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1b87ad0
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It didn't blow up last time," Han said. "Maybe it won't blow up this time, either."
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James S.A. Corey |
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81161ef
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He stretched, ate his last bite of fungal curds, drank the dregs of something not entirely unlike coffee, and headed out to keep peace in wartime.
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hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy
reference
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James S.A. Corey |
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415beaf
|
It's always been like this, he thinks. From when Moses saw the promised land that he could never enter, people have been on their deathbeds just wanting to see what happens next. He wonders if that's what makes the promised land holy: that you can see it but you can't quite reach it. The grass is always greener on the other side of personal extinction.
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James S.A. Corey |
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97c07f4
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But pacifism only works when your enemy has a conscience.
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James S.A. Corey |
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c3f4b7a
|
We're little people in big times, yeah?
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James S.A. Corey |
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c108514
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I'm not sure dying free is as attractive when it stops being rhetorical.
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James S.A. Corey |
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01d8ceb
|
I've always rejected the great-man idea. The belief that human history was formed by singular individuals instead of broad social forces? Romantic, but ..." He waved a hand vaguely, like he was stirring fog. "Demographic trends. Economic cycles. Technological progress. All much more powerful predictors than any one person. And yet here I am."
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James S.A. Corey |
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2c859f0
|
it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out-- One hundred and thirteen times a second, nothing answers and it reaches out. It is not conscious, though parts of it are. There are structures within it that were once separate organisms; aboriginal, evolved, and complex. It is designed to improvise, to use what is there and then move on. Good enough is good enough, and so the artifacts are ignored or adapted. The conscious parts..
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James S.A. Corey |
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0fee174
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The margins of the space were bright without illuminating anything or casting shadows, sharp and terrible. It reminded her of the way schizophrenics and people suffering migraines would describe light as assaulting and dangerous.
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light
migraine
schizophrenia
space
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James S.A. Corey |
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a0eb183
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Knowing that all you can give isn't enough is its own burden.
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knowing
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James S.A. Corey |
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d961f2d
|
The ancient, animal story, the same whether it was on a spinning rock surrounded by hard vacuum or the stamp-sized chimpanzee preserves on Earth. Even in the Belt, youth brought invulnerability, immortality, the unshakable conviction that for you, things would be different. The laws of physics would cut you a break, the missiles would never hit, the air would never hiss out into nothing. Maybe for other people--the patched-together fighting..
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James S.A. Corey |
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9afb685
|
It wasn't as though they had a second Earth to use as a control. History itself was a massive n = 1 study, irreproducible. It was what made it so difficult to learn from.
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James S.A. Corey |
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b7e106b
|
Your empire's hands look a lot cleaner when you get to dictate where history begins, and what parts of it count.
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James S.A. Corey |
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bb5d9b9
|
We're not anarchists," she said. "We have goals. We want to end the Empire." "And replace it with what? "You know what," Scarlet said. Her crossed arms matched his own. "Are you trying to make fun of me?" "It was rhetorical. I've heard the speech, sweetheart. 'A glorious return to the Republic of old.' To a guy like me, a new boss is still a boss."
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James S.A. Corey |
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3c8b736
|
Take a bar of metal and put a single notch in it. The two lengths thus defined have a relationship that can be expressed as the ratio between them. In theory, therefore, any rational number can be expressed with a single mark on a bar of metal. Using a simple alphabetic code, a mark that calculated to a ratio of .1215225 could be read as 12-15-22-5, or "l-o-v-e." The complete plays of Shakespeare could be written in a single mark, if it wer..
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James S.A. Corey |
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9eef529
|
There are people I love. There are people who have loved me. I fought for what I believed, protected those I could, and stood my ground against the encroaching darkness. Good enough.
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James S.A. Corey |
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cbed4c2
|
Human violence as a kind of fractal--self-similar on all scales from bar fight to system-wide war. The buildup of insults and lost face that swelled over the course of an evening or a century. The shoving and shoving back, neither side sure they wanted to escalate and uncertain how to back down.
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James S.A. Corey |
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cc23c23
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I wouldn't want people to judge me by what I did in my twenties.
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James S.A. Corey |
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c0c2d7f
|
Can't expect everyone to be on the same page. We're still humans after all. Some percentage of us are always going to be assholes.
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James S.A. Corey |
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a450dbc
|
It was strange how nothing could change while everything did.
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James S.A. Corey |
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b8e358e
|
If someone is ready to accept Christ, it doesn't take much effort on my part to help them. If they aren't, no amount of hectoring them does any good. So why try?
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James S.A. Corey |
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a5522e2
|
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.
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James S.A. Corey |
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7d23850
|
Any meeting with Martian command is going to have to wait until after the situation on Ganymede is stabilized. Official diplomatic talks before then are only going to make it seem like we've accepted the new status quo." That was Admiral Nguyen, youngest of the men present. Hawkish. Impressed with himself in the way that successful young men tended to be. General" --
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James S.A. Corey |
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43bcaf8
|
I hear Montana is nice." "Population density is good. Still more cows than people."
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James S.A. Corey |
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a650e66
|
Still. Maybe some good can come out of it. I admire your psychotic optimism.
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James S.A. Corey |
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5569fbf
|
We have expended two-thirds of our rail-gun ammunition," the weapons tech announced. "Shall I maintain fire?" "Yes," Drummer said. "Then start putting chairs in the launcher. We hit that thing until we're down to pillows and beer."
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James S.A. Corey |
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77c48a9
|
It was possible she was hurling her prayers at a cold and unfeeling universe that didn't hear them, but that wasn't how it felt. Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value. But humans didn't work that way, and Anna suspected the universe didn't..
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James S.A. Corey |
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06315e0
|
Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value.
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James S.A. Corey |
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2b3cd17
|
The keel-mounted rail gun pushed the whole ship backward in a solid mathematical relationship to the mass of the two-kilo tungsten round moving at a measurable fraction of c. Newton's third law expressed as violence. Holden's
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James S.A. Corey |
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7acdfc4
|
What are you going to do?" "The same thing as always. Try to keep civilization from blowing up while the children are in it."
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James S.A. Corey |
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e4db0b5
|
So I have a thing." "Is it a thing I can fix?" Holden asked. "Point me at the thing."
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James S.A. Corey |
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eb38e9e
|
You can't take the Razorback," he said to the tiny red triangles. "We are gone and gone and gone."
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James S.A. Corey |
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c9f1d76
|
Alex took a high stool and ordered a whiskey. "Little early in the day for celebration," the barkeep said as he poured. "What's the occasion?" "It turns out," Alex said, exaggerating his Mariner Valley drawl just a little for the effect, "that sometimes I'm an asshole." "Hard truth." "It is." "You expect drinking alone to improve that?" "Nope. Just observing the traditions of alienated masculine pain." "Fair enough," the barkeep said. "Want..
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James S.A. Corey |
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1ddc24f
|
First mutiny?" Naomi said. "Yeah. It's not really something I do." "It gets easier."
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prison-escape
traitor
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James S.A. Corey |
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702ca4f
|
Liev Andropoulous!" the boy shouted. "You are under arrest for racketeering, slavery, and murder! You are not required to participate in questioning without the presence of an attorney or union representative!" Tiny flecks of spittle dotted the inside of the face shield. The boy's wide eyes were almost jittering with fear. Liev sighed. "Ask me," he said slowly, enunciating very clearly, "if I understand." "What?" the boy shouted. "You've to..
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James S.A. Corey |
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dddb2b3
|
My hallucinations are of the alien mind control variety.
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hallucinations
miller
protomolecule
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James S.A. Corey |
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a7fe8e7
|
A few generations living and dying without a sky, and enclosed spaces lost the atavistic terror of premature burial.
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burial
death
fear
sky
space-exploration
terror
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James S.A. Corey |
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1b76073
|
She'd grown up in Martian gravity . She had to mass a hundred kilos at one g, easy.
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James S.A. Corey |
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8509bf3
|
The name ROCINANTE was on the wall in letters as broad as his hand, and someone had added a stencil of a spray of yellow narcissus. It looked desperately out of place and very appropriate at the same time. When he thought about it that way, it seemed to fit most things about the ship. Her crew, for instance.
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James S.A. Corey |
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610f90e
|
We all grieve in our own ways," Avasarala said. "For what it's worth, you'll never kill enough people to keep your platoon from dying. No more than I can save enough people that one of them will be Charanpal."
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James S.A. Corey |
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31beee4
|
I've got a bunch of plumbers with rifles I could put on a shuttle." The bridge went quiet."
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James S.A. Corey |
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49f6dfe
|
Mom," Holden said. "Earthers and Belters can have kids just fine. We're not a different species."
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James S.A. Corey |
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dae085f
|
But after a few decades, you come to a place where you realize that there's really no difference between trying and not trying. I still travel. I still talk to people. Sometimes we talk about Jesus Christ. Sometimes we talk about cooking. If someone is ready to accept Christ, it doesn't take much effort on my part to help them. If they aren't, no amount of hectoring them does any good.
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James S.A. Corey |
|
7502400
|
We've survived it. It's a known quantity. I have a binder with nine hundred pages of analysis and contingency plans for conflict with Mars, including fourteen different scenarios about what we do if they develop an unexpected new technology. The binder for what we do if something comes up from Venus? It's three pages long, and it begins Step One: Find God." Errinwright"
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James S.A. Corey |