And this implicit anti-intellectualism becomes overt when our protagonists, for all their abhorrence of Collectivist irrationality, deride abstract thought and theory as being humbug. Your implulses, your intuitions. In relating this tale Dunn exhibits a good deal of skill as a storyteller. The novel unfolds with an earnest linearity, but overall his prose is lively and there are even some vivid passages to counteract the intermittent woodenness. Most noteworthy are a few wonderfully naturalistic exchanges of dialog between Tony and his troops, something Dunn really has an ear for.
Characters are mainly well drawn considering the stock melodramatic roles they fill.
Women fare the poorest in this regard as they are either passive or are shown in a negative light. Even Julia is ultimately just the Mother who must be defended by macho man Tony. Worse still is the achingly sincere melodrama of the story, which becomes so overwrought toward the end that it verges on self-parody. One of the central events of this book is when Dame Amalfi is marched out before the populace for a hearing. Yet this novel is itself a kind of show trial which, drawing on the crackpot pseudo-philosophy of Ayn Rand, portrays a simplistic Manichaean universe in which the reactionary Sons of Light struggle against the Collectivist Sons of Darkness.