The book you’re holding in your hands or reading upon your chosen screen represents the end of a very, very long road. It has been, in fact, the longest journey any finished work of mine has ever taken. I doubt I will ever publicly admit to the exact number of years it took me to finish the first draft, but saying those years were plural is enough. I never would have reached the end of this road without a lot of help, and I am grateful beyond my insufficient command of words to every one of those folks. The first and ever the foremost is my wife, Nikki. This book would not exist without her. In point of fact, I would not exist without her. My agent, DongWon Song, believed in this story when it was nothing more than a badly composed pitch in a hotel bar, on the strength of which he also signed me as a client. My mother, Barbara, remains my most tireless advocate and the best unpaid publicist in the business. Helljack has been my longtime friend and webmaster. Nicolette Barischoff was an immense help to me in preparing to write this book, and I’m grateful. Thank you to the brilliant and impossibly kind Sarah Gailey for their support. Kameron Hurley also provided pivotal counsel (whether or not she will admit it was pivotal) that helped me reshape important aspects of this entire thing. My editor, Navah Wolfe, is a taskmaster worthy of the Savage Legion who is tempered by a compassion no Savage tasker could ever fathom. Her insights and ruthless campaign against plot holes, faulty world building, and clunky prose made this book and this story infinitely better. My copyeditors, Jeannie Ng, Lauren Forte, and Alexandre Su, chiefly aided her in that. My marketer/publicist, LJ Jackson, kicked down doors to make people aware of this book. Joe Monti, editorial director of Saga Press, has been a longtime supporter of mine who also taught me about the shrimp in New York City’s water supply. There are several other folks under the Saga Press banner who also deserve shine, including Kaitlyn Snowden, Kathryn Barrett, Jennifer Bergstrom, Jennifer Long, Sara Quaranta, Caitlin McCreary, Caroline Pallotta, Allison Green, Rosa Burgos, and Madison Penico. It takes a village that’s more like a pirate ship that crashed into a circus to raise a novel, much less put it on your shelf/screen.

And if you’re reading this now, thank you.

Now go tell a friend.

Matt Wallace

Los Angeles

June 28, 2019

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