I've been a reader of Powers for several years now, and have been waiting for a new novel ever since I read Declare a number of years ago. Somehow I missed this one until now, even though it came out in 2006. I was actually disappointed in this one. Powers is a phenomenal writer, and the most creative one I've ever seen, bu there were just too many balls in the air in this one, and I frequently lost track of who was saying what and what the hell was going on. The creativity is off the chart - but it really makes it hard to follow.