"Card entwines two stories in this fascinatingly complex series opener....The result is an amalgamation of adventure, politics, and time travel that invokes issues of class and the right to control one's own life. Yet despite its complexity, the book is never less than page-turning. While Card delves deeply into his story's knotted twists and turns, readers should have no trouble following the philosophical and scientific mysteries, which the characters are parsing right along with them. An epic in the best sense." --"PW", starred review

Born in Richland, Washington in 1951, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He teaches writing and literature at Southern Virginia University, and lives with his family in Greensboro, North Carolina.