A novel by Robert Silverberg. The Man In The Maze is about Richard Muller. 10 years ago, he was sent as mankind's first ambassador to an alien race. When he came back, Muller found he had been altered. His very presence was intolerable to other humans. Angry and embittered, he retreated to an abandoned planet where he hid in a deadly labyrinth. Now, mankind needs him again for the same job. But what is the cost of getting him out?
This book provides examples of:
- Death Course: The entire alien city is one gigantic example. It's protected above and below by a lethal forcefield, and every pathway into the city is full of traps of every conceivable size, shape, and description. The outer sections are the most dangerous, but there are traps even in the central area where (presumably) the builders lived. Who built it, and why, is a complete mystery.
- First Contact: Muller is sent to Beta Hydri IV to make first contact with the inhabitants. It doesn't go well.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Inverted. The aliens caused Muller to constantly broadcast emotional torment to anyone near him. After only a few months, he escaped into permanent exile.
- Precursors: The race who previously inhabited Lemnos built an elaborate labyrinth with a horrifying array of deadly traps to prevent any intruders. The machines of this labyrinth still function millions of years later. No one knows what became of the creators.
- Starfish Aliens: The extragalactic aliens that prompt the mission to find Muller. They're as big as a kaiju, they come from a gas-giant planet, they have no language that humans can understand (and they can't understand human speech, nor do they seem to be interested in trying), and they have no moral qualms about making other sapient creatures into their radio-controlled slaves.
