The Ring of Charon

Acknowledgments

I would like to offer my thanks to a number of people who have been tremendously helpful on this book.

Thanks first of all to Charles Sheffield, to whom this book is dedicated. He read and critiqued The Ring of Charon, but it goes far past that. He deserves a lot more than a book dedication for all his kindnesses to me over the years. He is a good man, and a good friend. Read his books.

To Debbie Notkin, my editor, who rode herd on me and did that tricky thing editors must do: she forced me to be faithful to my own vision of the book, without imposing her own. She got the book focused and moving.

To my father, Thomas B. Allen, who zeroed in on the cuts that needed to be made, substantially improving the book you hold in your hands. Read his books too.

To practically everyone at Tor Books—Ellie Lang, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Heather Wood, and Tom Doherty. They did more than publish this book. They got behind it.

And finally, thanks to the others who read over this book and kept me honest—my mother Scottie Allen, and my friend Rachel Russell.

One last thing. This book is subtitled The First Book of the Hunted Earth, and yes, there will be others. But this book, and the next, and all the books I have ever written or will ever write stand alone. You’ll never pick up a book of mine and not be able to understand it without reading 37 other titles. That’s a promise.

Roger MacBride Allen

April, 1990 Washington, D. C.