For the late and much underrated Mark Chiffon, one of whose books convinced me that anything was possible, and, of course, a special tip of the hat to the late, great Eric Frank Russell, as always.

AUTHOR'S NOTEWhen writing the three volumes of The Quintara Marathon, I immediately ran into the problem of representing nonverbal communications. In the book we have various characters and creatures, some of whom communicate in whole or in part directly with the mind of another. When added to internalized dialogue, this began to make for a page that was both confusing and typographically unwieldy.The late George O. Smith, when faced with this problem, decided that the easiest way to resolve this was to use a different dialogue delimiter so that the reader would instantly know which communications were verbal and which were mind-to-mind. I have often marveled that others never took up this practice, but it seems practical here and throughout The Quintara Marathon. Thus, to alert you, text delimited by opposing carets, or "arrows" as they are sometimes called (e.g., <Watch out on your left!>) are telepathic or mind-to-mind dialogue throughout this book, joining the traditional "Watch out!" for verbal communications and Better watch out (no delimiters) for internalized dialogue. It might jar at the start, but as, every once in a while, all sorts of furious dialogue flies in all directions, I think you'll find it remarkably easy to get used to, and certainly preferable to the alternatives.Jack L. Chalker