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Clavain had been a soldier. He had killed more people than he could remember, even though those days had been a long time ago. It was really a lot less difficult to do when you had a cause to believe in.
Alastair Reynolds -
'Don’t tell me you aren’t the slightest bit curious, Norquinco.''I hope you burn in hell, Sky Haussmann.''I’ll take that as a yes.'
Alastair Reynolds
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Clavain saw it all with sudden, heart-stopping clarity: all that mattered was the here and now. All that mattered was survival. Sentience that bowed down and accepted its own extinction-no matter what the long-term arguments, no matter how good the greater cause-was not the kind of sentience he was interested in preserving.
Alastair Reynolds -
'Personally,' Scorpio said, 'I think it’s time to stop thinking chivalry and start thinking artillery.'
Alastair Reynolds -
Maps had never really been his thing, even during his days under Scorpio in Chasm City. There, it had hardly mattered. Blood’s motto had always been that if you needed a map to find your way around a neighbourhood, you were already in trouble.
Alastair Reynolds -
I like men mathematics with any great agility, but now I sensed it as a hard grid of truth underlying everything: bones shining through the thin flesh of the world.
Alastair Reynolds -
I don’t question your loyalty, Skade. I just wonder exactly what it is you’re loyal to.
Alastair Reynolds -
Clavain felt little in the way of regret; more a sense of quiet relief that they were past the negotiating stage and into the infinitely more honest arena of actual battle.
Alastair Reynolds
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'What happened?''Let’s just say my efforts to reprogram the weapon were not an unqualified success, shall we, and leave it at that?' She hated discussing failure almost as much as she hated the thing itself.
Alastair Reynolds -
Grafenwalder shoots a sidelong glance at Ursula Goodglass, wondering what their marriage must be like. Clearly sex isn’t in the cards, but he doubts that it was ever the main interest in their lives. Games, especially those of prestige and subterfuge, are amongst the chief entertainments of the Rust Belt moneyed.
Alastair Reynolds -
'Don’t you agree with me?''On some distant theoretical level, just possibly.'
Alastair Reynolds -
'Maybe it’s not as bad as she fears. Old people always think the world is going to ruin. It’s their job.''Maybe they’re right,' Floyd replied.
Alastair Reynolds -
All machines knew what would happen to them when their masters lost faith in their infallibility.
Alastair Reynolds -
'Haven’t you ever heard of morale-building?' Khouri had asked.'Heard of it,' Volyova said. 'Don’t happen to agree with it. Would you rather be happy and dead, or scared and alive?'
Alastair Reynolds
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In Clavain’s experience, it was the less comforting possibility that generally turned out to be the case. It was the way the universe worked.
Alastair Reynolds -
'There’s a catch,' Skellsgard said.'Another one? But of course there is. You know, I’m thinking I should start a collection.'
Alastair Reynolds -
'The central defect of the human mind,' Custine said, 'is its unfortunate habit of seeing patterns where none exist. Of course, that is also its chief asset.''But sometimes a very dangerous one.'
Alastair Reynolds -
'You look older, son.''Yes, well, some of us have to get on with the business of being alive in the entropic universe.'
Alastair Reynolds -
'A splendidly inept thing,' Sylveste said, nodding despite himself.'What?''The human capacity for grief. It just isn’t capable of providing an adequate emotional response once the dead exceed a few dozen in number. And it doesn’t just level off-it just gives up, resets itself to zero. Admit it. None of us feel a damn about these people.'
Alastair Reynolds -
His parents had abdicated responsibility to an illusion.
Alastair Reynolds
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I’m fed up with everyone being lied to just because the administration thinks it’s in our best interests not to know all the facts.
Alastair Reynolds -
'You seem upset by the fact that we’re hated and feared.''It does give one pause for thought.'
Alastair Reynolds -
'Tell me, scientist to scientist, do you honestly think it will work?''We won’t know until we try,' Naqi said. Any other answer would have been politically hazardous: too much optimism and the politicians would have started asking just why the expensive project was needed in the first place. Too much pessimism and they would ask exactly the same question.
Alastair Reynolds -
There was something about the cocksure confidence of that statement that gave Auger goose pimples. It was like an invitation to fate.
Alastair Reynolds