Second paragraph of third chapter:

For Ranjit, the experiment was not so successful. Gamini was away, so he had no one to enjoy it with, and world news remained bad.

I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this, Clarke’s last book and Pohl’s second last novel, both aged around 90 when it came out – particularly after bouncing off the recent John Le Carré. But in fact it is comforting home ground for Clarke fans, with perhaps a little hint of Pohl here and there. There are hat-tips to The Fountains of Paradise, Imperial Earth and Childhood’s End