When most people think of the family of dinosaurs called sauropods, though few probably know the proper name, they think of the brontosaurus, which we are told no longer exists due to a naming error, or the brachiosaurus so deftly brought to life by Steven Spielberg and company. Unfortunately, all the best known sauropods lived in the Jurassic era, which ended eighty million years before the Cretaceous ended, which itself was only sixty-five million years ago. But digging deeper into the long lists of dinosaur species, I discovered that these better-known sauropods were neither the largest nor the most fascinating of their kind. The titanosaurs were much larger, setting records maybe even for largest animal ever, and look incredible, with spines and fins and even claws. And so, the perfectly-named titans became a major part of my novel, especially this one, which carries a ponderously improbably iron fortress on its back. It’s alright though—it was made by a sorceress, so it could happen.