I was gripped from the start! This book has several themes, some done better than others. On the face of it, you have an alternative reality where there is a truly hard concept to stomach. The racism/alienation is sickening. But then you have the story of three friends, their betrayals and love. 
 All of this was good, but the book dragged sometimes and the narrative had the annoying habit of going off on a tangent. I would award the book five stars if it hadn't been for this, but I'm going to give it four because it occurred so frequently.