Alfred Bester's last novel, completed posthumously by Roger Zelazny. Um, well. It didn't change my life. It revolves around a store in Rome called The Black Place of the Soul-Changer, where customers trade parts of their souls for other things. There's a black hole in Rome, and some aliens. It's colorful and entertaining, and the prose gets a bit out of hand in spots. This is why we read Bester. This is why people of us don't read Bester. Caveat emptor.

I found the characters dry, witty and entertaining if not a little plastic and unbelievable. My only true fault with this book was that the changeover was obvious. You can tell where Roger Zelazny took over and finished; seamless it is not. Sadly, I enjoyed Besters story telling better and so rather than get better the book took a small yet perceivable nose dive.

All-in-all it was light, fun and worth the read.