Acknowledgments

I’m always awkward writing these because I secretly fear I will miss someone. I always think I will write my acknowledgments as the book goes on, but that’s like saying I will organize my tax receipts at the end of every month instead of waiting for March. Doesn’t happen. But onward!

The whole team at Orbit continues to be wonderful, supporting me and making this book better than I could have made it. Devi Pillai and Kelly O’Connor are excellent editors, and the cover was under the care and guidance of Lauren Panepinto. My agent, Jennifer Udden, continues to work hard to give me incredible guidance, as well as gentle talkings-down when I get anxious. Thanks also to Katie Shea Boutillier and everyone from DMLA who worked with this book.

I was lucky enough to have the science advice of astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay, who gave both lovely conversation and speedy responses to panicked emails. Thanks to early readers Alasdair Stuart and Matt Wallace, and thanks to Claire Rousseau for her enthusiasm at Loncon a few years ago when I joked that I was considering writing a book of FTL fanfic.

No, this book isn’t FTL fanfic, but still, thanks to the design team behind the iOS game FTL whose use of cloning sparked the idea behind one of the major building blocks of this book.

To the people who gave support through this writing: Kameron Hurley, Marguerite Kenner, Sunil Patel, Karen Bovenmyer, Andrea Phillips, Sam Montgomery-Blinn, Fran Wilde, Charlie Stross, and of course all of my parental units and my sister Shelley. And I can never forget the people at home who make sure that I have a schedule of a normal person who puts on pants and takes a shower and eats a food from time to time (not in that order): Jim and Fiona, my whole world. I love you.