A clear jab at cults-religions-spiritual systems that aim at controlling adherents for their own good. The villain in this one looks a lot like L. Ron Hubbard, but isn't, quite; he's a melange of several different faces of the mind control game. By the time you get to the end of this one, he doesn't look quite as much like a villain, either. The villain bears strains of victim and the victims bear strands of villainy and nothing is clear. The ending isn't happy. It's not sad, either. The entire book is an emotional ride through pain and anger and hope, an exercise in bittersweet.Which is one of the reasons I liked it so much. This is not a piece of epic science fiction. It is a tour through some of the less savory neighborhoods of the human mind and it does not flinch from showing you the squalid alongside the... less squalid.You'll probably close this one with mixed feelings about it. I did. It was great.
