Essef - A brilliant novel of alternate universes. Beginning with his classic novels of the "50s (The Space Merchants, Search the Sky, Pohl has shown a talent for constructing different scenarios and rushing his heroes through their mazes, which he repeats in this novel, an alternate-worlds adventure. The central action is an invasion of one America where Nancy Reagan presides by another where Jerry Brown is president. Throughout the work Pohl toys with an infinity of such warped mirror images of our own world. If the protagonists remain sketchy, short story characters, their proliferating number and rapid shuffling make such brevity acceptable.