Dear Readers:
I wrote this three-book spin-off of the Gone series out of self-indulgence. I wanted to create my own superhero universe. I wanted to see if I could find original approaches to the idea of superpowerful individuals. It was a challenge, and I’ll leave the judgment as to my degree of success or failure to you.
Though I tried to be completely original, even someone with my limited knowledge of comics recognizes that the Monster, Villain, and Hero trilogy owes a nod, at the very least, to Marvel’s X-Men. But there are other influences incorporated as well. Gone readers will instantly feel at home, but there’s a fair bit of Animorphs DNA in this trilogy as well. And the famous Victorian-era book by Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland. Published in 1888, and still blowing minds today.
You will have noticed that I didn’t give this story a pat conclusion, and that’s deliberate. Katherine (my wife and frequent coauthor, K. A. Applegate) and I were among the earliest authors to encounter fan fiction via the internet. We’ve embraced it from the start. And some part of me hopes that fanfic writers will carry this story forward. Don’t ask me what happens to these characters next, because I don’t know. Will Dekka find love, perhaps with Simone? Will Cruz and Armo? How will Sam and Astrid do in this terrifying extension of earlier trauma? Maybe you have some ideas. I built the sandbox; if you want to bring your pails and shovels and play in it, cool. It’s one of the best things about writing for young people: you are my collaborators in imagination. If I leave blanks it’s because I know you’ll fill them.
Is our universe just a simulation? Maybe. So what? Does it make it easier to imagine a sim created by God as opposed to one created by some future artificial intelligence? Is there a difference?
Reality is what we can see, what we can measure, what we can verify through experimentation. And maybe in the future we will develop a test to discover whether we occupy the only universe, or just one among many. But our subjective reality, our fears and our hates and our loves, while not scientifically measurable, are genuine and cannot just be dismissed. We have no ability to treat the world as anything other than real. Maybe the brick wall is a sim, but if you try to walk through it you’ll still get a bloody nose, and it will still hurt. And sim or not, a broken heart still aches.
Whether we occupy the only universe or one of many, whether we evolved or were invented by a supernatural being, or are just the creation of other creatures who’ve evolved a bit further than we have, we still have to behave as well as we are able. In this universe or in any other, I stand with Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote:
There’s only one rule that I know of, babies: God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.
How great would it be to live in a universe, real or simulated, where that rule was obeyed?
As ever, I am deeply grateful to my readers, who have been very kind to me and embraced my worlds. Thank you for so much. You make it all fun.
Oh, and how did the vote go? Good question. Let me know what you decide.
—Michael Grant