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Robert Silverberg is one of my favorite SF writers. Son of Man was written at the height of his greatest period, which lasted from the mid-sixties to somewhere in the latter part of the 1970s. Yet, it's also perhaps his most difficult book to evaluate. I know some who dislike it. Others consider it one of his best (Silverberg himself seems to view it that way).

In some ways, it can be described as the book that would have been produced had Olaf Stapledon written in the style of the new wave. It's an incredible look of the future man, across multiple forms, told in a flowing, colorful style, with characters often looking toward their feelings and their sexuality as much as at the marvels around them. Clay, the main character, awakens to find himself far in the future, befriended by a group of future humans, in a world where humans in many past forms (some almost mountain-like, some like strange spheres, some like dinosaurs) still live. The novel follows Clay across this world as he encounters the people and marvels. There is no real plot, per se; this is more a fantastic travelogue, both external and internal.

It's an experience worth having, but in the end there are at least a dozen Silverberg works I'd rank higher.