This is intended to be satirical science fiction. Its two "heroes" are both heavy-handed ethnic stereotypes, one Alabama redneck and the other Irish Catholic. Though writing in 1969, the writer does not seem to have considered that the cultures he parodied might change, so the Alabaman is supposed to admire Jeb Stuart and the Irishman is supposed to have had an uncle who was a Catholic priest who fought in a rebellion in 2160, I suppose against Britain. They get sent out on a space exploration and get involved in a theocratic culture on a humanoid planet. ( )

Very stereotyped roles, about par for the era. But even tho, as a woman, I was irritated by how females were portrayed, I enjoyed the lively dialogue and verbal sparring of the 2 earthmen.
Apparently the previous reviewer who criticized the ending results for John Adams didn't understand the implication of the last 4 paragraphs. O'Hara is more of a con man than Adams' narrative depicted. ( )

I struggled with how many stars to give this book. On one hand, I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was pretty original. On the other, it's not particularly well written, it's dated, and full of stereotypes. In it, two space cadets find a world similar to Earth with aliens similar to people, albeit mostly naked. The ship's commander, Adams, is a born again Bible thumping evangelist, while the other, O'Hara, is an Irish drunken lout who's hornier than anyone in the universe. Within minutes, O'Hara has sampled the local flavor, much to Adams' disgust.

This world is not broken up into countries, but into universities where everyone studies. The two spacemen find out they can teach noncredit courses, so they get started on Earth's art, drama, history, literature, ecology, emotions, legal systems, military, etc. And so they start these people down a slippery slope, for these people take things literally. Soon there is violence and then a police force. Then a guard of "centurions." Meanwhile, O'Hara is screwing every female alien on the planet and Adams falls in love with one and gets married. Both are committing big time Navy regulation no nos, so they'd likely be prosecuted with at least a court martial if found out. Soon, there is a murder, the first on this world in over 5,000 years.

O'Hara is the drama teacher here and puts on plays with his students. He takes many liberties with Shakespeare and the Bible. Adams doesn't appreciate it. There's a lot of tension. Meanwhile, Adam's wife becomes pregnant and has a daughter, who looks like O'Hara. Adams explodes! I won't give away the climax of the book, but the book is framed in such a way that it begins with the arrival of their starship with only Adams on board. While he is being debriefed, this tale emerges. At the end of the story, he simply walks off. What, no court martial? No firing squad? WTF? He violated about 100 regulations and he's simply going to get off? That doesn't make any sense to me, so I'm knocking it down a star just for that. Otherwise, it's an entertaining story -- with lots of sex -- although, not particularly well written. The dialogue isn't really believable. Can't say I recommend it for a general audience, but a sci fi fan might like it. ( )

Ens. John Adams returns 6 months early from a deep space probe. His partner Ens. O'Hara is not with him. It falls to a junior intern psychiatrist to debrief him and find out what happened.
While on a deep space probe, they discover the Planet Harlech (which in the aliens language means Heaven). A planet where there are no wars, crimes or religion. The planet is run by universities where the population learn their trades.
One of the purpose's of these probes is to establish trade with the worlds they find, but the people of Harlech have no interest in trade with or of Earth at all. The Earthmen are allowed to set up classes which will teach Earth History and culture. They start by teaching ethics, religion and law. Of course they cause havoc along the way, and manage to introduce crime, student protests, marriage, police, law courts and lawyers to heaven.
Of coarse the burning question is what happened to O'Hara, and why does John Adams risk a court marshall and return to Earth six months early?
As with other of Boyds books he pokes fun at religion and lawyers so this isn't for the easily offended. ( )