Who?

Cold War Identity Crisis

If you are looking for a mash up of Cold War espionage, sci-fi, and alternative history that is as gray as you might imagine the old Soviet Union, you’ll find Algis Budrys’s Who? tailor made for you. Or, if you would like a sense of the fear and paranoia that prevailed during the standoff of assured mutual destruction between the United States and the Soviet Union from the 1940s up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, you, too, may enjoy this novel. Algis Budrys, who wrote several novels, as well as short stories and essays, as well as edited Tomorrow Speculative Fiction, incorporated aspects of his own life into the character of scientist Lucas Martino, among them feelings of alienation and Lucas’ show more upbringing on a farm. Budrys’s father, you see, had been a diplomat for Lithuania before being exiled to the U.S. after the Soviet takeover.

The setting is sometime in the future, the latter 20th century, when the world has consolidated into two camps, the Allied Nations Government and the Soviet Union. Emulating Cold War history, the two camps engage in a constant silent war of trying to supersede the other in military advantage through advanced weaponry. Lucas Martino is a brilliant scientist at work on an experimental electronic device, K-88, the specifics of which we never learn. Through Soviet skullduggery, Martino’s lab is situated near the border with Soviet satellites. A test run of the device goes horribly wrong, exploding and injuring Martino beyond recognition. The Soviets reach him first and spirit him across the border. There, Soviet doctors save his life and reconstruct him, fitting him with a steel head and arm, among other things. Once well enough, he undergoes interrogation by crack Soviet agent Anastas Azarin. Ultimately, because of political exigency, the Soviets return him to the ANG.

For the ANG’s part, they find they can’t trust that Martino is Martino because for all practical purposes the man has no physical identity. Agent Shawn Rogers receives the task of trying to determine if the man is indeed Martino, with the goal of trusting him once again with the development of K-88. Rogers employs various methods but settles on constant surveillance as the best and only way to learn the truth of the man’s identify. Eventually, Martino settles on the farm where he spent his boyhood, observed constantly, until after years pass the ANG decides it has no other choice but to entrust him once again with the project. However, when Rogers offers him the assignment, Martino declines, and further offers up that he is not Lucas Martino.

In fact, as readers learn following in alternating chapters the upbringing, education, and early life of Martino, the man in the mask is Lucas Martino. However, because of the accident and his isolation, Martino has undergone a life-changing existential experience to the point where in the end he emerges as a different man, one, who while in the body of Martino, truly is a different person.

Who? is a novel that may have seen its day, as modern readers may find it a bit too dark and torpid. Still, many readers yet may find it rewarding for its exploration of identity crisis and portrayal of Cold War anxieties. show less

If there is such a thing as science fiction noir then Budrys is certainly one of its most important voices. He is not an author one goes to for juvenile wish fulfillment or escapism. Who? offers complex, nuanced characters who try to do what’s right in a suspicious and unforgiving world. I seem to have enjoyed this gritty cold war rumination on identity and futility more than most.

This is a story about a man who has his head replaced with a ball bearing. It's worth reading just so you can go around saying “Did you ever read that book about the man who had his head replaced with a ball bearing?” I've had quite a lot of fun saying that over the last few days.

But it's worth reading for other reasons too. It explores the theme of identity. It's very well written. The story exemplifies the theme and there are no wasted words. Budrys gives you just enough to set your imagination and reason free. He understands what it is that his readers want and gives it to us.

The setting is, what was when written, a future version of the Cold War. Don't let this perceived outdatedness put you off. It adds to the air of mistrust show more and suspicion. show less

3 1/2 stars.

After an accidental explosion in his experimental lab near a Communist border, Lucas Martino is captured by the Russians. When he is returned to the allied sphere four months later, the questions begin: What, if anything, did Martino tell them about his top-secret research project? Where do Martino's loyalties now lie? Is this even the real Martino or a Soviet double?

It is this last question that is the real meat of the story, because what the Russians returned was only part human and part machine. With a mechanical arm and a metal head to repair the damage he sustained in the explosion, how can Martino prove that he is who he claims to be? How long will it take to prove to the allies keeping him under surveillance that he show more can still be trusted? What does it take for someone to prove that they are who they say they are?

Budrys did more than write a good science fiction story. He did even more than write a good espionage story. He wrote a great psychological thriller that is more about the human condition and how removing the physical aspects of a person's "humanity" can, ultimately, help to make them more human. show less

Cold War Identity Crisis

If you are looking for a mash up of Cold War espionage, sci-fi, and alternative history that is as gray as you might imagine the old Soviet Union, you’ll find Algis Budrys’s Who? tailor made for you. Or, if you would like a sense of the fear and paranoia that prevailed during the standoff of assured mutual destruction between the United States and the Soviet Union from the 1940s up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, you, too, may enjoy this novel. Algis Budrys, who wrote several novels, as well as short stories and essays, as well as edited Tomorrow Speculative Fiction, incorporated aspects of his own life into the character of scientist Lucas Martino, among them feelings of alienation and Lucas’ show more upbringing on a farm. Budrys’s father, you see, had been a diplomat for Lithuania before being exiled to the U.S. after the Soviet takeover.

The setting is sometime in the future, the latter 20th century, when the world has consolidated into two camps, the Allied Nations Government and the Soviet Union. Emulating Cold War history, the two camps engage in a constant silent war of trying to supersede the other in military advantage through advanced weaponry. Lucas Martino is a brilliant scientist at work on an experimental electronic device, K-88, the specifics of which we never learn. Through Soviet skullduggery, Martino’s lab is situated near the border with Soviet satellites. A test run of the device goes horribly wrong, exploding and injuring Martino beyond recognition. The Soviets reach him first and spirit him across the border. There, Soviet doctors save his life and reconstruct him, fitting him with a steel head and arm, among other things. Once well enough, he undergoes interrogation by crack Soviet agent Anastas Azarin. Ultimately, because of political exigency, the Soviets return him to the ANG.

For the ANG’s part, they find they can’t trust that Martino is Martino because for all practical purposes the man has no physical identity. Agent Shawn Rogers receives the task of trying to determine if the man is indeed Martino, with the goal of trusting him once again with the development of K-88. Rogers employs various methods but settles on constant surveillance as the best and only way to learn the truth of the man’s identify. Eventually, Martino settles on the farm where he spent his boyhood, observed constantly, until after years pass the ANG decides it has no other choice but to entrust him once again with the project. However, when Rogers offers him the assignment, Martino declines, and further offers up that he is not Lucas Martino.

In fact, as readers learn following in alternating chapters the upbringing, education, and early life of Martino, the man in the mask is Lucas Martino. However, because of the accident and his isolation, Martino has undergone a life-changing existential experience to the point where in the end he emerges as a different man, one, who while in the body of Martino, truly is a different person.

Who? is a novel that may have seen its day, as modern readers may find it a bit too dark and torpid. Still, many readers yet may find it rewarding for its exploration of identity crisis and portrayal of Cold War anxieties. show less

I re-read this mainly on the strength of having re-read and enjoyed Rogue Moon earlier this year. This novel, set deep in an imagined extension of the Cold War, centres on the identity of a Western scientist captured by the Soviets after an explosion at the research centre where he was working. Lucas Martino has been terribly injured in the explosion and after several months in a Soviet hospital is returned with his face entirely replaced by a metal mask and one arm a prosthetic. The question the Western agencies have to resolve is — is this really the same man, or is he a clever substitute sent back by the Soviets to infiltrate the Western research effort?

The novel was all written long before our present use of DNA identification, show more which would presumably resolve this question quickly today; but in its own terms it is an intriguing premise, and simply as a character study of Martino it is well worth reading even now. show less

Algis Budrys is a good writer, a real craftsman. I can see why he had many successful books in the Golden age of SF. While other SF authors were writing about space travel or the far future, Algis would write about the current time period here on Earth and still make it SF.

This 1958 effort is one for which he is well known. While the writing is very good I was disappointing in the ending. I felt I had followed the story faithfully to only find no real conclusion.