Card draws upon history and historical fiction for details of frontier life in the early nineteenth century, so that even though the novel is a fantasy, the portrait of daily life has the feel of authenticity. The culture and crafts, the buildings and the local characters are right. Card offers glimpses of village life, the work of a smith, of a water finder, a hotel keeper, and glimpses of other kinds of life as well, of a cultured city lady and of a wealthy southern plantation owner and his slaves. Alvin meets and fights Mike Fink, who nearly killed Measure in Red Prophet, when he picks up a load of iron at a nearby Hio river town. Other authentic and mythical characters are mentioned as well.