This space opera, published in 1960, precedes the Mercury Program and represents the approach to science fiction conventional at that time. The emphasis is on speculative fiction explaining “how things work.” The description of the plot sounded interesting but the author gave little attention to developing characters and advancing the plot. After finishing a quarter of the book (60+ pages) I invoked the Pearl rule and did not finish the book.

Nancy Pearl’s rule
If you’re not really liking a book when you get to the bottom of Page 50 then put it down and look for another. (There's nothing to stop you from going back to it later.) If you are 51 years of age or older, subtract your age from 100 to determine the number of pages you should read before you can guiltlessly give up on a book. ( )