I read this when I was 20 years old. 1979. Loved it. I was one of the first few books I really loved. It set me off onto a lifetime of reading science fiction. Read it again recently...I was wrong...I way underestimated how magnificent it was. It's now my number 1 favorite read. Excellent on ten dimensions.

I read this book about thirty years ago and I've been saying ever since that it was my favorite book, so when I went to re-read last month I was a bit trepidatious, thinking that it could not possibly be as good as I thought it was. I was wrong. It is as good as I thought it was.

This is a strange book for me. I don't really like it all that much. I don't find the characters at all appealing. There is no explaination whatsoever how Walter suceeds so wildly in his professional life - he just does. There's no real explaination whatsoever of how Patty falls so far from her former heights. But...having said that...like no other book I've read in 15 years - it has totally captured me. I usually read five or six pages of a book per night before I go to sleep and it takes me weeks to read even a short book. I've been reading 50-60 pages every night for the last week. I literally can't put it down. The writing is so totally smooth. So easy to read. So clear. It's like skating on clear ice - there's no energy needed on my part to just breeze right through. The characters are annoying but the writing is amazing.