A strong Heinlein tradition, a worthy successor to which Timothy Zan has long declared himself, was especially vividly manifested in this novel. Immersed in earthly society opposing alien races and a simple American family, involuntarily embroiled in their universal conflict it would seem that in science fiction there is no more banal situation. But the master is also a master, so that suddenly, unexpectedly for the reader, the plot turns upside down, and now, as in the kaleidoscope eyepiece, the picture changes completely, the simple turns into complex, and what seemed banality acquires original features.