Excellent sci-fi. Interesting characters, interesting plot, fascinating alien world, some of the ideas about politics and ecology are very clever. Great ending. I don't have too much else to say except that if you get the chance, read it.Meanwhile - the worst feeling in the literary world is when you reach the end of a book and you see ads for other books by the same publisher, and you'd love to order them, but you can't, because the book's from friggin' 1976. Andre Norton! C. J. Cherryh! Fritz Leiber! And another book from this Stableford guy, about "one man's fight to regain his soul - under the parasitic eyes of millions of frenzied strangers."The people of the 70's took their decade for granted, I tell you. Back then you could rip a page out of a book and send it in the mail and get all the awesome stories you'd need for a month. Now you gotta be haunting used bookstores and pillaging "$1 Hardback! 50c Paperback!" booksales to find what we're looking for.
