachine Charlie vs. ex-security guard-turned-crazed {{cyborg}} Carl]]. Both take quite a beating (doing no small amount of property damage) with no sign of who's winning [[spoiler:before Charlie blasts Carl to smithereens with his {{BFG}} ArmCannon]].
50	* KickTheDog: While he's not a villain and the whole thing happened in a moment of panic, [[spoiler:Charlie asking Cassandra to "get rid of Carl" because those artificial limbs are for nobody but himself, ''after'' Carl's arms have already been amputated,]] is just ''cold''.
51	* LackOfEmpathy: Charlie has virtually no empathy whatsoever at the start. This goes further as he [[spoiler:starts replacing his body parts with Better Parts]].
52	* LifeOrLimbDecision: [[spoiler:Charlie is forced to sever his left arm at the shoulder. It had already been mostly torn off, and it was either that or bleed to death.]]
53	* LockedIntoStrangeness: [[spoiler:The {{cyborg}} security guard Carl almost kills Cassandra and everyone else at Better Future.]] Afterwards, Cassandra's hair is "the color of ash".
54	* ManInTheMachine: Charlie spends some time in an exceptionally powerful robot body [[spoiler:before eventually just BrainUploading]].
55	* MegaCorp: Better Future, of course. They seem to be active in, well, just about every market, whether that market is consumer, industrial, scientific or military. They get a lot of contracts from the Department of Defense. And the police. Dr. Neumann's role changes from building industrial testing equipment to leading a department focusing on human augmentation (both cybernetic and biotech).
56	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Charlie's department is divided into four competing groups: Alpha, Beta, Gamma... and ''Omega''. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope They never show up again]].]]
57	* NGOSuperpower: Better Future is well on its way to becoming one. At least, that's what the Manager seems to be going for.
58	* NoControlGroup: Better Future has a laboratory's worth of scientists testing out an entire ''line'' of Better Parts on themselves. Better Spleens, Better Eyes, Better Muscles...
59	* NoNameGiven: The Manager. He's always referred to like that, capital M and all. [[spoiler:The same goes for his successor.]]
60	* NoSocialSkills: Charlie, in spades. He's completely incapable of small talk. Most of the engineers have shades of this, though.
61	* NoTranshumanismAllowed: Charlie gets in an industrial accident and loses a limb. He designs his own prosthetic, which he deems to be better than the organic limb, and decides to start replacing all of his limbs, one by one. Naturally, society as a whole can't handle this, and the central conflict of the book is between his desire to slowly replace himself with better parts and societal attempts to stop what is viewed as a SelfHarm behavior. [[spoiler:In the epilogue, it's stated that the augmented employees were "brought back down to normal". Apparently, this is considered shameful now, so perhaps the trope was ultimately {{subverted\|Trope}}.]]
62	* PhlebotinumRebel: [[spoiler:Carl the guard]] becomes one. [[spoiler:Bet you were expecting that first spoiler tag to say "Dr. Neumann", huh? Yeah, that's not what happens. Carl is set up to be something of a HeroAntagonist, except Charlie then tears him apart.]]
63	* PointyHairedBoss: {{Discussed\|Trope}} and ultimately {{subverted\|Trope}}. Cassandra Cautery is a middle-manager with a generic job title and no function Charlie can identify, but she gets things done.
64	* PostCyberpunk: Human augmentation, check. Ominous megacorporation, check. [[spoiler:Super soldiers and private mercenaries]], check. [[spoiler:Said megacorporation collapsing, the CorruptCorporateExecutive being brought to justice and the augmentations being eventually accepted by general society -- check.]]
65	* PoweredArmor: [[spoiler:Carl the security guard needs an exo-suit to hold up his titanium sledgehammer arms.]]
66	* ProfessorGuineaPig: Charlie doesn't design any artificial limbs he wouldn't try out himself.
67	* SanitySlippage: Charlie suffers from this. While not quite "normal" to begin with, [[spoiler:after he's replaced both legs and one hand with Better Parts, he starts talking to them and referring to himself as "we"]].
68	* ScaryShinyGlasses: The Z-Specs and, later, the [[spoiler:Better Eyes]]. The latter actually look quite stylish, although Charlie can't help but think of those who wear them as "cats".
69	* SelfHarm: Charlie is ''not'' exhibiting self-harming behavior, he's just trying to get rid of a few performance bottlenecks, sheesh.
70	* StartOfDarkness: The whole first half could be read as one, right up to the point where the person in question kills someone and escapes with military-grade hardware. [[spoiler:Except that's not what happens. Still, if you left off at the point when Charlie and Lola Shanks escape from Better Future, you'd have a wicked backstory for a comic-book AntiVillain.]]
71	* SuperSoldier: This is mentioned now and then, as a possibility. [[spoiler:Better Future eventually starts building them. Carl is given prototype arms. After being recaptured, Charlie is crammed chock full of military prototype hardware.]]
72	* ThereAreNoTherapists: {{Discussed\|Trope}}.
73	-->''"Well, we needed psychologists. But we didn't get any because we're full of engineers, and engineers think psychologists are witch doctors." I didn't say anything. Psychologists are witch doctors.''
74	* UnwillingRoboticisation: Charlie undergoes this. What's curious is that while the good doctor is perfectly content to replace his legs and right hand, he has no desire to become [[spoiler:a ManInTheMachine or a BrainInAJar]] -- both end up happening to him.
75	* VaderBreath: [[spoiler:After Charlie is reduced to a ManInTheMachine]], every word he speaks requires another gasp from plastic lungs.
76	* WeCanRebuildHim: Charlie does this to ''himself'', going from amputee to double-amputee [[spoiler:to ManInTheMachine to BrainInAJar to full-on BrainUploading]].
77	* WhamLine: ''[The Manager] was fantastic. He was just like me. "I could not be prouder to count myself as one of your supporters." He smiled. I smiled back. "Now. Let's talk [[spoiler:super soldiers]]."''

Context Literature / MachineMan