Frontera

a u t h o r ’ s n o t e

Kane’s Pattern is the Pattern of the Hero, detailed in Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen, 1968). Quotations from the I Ching are from the Wilhelm/Baynes version (Bollingen, 1967); quotations from Ouspensky’s Tertium Organum are from the Bessaraboffl/Bragdon translation (Vintage, 1970).

I would like to particularly acknowledge the superb nonfiction books of James E. Oberg, which were indispensible in the writing of this novel: Red Star in Orbit (Random House, 1981), New Earths (Stackpole, 1981), and Mission to Mars (Stackpole, 1982). I also made extensive use of Hedrick Smith’s The Russians (Ballantine, 1978).

I am deeply grateful to William Gibson, Edith Shiner, and Bruce Sterling for making me see what it was I really wanted to do.Thanks also to my editor, Betsy Mitchell, and to the many other friends who contributed time and suggestions, including Ellen Datlow and the Turkey Citizens.

For this new edition, thanks must go first to Bill Schafer, my publisher and tireless advocate of my work, and to my partner, Orla Swift. A big tip of the hat to Jenny Crisp, my dedicated copy editor, and to Georgene Russell for fixing my Russian transliterations. Dr. Birgit Krummheuer at the Max Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung was most generous in getting me permission to use the gorgeous Mars photo on the cover.

178