I was initially lured by the tropical descriptions and the NPR recommendation, but soon I was trying to decide which bugged me more: the superficially empowered damsels in distress (note to White: Having your ladies say things like, "I can take care of myself, dammit" before falling into the arms of your protagonist does not an enlightened novel make); the "damn"-laden dialogue; the evil blood-drinking hermaphrodite villain (again, having your protagonist murmur sympathetic statements about how nature produces all kinds of gender anomalies does not make this character okay); or Doc Ford's habit of rattling off random facts that make him sound more like an avid Wikipedia reader than the scientist he supposedly is. All that said, the plotting is competent and much of White's subject matter is pretty interesting. He might even have extended his research beyond Wikipedia. This is a silly novel, but not entirely un-amusing.