[cross-posted from GoodReads]
On the one hand: This was written to be part of an “Ace Doubles” volume, and it shows the flaws common to most of those “filler” novels: arbitrary worldbuilding, characterization by convenience, an obligatory de minimis love interest, and an unquestioned faith in the viability and desirability of a coercively realized utopia (that last one was common throughout the genre FAR beyond Ace Doubles).
On the other hand, this was apparently Silverberg’s first novel, written as a business decision because he had already saturated the short fiction markets. Also, he was twenty-one years old.