Harrison's techniques are sound and traditional ones put cleverly into play. Drop a "good guy" (and Will is a good guy) plausibly into one of the more common testing grounds of one's moral center—sexual temptation, on the one hand, and into some sort of extreme situation created by the human race on the other—and see how he behaves.

How does the hero act in such extreme situations? What will his being thrust into these twin crucibles reveal about Will's character? What will his experiences teach us?

Harrison names his central figure Will Hobbs by which we are perhaps to understand the philosophic conflicts between free will and materialistic determinism. In his first name we find an allusion to "will" as in "free will" or "agency," the power to recognize and make moral choices. Perhaps in his surname we find an allusion to the ideas...