5e205aa
|
Because he's Amos. He's like a pit bull. You know he could tear your throat out, but he's loyal to a fault and you just want to hug him." She"
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James S.A. Corey |
6298b65
|
the Church of Humanity Ascendant, a religion that eschewed supernaturalism in all forms, and whose theology boiled down to Humans can be better than they are, so let's do that.
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James S.A. Corey |
fc9c60b
|
Miller caught the red-and-green border that meant either a priority message or an early Christmas card.
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James S.A. Corey |
24da780
|
Sure, boss," Havelock said. "Cool as November, smooth as China silk."
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James S.A. Corey |
240dcc6
|
Now you're asking me to explain microwaves to a monkey.
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James S.A. Corey |
a9b201a
|
The Ring didn't put us on alert," he said. "It's the Martians. Even with that thing out there, we're still thinking about shooting each other. That's pretty fucked up. Sorry. Messed up." "It seems like we should be able to see past our human differences when we're confronted with something like this, doesn't it?" Chris"
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James S.A. Corey |
f81e741
|
Chief security officer on an OPA ship was a half-assed kind of position, one part cop, one part efficiency expert, and pretty much all den mother to a crew of a thousand people with their own agendas and petty power struggles and opinions on how he should be doing his job better.
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James S.A. Corey |
59fbef6
|
Partners," she said, and fired two rounds into his head."
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headshot
partners
trust
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James S.A. Corey |
a6a35f8
|
Tilly screamed. Anna's shocked brain only registered annoyance at the sound. Really, when had someone screaming ever solved a problem? She recognized her fixation on this irritation as her own way of avoiding the horror in front of her, but only in a distant and dreamy sort of way.
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horror
problem-solving
scream
screaming
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James S.A. Corey |
002943d
|
And somehow, that changed everything about sex. The movements might all be the same, but the desire to communicate affection rather than demonstrate prowess changed what everything meant.
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movement
prowess
sex
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James S.A. Corey |
62b0a60
|
They don't know what it's about, or...you know, at least they don't know what's going to happen. This isn't even built like a torture chamber. It's all being watched, right? Water and air sensors. It's a Petri dish. They don't know what that s*** that killed Julie does, and this is how they're finding out." Holden frowned. "Don't they have laboratories? Places where you could maybe put that crap on some animals or something? Because as ex..
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James S.A. Corey |
d5e2db9
|
There are two sides in this, but they aren't inner planets and outer ones. Belters and everyone else. It's not like that. It's the people who want more violence and the ones who want less. And no matter what other variable you sample out of, you'll find some of both.
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James S.A. Corey |
ec60b56
|
Brother. If I call you sister, you call me brother, see, because -
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James S.A. Corey |
b9bad63
|
Holden considered ordering her to button up her helmet, then shrugged. She was old enough to decide for herself the relative risks and rewards of eating during a battle.
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James S.A. Corey |
771e60d
|
I'm all for forgiveness and bygones being bygones, but it's easier to stomach that after the assholes are all dead.
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James S.A. Corey |
282daed
|
Been brooding the whole time?" she asked. "Some of it, yeah." "Did it help?" "Nope." "Right. Spring into action, then?" He nodded at the amber door alarm. "Not yet." She glanced down. The override light flickered in her eyes like a candle flame. "Huh. All right. Brush teeth, pee, and spring into action?" "That'll work," he agreed, and hauled himself up out of the bed."
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James S.A. Corey |
529a1cb
|
You train dogs by rewarding them. Punishment doesn't actually work.
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James S.A. Corey |
81be20d
|
Han had been in a thousand places like it, all across the galaxy. Some had been as large as star systems, others as small as a back room in a cantina. They were the niches of the universe ... They were violent places, and they were joyful, and they didn't last.
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James S.A. Corey |
74ca51d
|
Ouch. Fuck." "What's that, Chief?" Alex asked. "Nothing. Just went a hundred kph when twenty would have done,"
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James S.A. Corey |
eb58376
|
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.
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James S.A. Corey |
79eb195
|
The damage to her body, the wear and the weariness, were all products of conscious, determined choices made by a girl she hadn't been in decades. She carried the weight of those decisions like a sack of bones.
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James S.A. Corey |
d6cd6b9
|
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."
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James S.A. Corey |
ecb24f3
|
Given their current circumstances, things would have to be very bad indeed for Tilly to think the situation had gotten worse. Sure, they were all trapped in orbit around an alien space station that periodically changed the rules of physics and had killed a bunch of them, but now they'd decided to start shooting each other too. Yes, very bad.
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bad
circumstances
death
orbit
physics
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James S.A. Corey |
944ff5f
|
Humanity had come as far as it had in a haze of war, sickness, violence, and genocide. History was drenched in blood. But it also had cooperation and kindness, generosity, intermarriage. The one didn't come without the other, and Holden had to take comfort in that. The sense that however terrible humanity's failings were, there was still a little more in them worth admiring.
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James S.A. Corey |
37144e4
|
Tell me everything it explains," he said when he could remember how to speak. Being forced to move moist flaps of meat in order to form the words felt sensual and obscene."
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moist
obscene
sensual
speaking
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James S.A. Corey |
a921562
|
The best governments in history have been kings and emperors," Duarte said. "The worst ones too. A philosopher-king can manage great things in his lifetime. And his grandchildren can squander it."
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James S.A. Corey |
192e23a
|
It's not that bad. Conspiracy theories come up whenever people feel like the universe is too random. Absurd. If it's all an enemy plot, at least there's someone calling the shots.
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James S.A. Corey |
c17d6b4
|
The entire idea of it was arrogant and defiant and grandiose. Anna loved it. As she walked across a wide empty plain of steel that should have been covered in topsoil and crops, she thought that this audaciousness was exactly what humanity had lost somewhere in the last couple of centuries. When ancient maritime explorers had climbed into their creaking wooden ships and tried to find ways to cross the great oceans of Earth, had their voyag..
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James S.A. Corey |
bfca4ae
|
The ones that don't kill you don't count.
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James S.A. Corey |
fd047f6
|
It'd be a better world if there was always at least one right answer instead of a basket of fucked.
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James S.A. Corey |
141deae
|
Tribalism was an irrational position, and it was impossible to defeat an irrational position with a rational argument.
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James S.A. Corey |
3fa7309
|
You think he may be a triple agent?" "It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened. The one thing you know about someone who's willing to compromise his allies is that he's willing to compromise his allies."
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James S.A. Corey |
585584b
|
The beautiful thing about losing your illusions, he thought, was that you got to stop pretending.
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James S.A. Corey |
7f73ecf
|
The sad fact of the human species that High Consul Duarte understood so well was that you could never overcome tribalism and jingoism with an argument. Tribalism was an irrational position, and it was impossible to defeat an irrational position with a rational argument. And so, instead of presenting a logical plan for why humanity needed to give up the old national and cultural divides and become a single unified species, the high consul ob..
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James S.A. Corey |
49879e1
|
and a familiar voice was coming from the terminal, "Going to be monitoring anything we fucking say. If you wanted to discuss menstruation at great length and detail, this is probably our best chance. He's always been squeamish about women. And no one likes a Peeping Tom, even if he is Prime Minister."
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chrisjen-avasarala
|
James S.A. Corey |
72d4f1b
|
Everything changed, and it went right on changing. A terrible thought when things were good, a comforting one now. Whatever happened, she could be certain that things wouldn't stay the way they were now. And if she stayed smart and clever and lucky, she'd be able to affect how the next change came. Or take advantage of it.
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James S.A. Corey |
e103140
|
You've got a pit bull on one side of you and a rottweiler on the other, first thing you do is drop your steak.
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James S.A. Corey |
52e5ef4
|
I believe there is a dignity in consequences, Captain. I think there's a kind of truth in them, and I try to cultivate a profound respect for truth.
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James S.A. Corey |
6f2393a
|
Insurgencies are historically nearly impossible to eradicate, for a few very simple reasons. The insurgents don't wear uniforms. They look just like the innocent populace. And, they're the friends and family of that populace. This means that every insurgent killed tends to increase recruiting for the insurgency.
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James S.A. Corey |
43b838c
|
He is my white whale, and I will hunt him to the end of time.
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James S.A. Corey |
52b5ff5
|
Also, Nathan, if you're listening, and I assume you are, I'm the best and only friend you've got. Give her permission to share what she has, or I swear to God I'll have you turning tricks out of a prefab shed on the side of the highway. I'm trying to save humanity here.
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James S.A. Corey |
faad53b
|
It was what came of being a primate with a body built for the Pleistocene savanna. Fear and relief and lust and joy were all packed into the same little network of nerves somewhere deep in his amygdalae, and sometimes they touched.
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James S.A. Corey |
db5e261
|
It's herding kittens. If kittens had a lot of guns and an overdose of neo-Libertarian property theory.
|
|
herding-kittens
kittens
libertarian
neo-libertarian
property
|
James S.A. Corey |
7e64f05
|
There was no reason to think she would survive this. So she was surprised to notice that she was happy. Not the powerful, irrational, and dangerous joy of a euphoric attack, but a kind of pleasure and release all the same. At first, she thought it was because there wasn't anyone there with her, guarding her, judging her. And that, she decided, was part of it. But more than that, she was simply doing what needed to be done without having to ..
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James S.A. Corey |