 He considered it superior to his novel, partly because he attempted deliberately to assimilate Lindsay's characters and narrative to second-century Gnosticism rather than being a "naive Gnostic" like Lindsay, who according to Bloom inadvertently created a personal Gnostic heresy.He wrote that despite its "violent narrative", his novel "has too much trouble getting off the ground" and "reads as though Walter Pater was writing "Star Wars".