I have a feeling that when this book first came out it was original. But now over 50 years later, it was predictable and everything in the book is now SF cliche. It was obvious from the first page that the Man With No Face would turn out to be Ben Reich.

I hated the Powell/Barbara relationship, especially since I found it also a little creepy. She regresses to a child and he raises her as his daughter then by the end of the book they are in love and getting married. There's a definite Electra complex there.

I also hated the Reich character and half the book was his perspective. Throughout the book other characters would refer to him positively, but I didn't buy it. The guy was a dick. A ruthless, corporate CEO with no morals. I didn't see one likeable aspect to him and wanted him to fail from the beginning. Maybe that was the point, but the cat and mouse aspect of the story would have been more interesting had I wanted to root for him even a little bit.

Now Powell was a decent guy. Knowledgeable and experienced, with a no nonsense attitude. His side of the story was fun to read. I could see Tommy Lee Jones to be cast to play him if this book ever became a movie, and in fact that was what I was picturing most of the time in my head.