Hardcover
Published Jan. 1, 2011 by Vintage Books.
Max Barry creates satire that bites and typically the head shaking, smirk-inducing experience is easy to get through. Machine Man has an extremely unlikable protagonist, but if one can stomach that perspective there's plenty of speculative weirdness to delight in this novel.
I think I may be over Max Barry. The themes are repeating themselves (corporations are bad, mkay?), and the characters in this book are very one-dimensional. I never felt much empathy for the protagonist, either.
Machine Man is a worthwhile read, but there are two things that bug me.
First - character names with the same first letter: Cassandra Cautery. Angelical Austin. Ouch.
Second - Cassandra comes across as a BWAH-HA-HA type of all-evil villain from the evil corporation. I spend so much time disliking her, as a reader I really don't welcome her presence. Other than being a vehicle for info-dumps about the evil the corporation and what they are going to do to Charlie, she's just kind of a flatline annoyance.
