Barbarians, we call them, while all the while we timidly cling to our Web like Visigoths crouching in the ruins of Rome’s faded glory and proclaim ourselves civilized. Within
America, he thought, and not for the first time, is a nation with huge dreams and not infrequently the ability to realize them.
Agamemnon: Our prayer was simple — to raze Ilium’s walls to its roots, kill its heroes, rape its women, enslave its people. Is that too much to ask?
A comment with the idle arrogance common of such nobodies who have just come into a small bit of power.
Androids were free from original sin, therefore spiritually superior to humankind
[Once Ummon asked a lesser light Are you a gardener> Yes it replied Why have turnips no roots> Ummon asked the gardener who could not reply Because said Ummon rainwater is plentiful] I think about thi...
Without conscious thought I stepped behind the altar, raised my arms, and began the celebration of the Eucharist. There was no sense of parody or melodrama in this act, no symbolism or hidden intentio...
We are in a comfortable Dark Ages of the inventive mind; institutions change but little, and that by gradual evolution rather than revolution; scientific research creeps crablike in a lateral shuffle,...
Tʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ɴᴏ ғᴜʀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴍɪsᴜsᴇ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀɴɴᴇʟ. Yᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴅɪsᴛᴜʀʙɪɴɢ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀs ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴜsɪɴɢ ɪᴛ ᴛᴏ sᴇʀɪᴏᴜs ᴘᴜʀᴘᴏsᴇ. Aᴄᴄᴇss ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ʀᴇsᴛᴏʀᴇᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ʏᴏᴜ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪᴛ ɪs ғᴏʀ. Gᴏᴏᴅʙʏᴇ.
This is poetry. You’re writing about Heaven’s Gate and the Caribou Herd, but what comes across is loneliness, displacement, angst, and a cynical look at humanity.
There has to be more than this, I said. The doctor looked up from his grim work with a bemused smile. Is there? he said. Please show me. He lifted the man’s heart and seemed to weigh it in one hand.
The Ice Master was too injured and too exhausted to crawl any farther. Let whatever was going to happen to him happen now and may a Sailor's God fuck to Hell this fucking thing that was going to eat h...
The Hegemony and its relationship with the Ousters aren’t my worry now. I sincerely wish a plague on both their houses.To the extent that humanity suffers?I don’t know humanity, said the Consul in an...
Spenser Reynolds was a bit shorter than Web average, but far handsomer. His hair was curled but cropped short, his skin appeared bronzed by a benevolent sun and slightly gilded with subtle body paint,...
Space battles in movies and holies had always bored me, but watching the real thing held a certain fascination: rather like seeing live coverage of a series of traffic accidents. Actually, the product...
Sometimes there is no hope, whispered Das. There's always some hope, Mr. Das. No, Mr. Luczak, there is not. Sometimes there is only pain. And acquiescence to pain. And, perhaps, defiance at the world...
Sol! Take your daughter, your only daughter Rachel, whom you love, and go to the world called Hyperion and offer her there as a burnt offering at one of the places of which I shall tell you.
Rage.Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles, of Peleus’ son, murderous, man-killer, fated to die, sing of the rage that cost the Achaeans so many good men and sent so many vital, hearty souls down to t...
Quality wine, Scotch, and coffee had been the three irreplaceable commodities after the death of Old Earth.
PAHA SAPA PULLS HIS HAND BACK SHARPLY BUT NOT BEFORE HE feels the rattlesnake-strike shock of the dying Wasicun’s ghost leaping into his fingers and flowing up his arm and into his chest. The boy lurc...