Man in a Cage

by Brian M. Stableford

Harker Lee is a survivor. His mind withstands the threat of insanity and the pressure of imprisonment. His lifelong struggle to keep mind and body together in the face of the hostile environment of the maximum-security block is a struggle against the society of his fellow men. But that society can still find a need for him; a need for the ability to survive which it is testing to the full. He was taken from his cell once to be used in experiments in reading minds. Now he is brought forth again, to endure the ultimate test: to fly a Titan spaceship through hyperspace to the stars. Starflight destroys the minds of sane men. But Harker Lee is not sane and his mind has strength which sane men lack. In Harker Lee, the man whom society is caging for his crimes, now lies the hope that man might break out of the greatest of all cages: the void of empty darkness which enfolds the Earth. In this chilling, enthralling novel of psychology and science fiction, one final escape must be made, for a man and for mankind.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

232 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Brian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.

Reviews

[Steve Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read so many of Stableford's Black Coat translations of early French S.F. that it was inevitable that I read some of his own fiction.

Man in a Cage smacks of the "New Wave" style popular in the late 60s and early 70s. Like many works of that ilk, the line between "pretentious" and "profound" is a fine one. While reading the book, I waffled quite a bit as to which category Stableford's novel should ultimately be placed. Finally, I realized that I became engrossed reading each next passage so I guess that's a good thing.

MinC does not really have a linear plot and it definitely isn't for everyone. Lord knows that I couldn't devour stuff like this on a steady basis. But it was a pleasant diversion from the norm.

It's also pretty downbeat and kind of, at least in that one regard, reminds me of some of Barry Malzberg's novels.

[Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man in a Cage is an ambitious pseudo-psychedelic psychological sci-fi story. I certainly respect the book for its ambitions. The structure of the book is interesting and keeps the story (for lack of a better word) progressing at a jaunty pace throughout. There are 3 modes of narrative: first, "Titan Nine", the story of Harker Lee, a schizophrenic prison lifer who is humanity's last hope of surviving faster-than-life travel, as he learns his role in the Project and prepares for the voyage; second, "Cage of Darkness": Harker's journal, in which he describes the conditions and the characters who populate it, imparting acerbic and cynical social commentary along the way; and finally, "Madman's Dance", which describes hallucinogenic dreams presumably mirroring what Harker is experiencing while in hyperspace.

I found myself getting a bit frustrated with this last bit, although in concept it is probably the most interesting thing about this book. It's never clear what is going on during these segments, and they read like extremely abstract poetry. Maybe it's been too long since I've read poetry. It's also generally not clear what the various (to their credit, often vivid and lyrically painted) images are supposed to symbolize, if anything. Maybe they're not supposed to mean anything, though, and that's the point. After all, Harker is insane, and it is probably unfair to expect anything like coherence from an insane man's dreams-within-dreams. Still, I sometimes found some of these passages a bit abstruse.

Similarly, although Harker's wry wit sometimes makes his critiques of society via a psychoanalysis of the prisoners of Block C enjoyable and humorous, other times it just comes across as long-winded where perhaps it was meant to seem profound. Then again, perhaps it's just that the writing style wasn't necessarily for me. I tend to find screeds in the key of "Catcher in the Rye" a little bit tiring, though here it was by no means unbearable, and, like I said, often enjoyable.

Ambitious is definitely the word to describe this book. I very much appreciated it for its goals, however unsatisfactory (to my tastes) the execution. Although such a comparison is maybe unfair, I've enjoyed similar concepts in shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion or movies like Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey. For fans of bleak sci-fi, pithy stream-of-conscious writing, and surreal prose poetry, I would imagine this book hits all the right spots. And for everyone else, at the very least, there is something substantial here.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 4 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

4 stars

The man identified by society as Harker Lee is a prisoner, a survivor - and insane. When faster than light travel returns its astronauts catatonic, the program directors turn to Lee in the hope that a man already out of touch with reality will fare better.

"If nature abhors a vacuum, why did she make so much of it?"

Back in the mid-70s, I picked up Brian Stableford's The Realms of Tartarus - about the underworld of an Earth paved over. I thought it was great, and I still think Stableford is very much underrated. I hope Open Road will reprint a lot of his other books as ebooks.

Man in a Cage was published around the same time as Realms of Tartarus, but it's an entirely different kind of book. Man in a Cage is an intensely psychological study of one tormented, isolated individual. The book is told in three distinct, interwoven parts - standard, real life narrative of Lee's interaction with the space program; semi-autobiographical sections from the perspective of Lee's inner self (or selves); and the surreal travels of what may be Lee's true self, especially as he deals with the impact of faster than light travel. They all blend together toward the end.

The book wasn't at all what I anticipated, but I liked it a lot. At almost every turn, Stableford avoids the easy, obvious approach. The autobiographical segments devolve into discussions of psyche and society. Much of the time, they're interesting, but they do at times drone, and Stableford gets lost in his concept - too much of a good thing, and the book would have been stronger if they'd been cut back. At the same time, they're insightful and often funny. The 'man in a cage' metaphor comes in for heavy use, but it manages the trip from interesting to overdone and back to relevant. The prose is expertly managed, and the characterization (almost all from Lee's perspective in one way or another) is deft.

This is not a quick and easy read (I took a break by zipping through Brandon Sanderson's The Rithmatist), but it is rich and rewarding. While I greatly enjoyed Sanderson's light adventure, Stableford's book is a different pleasure altogether - the kind of SF that makes you think without beating you over the head, and all presented in carefully measured but moving prose.

If you haven't run across Brian Stableford before, this is a great place to start, and I recommend you do so. If you know his writing, it's a good place to continue. Others have tried to capture the perspectives of narrators with their own reality, but few have done it so confidently and compellingly.

NB: Received free copy from Net Galley. 

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled with this book and had a hard time finishing it. This is a book that is only going to be worth a select group of people, apparently I am not part of that group.

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley.