alexei panshin described "spectre" as "an intermittently satirical melodrama about revolution," saying "its greatest strength, in fact, is in conceits and occasional lines. and two-thirds of the way through it falls apart, its satire forgotten in favor of the melodramatic requirement of movement at any cost." ron goulart called the novel "a big, funny and angry book. . . . a fine non-stop picaresque about a future united states that's turned into texas and about race, love, violence, god, death, shakespeare, and most anything else you can name."