As ever, my partner Molly Nixon served as first reader, sounding board, and co-brainstormer. She read most passages in this book within hours of them being written – usually that night. And we may have turned a few heads at restaurants while discussing the fine details of how one might gas a large fraction of the US Congress. C’est la vie.

Nexus, Crux, and Apex all deal heavily with neuroscience, and I’ve been delighted and honored that neuroscientists have responded warmly to the books. I’m especially grateful to Christoph Koch for the invitation to speak to his team of neuroscientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, where the discussion was quite stimulating; and to Gary Marcus for fascinating conversations on the topic and the sneak peak at part of his book, The Future of the Brain.

A large fraction of Apex takes place in China. I first visited that fascinating nation in 2000 and have returned as often as I could, but I’m hardly a native. A number of people who’ve spent years actually living there provided feedback to hone those passages. I’m especially greatful to Gerald Zhang-Shmidt, Max Gladstone, Peter Atwood, David Hart, and Ben Goertzel on this front. Any errors or insensitivities are entirely mine.

Grace Stahre and Lesley Charmichael both called out biases I wasn’t aware of in my depictions of female characters in earlier drafts of this book, and helped improve it significantly.

My agent, Lucienne Diver, has been a never-ending source of support for me, this series, and this book. I’m immensely grateful to her.

I’m also grateful to my editor Lee Harris, my copy editor Ro Smith, and my publisher Marc Gascione, as well as to Mike Underwood and Caroline Lambe on the sales and publicity team at Angry Robot, who are already at work getting the word out about this book.

The real heroes are the fifty seven friends and acquaintances who read drafts of this book and took the time to send their feedback or meet to discuss it. Writing might be a solitary art for some. It’s not for me, thanks to my beta readers. And this book is a better work for your efforts.

So thank you: Ajay Nair, Alexis Carlson, Allegra Searle-LeBel, Anna Black, Annie Tabler, Banning Garrett, Ben Goertzel, Betsy Aoki, Beverly Sobelman, Brad Templeton, Brad Woodcock, Brady Forrest, Brian Retford, Carrie Sellars, Daniel Garcia, Dave Brennan, David Hart, David Jones, David Perlman, David Sunderland, Doug Mortenson, Ethan Phelps-Goodman, Gerald Zhang-Schmidt, Glenn Bristol, Grace Stahre, Hannu Rajaniemi, Ivan Medvedev, Jaime Waliczek, Jayar La Fontaine, Jen Younggren, Jennifer Mead, Jim Jordan, Joe Pemberton, Julian Klappenbach, Julie Vithoulkas, Kevin MacDonald, Kira Franz, Lars Liden, Leah Papernick, Lesley Carmichael, Mark Lacas, Max Gladstone, Michael Chorost, Miller Sherling, Molly Nixon, Morgan Weaver, Nat Ward, Patrick Davin, Paul Dale, Peter Atwood, Rachel Kwan, Rob Jellinghaus, Satish Bhatti, Scotto Moore, Stuart Updegrave, Ted Lockwood, and Val Giddings.