The Man Who Awoke

This book is full of adventure and science fiction fun. Do you ever wonder what will happen 1,000 years from now? How about 20,000 years from now? Read this book, and you will find out. The writing is detailed and descriptive, which allows the reader to actually time travel with the main character. Although this book is small, the images and stories depicted will never leave you.

The end of this book is bogglingly.....great. You'd never expect it to get to the philosophical levels it does. All the while perhaps correctly critiquing our next evolutionary phases keeps you thinking long after you've put it down. Kudos for the mysterious Laurence Manning

In the 1930's, who was thinking the implications of subjects like computer networks, interstellar travel, atomic power, composite roadways, fossil fuel depletion, societies enslaved by leisure.... immortality? Lawrence Manning was, and left us "The Man Who Awoke", which belongs next to HG Wells' "Time Machine" in the annals of great sci-fi. This could be the best book ever written as far as I'm concerned, as it is succinct and poignant, relevent and idealistic, and a quick read without needless ink. I only wish he wrote more books!

The Man Who Awoke is a excellent, short science fiction book. I recommend this book to many who say they can't "get into" this genre. Laurence Manning skips intricate character development to focus on how some key human traits have evolved over time. Some of his "predictions" are eerie, considering that this book was written before World War II.This is not a literary masterpiece, but is accessible, thought provoking science fiction that should appeal to a wide audience. Go to your favorite used bookstore and pickup a copy. It won't take you more than half of a day to finish.

I recall the powerful images that the writer produced, and was amazed at some of the "images" that are just now coming into focus: without giving too much of the plot, the time in which he awakes, to find mankind enslaved by machines that cater to thier dreams is so far ahead of his time it is unreal. When one thinks of the power of the internet today, and that the writer could not have "known" in advance (in 1933 a computer was still a box of gears) that the computer would advance as far as it did, let alone, that it would be "connected" it makes one stop and think how far ranging some of our writers in the past really were.