Greg

reading the judea passages in 2024 is extremely bleak. The jews knew what we were getting into, it was all obvious then, smdh

loved it at the time. Does not really hold up so well in retrospect

I was very into the first half! but it started to bore me in the second half — the latter day storyline seemed to belabor itself with little payoff — and then the climax felt rushed.

But as an atheist, the central question of the book was not super interesting to me. and with a passing sense of astrobiology, the alien civilization felt more like fantasy than sci-fi. Oh well!

Challenging but rewarding read, needed to look up a word every other page or so. By the end I was very annoyed with both characters, but that was kind of the point. I wish for a story more about Tsau, less about the whites self-regard.

Their reaction when they see the natives leaving before the storm... i still think about that and shiver.