Romance and other things

I thought I had the review up for this book, but I just saw that one of Booklikes friends listed the cover as planning to read and decided to check and only see the rating. I first read this book in Russian translation when I was nine or ten. I lost the count how many times I reread it ever since. When I came to US I of course bought the original and was happily surprised as to how awesome the translation really was.

First Hugo winner, which as I heard hugely influenced the TV show Babylon 5 (have the DVDs but still  have not watched) - it introduces us to the world where telepaths have very significant roles and for the most part they actually try to be ethical and decent about it - they are policemen, shrinks, so many other professions. Interestingly the society seems to accept them as well - contrary to quite a few darker books I have read since I first encountered this one.

The book is worth reading for sheer creativity of telepathic conversations alone if you ask me.

At the center of the book is the duel between policeman Lincoln Powel and charming psychopathic criminal Ben Reich who decided to commit a perfect crime - another one, eh :). I love that the book offers the possibility of redemption at the end, won't say much because it is spoilerish, however for years I could not understand why my heart is so attached to it.

Till I read a certain Amazon review which pointed that the book in a way plays on the theme from Dostoevsky's "Crime and punishment" (which I also love, I cannot tell you how much). And I was like - oh shoot, it so does. Mystery solved :-)

Ehhhh, women's portrayal - no, not good . Still love the book though. Love.