Dr Charles Neumann
Dr Charles Neumann is the eponymous Machine Man that the book is about although by the end of the novel he is far more machine than man. Neumann is a highly gifted engineer and up until the time of his accident, and subsequent amputation, he has lived a pretty normal life. The removal of his leg seems to give him something else and that is a new-found zeal in his research to make the most advanced prosthetic limbs possible. Having shown no particular tendencies towards obsessive compulsive disorder before, he know becomes completely consumed by the search for and research into the development of the most advanced prosthetic limbs possible. It could also be said that he descends into a kind of madness; after all, sane people do not generally amputate their own limbs deliberately. He is a warning against obsession and against the need to mechanize. Eventually he is to all intents and purposes a machine, a computer. He is Neumann in appearance only.
Lola Shanks
Lola is the object of Neumann's affections and is his physical therapist. This is actually how their relationship begins because there is a certain closeness in their efforts to enable Neumann to learn how to walk again using his first prosthetic. Lola is partially an enabler when it comes to Neumann; because of his infatuation with her, and so she could influence him away from amputating other limbs and organs, but she does not, because it seems that she is as caught up in the research that he is doing as Neumann himself.
Carl LaRussos
Carl is the security guard at Better Futures and for several reasons he and Neumann forge a close friendship which is actually engendered by Neumann. Neumann is working on highly secret development of prosthetics and so Carl spends a great deal of time in his area guarding his research team and their lab. Neumann also works long hours and so there are times when he and Carl are the only people still working in the office. It is a strange friendship when first considered because of their completely different backgrounds, academic interests and skillsets, but both men are essentially loners and drawn to each other because of this, and because of their interest in prosthetics.
The Manager
The Manager is not given a name, most likely because who he is as a person is completely irrelevant to the story, but his role at the company is pivotal to the story and to the robotic metamorphosis of Neumann. It was the Manager's decision to offer Neumann his own research team and his own cybernetics division, the small ripple from which all of the bigger and bigger ripples stem.
