Originally published in Stross's 2009 collection Wireless, it won the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

[1] Subterranean Press has announced that they will be reprinting the novella separately in 2011.

[2] Stross has stated that Palimpsest is effectively a rewrite of The End of Eternity, by Isaac Asimov.

[3] Pierce is a police officer with the Stasis, a special institution dedicated to the preservation of humanity by its agents who are able to travel through time.

However, the Opposition, an organisation that seems to struggle against the Stasis, has been created over time, and it seems that Pierce is somehow tied to it.