"Those pale, weak, two-legged things, what had they called themselves? Oh yes, Homo Sapiens. Some among them were precocious and had regarded themselves as Homo Superior. It was pitiful in a way. It was pathetic."

A good read for an misandronist. I admire Russell's sardonic, tongue-in-cheek humor, but I'm puzzled at the lack of women characters in his work. I will have to read a book in him and answer some of my questions. ( )

Not my favorite of his books -- a slightly drier read than, say, Next of Kin -- but nonetheless delicious. ( )

Heinlein wrote a several novels on the theme of planetary colonies revolting against the domination of Terra (Between Planets, Red Planet, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress) and any number of authors have written stories of the good mutants resisting the evil normals, but Russell here wrote of the good Terrans resisting the revolt of the colonies of Venus and Mars, whose best weapon is their mutants --not just the conventional telepaths and telekinetics, but also firestarters, miniengineers (able to build micromachines by hand), insectivocals (who command he poisonous insects of Venus), and natural hypnotists, among others. As the colonists are fully equal citizens on Terra, they are able to infiltrate and sabotage at will. To stop them, the World Council turns to Simon Raven, believing him to be merely an unusually gifted human (unlike other telepaths, he can keep his own mind closed while reading others), but it turns out he has many other gifts, because he is actually an alien sent out as a sentinel against a greater enemy than the colonists --the aliens of Deneb. ( )

Human beings are not quite what they seem.