What does it mean to be a person? First Born by Maureen Duffy 1981 (formally titled Gor Saga)

Sounds a little like a Heinlein novel gone slightly off track! This is a completely new one to me thanks for highlighting it Richard.

Hi Richard. Must admit I've never heard of this novel nor, in fact, the author. Makes me wonder how they select these Masterwork books. For me the term means best of the best so I'm thinking how does this stack up against some of the Hugo, Nebula winners and acknowledged classics that form this series. Given your decent score of 8, do you feel this book is a worthy entry to the series ?

Even if pervasive in its social commentary at times, First Born at least sounds like an interesting read – and in any case I do enjoy looking over whatever commentary/debates/themes/so-on I come across in my own personal library. How well do you feel that Duffy tackled these subjects / do you have any extensive thoughts about it rattling in your head? Either way, I’m going to try and check it out for myself, though if I can’t hunt down the novel then the mini-series works as a last resort, surely it's lurking out there on the web

I actually did see the miniseries (quite a short one I think, perhaps only two episodes) a very long time ago, when I was a rather naive and immature 21yo. Did not know it was based on a book, but that rings true for me because I remember at the time thinking the plot had a rather stagey and arch resolution which seemed more literary SF than TV fodder. It was well made as far as I recall, and held my attention right up to the end. The surreal ending in which religious gatekeepers played a prominent role disturbed me at the time (I was a naive Catholic lad, as I said). But like all good SF it certainly made me think.

Okay, this is another book that I am not familiar with. The title makes me wonder if Maureen Duffy had 'The Ugly Little Boy' by Issac Asimov, in mind when she wrote this. The short story was originally published in Galaxy magazine in 1958 under the title 'Lastborn'. It concerns a Neanderthal child brought forward in time and centers around scientists, who see the child as the subject of an experiment, and a nurse who cares for him as he learns to speak and to adapt to the modern world; she comes to see him as a person. Of course, the similarity in title and story could just be a coincidence. I tend to see patterns where, perhaps, none exist.

And then there is The Neanderthal Parallax series by Robert J. Sawyer. Not quite on topic, but related.