A cold, soulless book with profoundly unlikeable characters. Furthermore, the female characters appear to have been included merely as exploitative window dressing and hint at a streak of misogyny. This is an opportunity missed, as the promising plot, faintly reminiscent of Jose Farmer's Dayworld series, had much potential. Barnes however can elicit no empathy from his readers and, if there are any redeeming features in the denouement, I'm afraid I didn't have the heart or stamina to find out. It's not often I give up on a book, but by half way through I'd had enough. If this is representative of Barnes' work then I'll give this author a wide berth in future.