Interstellar

Her gaze wandered over the rest—the pale gray sand and wind-hewn rocks where Edmunds had spent his final days. He had been in cryosleep when it happened, waiting for a rescue that would come years too late.

* * *

Cooper waited anxiously, watching the hangar door as the last of the mechanics left and locked up. He waited a few minutes, then crept near.

A moment later the door opened, and he was grinning at Tars.

“Setting up camp…”

* * *

Amelia knelt in front of the little cross and hung Wolf’s name plate from it.

The first to die here, she thought, but not the last.

She reached up and broke the seal on her helmet. She removed it and felt the cool air on her face. She took a slow, deep breath.

“Alone in a strange galaxy…”

* * *

Cooper pointed at one of the Rangers. Tars moved over to it and began working the hatch mechanism while Cooper kept a nervous eye out.

* * *

Amelia took a second breath, and a third. Her nose felt very dry, and she smelled something like salt and crushed pine needles.

“Maybe, right now, she’s settling in for a long nap.”

* * *

Tars beside him, Cooper strapped into the pilot seat, studying the controls. The robot ran a sequence as the hangar door opened to the familiar star-fretted darkness of space.

Cooper grinned. Tomorrow, everyone’s in for a little surprise.

* * *

Still breathing, Amelia set her helmet aside and watched the unfamiliar, beautiful sunset.

“By the light of our new sun…”

She turned from the fading star and went back to camp. There was a lot to do, and she was the only one to do it. But she felt, somehow, it was going to be okay.

“In our new home.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Christopher and Jonathan Nolan for a fantastic screenplay.

Special thanks to Emma Thomas, Shane Thompson, Isabella Hyams, Kip Thorne, Jill Benscoter, Andy Thompson, and Josh Anderson at Warner Bros. for seeing that I got everything I needed to write this book. Thanks to Steve Saffel for suggesting this project to me—and as always, for deft editing. At Titan books I would also like to thank Nick Landau, Vivian Cheung, Katy Wild, Cath Trechman, Alice Nightingale, Tim Whale, Chris McLane, Sam Bonner, Owen Vanspall, Emma Smith, Julia Lloyd, Ella Bowman, and Katharine Carroll.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Greg Keyes was born John Gregory Keyes in 1963, in Meridian Mississippi to Nancy Joyce Ridout and John Howard Keyes. His mother was an artist, and his father worked in college administration. When he was seven, his family spent a year living in Many Farms Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation, where his father was business manager of the Navajo Community College. Many of the ideas and interests which led Greg to become a writer and informed his work were formed in that very important year. After another year or so in Flagstaff, the family returned to Bailey, Mississippi, where he and his brother Tim finished their public education and moved on to college. Greg received a B.A. in Anthropology from Mississippi State University, and afterwards worked briefly as a contract archaeologist. In 1987 he married Dorothy Lanelle Webb (Nell) and the two moved to Athens, Georgia, where Nell pursued a degree in art while Greg ironed newspapers for a living. During this time, Greg wrote several unpublished manuscripts before writing The Waterborn, his first published novel, followed by a string of original and licensed books over the following decade-and-a-half. Also during this time, Greg earned a Masters in Anthropology from the University of Georgia and completed the coursework and proposal for a Ph.D., which thus far remains A.B.D. Greg moved to Seattle for a few years where Nell earned her M.F.A. from the University of Washington, following which the couple moved to Savannah, Georgia. In 2005 the couple had a son, Archer, and in 2008 a daughter, Nellah. Greg continues to live with his family in Savannah, where he enjoys cooking, fencing, and raising his children.

Interstellar is his twenty-first published novel.

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Copyright

Print edition ISBN: 9781783293698

E-book edition ISBN: 9781783293704

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

First edition: November 2014

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