As plainly as this stage of the story allows.
That’s the question this site is built around — and we won’t spoil it here. Read the novel first, all the way through the historical note. Then see what you think. A full, documented account of the book’s making will be published; until then, the book is the evidence.
Don’t take our word for it — that would be the wrong way to meet this book. Read it first.
Because charging for it would turn the project into exactly what the novel warns against: a race for priority and profit. Some books are products. This one is evidence — and evidence shouldn’t sit behind a paywall.
On the surface: the Bone Wars, the 19th-century fossil feud. Beneath that: a warning about obsession and racing. Readers keep finding the 1870s uncomfortably close to the present. The reading guide maps the parallels for those who want them.
In due course. The complete record — every file, every conversation behind the novel — exists and is being prepared for the record. When it opens, skeptics are invited first.