Rating: 
Summary: A nifty premise, but underdeveloped
Review: Man Plus is the story of a project to adapt (a) man to be able to live on Mars. Thus, this man would have to be able to survive in a carbon dioxide atmosphere, at very low pressure, and be able to extract water and oxygen from the soil. In addition, the extreme temperatures would have to be overcome. Pohl proposes that such a man would have to be extensively modified with robotics (creating a cyborg) - a modern writer might use genetic enngineering - with the result that the Man Plus of the title scarcely resembles a human by the time he's fully modified.The strength of the book is the scientific setup - some of the problems of creating such a cyborg are addressed, from both the physical and emotional points of view. It's fascinating to watch the creation of the Man Plus - Pohl obviously put a lot of thought into the process and what should be involved. Unfortunately, the use of this new creature is inadequate. At 270 pages, there's not a lot of room for detail, and the end of the book seems very rushed. A lot of that precious space is also used up in describing a future world where communism has taken over all of Eurasia and a virtual state of war exists between these states and the United States. From our post-Cold War viewpoint, it seems quaint, and I can't help being impatient with it. There is a crisis at the end that is artificial and is never explained (perhaps it was a "teaser" for a future sequel?), and there is far too much of the soap opera lives of some of the scientists. Therefore, I give the book 3 stars on the strength of its novel idea and care of implementation, the other 2 stars are lost because it doesn't follow through particularly well.
Rating: 
Summary: The thinking man's Six Million Dollar Man
Review: This book is not only a genuine science fiction classic, but also a poignant commentary on the human spirit. Roger Torraway's transition from a normal human being to cyborg is one of the most powerful statements in imaginative literature.
Rating:
Summary: 3.5 stars for the half man-android sent to explore
Review: Very detailed descriptions of the gradual process of transformation from man to man-machine. After the first test subject ends in tragedy, another man volunteers, with reservation, to undergo the transformation. The purpose of this is to make him capable of living in the Mars environment on his own for a prolonged time, to study the potential for human colonization. It is a race against time, as earth's war threatened future is believed near. The story is at times stirring, as we witness the process of a man leaving his life as he knew it and coping with new realities of his situation. The "man plus" is the attraction here, as there is not much provided to allow for interest in the outcome of the project.
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