Stereotypical characters and inconsistencies make this otherwise action-packed descriptive story a pain to read. I gave up half way through.
Story opens with Alain barely able to function because of not being able to block his telepathic reception, yet in just about every other scene in the book he is apparently untroubled by being in crowds or around others.
And then there is the obligatory (in old space operas) young uneducated nubile female who falls in love with him. That's the point where I stopped.
The last chapter does contain a good insight by the director of the government spy agency: "We ran around in circles, biting our own asses, playing games with life and death as though we were about the most important, most serious task in the universe. And what does it all come to?...I think we were all fools, so caught up in our own self-importance that we couldn't see the sense to anything." ( )