Identity Plunderers

Haiblum has a strange style of writing, sarcastic, irreverent,and humorous, yet serious about the story. He uses almost no exposition. He starts out in the thick of the action and never lets up, giving only as much information as you absolutely need before interrupting himself with more action. His worlds work well, they make sense and are fascinating and logically thought out, yet he never stops to tell you about them, you have to pick it all up on the fly. In the end, it all makes sense, but at no time did he slow down the story to tell us about it. So we (and usually his characters) are kept off-balance, with just enough understanding to follow what's happening, constantly learning more, but never quite enough. This book is one of his less smart-aleky, more serious works, and I found it hard to put down. I read it twice, and enjoyed it both times. It's almost impossible to describe without giving away too much information, since the whole book, like most of Haiblum's, centers on giving the reader just enough information, but not too much, at any given time. Take my word for it, it sounds odd, but it works. His style is a lot like Keith Laumer's non-Retief books, in my opinion, and is just as much fun.