This book starts off reasonably interesting, and I had hoped to read a book rife with futuristic politics and personal hubris. But it soon degenerates into a rather mundane diatribe for or against religion--it's hard to tell--and, while I usually enjoy such books that discuss these issues, Heinlein doesn't pull it off effectively. Heinlein seems to spend the first third of the book being interesting, then switching to soapbox mode. Such methods do not a good book make.Still, the characters are reasonably intriguing; the three girls and other workers who live with Judal are more fleshed out, in my mind, than Valentine Michael Smith or Jill.This would be an excellent read--if it were about 200 pages shorter.