Before Carl approaches Isaac Asimov to read his novella, he stops at the receptionist's desk, where she is reading a paperback copy of Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 novel, Between Planets. The timeline is established as being prior to 1973 (the year of his Nebula award). The Darrell K. Sweet artwork shown on the cover of Between Planets, however, was not used until 1978 (1st Ballantine edition or Del Rey). The Steele Savage artwork would have been the cover seen prior to 1973 (1971-1975 Ace editions).