Like a tightrope walker himself, Christopher deftly balances Hang Wire on multiple, crisscrossing threads of character and plot. As dizzying as it is, he never slips. Even when secrets swell to bursting with world-shaking promise, the story maintains a steady, nervy rhythm. The characters could be more deeply realized, and the ultimate unveiling of the source of evil — not to mention of Ted's strange message — doesn't pack as much suspense as it could. But like China Miville's similarly sprawling urban fantasy Kraken, it coasts past its minor weaknesses on the strength of sheer flash, wide-lens spectacle, and giddy fun. Hang Wire is flush with the sort of geek-centric weirdness and galloping, whiz-bang pace that Christopher had previously only begun to master. In spite of so many moving parts, the result is a tightly wound, dynamic piece of genre-bending machinery. If that's a metaphor for Christopher's awestruck vision of melting-pot America, all's the better.
Jason Heller is a senior writer at The A.V. Club.
Read an excerpt of Hang Wire