Andersen's characterization of the cast of Heyday is enviable. It's amazing how he constructs such realistic characters from deftly revealed snippets of their pasts without interrupting the flow of the present-time narration.

Interestingly, he fits concerns we think of as "modern" seamlessly into the context of American life 150 years ago, especially the relationship between time and communication across distances, aided by technology.

The last quarter of the book dragged on a little for me until it ramped up to the ending, which was admittedly pretty darn cool. I didn't see that one coming.

As far as I'm concerned they could've stayed in New York; the wild west setting wasn't as compelling, in my opinion. I think that New York was more richly and completely portrayed, and the settings west of Gotham weren't as lavishly described. Well, OK, I did enjoy some of the historical flavor he used as a background once the characters headed west. There were some people and places that I looked up in Wikipedia because I wanted to know more about the real story behind them.