A review by elanienneco
The Man Who Awoke by Laurence Manning

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

one of the first books written in the "cli-fi" genre -- interesting premise, writing is clearly from the 1930s so it's fun to see how Laurence Manning was imagining the distant future. Across each of the "awakenings", there are a few similarities: focus on young people as the leaders of new societies, youth constantly held in higher regard than age, sort of vague explanations of new technology but more of a focus on the commonly held beliefs of "the world" (as one society). i find it interesting that Winters didn't reject immortality at the end, personally i would have not wanted to keep living, but i guess that was his whole thing, he wanted to experience as much of humanity as possible. at the end, he's involved in a seemingly infinite process of creating a higher power, a God, who can tell them the purpose of life............................................. cool read.