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This isn't exactly a bad book. But I wouldn't call it good, either. It's quite old-fashioned, harkening back to the super-science potboilers of pre-Campbell SF. Fortunately Simak soon became much more sophisticated ("Empire" was his second published novel).

The story itself doesn't show any of the humor and imagination of Simak's later works. It's basically a scientific arms race between two groups - one evil, one good. Unbelievable world-changing discoveries are made over and over with ridiculous speed. Titanic forces are unleashed. There's the usual seesawing of power between the two sides, and ultimately the bad guys lose. If you needed a spoiler tag for that...WHY? The only real spoiler would be if the bad guys DIDN'T lose.

There are no female characters at all, as far as I can remember. That's probably lucky for womankind as a whole, in retrospect.

In short: Simak became a fine writer, but this book, while earnest and not actively painful to read, is nowhere near representative of his later works. You can download it for free from Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28215, and if you're bored and don't have anything better to do...there are still better books out there. Look for them. I'd suggest starting with Simak's "The Goblin Reservation".

How did I completely miss Harold Lamb? I can't quite figure it out. He was a prolific writer of adventure stories, novels, and films in the early-to-mid 1900s, yet somehow I only first heard about him last week.

"Marching Sands" (1919), is for some reason the ONLY novel of his on Project Gutenberg, although many more of his works are in the public domain; they just aren't available. That's frustrating, but it means that I'll have something to look for in my favorite used book shops.

In a more fractional rating system, I'd give the book a 3.5. I considered 4 stars, but I'm trying to restrain my enthusiasm a bit; too many high ratings might seem excessive. That said, "Marching Sands" rather reminds me of classic adventure stories such as the Conan and John Carter books. A strong, capable, brave ex-military man (albeit with a mildly endearing shyness around the opposite sex) sets out to the forbidden heart of China to investigate rumors of a lost tribe of occidentals. Meanwhile a villainous cadre of Buddhist priests (yeah, that seemed weird to me too) and a cruel Chinese mandarin will do anything to stop him.

Okay, yes. In modern eyes, there's more than a tinge of racism here. But Lamb was actually quite knowledgeable about China; Asia in general was his area of expertise, and he's actually far more tolerant and open-minded than many of his comparatively ignorant contemporaries.

All in all it's a rousing, entertaining novel that made me wish for a sequel (in vain). And the price (free) can't be beat! www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65825