Brilliant is as brilliant does. this improvisatory jazzlike riff of good and evil in the context of a most unusual growing-up story is bittersweet as first love and loss, a minor-key elegy for the death of youth and innocence." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "John M. Ford is the best writer in America, bar none." - Robert Jordan "Ford's evocation of this transformed Chicago has a magic all its own. Beyond the life-or-death tests and the mind-bending puzzles, this is fundamentally a love story, with a deeply satisfying climax." - The New York Times "Rasping, succinct, tantalizing, and psychologically complex, as well as powerfully visual. Superb.

" - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Simply one of the finest writers the field has ever produced." - Orson Scott Card "A thunderclap of a book, a thing of blood and magic." - Roger Zelazny on The Dragon Waiting "Savvy and scientifically swift." - Gregory Benford on Growing Up Weightless "The best mingling of history with historical magic that I have ever seen." - Gene Wolfe on The Dragon Waiting ".