I'm mixed on this book.

Let's start with the good: this book does, imo, does what a scifi book should do. It placed all kinds of questions in my mind. My favorite sequence is one where Sam, a sham Buddha, leads another person to true enlightenment somewhat unintentionally. This is such an interesting idea! Sam himself is really interesting in all kinds of ways.

The bad for this book is more or less that it contains a bit of the kind of unthinking transphobia which you might expect from the 60s. Given the current climate where people are attacking power stations to disrupt drag shows, I don't think the book can be recommended in spite of this. Another weakness for the book is that it retains a "religious" kind of feel for the prose. I can understand why this decision was made, but it prevented me from ever being truly immersed in the story.