My vote: 4

I pretty much went straight from finishing _The Book 
of the New Sun_ to this. What a contrast! Gene Wolfe
assumes that the reader is very intelligent, and able to pick
up on tiny hints, and has a fantastic memory for
small events that happened hundreds of pages ago.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. assumes that the reader is a complete
idiot who must have the significance of everything -- especially
the main theme -- explained at great length. Here's the main
theme:

	PREDESTINATION ROOLZ!

None of the characters are very interesting; certainly none
of them are likable. The major character who is essentially
martyred over the course of the book is Malachi Constant --
and it's not as if there was any good reason for "choosing"
Constant for this role; any other random character would
have done equally well. Constant does some rather appalling
things (rape, execution of his best friend) but he does
them in a state similar to lobotomy, so it's not
as if either he understood any of what was going on, nor
did I feel that he was in any way responsible. Later, when
Vonnegut hints that the amnesiac Constant will be lynched rather
gruesomely on his return to Earth, I didn't much care,
since he didn't have any freedom to choose when and where
he retured to Earth. When Vonnegut has him exiled instead of
lynched, I'm not sure I mustered a yawn.

On the whole, I felt that everything was manipulated clumsily
by the author to no real point. The author titillates by
implying that something amusing or interesting will have to
happen to reach certain predestined points -- but as often
as not, those points are reached by fiat, anyway.

By contrast, _The Anubis Gates_ has largely the same theme --
but it's entertaining throughout, has memorable scenes, and
vivid characters.

"Life is pointless" -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
"So is _The Sirens of Titan_" -- Raja Thiagarajan