Stewart's writing style is steady and fascinating to read. The characters are believable and one reads their stories with genuine interest. The narrative is punctuated sparsely with small asides detailing events that provide background, mood, and explanation. I recommend this book highly. Alter one or the other and the balance can change quickly and dramatically.
Population is an example of a near steady state.
While it tends overall to grow slowly, the actual turnover of individual members occurs at a much higher rate. Alter the birth or death rates and you have got trouble with a capital T. Implosion takes place in a world where the USSR still exists. An unknown agriculture scientist, working in a backwater satellite state of the USSR, has discovered a chemical agent that dramatically reduces a rat's fertility leading to dramatic reductions in the rat population. By coincidence the agent is also, with slight modification, effective on humans. In England, some time later, Dr. Bart is alarmed by reports that birth rates are dropping rapidly.