Every book’s a journey—sometimes you go to Hawaii, sometimes you go to Mordor. For this book I did a bit of both. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who read the manuscript in its myriad stages, among them the old awesome crew, in alphabetical order: Alana Abbott, Vlad Barash, John Chu, Anne Cross, Nat Drake, Amy Eastment, Miguel Garcia, Siana LaForest, Lauren Marino, Emmy Miller, Margaret Ronald, Marshall Weir. Both blood- and law-parents—Tom and Burki Gladstone, and Bob and Sally Neely—displayed great patience when I spent long stretches of visits hiding in a back room crouched over my keyboard. Alex Temple offered important reading suggestions and advice early in the process. And so on, and so on.
This book wouldn’t be here without the team at Tor, geniuses and friends—David Hartwell, Marco Palmieri, Ardi Alspach, Irene Gallo, and so many others. Chris McGrath’s covers continue to amaze. David and Marco, my editors, unlocked the story in ways I hadn’t thought possible, and inspired me to keep reaching. My agent, Bob, is steady and invulnerable.
Two pieces of writing had an outsize impact on this one. Karin Tidbeck’s Jagannath blew my mind open and got me working; David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again injected levity and wisdom at precisely the right moment.
And my wife, Stephanie: love, patience, brilliance, strength, and honesty. Thanking her one feels the poverty of the deed. “Thanks, gravity, for, um. Everything?” But still—thank you.