To
MaryJo, who turned me on to Bradbury,
Laura Dene, who loaned me the Foundation trilogy,
Dale and Maria, who made me read the
Chronicles of Narnia,
and the four thousand people who urged
me to read Tolkien:
It's all your fault.

I've endured having four arms, an extra nose, and two hearts pumping away before the surgeon took me under his knife to cut away the excess.

And when a life ends as mine will end, no one can persuade me that the cost was not worth what it has brought me at last.

Do NOT combine with "Treason" -- that later book is a reworking of this one, and roughly 10% of it is new material.