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  Epigraph
  
  Dedication To Stanley
  
  First words The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the Equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight. Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. (Foreword)
  
  Quotations "I'm not going to do that, Dave." Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over. Now they were lords of the galaxy, and beyond the reach of time. They could rove at will among the stars, and sink like a subtle mist through the very interstices of space. But despite their godlike powers, they had not wholly forgotten their origin, in a worm slime of a vanished sea.
  
  Last words He was back, precisely where he wished to be, in the space that men called real. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
  
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  Original language English