Acknowledgments

I started writing stories about Zax a few years ago for my Patreon, where I create a new story each month for my supporters, so first I’d like to thank those patrons for providing a platform for me to experiment with new characters and ideas. (The character changed a lot from those stories to this book, but there are still fragments of those narratives bobbing around in here.)

Thanks to Eleanor Teasdale at Angry Robot for acquiring this book; she inherited me from another editor, and it means a lot that she decided to continue working with me, especially when I pitched this weird multiverse book instead of the space opera she was probably expecting. Thanks also to Gemma Creffield at Angry Robot for heroic acts of organization and coordination. Simon Spanton edited this book, as he did my previous one, and once again he saved me from myself and made it a stronger novel. Paul Simpson did heroic work copyediting (I swear I really tried to keep all those numbers straight). My agent Ginger Clark continues to be my greatest supporter and advocate. My day-job boss Liza (to whom this is half dedicated) and my co-workers at Locus are always supportive when I need to vanish for a while to work on books.

On a personal level, my wife Heather Shaw and son River are immensely tolerant when I talk to myself and sit hunched at my desk for hours. River is thirteen now, with an inventive mind, and talking over ideas with him is a blast. I hope he enjoys reading this book.

My nearest and dearest support and love me even when I’m cranky and distracted and rambling on about novel ideas, and so my gratitude goes out as always to Ais, Amanda, Emily, Katrina, and Sarah. My community of fellow writers is vast and important and too numerous to fully enumerate, but I’d like to especially thank Daryl Gregory, Jenn Reese and Chris East, Effie Seiberg, and Molly Tanzer for providing consistently sympathetic ears on matters of craft and business and other things.

Finally, thanks to you, for coming with me on this journey. Sleep well.