I read this because, after finishing The Thing Itself and finding it interesting, goodreads reviews said Salt was better. It's not. It's worse. But having given Thing 3 stars, I would then have to give Salt 2 and it's better than 2. But if I manage to read through to the end of something I feel a book deserves a 3 for that alone.

Look at me hoarding my star ratings like a citizen of Senaar! I was rooting for the Alsists all along, for despite their Cartesian isolated minds, I could groove on their hippy ways while Senaar was too much like the worst of middle America.

So it's about a clash of cultures, too bound up in their ways to have much understanding of each other. But we start with that and not much happens, really. No one grows. Maybe Rhoda, slightly. Very slightly. Even I shrunk reading it. I liked the beginning enough that I kept expecting more. I almost want to drop it down to 2 stars now as revenge.