Venture into space looking for new worlds to populate by using humanoid/robot astronauts...some pulpy potboiler literary devices thrown in...references to, "His fingers had strayed toward the ache in his empty crotch..." and ambient sexual torment - "Her golden arms gathered him against her nude, unendurable splendor..." and "...opening her robe to give him one last taunting glimpse of her naked loveliness..." and "Swaying against her warm flesh, he felt a stab of pain where his penis should have been." Overall a torrid mess still stuck in another time. ( )

Not my favorite era or sub-genre. I don't know how to describe it, but the stuff that gets metaphysical or mystical or whatever just doesn't appeal to me as much as the more straightforward stuff of the first golden age, Asimov's early work etc. I'm not even sure this qualifies as mystical, but that's how I remember it.... ( )

Manseed
By Jack Williamson
Publisher: Del Rey / Ballantine
Published In: New York City, New York, USA
Date: 1982
Pgs: 217

Summary:
Meagan Drake has a vision. A vision of her deceased brother and uncle’s dream. A dream to seed Mankind among the stars as a way to protect them from themselves. A thousand seedships each with machinery on board to bring a breeding population of bioengineered clones to fruition and started on the track of building a better life for themselves and a future for the greater Mankind. Story follows the landing of a damaged seedship on the planet Mansphere where a robotic enemy may already be plotting their destruction.

Genre:
fiction, science fiction, space opera, apocalypse

Why this book:
It was the right price at Half Price Books. And the title awakened the adolescent in me making me wonder what it was really about. ...and I loved Williamson’s Brother to Demons: Brother to Gods.

This Story is About:
survival against all odds, life, love, jealousy, duty

Favorite Character:
Defender One is the main character and my favorite. Wish he didn’t have Ship playing the monkey on his back as much as he did through the story, but he and his seedstock made this story for me.

Least Favorite Character:
Defender Two. Her flightiness when she knew all the things she did in the face of One’s love was exceptionally cruel.

Character I Most Identified With:
Don Brink and Tomislav. Both dedicated to their duties at different points in their lives while seeing the world differently though they had so much in common.

The Feel:
There is a sadness in this story. It really is Defender One’s tragedy and triumph. Tragedy in his unattainable love, but triumph in the duty that is his.

Favorite Scene:
When Defender One faces his uncyborg self in the shadows of the Dome.

Settings:
The seedship, space, Mansphere, the colony, the dome, and the myriad environs between the dome and the colony.

Pacing:
This story is very well paced.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
At one point in the story, the characters refer to Mansphere having been cleared of all life excepting plant life in a bygone era. Yet later, when it suited the narrative, we discover that there is undersea life of some kind. Seemed a bit deus ex machina to me.

Last Page Sound:
I want more. I want to know what happened to Defender One. Did he take his duty as his triumph as is suggested or did he slide back into his despair at Two and Three’s being the undutiful yet more fully formed of the Defenders.

Author Assessment:
I love Williamson’s work. Believe that his other work will need to be read on a case by case basis. While I liked this one, a lot, I can see the style being a little grating in certain sci-fi subgenres.

Editorial Assessment:
It’s fine.

Disposition of Book:
I really haven’t decided. I don’t believe I will want to re-read it, so that probably means I should Half Price Book it. We’ll see.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
I could see this made into a movie. It would probably need some updating as the source material shows that it was written decade ago. The feel is very 50’s/60’s science fiction.

Casting call:
Will Smith could be Defender One. Jason Statham. Vin Diesel
Molly Quinn could be Meagan Drake.

Would recommend to:
Classic genre fans, pulp fans, not sure about the wider audience. ( )

Signed by author ( )