mondol@mit.edu

I loved this book at 15 and it is still great. Farmer's sociological and historical background gives a level of detail that I just love. To tell the truth I remember book #2 is the best of the lot, an opinion seconded in a recent conversation with an old friend with whom I discussed the book with 40 years ago. Neither of us is satisfied with Farmer's series ending, but the journey itself is so great that I don't really care about the ending all that much.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history. The personal anecdotes give the whole book an amazing quality of personal narrative, while conveying a huge amount of information regarding WWII in the European theatre. I have meant to read this book for some 40 years, wish I had done it sooner. The narration is also excellent.

I love Asimov and loved him even more in my youth. Unfortunately this book is about 5 times longer than it should be, I almost quit several times, but plowed ahead anyway. The plot twist at the end was reasonably predictable- if you have read enough Asimov. Way too much nattering on about different sexual mores, in different societies, which was not enlightening or interesting. Oddly; several others review the narration as good, I found it histrionic in the extreme and rather irritating

Yet another excellent Elmore Leonard. "Up in Honey's Room" is another book that includes Carl (Carlos) as a US Marshall. Most importantly the story keeps moving and kept me wide awake from 11PM to 6 AM or so while driving from Boston to Detroit, a trip I do once a year, usually with an Elmore Leonard book that includes Detroit in the story line.