This one is for Jim Baen (1943–2006), the friend, editor, and mentor who founded Baen Books forty years ago this year. He was one of the best editors, publishers, and innovators our field has ever known, and all of those who knew him—including one of the authors of this novel—are the richer for the acquaintance and the sadder for the loss we suffered far too soon. No one in the publishing field was more farsighted than he when it came to electronic publishing and social media, as his early embrace of eARCs, not to mention Baen’s Bar and the Baen Free Library, which endure to this day, attest. As Spider Robinson once said of Jim, he was one of the very few publishers of science fiction who truly wanted to live in the 21st century. Even more importantly, though, no one in the publishing field has ever been better than Jim was at identifying new talent, encouraging it, helping it to improve, and making it grow.
That process, which continues at Baen Books to this day, is perhaps his most enduring legacy. It was our great loss that he got to see so little of the century to which he so eagerly looked forward, but he left big footprints. Jacob and I like to think he would’ve approved of this one.
Wind to your wings, Jim.
—David Weber
January 2023