Story: 5 / 10
Characters: 7
Setting: 7
Prose: 5

An interesting concept: The first intergalactic space voyage destined to the most Earth-like planet identified. However, it is a hard science fiction novel. As such, the book is really about the science and simply does not focus on the story enough. P.Anderson does justice to the character emotions, but it isn't enough.
Interesting note: This is the extra-terrestrial version of Wells' The Time Machine. ( )

Hard SF problem story with problems that just keep coming.

Much like "The Admirable Crichton" this story follows an everyman- the "constable" assigned to an interstellar flight who effectively becomes the king, the leader as problems mount. Hard science - no FTL - and lots of detail which may bog down some. But Anderson does well to keep the action (and problems) coming. ( )

Very very annoying. The women are written as essentially useless and existing for baby making (despite being experts in scientific fields). The rough domineering constable gets his way and is ever so heroic. And he gets to coerce people into behaving how he wants.
Frankly it is annoying crap.
I had heard good things about this but it was an utter waste. I was paging through quickly after the first half. ( )

Really good sci-fi novel about time warps, etc. ( )

2,4 stars

Not my favorite book ever. The concept was great, and the themes handled were interesting, but the writing was mechanical and unimaginative. The characters didn't seem real, and especially their relationships felt very artificial (considering how much of a focus they seemed to be in the book). This is a case where I can appreciate what the author was going for, while being dissatisfied with the execution.

Also, while I recognize that this was written in 1970 and is as such a product of it's times, the misogyny is pretty glaring. I think I'd rather have had this story with an all male cast, than with the women only as either promiscuous charlatans, emotional crutches for the men, or hysterical wish-to-be mothers. Everything was viewed through a male lens, and I'm pretty sure the author had never been friends with an actual woman in his lifetime. ( )