I'm just going to come out and say it: This book was juvenile. Maybe I've been spoiled by the power and depth of Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land, but dang. I have to say that I was expecting more.Okay, so it wasn't bad, not really. It was. . . unimpressive enough that I put it down a few times and almost didn't pick it up again, but I still got through it and got something out of it, didn't I? I like to think so.
Heinlein writes a firm story, but this one drags and drags and embraces a ton of cliches. There's also the introduction of strange characters who you get the feeling were important to the author but in fact do very little for the story. Even the ending is cliche. Maybe I'm just being hard on this piece because, as far as sci-fi goes, it's archaic. (1956). It reads like something written for teenagers of the Flash Gordon era, only the starships are saucers instead of rockets (holy cow!)
Rating-wise, I give it a wishy-washy two point five stars out of five. Just short of average.
