About this novel, the author writes: "What would happen if the sun vanished? The idea for this book was suggested by an article I read in, I think, Scientific American, describing a simulation of just that. The surprising result, according to the simulation, was that heat in the atmosphere and existing weather patterns would persist for a remarkably long time. It made me think about who might survive the catastrophe - military personnel in buried, self-contained complexes and bases on the moon - and what would happen next. I decided to have the sun removed by extremely advanced and extremely stuffy aliens who did it to punish us for our bad manners. Haven't you ever sat next to someone on the bus who made you want to do something violent?"