Paradox (49 page)

Undying love and gratitude to Yvonne, who inspires, critiques and puts up with it all…

A thousand thanks to: Lisanne Norman, for the crucial psychotherapy; Bridget McKenna, Howard V. Hendrix and the assembled NadaHax, for kind criticism of a partial early draft; Simon Taylor (editor) and John Parker (agent), for unerringly pinpointing my weaknesses, (productively) stressing me out, and making me get rid of that epilogue (great move, guys!); to Jim Burns, for the cool artwork; and to everyone who enjoyed
To Hold Infinity
and was kind enough to say so. (Even if that makes me a filthypro—thanks, Roger Robinson!)

Also—if I dare place these names together in one sentence—thanks to Rog Peyton, Dick Jude, Ariel, Ken Slater, and the van der Voorts, for kind comments and for actually selling the book.

Some portions of this book appeared first (in different form:
c'est-à-dire
, before the rewrite) in
Interzone
magazine, under the title of
Parallax Transform.

The “one-chopstick” problem is a thinly disguised version of that described in
Science
, 2 March 1984, p.917, and reprinted in
The New Physics
, ed. Paul Davies, pub. Cambridge University Press.

The form of logic proof-tree I've used (OK: abused) is that developed by Jim Woodcock and Jim Davies at Oxford University, and utilized in their book
Using Z
, pub. Prentice Hall. (I know you're going to make me suffer for this.)

Other sources—
pace
Einstein's famous advice—were various excellent works by: John Gribbin; William Poundstone; Huw Price; W. V. Quine; Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart…not to mention Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen.

In the absence of logotropes, this book came to fruition under the influence of massive doses of Green & Black's organic dark chocolate (thanks, Lucie!), Diet Coke, and the music of both Hans Zimmer and Eric Serra.

To the original Paradox, beloved Pip,
Osu, neko-sama!

J
OHN
M
EANEY
has a degree in physics and computer science, and is a black belt in Shotokan karate. He has been hooked on science fiction since the age of eight, and his short fiction has appeared in
Interzone
and in a number of anthologies. His début novel,
To Hold Infinity
, was published to great acclaim in 1998, shortlisted for the BSFA Award and subsequently selected as one of the
Daily Telegraph's
“Books of the Year.”
Paradox
is John Meaney's second novel.