Thanks to Marc Gascoigne, who bought my first attempts at space opera, the Axiom trilogy, when he was at Angry Robot, and kindly thought of me for this gig too. Further thanks to the Aconyte team, especially Lottie Llewelyn-Wells and my editor Paul Simpson. My gratitude to the Twilight Imperium creative team, too; they created a wonderful world for me to play in and answered all my weird questions patiently. How about that artwork by Scott Schomburg, huh?
My agent, Ginger Clark, continues to offer invaluable professional support. My wife, Heather Shaw, and son, River, deliver top-notch personal support. River is twelve now, and great at games, though I haven’t gotten him into anything as long and involved as Twilight Imperium yet; we’ve done Fury of Dracula and Dead of Winter, though, so it’s only a matter of time.
My near and dear ones are always there for me, so thanks as always to Ais, Amanda, Emily, Katrina, and Sarah. My community of fellow writers is vast, but I’d like to especially thank Daryl Gregory, Jenn Reese and Chris East, Effie Seiberg (look, I dedicated this to you!), and Molly Tanzer for providing support and advice on matters of art and craft.
Finally, thanks to you readers. I hope this book is at least half as fun as the games you play.