The epigraphs that begin each section of this novel are from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; “The City in the Sea” by Edgar Allan Poe; Paradise Lost by John Milton; and “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
The legend of the Light-Stealer and the Punisher is adapted from ideas originally developed by Isaac Asimov in his essay, “Planet of the Double Sun,” and is used here with his kind and generous permission.