I have to lump Doorways in the Sand into the romp category. The main character gets thrown into situation after situation which he narrowly escapes time and again. Fred comes home to find that his apartment has been vandalized, as he investigates further the intruder is still there and is threatening him with bodily harm. Turns out the intruder is Paul, a big fella who Fred and his ex-roomie Hal knew. Hal had gotten a star stone replica in a poker game a few weeks ago and Paul is looking for it. Fred has no clue, and eludes Paul by using his extrodinary non fear of heights and going out on the ledge.

We learn that Fred is in his 13th year of undergrad--his uncle's will stipulates that it will pay for his college while Fred is a full time student headed toward a degree. Once he gets his degree it will stop.

A short while after his escape from Paul, Fred is kidnapped by a couple of thugs. They work him over pretty good, then stake him out in the hot sun, followed by a cold night. This time he is rescued by aliens...

In a couple of the chapters, he picks up a critical time, then goes back to the events leading up to it. For no apparent reason he wavers from chronilogical order. Some sort of literary ploy. Anyway there are a few more chapters, we eventually find out where the star stone went, people from the beginning chapters reappear, and we have one pretty much coherent story.

Certainly not the caliber of his Amber novels, but I still enjoyed the book. Do go out and read Nine Princes in Amber and the rest of the Amber series, don't make a special effort to get Doorways.