YMMV / Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future

• Harsher in Hindsight: Near the middle of the book, there's a brief section showing the Aquatics noticing that the coral reefs that have formerly sustained them are now dying off, this being about 50,000 years since the beginning of the book. As it turns out, unless humans change their habits soon, the great reef dieoff is likely going to happen sooner than that...
• Inferred Holocaust: While not visually shown, after all the massive time and energy used to create these species, the last remnants of altered/evolved humans were abandoned on a dying Earth to die a slow and painful death by suffocating and starvation with no way to save themselves simply because they were not built with the general intelligence to do so. It can be considered something of a Tear Jerker as well.
• It Was His Sled: The descendants of the interstellar colonists from the start of the story return to Earth at the end and ravage it for resources, almost entirely destroying the surviving inhabitants. The summary on the front page doesn't even bother trying to hide it.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Tundra Dweller page has found some internet fame after being turned into a demented "Seasons Greetings" card◊, often corrupted to "Season's Greasons" and generating parodies in other speculative evolution projects. The Hunter Symbionts have found similar internet mockery.
  • "There must be more to life than this."◊
  • The Engineered Food Creatures have become a popular way to insult /v/ or gamers in general.
  • The popularity of these images has led to a form of Adaptation Displacement, since many of the people who see them are unaware of the book.
• Nightmare Fuel: Mainly in the book's highly detailed illustrations of evolved and genetically altered human/animal species. One notable species is called the Tic, a human with an organic version of the cybernetic cradle the Hiteks get around in. They're completely desiccated humanoids whose organs are constantly failing, so they replaced them with artificially grown organs. It was simply more convenient to grow entire organic exoskeletons. They're not a separate species from the Hitek, their technology is simply more advanced. In addition, many of the creatures appear as if someone needs to call in Master Chief and have the whole planet nuked from orbit. It also ends with the descendants of Humanity returning to Earth, which is populated by the various descendants of genetically modified humans. So what do they do? They annihilate the vast majority of Earth's ecosystem, with the remaining creatures engineered to fit their needs, including a gargantuan "meat creature" with no recognizable head or limbs. In the end, they destroy all surface life on Earth except for the descendants of the humans engineered to live in the ocean, which colonize the deepest parts of the ocean. It's implied that those deep-sea dwelling "humans" will eventually recolonize Earth's surface.
• Sequelitis: Not nearly as well-received as After Man, owing to more blatant Artistic License – Biology and a much bleaker tone. Though After Man had a very dim view of humanity as well, it wasn't dwelt upon as much and more focus was given on the many wondrous creatures that evolved after human extinction, which is much more palatable than Man After Man's portrayal of human descendants becoming exclusively ugly, cruel monsters.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To All Tomorrows. Both stories deal with the future of human evolution and genetic manipulation. All Tomorrows takes an Anti-Nihilist approach showing humanity still accomplishing amazing things despite its hardships and extinction. By contrast, Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future is far more cynical and shows humanity becoming simple animals or becoming a Horde of Alien Locusts.
• Tear Jerker: The story of Cralym the Vacuumorph and the story of the Vacuumorphs in general. Poor things...
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A major problem with the book even compared to All Tomorrows which also played with the horrific side of genetic engineering but still had a Anti-Nihilist approach that helped get through the darker parts. By contrast "Man After Man" is nothing but one depressing story of humanity to another. It doesn't help that this is a sequel to extremely light and kid-friendly speculative biology books making the incredibly dark tone seem even more out of place.
• Ugly Cute: The vacuumorphs are certainly less ugly than the other humans. The fact that they're all in dire need of a hug helps.
• Woobie Species: The Vacuumorphs, who were essentially bioengineered to be expendable living space probes. It's especially heartbreaking that we get an entire story focusing on one and we know that she was fated to die from the start.

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