Proteus Manifest

'''Sheffield, Charles. Proteus Manifest.''' N.p.: Guild America, 1989. Consisting of Sight of Proteus. First edn. New York: Ace, 1978. "A portion of this novel appeared in substantially different form in the June, 1977 issue of Galaxy." Proteus Unbound, (c) 1989, held by CS. "Published by arrangement with Del Rey/Ballantine Books[,] A Division of Random House, Inc." [S. F.] Book Club Edition.

Hard S.F. novels by a space scientist, with cameo appearances (so to speak) by a number of interesting machines. See for the machines on which the novels are premised: the tanks in which computer-mediated biofeedback can be used by people to will themselves into new forms. For the superimposition of nested high-tech machines upon a person, see esp. chs. 19-21 of Sight of Proteus: a transformed Betha Mestel inside large tanks inside an asteroid of remarkable natural form, an asteroid that has been made into a habitat and space ship. Cf. similar superimposition at the opening of E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" and, more closely, with Josef Virek in his vat in W. Gibson's Count Zero (both listed in this Category).