Nick- Setting

The setting of this novel is very mysterious. Farmer has stated at the beginning of the book that the Big House, where the novel has so far taken place, is located in Opium. A small strip of a country between The United States and Mexico. The part that really surprises me is not where the country is or what it is called it is that Farmer does not talk about the country. So far in the book Farmer has only stated simple things about the country but the characters have not really interacted with the scene around them other then on the Ranch. The overall setting so far seems to be the Ranch because it is the only place that the protagonist Matt has been but I think that as soon as El Patron dies Matt will leave to go to El Patron's ranch. Guessing by the technologies and medical procedures that are happening in the novel I am guessing the time period to be in the future around 2150. This date really sticks to me because the technology for the chip may be already invented but inserting it into a brain would take a very long time to master. So far Matt has gone through many changes while on the Ranch. He started as just a little boy locked in a maids house for life, but quickly he became a dirty unwanted clone the everybody hated. The most sup rising part is that now in the novel he is treated as royalty because he is really El Patron. There are many different characters so far, Matt is clearly the protagonist, but I am not sure who is the antagonist quite yet. I had thought that is was Celia but she has been dealt with and is gone. A character who really interests me is Tam Lin. Tam Lin keeps changing as we go trough the novel. He started out when we first met him as this big burly bodyguard but changed into the gentle soul as the book progressed. Tom is clearly Matt's foil and is the stock character as the bad guy.