[2] Writing in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, John Clute found that Zelazny's story "intoxicatingly dashes together myth and literary assonances—in this case Herman Melville's Moby-Dick—and sex".

[3] Gardner Dozois opined that "Doors of His Face" was inspired by "a loving nostalgia for the era of the pulp adventure story that was then widely supposed to be ending".

Davits is a work-for-hire seaman who has been on the crew of several earlier attempts, and in fact had once been in Luharich's position: a playboy sportsman who hired Tensquare to catch an Ikky, until he was injured in a disastrous try whose failure he blames on himself.

Davits has been hired on as a "baitman"—the crewmember who is tasked with diving to the end of a submerged cable so as to attach and activate an electronic lure.

He manages to safely return to the ship, where he assists Luharich in a successful capture, for which she has to overcome the same primal fears that caused Davits to fail in his attempt, when he saw the face of the Leviathan.

[4] Zelazny himself explained his conception of Venus as one intentionally written before such a story was made no longer possibly by scientific discovery.