The original books as well as the omnibus edition were all published by DAW Books. The novels are what Cherryh and her publisher at DAW, Donald A. Wollheim, referred to as "magic cookie" books. Such works explore unusual themes and ideas in science fiction, and can in some sense be seen as thought experiments. Wollheim encouraged Cherryh to experiment in this way during the late 1970s and early 1980s because he felt that the science fiction market would support such unusual offerings at the time.