I especially liked Card's more in-depth journey into alternate history in this installment of the series--had to look up some things myself to figure out how the time line differed from the real world. I agree with some other comments, though, that the book felt disjointed between the beginning set-up and the rest of the story that included Alvin. To tell you the truth, I think I was almost more drawn into the story during the part *without* Alvin since the semi-historical characters were so interesting.

There were some suspenseful parts closer to the end that got me more hooked, though, plus some things pulled by the author that I didn't expect. Let's just say that I thought this was a "no one is really going to get hurt" kind of book, and I was wrong. It surprised me and made it a lot more gritty.