The Man in the Maze

I was immediately drawn in to the premise of The Man in the Maze. A dark and mysterious alien mega-structure that hides a human hermit is explored by another group of humans that is trying to find him. The setting is pretty great. Similar to Rendezvous with Rama, the exact processes and purpose of the maze is never truly understood, but what isn't similar is that the maze gives a certain amount of tension and danger that suits the novel well.

What really make The Man in the Maze shine is the deeply textured exploration of human psychology. Muller is an interesting character, and provides a morally ambiguous focal point that you get to chew on. In fact, most of the characters are moral ambiguous. Silverberg spends a lot of time asking what a persons moral obligation or duty is to their species. Do the ends justify the means? At what point does a human become alien to their own race? How hard is it to overcome xenophobia? The maze itself is a real world example of the inner workings of Muller's mind. All of these ideas are explored with some really excellent prose from Silverberg. The pacing and ending are both excellent. A beautifully written story.

Why not a higher rating then? Well, it's kinda hard to ignore Silverberg's treatment of women. I'm used to a lot of older SF simply excluding women entirely from the story, but Silverberg takes that a step further by viewing women as nothing but sexual toys for his main characters. It's honestly disgusting, and it keeps popping up throughout the book. I certainly hope that as I explore other novels of his that he tones down the misogyny a lot, because in this one it's really unbearable.