It gained RAH the reputation of being a militarist, even a ''fascist''. The plot as usual confers an earned adulthood upon its young protagonist, but in this case by transforming him from a pacifist into a professional soldier. This transformation, in itself dubious, is rendered exceedingly unpleasant (for those who might demur from its implications) by the hectoring didacticism of RAH's presentation of his case. Father-figures, always important in his fiction, tended from this point on to utter unstoppable monologues in their author's voice, and dialogue and action become traps in which any opposing versions of reality were hamstrung by the author's aggrieved partiality.

The fact that RAH's politics are a prime concern in discussions of his later novels points to the sad decline in the quality of dramatization in his SF... His last novels increasingly conveyed a sense of flouncing solitude, and were frequently described – with justice – as exercises in solipsism.