 He said it was the first to disturb "the National Guard armory that science fiction had become", as it involved a struggle "between Man and the Establishment", showed a man of Mexican ancestry as a brilliant and idealistic engineer rather than an exotic villain, and saw something better for engineers than a safe, lucrative career.Jerry Pournelle said in 1985 that it was the only important story in modern science fiction, outside the work of Jack Williamson, that had "an easy, sophisticated view of international and corporate realpolitik" reminiscent of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene.Brian Stableford called it "perhaps the most perfect ironic fantasy" on the theme that the privileged will not permit new technology to undermine their privilege.