I have no idea why this book is only three stars for me.

It has everything I usually like in a SF novel. It's an absurd satire of the cold war and religion told with a dry sense of humor with a bit of poetry to add flavor and it embraces the total incomprehensible randomness of the universe and especially people.

So, why do I treat it as only perfectly readable and after reading all other reviews I still have no answers.

Maybe the poetry wasn't too good.