This was a fun one! I read it for my wife's cousin's podcast's discord's book club earlier this year. A big part of the fun was that I got it in a vintage mass-market paperback with an absolutely stellar cover. It was tiny and I got to put it in the pocket of my cargo shorts to read on the go. Nerdy; but fun!

Story-wise, it is broken into three distinct acts. They were all good as separate small stories. Taken together, each added a sense of empathy to the other. Each act centered on a different set of characters, with overlap at the edges.

The first and third acts are on earth, featuring very hard sci-fi. Lots of science. I loved it; I don't always love it, but Asimov can write boring science in such a way that gets you excited about the eventual made up breakthrough.

The second act is not on Earth, and features a highly organic sci-fi... it reminded me of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy. Actually I guess it's a ton like Xenogenesis... both center around a pretty in depth exploration of thruples in species that have three sexes. Certainly some influence going on, I'd imagine; although Butler takes the idea and runs and runs and runs.

Good, fun, quick read. It won't change your life, but it's not a waste of time 🙂