It's like a cyber punk version of the chronicles of the Inquisition. What is the REAL reason that the Spanish Inquisition happened. Sierra re-imagines the reasons behind the nefarious psuedo-religiousity of the Catholic church in the Americas of the 16th & 17th centuries. The element of explaining the translocation (that are on the real historical record) of certain preists, nuns, and saints, is given a new patina of believability as the author expertly weaves the stories of the ecclesiastical, the NSA, dream travel and music empathy, is just too creative to put down. Not perfectly executed but certainly expertly imagined. Read it.