Until this book, I was only familiar with Orson Scott Card through his science fiction, and a couple of articles. This is a modern fantasy set in a well-to-do black neighborhood of LA (Baldwin Hills). Some of the main characters, however, are taken directly from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

It's an interesting attempt at a modern fantasy. It does a pretty good job of blending a modern setting with historical, fantastic characters.

It took me a little while to get into the book. In the beginning, a lot of the dialogue felt artificial. At first, I thought that maybe I simply wasn't familiar enough with young African-American culture in LA. But then I thought that maybe an author who grew up in Mesa, AZ and Orem, UT wasn't familiar enough with young African-American culture in LA. Eventually, I realized that the artificial-sounding dialogue was probably intentional. The characters in this book weren't young black kids living in the 'hood. They were young black kids living in a nice neighborhood, who thought they were supposed to act like they were from the 'hood, because that's what they saw on TV. Unfortunately, it wasn't apparent that's what was going on at first.

The only other problem I had with this book was Yolanda White riding a Harley. A young, sexy woman who rides a motorcycle because "it's the closest I can get to flying" does not ride a Harley. When he described a sexy woman clad in black leather and a black helmet with a tinted visor sitting atop a motorcycle, I did not picture a Harley-Davidson. I'm thinking of "Dark Angel" or the first episode of "Dollhouse." She should have been on a Ninja, a Gixxer, a Ducati, or something along those lines. Oh well, it's a minor thing.

All in all, a generally enjoyable and interesting book.