The co-founder of the world’s largest software company. Otherwise membership was by invitation only and invitations were rarely given-as one would expect of such an august collection of individuals. While membership of the Council was not strictly conditional on heredity, over the years it had become commonplace for sons to replace their fathers. The other two were in their thirties, but they were the sons of former members, so their loyalty was assured. TURNING AND TURNING IN THE WIDENING GYRE, THE FALCON CANNOT HEAR THE FALCONER THINGS FALL APART THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD MERE ANARCHY IS LOOSED UPON THE WORLD. To anyone who knows a writer, never underestimate the power of your encouragement. They’re a wonderful crew at Pan Macmillan: from editorial to publicity to the sales reps out on the road. It’s incredible what these two guys know-as such, any mistakes in the book are mine and were made over their objections!Īnd again, to everyone at Pan Macmillan, thank you for another great effort.
Special thanks to the remarkable Richard Walsh from BHP Billiton for taking me on a fantastic tour of a coalmine down at Appin-the mine scenes in this book are so much more authentic for that experience! And thanks to Don Kay for arranging the introduction.Īnd of course, once again, sincere thanks to my amazing American military advisors, Captain Paul Woods, US Army, and Gunnery Sergeant Kris Hankison, USMC (retired). And to Daryl and Karen Kay, and Don and Irene Kay, for being keen test subjects, hard-nosed engineers and good friends. To Nik and Simon Kozlina for taking me out for coffee when I needed it and to Bec Wilson for those dinners every Wednesday night. Thanks, again, to Natalie Freer for her companionship and her smile and for reading the book in 60-page chunks once again to John Schrooten, my mum and my brother, Stephen, for telling me what they really thought. One encouraging word can outshine a thousand critical comments.Īnd so while you, dear reader, may not recognise all of the following names, each in their own way encouraged me. In my previous books, I have written on the ‘Acknowledgements’ page these words: ‘to anyone who knows a writer, never underestimate the power of your encouragement.’īelieve me, writers-indeed, all creative people-live off encouragement.
They’re either friends of the author, or people who helped the author with research or getting published.īut let me tell you, profound and public thanks is exactly what these people deserve. I don’t know about you, but when I read a book, usually most of the names on the ‘Acknowledgements’ page mean very little to me. His books are published in over 20 languages, with worldwide sales exceeding 4 million copies. Matthew Reilly is the international bestselling author of ten novels: Contest, Ice Station, Temple, Area 7, Scarecrow, Hover Car Racer, Seven Ancient Wonders, The Six Sacred Stones, The Five Greatest Warriors, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, and a novella, Hell Island.