Stylistically another wonder by Bester, but the execution gets sloppy and falls off near the end. Somewhere around the second act, definitely after the marriage and before the underground meeting, I discovered that while I was laughing appreciatively at the absurdities and quirks of this interesting word Mr. Bester offers us here, I was sleeping through whatever threadbare storytelling was going on. The bulk of the action relies heavily on plot details being told through the world-building and it’s easy to go a bit glazed in the eye while reading. Worthwhile for fans of alternate history/pulp-ish spec fiction, and it’s clearly been influential in certain circles, but this one is a swing and a miss overall. (Bonus points to Bester for imagining a future in which caucasians are inbred self-indulgent morons. That took real cajones to throw at science fiction readers/writers/publishers in the mid-70s.)