This book was part of my dad's collection. It looked like it would be an interesting read. The story was not quite what I expected based on the description on the back, so there was a bit of a disconnect there. The characterization, especially of the lone female character, was horrible. I don't even remember the female character's name because even after learning it, the narrator mostly still referred to her as "the girl." Between the disconnect of the storyline and the crap characterization, I decided it wasn't interesting enough to keep.
The first half was OK if you discount the typical sexism of science fiction of the time. The second half was a combination of a interstellar scientific expedition acting like a disorganized field trip outing to a museum and gobblygook science. I tried to finish but just couldn't justify the time.
Ball presents some interesting concepts, but on the whole, the book did not hang together. The first part of the story talked about recreational time travel. Ball could have ran with that and have a fascinating adventure story. But no, we are subject to deep space and time travel. Most of the book is written in made up techno babble. And the one female character is constantly referred to as "the girl." She has a name: Suzanne Rosetti. ..
LOVED the front cover but sadly the story didn't live up to it. No idea what was happening and the only woman was constantly referred to as 'the girl'. Nope.