Acknowledgments

Thanks as always to the whole Aconyte team, especially Lottie Llewelyn-Wells, who deftly edited this volume in addition to all the other things she does. I’m grateful to the Twilight Imperium creative team for letting me play in their world. Line up this book next to the earlier two, and you can see the full triptych of artwork by cover illustrator Scott Schomburg! I’ve never had a triptych before. It’s a delight.

Thanks to my agent Ginger Clark and her associate Nicole Eisen­braun for handling the business things so I can focus on words.

My wife Heather Shaw and our kid River are endlessly supportive of my weird job and its strange hours. Thanks to my nearest and dearest, Ais, Amanda, Emily, Katrina, and Sarah, for making life brighter and less lonely.

Thanks to all my supportive writer friends. I wish I could see you in real life again, but hey, at least we have the DMs. My gratitude to my boss Liza and my co-workers at Locus magazine, the best day job a writer can have.

My greatest thanks go to you, the readers, who’ve come on this journey with me. I hope you enjoy the conclusion of the trilogy. As Shakespeare basically said, “Journeys end in lovers meeting and titanic space battles”.