"Un-Man" is a
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
novella by American writer
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...
, first published in the January 1953 issue of ''
Astounding Science Fiction''. It was included in the 1962 collection ''Un-Man and Other Novellas'', and the 1981 collection ''The Psychotechnic League''. As a component of the
Psychotechnic League
The Psychotechnic League is a future history created by American science fiction writer Poul Anderson. The name "Psychotechnic League" was invented by Sandra Miesel during the early 1980s, to capitalize on Anderson's better-known Polesotechnic ...
future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, whil ...
, "Un-Man" takes place in the year 2004, between "Marius" and "The Sensitive Man".
Plot summary
The story is set at a time after a devastating
World War III
World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at ...
in 1958, with the world gradually recovering from the devastation. (
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
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, subdivision_name ...
is mentioned as having been totally destroyed and there is no intention of rebuilding it; rather, the plan is to totally raze the ruins and use the land for agriculture - pending which, the vast abandoned ruins are being used for all kinds of nefarious activities). The United Nations, re-founded after the war and much stronger than in its earlier incarnation, is in the process of making itself a true World Government. Politics in all countries - including the US - are polarized between "Pro-UN" parties seeking to integrate in this now global framework and "Anti-UN" ones promoting nationalism and sovereignty and sometimes resorting to violence in resisting the UN. The story is strongly partisan, the United Nations protagonists being the clear Good Guys while the Nationalists opposing them are very much the Baddies. Anderson later on considerably changed his political positions and regarded this earlier embrace of the UN as part of Liberal views that he had outgrown.
Robert Naysmith is a member of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Inspectorate, an international police force that neutralizes threats to world peace. He is also a member of the Rostomily Brotherhood, a secret order within the Inspectorate made up of men
cloned
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, ...
from Stefan Rostomily, a member of the French resistance during
World War III
World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at ...
.
Naysmith is ordered to carry on the assignment of Martin Donner, another member of the Brotherhood who was killed while investigating an anti-UN conspiracy. Atypically for a Brother, Donner had a wife and child, and Naysmith's first task is to impersonate Donner long enough to persuade his family to go into hiding with him. Naysmith leaves Donner's wife and son in an isolated cabin in the
Canadian Rockies. He then kidnaps and drugs a member of the conspiracy, learning that he has been assigned to assassinate Barney Rosenberg, a
Martian
Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pr ...
colonist who is returning to Earth to retire. Naysmith teams up with a
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
Brother named Juho Lampi to rescue Rosenberg, and learns that he was a close friend of the original Rostomily.
After leaving Rosenberg with the Donners, Naysmith and his partner arrange to be captured by the conspiracy. They are brought to the secret sea base of Arnold Besser, UN Minister of International Finance and the leader of the conspiracy. They find themselves joined by two more captive Brothers, along with Besser himself. Before Besser can begin torturing Naysmith and the others, the secret base is attacked by UN police, and Besser's bodyguard (actually another Brother, surgically altered to look like Besser's bodyguard) kills Besser and frees the others. Following the raid, the information found in Besser's secret base allows the UN to roll up the conspiracy. Donner's wife tracks down Naysmith and asks him to marry her.
The story is unusual among Anderson's writings in featuring a particularly hideous and disgusting cast of villains, having no redeeming qualities whatsoever - while in most Anderson writings, the Antagonists are at least a bit sympathetic and given their own honor and their comprehensible reasons to act as they do. Later, in "The Sensitive Man" Anderson took up many of the themes of "Un-Man", but substituting one of his usual nuanced Antagonists.
Reception
In 2003, "Un-Man" was nominated for the 1954
Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novella.
[1954 Retro-Hugo Awards]
at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved April 12, 2017 ''
Locus
Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to:
Entertainment
* Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front
* ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine
** ''Locus Award' ...
''s Rich Horton called it "interesting";
[The Best Science Fiction of 1953: A Look a Potential Retro Hugos]
by Rich Horton, in ''Locus
Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to:
Entertainment
* Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front
* ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine
** ''Locus Award' ...
'', published February 20, 2004; retrieved April 12, 2017 however,
Evelyn Leeper found it "fairly basic" and "much less appealing and more strident than
nderson'snon-political
riting
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
, while noting that the title is a pun ("
un-" is both a
privative
A privative, named from Latin '' privare'', "to deprive", is a particle that negates or inverts the value of the stem of the word. In Indo-European languages many privatives are prefixes; but they can also be suffixes, or more independent elements. ...
— referring to Naysmith being a clone — and a reference to the
UN).
[This Week's Reading: Un-Man]
by Evelyn Leeper, originally published in ''MT VOID'', July 2, 2004; retrieved April 12, 2017
References
External links
*
Un-man and Other Novellas
{{The Psychotechnic League
1953 short stories
Novellas by Poul Anderson
Alternate history short stories
Post-apocalyptic short stories
Novels set during World War III
Fiction set in 2004
Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact