Published in 2011, Machine Man is Australian writer Max Barry’s fourth novel. The work began in March 2009 as a page a day entry five times a week posted to the author’s personal website. These weekly contributions combined with reader feedback over the course of nine months to shape the story that would later take the form of a conventionally published novel.
According to the author, the experiment in on-line serial publication originated with no exact outline for the narrative to follow and no strategy for future adaptation. It was what it was until—in the tradition of much such similar experiments by many authors before him—the story began to take on a life of its own. What ended in serial form at the 50,000-word mark was extended for the world of print into 85,000 words that involved substantial reworking, rewriting and refashioning of the original core story to resemble something more conventionally intended for mainstream book readers.
The story follows an industrial accident claiming the leg of a scientist who transforms this life-altering even into a crisi-tunity. From the crisis of a loss of limb, Charle Neumann creates an opportunity to craft a replacement that excels in every respect that which nature was able to provide. What follows is a kind of Frankenstein parable for the 21st century world of cyberweaponry as, inevitably, Charlie’s military contractor bosses see in his dream of a better life for all only the opportunity for a better weapon for them.
It is at the crossroads of prosthetics and cybernetics, however, that Charlie’s own descent in Mad Sciencetry becomes his biggest problem.
At the 2011 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards, Machine Man took home the honor for Best Digital Narrative. The novel was also well-received by critics who compared it favorably to Barry’s previous three novels which established his reputation as a satirist deeply entrenched in the world of the millennialist cyber-consumerism.
