First and foremost, I’d like to extend many thanks to my editors Frank Parisi at Random House, and Jen Heddle and Leland Chee at Lucasfilm. Erich Schoeneweiss at Random House also injected the proceedings with his own inimitable enthusiasm and insight. I’m grateful to Keith Clayton, whose support goes back to the beginning. Thanks as always to my wonderful agent, Phyllis Westberg, for making it all come together.
For inspiration and support in the trenches, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my good friend Dom Benninger, who was always ready with insight and the excellently Photoshopped cover art when I needed it most (Au Revoir, Crazy Bando Gora Chick!). Thanks also to Michael Ludy, an old-school student of narrative structure and this bewildered storyteller’s oldest friend. Vigilant readers will also find the influence of Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, and Alex Lifeson among these pages, three gentlemen whose music animates much of the action as I initially conceived it in my mind. And of course, to George Lucas, without whom all of this never would have existed in the first place.
Closer to home, it is my pleasure and honor to thank my family—my son, Jack; my daughter, Veda; and especially my wife, Christina, to whom this novel is dedicated, for their patience and love during the long road that Maul took over the past two years.
Finally and ultimately, to God my creator, the author of everything good and restorative in my life, I owe a debt that words alone will never be able to convey. In the end this book is a humble offering to Him, an attempt to say thank you through my work. May He guide all of us, our work and our hearts, in everything that we do.