Only, so far, it was like a bunch of lizards watching the World Cup. Politely put, they weren’t sure what they were looking at.
Only here on Earth, where food grew on its own, where air was just a by-product of random untended plants, where resources lay thick on the ground, could a person actually choose not to do anything at...
Oh good, Amos replied. Somebody got killed there. That’s how we claim stuff, you know. This planet is officially ours now.
Not because of Laconia, not because of the union, not because of any of the authorities through all of history that have made rules and then dared people to break them. Because we’re human, and humans...
No, there doesn’t. Every time someone starts talking about final anythings in politics, that means the atrocities are warming up. Humanity has done amazing things by just muddling through, arguing and...
No more leave, Holden said. Holy shit. Right? Alex said. I take off for a few weeks, and everything turns into chaos. It really, really does. Holden went to the coffee maker and Alex followed at his e...
No matter how intense the situation, or how powerful the feelings, it was impossible to maintain a heightened emotional state forever. Eventually you’d just get tired and want it to end.
New job? he asked. New job, Burton said. I know you and Erich grew up together. Is this going to be a problem for you? Nope, Timmy said, slipping the gun into his pocket. There hadn’t even been a paus...
Naomi shrugged with her hands, then started pulling her hair behind her head and tying it up with a red elastic band.
Murtry swung first, so technically, that was self-defense. And if I’d wanted him dead, don’t you think he’d be dead? It’s not like I quit hitting him because I was tired.
Motherfucker, Amos said again, this time without the heat. Holden knew him well enough to know that angry Amos was not nearly as dangerous as cold Amos. I was thinking I’d have a tough time spacing a...
Living on the surface of a planet, mass sucking at every bone and muscle, and nothing but gravity to keep your air close, seemed like a fast path to crazy.
Like a religious fanatic, the man really believed that everything he’d done was justified by his goal in doing it.
I’m twenty years too old, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got the wrong plumbin’, but I like that gal.
I’m as surprised as you are, Avasarala said. Though I feel like I shouldn’t be. I actually read history. It’s like reading prophecy, you know.
It’s what’s missing in all of this, Holden said. It’s what let things get this bad. We don’t see each other as people. Even the feeds are always about weird things. Aberrations. All the times that a B...
It’s the problem with politics. Your enemies are often your allies. And vice versa. Fred
It’s the basic obstacle of artificial ecosystems. In a normal evolutionary environment, there’s enough diversity to cushion the system when something catastrophic happens. That’s nature. Catastrophic...
It’s a simple complex system. That’s the technical name for it. Because it’s simple, it’s prone to cascades, and because it’s complex, you can’t predict what’s going to fail. Or how. It’s computationa...
It was like solving a complex math puzzle without any promise that an optimal solution existed.