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4c7cf08
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Again I ask permission to be blunt." "Ambassador Abumwe, at this point I cannot imagine you being otherwise."
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John Scalzi |
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5d955ff
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Harvey knew what he was and what he was best at: He was a noisy son of a bitch and he was good at making things fall down and go boom.
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John Scalzi |
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f5b5d62
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At least one tribe, the Geln, strongly opposed attacking the Colonial Union, since humans were reasonably strong, distressingly tenacious and not especially principled when they felt threatened.
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John Scalzi |
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193f188
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Two classics stuck with them. Ender's Game delighted them all; here were soldiers who were just like them, except smaller. The main character was even bred to fight alien species like they were. The next day the members of the 8th greeted each other with the salutation ::Ho, Ender,:: until Brahe told them to knock it off and pay attention.
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John Scalzi |
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f46d3b1
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One of the great unwritten chapters of retail intelligence programming featured a "personal shopper" program that all-too-accurately modeled the shoppers' desires and outputted purchase ideas based on what shoppers really wanted as opposed to what they wanted known that they wanted. This resulted in one overcompensatingly masculine test user receiving suggestions for an anal plug and a tribute art book for classic homoerotic artist Tom of F..
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John Scalzi |
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d1d6b23
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After watching Star Wars everyone wanted a lightsaber and was irritated that the technology for them didn't really exist. Everyone also agreed the Ewoks should all die.
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John Scalzi |
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0cafcae
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Praise is always a good thing, especially in a crisis.
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John Scalzi |
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1bd2753
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This novel took me rather longer than usual to write, for a number of reasons but one big one being simply that 2017 was a raging trash fire of a year, filled with horrible people trying to do horrible things and often succeeding. It's harder to bear down creatively when the world is burning.
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John Scalzi |
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6c5c117
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It's not a bad idea." "It's a terrible idea," Oi said. "It just has the advantage of being better than the other option."
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John Scalzi |
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fa84b91
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For two years, all you have to do is go where they tell you, stay behind your rifle, and kill and not be killed. It's simple, but simple isn't the same as easy.
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rifle
same
killed
go
tell
simple
kill
easy
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John Scalzi |
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5936cf3
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Are we there yet?" I asked Joshua. "No," Joshua said. "Are we there yet?" I said. "No." "Are we there yet?" "No." "Are we there yet?" "Yes," Joshua said. "Stop the car."
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John Scalzi |
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aa41578
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The diagnostic said there was nothing wrong with the threep, which may have meant there was something wrong with the diagnostic.
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systems-check
tech-support
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John Scalzi |
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95d8cb6
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Even without the Interdependency, being interdependent was the best way for humanity to survive.
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John Scalzi |
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f629182
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Oh for God's sake how divine can I be? My feet hurt, I have gas and I need to pee.
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John Scalzi |
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5237451
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Teenagers can be idiotic and stupid, but teenagers also model their behavior from the signals they get from adults.
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John Scalzi |
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bee7f06
|
I have to tell him that the sheep we're looking for is a woman who runs a pet store," Creek said. "I think telling him his younger brother's been resurrected as a computer program might be a little much for one day." Archie"
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John Scalzi |
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597e760
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Even then, retailers learned early that shoppers prefer their shopping suggestions not be too truthful. One of the great unwritten chapters of retail intelligence programming featured a "personal shopper" program that all-too-accurately modeled the shoppers' desires and outputted purchase ideas based on what shoppers really wanted as opposed to what they wanted known that they wanted. This resulted in one overcompensatingly masculine test u..
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John Scalzi |
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fb89c2c
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Lovely," Wilson said, looking at the display. "And by 'lovely,' I mean 'Oh, crap."
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John Scalzi |
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3b9e4a5
|
Leon had attached himself to me in Chicago like a fat, brat-and-beer-filled tick; I was amazed that someone whose blood was clearly half pork grease had made it to age seventy-five.
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amazed
leon
seventy-five
tick
pork
made
grease
chicago
blood
fat
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John Scalzi |
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78b9b6a
|
First off, to everyone who thinks writing a sequel should be easy because you've already created the universe: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Heh. No.
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John Scalzi |
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6afb24c
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I said 'not so much,'" Dr. Russell said. "Not so much as what? Having your head stepped on by an elephant?" "Not so much as when the sensors connect to each other," Dr. Russell said. "The good news is that as soon as they're connected, the pain stops. Now hold still, this will only take a minute." He tapped the PDA again. Eighty thousand needles shot out in every direction in my skull. I have never wanted to punch a doctor so much in my lif..
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John Scalzi |
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b473fc2
|
Just because I look like a human being doesn't mean I am. This body has more genetic material that's not strictly human than it does material that is human. And it heavily integrates machines as well. My blood is actually a bunch of nanobots in a fluid. I am and every other CDF soldier is a genetically-modified cyborg." "But you're still you, right?" Lowen asked. "You're still the same person you were when you left Earth. Still the same con..
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John Scalzi |
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bd31240
|
Hickory clicked something to Dickory in their native tongue; Dickory clicked back. Hickory responded, and Dickory replied, it seemed a bit forcefully. And then, God help me, Hickory actually sighed.
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John Scalzi |
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ac863eb
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Just accept you're drinking from the fire hose and open wide.
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John Scalzi |
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75c2454
|
I don't think it matters what age you are when you figure it out," Brous said. "I think the important thing is to figure it out before someone else tells you what you want to be, and they get it wrong."
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John Scalzi |
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7d48e2c
|
Really really really difficult," Tony allowed. "But theoretically possible because, hey, it's a quantum physics universe."
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John Scalzi |
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02fca76
|
I was just talking about you," Cardenia said, coming up to him. "To your imaginary friends, I see." "They're not imaginary. They're just not real." "Very subtle distinction." --
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John Scalzi |
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605b158
|
It's like Wednesday morning at the world's biggest Denny's,
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John Scalzi |
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3181ea3
|
God is a hack," he said. "He's a writer on an awful science fiction television show, and He can't plot His way out of a box. How do you have faith when you know that?"
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John Scalzi |
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9825d33
|
Destiny gets compressed, you know, into just that small fraction of a second you have right in front of you at any one time. And there's nothing romantic about keeping your head down to avoid getting shot, or trying to save a friend who's been injured, or coming face to face with a creature who is as smart and mean and as terrified of dying as you are, and who wants to make sure that if someone is left on the ground there, it's you and not ..
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time
romantic
destiny
fraction
second
ground
head
shot
friend
someone
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John Scalzi |
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ba4f29b
|
Don't bring a spoon to a toothbrush fight,
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John Scalzi |
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0e5c9e9
|
Hey, you know what, basing an entire system of social, political and economic control on the vague, all-too-easily misinterpreted words of a single person claiming divine inspiration is probably not actually all that smart, now, is it.
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John Scalzi |
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1d48505
|
Hiding the past never works as well as simply neglecting it.
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history-repeating-itself
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John Scalzi |
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eaa35e3
|
If someone is telling you to live in interesting times, they are basically telling you they want you to die horribly, and to suffer terribly before you do. Seriously, they are not your friend. This is a tip I am giving you for free.
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John Scalzi |
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d231c78
|
You're all so busy tending to your own personal tree that you don't look around to see that the forest is on fire.
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John Scalzi |
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2ec0f9a
|
I don't know Mr. Wilson to any degree--I am one of those who knew him best for creating the source material for Life Force, which was a terrible movie--but my wish for him was that he lived the sort of life where he didn't actually care what his obits said, and instead enjoyed his life and left work that had the possibility of speaking for itself, over time. If you're a creative (or indeed any other) person, let me suggest you don't worry a..
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John Scalzi |
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efdf101
|
It's not whether she tells everyone," Huma said. "It's whether they believe her." "It's the truth." "Oh, my daughter," Huma said, and smiled. "Don't tell me you don't know how little that actually means."
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John Scalzi |
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7387618
|
While landing a spacecraft on a planet via Skip Drive navigation was officially and strongly discouraged by the Colonial Union, the Colonial Defense Forces recognized the strategic value of sudden and unexpected arrivals.
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John Scalzi |
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e09e29d
|
If they can work out the kinks, it could revolutionize space travel." " 'Work out the kinks'?" Jared said. "I'm about to use this thing. Kinks are bad."
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John Scalzi |
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ae78ced
|
Some planets evolved genetic structures roughly similar to Earth's, incorporating some if not all the nucleotides involved in terrestrial genetics (perhaps not coincidentally, the intelligent species of these planets have been known to consume humans from time to time;
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John Scalzi |
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729a3fe
|
It's not that Seaborg disliked Harvey, but after a couple of combat drops with the 2nd Platoon one got the sense that if you didn't like things to explode unnecessarily around you, you would want to stay well clear of Daniel Harvey.
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John Scalzi |
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bfd2daf
|
At dinner members of the 8th enthusiastically told each other to pass the fucking salt, you fucking sack of shit, until Brahe told them to quit that goddamn shit, cocksuckers, because it got old pretty goddamn quick.
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John Scalzi |
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f665b82
|
On the sixth day, Jared and the rest of the 8th finally figured out what that sex thing was all about. On the seventh day, and as a direct consequence of the sixth day, they rested.
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John Scalzi |
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f030a17
|
You don't have paperwork," Savitri said. "You give it all to me." "Is it done?" I asked. "As far as you know, yes," Savitri said."
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john scalzi |