Finding a truly great space opera isn't easy, but this is one of them. Both the alien being, and human protagonist show great character development, and the scale of the story is epic. I had the odd chuckle throughout as well, so it's not all doom and gloom. I got emotionally invested in all the characters. This was my first Frederick Pohl novel and halfway through I ordered 4 more. A great book for fans of Sci fi epics. 

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I wanted to see if this stood up to a second read, especially given how much more I’ve read over the last couple of years, and happily I can still say I enjoyed it. I’m not sure about the 4.5 rating I had previously given though, it feels like a 4 would be more appropriate now. Whilst I still loved it, I can see the points raised by some other reviewers, to an extent. Viktor is not a particularly loveable character and the author’s somewhat dated ideas do come though, but one has to forgive that a little in the context. The main reason for the shift in rating though is the ending, I’m not sure why it wasn’t an issue for me on the last read, but now I find the very open ending to be a little annoying. This is such an epic story, over such a long time-period, a more concrete ending would be great.