Eternity's End

Acknowledgments

This book took four years to write: forever, it seemed; an impossible task. But at last it is done. I owe more than the usual debt to those who helped me through it, and this is where I get to thank them publicly.

It’s customary to save one’s family for the end in this sort of thing, but I’m going to break with custom and start with the very best: my wife Allysen, without whose love and support this book would never have been written. Thanks for that and so much more. And what better fans could any writer ask for than my own smiling daughters? They’ve spent more time in my office than anyone but me, and I doubt they’ve known what a wonderful, continual encouragement they were to me. (Note to A. and J.: I look forward to many more years of having you peer over my shoulder asking, “Are you almost done yet, Daddy?”`) And thanks to my brother, Charles S. Carver; he knows why. (Note: if you happen to be in the fields of personality or social or health psychology, you may know his books, too.)

Next in line comes my dauntless writing group, more than twenty years old now! Mary Aldridge, Richard Bowker, Craig Gardner, Victoria Bolles. Three times—and more!—they read this book through, in all of its stages of semi-intelligibility. They helped me think through many a complex twist of plot and character, and circled the dumb parts so you wouldn’t have to. I am forever grateful. Whatever the flaws in this book, you can’t blame them.

Nor can you blame my friend and editor, Jim Frenkel, who waited patiently, patiently, while I wrote, and rewrote, and rewrote some more. Thanks, Jim—and not just for that, but for the hard editing, too. And while I’m at it, thanks to Tom Doherty and the rest of Tor Books, and my agent Richard Curtis, for letting me take the time I needed, not just to finish the book but to finish it right.

Thanks are also due to Freeman Deutsch and Noel Friedman, for their generous contributions to the Big Sisters auctions. I hope you enjoy your namesakes’ appearances.

And finally, there’s you the reader. Some of you are new; some of you have been waiting a lonnng time for the next book. Some of you, in the CompuServe and SFF Net forums, helped me search for a title. Well, here it is, and welcome aboard! Thanks for waiting, and for all the letters and emails that helped me persevere. You can’t imagine how much they meant to me.

Now, enjoy.

Arlington, MA

August, 1999