I was very disappointed with this book. I like Robert Silverberg and this book received many fine reviews. I just could not finish it. I got about halfway through and all I could think of was this: waaaa, waaaa, waaaa. Guess what - as a 50-year-old woman, there are things I can't do as well now as I could when I was younger. That's what happens. There are other things that I am better at now - experience counts.Since I am in that "middle-age" group, I really wanted this book to be interesting and insightful, from a slightly sci-fi standpoint, of course. Instead, I got one long boring whine about getting older. Yawn. If you're a positive-minded or matter-of-fact person, don't bother. You'll be aggravated with the main character after about 15 pages or so.