The Collapsium

Acknowledgments

I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Chris Schluep, Shelly Shapiro, Scott Edelman, and Simon Spanton for understanding and believing in this project. Wouldn’t trade you guys for diamonds. Also, for their help in nailing down the basic ideas on which the novel rests, I’m indebted to Gary Snyder, Richard Powers, and especially Shawna McCarthy for being so difficult to please. The many people who helped with technical details are listed separately in Appendix C, but I’ll extend special thanks here to Bernhard Haisch for inspiration and for serving as a brilliant sounding board, and to Sid Gluckman for making a place where imagination matters.

For assistance on matters of Tongan language and culture, I’m grateful to Lonely Planet’s Errol H., and Vincenc Riullop and Periques des Palottes for information about Catalonia.

Also many thanks and apologies to those who faced the early drafts of this story, including Geoffrey A. Landis, Stanley Schmidt, Richard Powers, Maureen F. McHugh, and Cathy, my long-suffering copilot.