First, I would like to offer a blanket apology to anyone who was forced to listen to a planet fact when they had just wanted me to pass the toast at breakfast (although I stand by the analogy with carbon worlds). To those of you listed here, I can honestly say that this would never have been a problem without your merciless encouragement. You have only yourselves to blame.
This book would never have begun if it were not for Jim Martin and Anna MacDiarmid at Bloomsbury. Thank you for bearing with me while I learned how to assemble something longer than a few thousand words.
I owe a huge debt to my technical readers – René Heller, Dimitri Veras, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Jonti Horner, Sourav Chatterjee, Shogo Tachibana, Caleb Scharf, Sean Raymond, Johanna Teske and Eric Ford – for giving up their free time to read through my chapters. Without your supportive feedback, I would have stuffed this book under a mattress. Most especially, I’d like to thank Stephen Kane, who supported this project from day one, from discussions for the book plan through to last-minute panicked queries.
I have been truly fortunate to have had excellent mentors throughout my career, without whom I could never have written a book. My secondary school English teacher, Pat Huntzinger, looked past my atrocious dyslexic spelling to tell me I could write, and even read through my early attempts as a novelist (everyone died at least once: it was more gory than a holiday on 55 Cancri e). My graduate thesis advisor, Greg Bryan, has been a never-ending source of encouragement over the last decade, as has my postdoctoral advisor, James Wadsley. Ralph Pudritz at the Origins Institute at McMaster University turned my interest in planets into the unquenchable thirst that has only been partially sated by writing an entire volume on the subject.
I also need to thank Kelly Roy Komura, who created a real baby while I constructed a book baby, but never told me I had it easy when my manuscript didn’t need a nappy change. Also all my friends who never once doubted I would finish this book and supported my struggles both in person and online (and who once suggested that I contribute a planet fact in the middle of a wedding ceremony – you know who you are).
Most of all, thanks to my parents for being my best friends. To my dad for his positive plans of action each time world-ending chaos seemed inevitable in my life, and to my mum for leading by example in writing her own PhD thesis and for being my very first editor while I was in school (an utterly thankless task). I love you both.