I have never read the book. It's just one of the many things that is on my "list" of things to get to eventually. I didn't love it, or hate it. There was a lot of story there and it felt a bit long and quite slow most of the time. The story is also quite dated; Since I was a teen-ager in 1985 I can relate to the cold war…
Yup to make it more plausible, possibly less distracting. It was changed for the better I think. The gist is the same, the story carried through, and was at least a less jarring fit with the cold war premise. But! It has the side effect of making Ozy's pet seem totally out of place without the angle...my girlfriend thought…