These changes affect the stories. When first we meet him, McAndrew the scientist is all there, but I don’t think I could in the early tales ever have given him a child (as in “Rogueworld”), and still less a mother (as in “The Fifth Commandment”). That last story also points out an implicit element in most of the earlier stories: the relationship between Jeanie Roker and McAndrew is in some ways that of parent-child. He is the small boy whose rash actions lead him into trouble, she is the responsible and experienced adult who gets him out. I think that’s who I would really like to be, the curious child who is not quite responsible for his own actions. That is the reason why I continue to write about Arthur Morton McAndrew.

Two other brief answers to questions: Will I ever write a McAndrew novel? An e-mail correspondent pointed out that although there are references to McAndrew in others of my novels, he has never had one of his own. My answer is, McAndrew will get a novel when I run across a neat scientific idea so large and complex that I can’t get a handle on it in a story of ten to twenty thousand words.

And finally, is this really the Complete McAndrew, as the title suggests?

To this, I can only offer the Clintonian reply: it all depends on how you define the word, is. Certainly, at this time there exist no other McAndrew stories, so what you have is the complete McAndrew. Equally certainly, there will in the future be fascinating scientific ideas that just jump up and down, crying out, “Me, me, write about me.”

I’m not sure I will be able to resist their pleas. But “The Incomplete McAndrew” makes a poor book title.

FIRST CHRONICLE: Killing Vector