The Wanderer (48 page)

Authors: Cherry Wilder,Katya Reimann

BOOK: The Wanderer

8.96Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

It is not possible to make a complete list of those who have contributed to this work. Cherry’s agent, Jim Frenkel, her editor, David G. Hartwell—without their efforts, this book would certainly never have been published. All Cherry’s friends, her readers, her inspirations—I cannot speak to these, I do not know the names of all those who helped her in the last months of her life as she struggled to bring the manuscript of
The Wanderer
to something like completion.

I first read the Rulers of Hylor trilogy when I was in college. I couldn’t know then that these books would be among those that would have the greatest impact on my writing life. Why Cherry’s books appealed to my imagination so strongly remains to this day an incompletely solved mystery: when I read
Yorath,
at least, I was of an age where I was very keenly disappointed when Cherry’s hero, the great general, decided to turn his back on his birthright. At 19, it was clear to me that a man who was born to be king must
certainly
take up the throne when the moment came on him. There was no nobility that I could see in his abdication—besides, how disgusting that he had
taken as his lover an older woman he had first met when he was but twelve years old!

Almost twenty years later, I can still remember the strong feeling of my post-adolescent disgust.

I was at Oxford when I first started writing fantasy; I had not thought of Cherry’s books for years, but for some reason I found myself searching for her in the Bodleian library’s card catalogue—the attractions of my dissertation had temporarily palled. In the Bodleian I discovered Cherry’s most recent book,
Cruel Designs
—a chilly Viennese arts and crafts murder mystery, as I remember it—most striking to me because of the heroine, Katya Reimann. Not long after that, I completed the first draft of my first book.

When I heard of Cherry’s orphan novel, this last chronicle of Hylor, I was filled by the same churning determination that fueled me through that first draft of my first book. I had some sharp discussions with James Frenkel and David Hartwell, trying to keep on a leash the ludicrous hunger I felt that I should be the one to work on, and complete, this book. Some more rational discussions with my own agent, Shawna McCarthy, brought things into a calmer perspective, and then—the actual wrestling with the unfinished book.

I want to thank everyone who offered me their perspectives on Cherry’s writing—not least John M. Ford, who gave me permission to redraw and expand the beautiful map he had made for
Princess of the Chameln.
I want to thank my family, for putting up with me.

More practical (but no less fervent!) thanks go to the unflappable Moshe Feder, David’s editorial assistant, and to Gerri Lynch, Amanda Haldy, Amanda Vail, Sarah Galbraith, and Chloe Kiritz, for the child-wrangling services that have made my writing possible during this past year.

And lastly I want to thank Cherry, for a wonderful creation that has lived with me for many years now, and all the great mystery that allowed me to be a part of the completion of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE WANDERER

Edited by David G. Hartwell

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

eISBN 9781466828698

First eBook Edition : September 2012

ISBN 0-812-56781-1

EAN 978-0-812-56781-6

First edition: May 2004
First mass market edition: December 2005