Early reviewers of the Ace edition were not terribly impressed by the book. J. Francis McComas called it "a tedious account of a private eye's quest through space for a runaway heiress," with "he chase ... a pretty drab affair, without the wit and charm usually found in this author's work." Groff Conklin characterized it as "a cops-and-robbers adventure," rating it "fast-moving and moderately sophisticated entertainment, bubble-light though not bubble-headed, and considerably below the author's best." Anthony Boucher described the novel as "a fairly primitive and predictable adventure story which is 'science fiction' because it is said to happen on the remote planet Krishna."