InterWorld (17 page)

Authors: Neil Gaiman

AFTERWORD

Michael and Neil first started talking about
InterWorld
in about 1995, when Michael was making adventure cartoon serials at DreamWorks and Neil was in London working on the
Neverwhere
TV series. We thought it would make a fun television adventure. Then, as the nineties went on, we started trying to explain our idea to people, telling them about an organization entirely comprised of dozens of Jo/e/y Harkers, trying to preserve the balance between magic and science across an infinite number of possible realities, and we would watch their eyes glaze over. There were ideas you could get across to the kind of people who make television, we decided, and there were ideas you couldn’t. Then, as the nineties came to an end, one of us had an idea: Why didn’t we write it as a novel? If we just told the story, simply and easily, then even a television executive would be able to understand it. So one snowy day Michael came up to Neil’s part of the world, carrying a computer, and while the winter weather howled we wrote this book.

Soon we learned that television executives don’t read books either, and we sighed and went about our lives.

InterWorld
sat in the darkness for some years, but when, recently, we showed it to people, the people we showed it to thought other people might like to read it. So we brought it out of the darkness and polished it up. We hope you enjoyed it.

—Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
2007

AUTHORS’ NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Still, given an infinite number of possible worlds, it must be true on one of them. And if a story set in an infinite number of possible universes is true in one of them, then it must be true in all of them. So maybe it’s not as fictional as we think.

About the Authors

NEIL GAIMAN
is the author of the
New York Times
bestselling children’s book CORALINE and of the picture books THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS and THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH, illustrated by Dave McKean. He wrote the script for the film
MirrorMask
and is also the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning novels and short stories for adults, as well as the Sandman series of graphic novels. Among his many awards are the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.

Visit him online at www.mousecircus.com.

MICHAEL REAVES
is an Emmy Award–winning television writer and screenwriter whose many credits include
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twilight Zone, Batman: The Animated Series, and Gargoyles.
His novels include the
New York Times
bestseller STAR WARS: DARTH MAUL—SHADOW HUNTER and the forthcoming STAR WARS: DEATH STAR. He’s also written short fiction, comic books, and background dialogue for a Megadeth video. He lives in California.

Visit him online at www.michaelreaves.com.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Other Books for Young Readers by
NEIL GAIMAN

Coraline

The Wolves in the Walls

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish

MirrorMask

Credits

Jacket design by Hilary Zarycky

Copyright

INTERWORLD
. Copyright © 2007 by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

ePub Edition July 2007 ISBN 9780061756764

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1