Cyborg IV is a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
/
secret agentSecret Agent is a 1936 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young...
novel by
Martin CaidinMartin Caidin was an American author and an authority on aeronautics and aviation.Caidin wrote more than 50 books, including Samurai!, Black Thursday, Thunderbolt!, Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38, Zero!, The Ragged, Rugged Warriors, A Torch to the Enemy and many other works of military history...
that was first published in 1975. It was the fourth and final book in a series of novels Caidin began in 1972 with
CyborgCyborg is the title of a science fiction/secret agent novel by Martin Caidin which was first published in 1972. The novel also included elements of speculative fiction, and was adapted as the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and also inspired its spin-off, The Bionic Woman.-Plot...
, profiling the adventures of
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
Steve AustinSteve Austin is a fictional character created by Martin Caidin for his 1972 novel, Cyborg, who later became a 1970s television icon as portrayed by Lee Majors in the 1974-1978 series The Six Million Dollar Man.-Background:...
, who becomes a spy for the American government after an accident that requires the replacement of numerous body parts with high-powered machines.
Cyborg IV was published after Caidin's original novel was adapted into a television series entitled
The Six Million Dollar ManThe Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a fictional cyborg working for the OSI...
.
Cyborg IV is a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
/
secret agentSecret Agent is a 1936 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young...
novel by
Martin CaidinMartin Caidin was an American author and an authority on aeronautics and aviation.Caidin wrote more than 50 books, including Samurai!, Black Thursday, Thunderbolt!, Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38, Zero!, The Ragged, Rugged Warriors, A Torch to the Enemy and many other works of military history...
that was first published in 1975. It was the fourth and final book in a series of novels Caidin began in 1972 with
CyborgCyborg is the title of a science fiction/secret agent novel by Martin Caidin which was first published in 1972. The novel also included elements of speculative fiction, and was adapted as the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and also inspired its spin-off, The Bionic Woman.-Plot...
, profiling the adventures of
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
Steve AustinSteve Austin is a fictional character created by Martin Caidin for his 1972 novel, Cyborg, who later became a 1970s television icon as portrayed by Lee Majors in the 1974-1978 series The Six Million Dollar Man.-Background:...
, who becomes a spy for the American government after an accident that requires the replacement of numerous body parts with high-powered machines.
Cyborg IV was published after Caidin's original novel was adapted into a television series entitled
The Six Million Dollar ManThe Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a fictional cyborg working for the OSI...
. Confusingly, therefore, its first paperback publication by Warner Books was issued as Volume 6 in Warners'
Six Million Dollar Man book series (the only other Caidin work to be published in this series was
High CrystalHigh Crystal is a science fiction/secret agent novel by Martin Caidin that was first published in 1974. It was the second sequel to Caidin's 1972 work Cyborg, which in turn was the basis for the television series The Six Million Dollar Man...
), even though Caidin's
Cyborg continuity is separate from that of the other
Six Million Dollar Man-branded novels by authors such as Mike Jahn and
Jay BarbreeJay Barbree is a correspondent for NBC News, focusing on space travel. Barbree is the only journalist to have covered every manned space mission in the United States, beginning with the first American in space, Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7 in 1961, continuing through to the latest completed...
which were
novelizationA novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
s based upon teleplays.
Plot summary
In
Cyborg IV, Caidin takes the notion of
cyborgA cyborg is a cybernetic organism . The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
to new extremes as Steve Austin's consciousness is hooked up to a next generation spacecraft, creating a new form of union between man and machine. Meanwhile, an enemy force plans to use similar technology for their own ends.