Game Designers

"Your conjecture is reasonable but inaccurate."

"And over the many months that followed, as Caine crept through both terrestrial and alien undergrowth on missions to reclaim some of the autonomy humanity had lost, he learned and relearned the prime lesson in common to all the shocks: That all assumptions, like all plans, or never more than a second away from a catastrophic collision with reality."

"You are impetuous. But then again, you are human."

"Battles are lost because a combatant stops fighting too soon; wars are lost because a combatant does not stop fighting soon enough."

"After all, an agent on the inside of a rival organization was always worth more, operationally speaking, than a loyal servitor in one’s own."

"“Caine, neither of us has a choice in this matter. The orders must be obeyed. The full truth of what you found, of what your troops know and can testify to, is too destabilizing. It’s a delicate time, Caine. You, more than anyone else, should understand that.” “I do understand. I understand that the time has come to stop managing information and concealing the truth.”"

"“You mean, control my instincts?” “No, most of your species can learn to do that. The true challenge is whether you can control your predisposition to assume moral equivalencies where none exist.”"

"Weiner-Kutkh waved airily. “I seem to have been born lucky.” “Said every cheater who’s ever lived,” Caine retorted."

"“I do not disagree with you, Bannor Rulaine. But in my culture, when tradition is challenged by law, the law is often twisted, construed, and reconstrued until it can be made to conform with tradition. I believe your word for this is teleology: where a result is decided before the process debate or discovery is initiated.” O’Garran snorted. “Fancy word for saying, ‘they’re going to have it their way, no matter what.’”"

"“You think she’ll make it?” “She should. Unless something else goes wrong.” Tsaami’s tone was sour. “Caine: this is a battlefield. Something else always goes wrong.” To which Riordan had no ready response. After all, Karam was right."

"“Would anyone, even low-breeds, be so ingenuous to believe such a tale?” “Remarkably, yes. Their power to believe what they wish, if not given incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, is rather astonishing.”"

"Riordan stared. “Your…media…really advertised things like, uh, canned vegetables named after mythical monsters?” Paulsen shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe what our media did, on occasion.”"

"“If there’s a chance to talk our way out of a fight, this is the moment. Once blood is spilled, it becomes an Honor issue. Finding a way back to a parley would be difficult and highly unlikely.” “Yeah, I heard about that crap,” Karam muttered. “Scuttlebutt is that once Honor is involved, they become bushido bear-aardvarks beating their horse chests and making much ado about nothing.”"

"They still grumbled, of course, but never within his earshot. Besides, grumbling was the true anthem of every military unit that had ever existed. And their current grumbling was simply aimless grousing about the food, the cramped quarters, and anything else that struck them as modestly annoying. It was, in summary, both a harmless and timeless bonding ritual."

"Well, no plan survives contact with reality and today is no exception."

"All enlightenment begins in ignorance and humility. This place has been a constant instruction in both."

"That’s one thing I’ve noticed about war, Richard: there’s always more than enough irony to go around."

"Look: nations screw up like people do; sometimes they mean well, sometimes they’re selfish or delusional bitches on a spree, and sometimes they just plain make mistakes. But the megacorporations don’t make mistakes; if they do damage, it’s because they like the cost-to-benefit ratios, dead innocents notwithstanding. Nations are bulls in the global china shop; corporations are sharks."

"If the motivation was simple greed, then that was a promising target for development as an agent inside the enemy’s camp. Greed was not only a predictable impulse, but was an indicator of the dependability of the individual being suborned. It was overwhelmingly associated with profoundly self-centered egos and values."

"“We need no technological assistance. Hkh’Rkh capabilities and engineering is unsurpassed.” Yaargraukh managed to keep his tongue from writing out in a spasm of grim hilarity. “I have heard others say the same thing.” “And your response to them?” “That their empty rhetoric is delusional lunacy spoken as truth.”"

"“So,” sighed Rulaine, “we’re pretty much screwed.” Yaargraukh’s black eyes stared. “I do not understand your expression—‘screwed?’ This is a carpentry metaphor?” Bannor almost smiled. “Not exactly.”"

"Idrem sensed Brenlor swinging toward the rash reactivity that the Srin often mistook for decisive action when confronted with a crisis."

"“On the surface, it’s crazy, right?” “It’s crazy down beyond the surface, too,” Dora affirmed."

"“How would you answer their demand for justice and vengeance?” “I would begin by insisting that justice and vengeance are different. Vengeance is often blind to reason: all it can see is the object it hates. Conversely, justice is blind to our preferences and prejudices; all it may see are the deeds and the conditions under which they were carried out.”"

"“Virodok!” exclaimed Sukhinin, who sounded short of breath. “Do you monsters hold nothing dear beyond yourselves?” “No, we do not, and that is the source of our power: to reject the delusion that any human, anywhere, at any time, actually does anything or feels anything that they believe is not, at some level, in their own interest.”"

"“Your rabble’s one unifying cry will be that there must be retribution. Most will call this ‘justice.’ A few of the most intemperate will also be the most honest; they will call it ‘revenge.’”"

"He is young—well, younger—and idealistic. Which is to say, foolish."

"“It seems to me that you counted on the idiom of speech to mislead the Ambassador, to invite him to presume that they were not interested in hearing your discourse.” Riordan shrugged. “Guilty as charged. But there is a big difference between lying and using language that will trick the incautious. More importantly though, if the Ktor are going to wholly ignore the rules of fair and honest communication, then I’d say we’re on pretty firm ethical ground if we simply decide to play by the letter, not the spirit, of those rules.”"

"And here are the wages you must pay in order to climb the political ladder, you foolish sod. You’ve got to do the dirty work that others have ordered. I’ve done it out of dubious patriotism. Let’s see if you’ll do it out of blind ambition."

"No matter which images of battle and carnage came to haunt him, no matter which specific terror rose up through them, the lessons they rehearsed were always the same: There’s no such thing as certainty. Control is an illusion. Death and destruction descend the moment you forget to watch for them. That was what two years of intermittent war had taught him. And once you learned those lessons, you didn’t just remember them: you lived them, moment to moment."

"The reality, both now and historically, was that whatever the future held, change was always uneven in distribution and irregular in timing."

"“Damn it, Dad. You make me crazy.” “That’s part of my job as a parent. If I read the manual correctly.”"

"These matters should incite more urgent investigation than the technology you arrogated from your attackers. But like most primitive cultures, your reflex is one of stimulus and response: to focus entirely on the issues and actions of the moment."

"“Is Glamqoozht just a place name or does it mean something?” “It translates imperfectly as Council Hub.” Riordan was guardedly hopeful. “Sounds like it’s a place to get questions answered and decisions made.” Unless, of course, it was like human capitals."

"I guess that, living in a sanitized world, you’ve forgotten this basic lesson: if you want to stay free or stay alive, never play by your opponent’s rules. Particularly when your opponent is more powerful than you are. Do the unexpected. Turn on your pursuer. Attack the attacker."

"“I could offer considerable inducements. I can arrange for a new mate who is, in all meaningful measures, superior to the one you are currently pursuing. You look unimpressed. Ah, multiple mates, then? Within reason, I am quite certain I can procure—” Riordan was careful to keep his interruption calm. “I am not interested in other mates.” “Ah. Well. I am also able to provide you with material riches. I believe your species persists in its obsession with gold? To use your idiom, I would pay you handsomely for any successful breeding activity. Even if you do not wish to stay afterward.” Riordan forced his molars to unclench. Uinzleej moved on to his next offer. “What else—ah! Many of your species enjoy hunting. This world is full of creatures you may kill for your gratification.”"

"“Aren’t you even going to wish me luck?” “We do not believe in luck, Caine Riordan. However, I wish enlightenment unto you. In every passing second.”"

"It was the oldest, most primal fear of humankind, inculcated by eons of brutal lessons which, titrated down into their purest form, became age’s invariable advice to youth: beware the things and places you do not know.Because out there, beyond the flickering ring of the tribal fire, on the unlit streets of concrete cities, in the unending depths of space—there lay an unquantifiable, unbounded potential for death."

"“Whatever destiny we assign to ourselves also defines our doom. It is there, lurking, waiting, from the instantiation of sentience. It is the antipodal defect of the virtue we call ‘foresight.’”"

"“It is in the nature of social creatures to crave approval and approbation, to build a temple out of what they have told themselves they are and must be.” Oduosslun stared at Riordan. “Reject that reflex. Reject the simplistic narrative. Reject the opiating allure of presuming you know your own destiny. Rather, embrace the ineluctable truth that you are not preordained saviors in the midst of a mythic cycle, any more than we were the guardians and guarantors of civilization. Like us, you are simply another species living out the consequences of what came before.”"

"Veriden cut an annoyed glance at Riordan but said nothing; he suspected that even she saw the irony in starting an argument over whether she was argumentative."

"Well, so be it. Today we only have time for the truth. Battles are won by facts and physics, not self-congratulatory ideology."

"“The megacorporations have a long history of mining antigovernment organizations for support. They throw a lot of money at them: sometimes directly, sometimes through plausibly deniable proxies.” Hwang screwed up his face. “And do these groups really join forces with the megacorporations? They’re far more autocratic than nation-states.” Caine shook his head. “It’s not a direct alliance. But the megas aren’t really looking for cocombatants against ‘the tyranny of nations.’ They’re just funding grassroots resistance to national authority.”"

"Most of my professors can’t see the wider forest of meaning because they’ve become obsessed with a few mostly meaningless trees."

"But then again, discipline and its trappings—ranks, protocols, traditions—did not define the difference between a soldier and a civilian. The difference was in outlook. Brilliant civilian researcher Hirano Mizuki stared into the shadowy reaches of alien underbrush and saw no reason for caution. Caine, on the other hand, saw an unguarded perimeter in unexplored terrain that might conceal unknown threats."

"Your arrogant self-importance is complicating your perception of what is a very simple matter."

"Where greed is great, corruption is simple."

"“Did he just wink?” whispered Downing. “If not, he developed a very timely facial tic,” Caine replied."

"They are not speculating upon the mysteries behind us, only upon the possibilities before us."

"And in the time it had taken to reflect upon the significance of the moment, the moment was past. That was, after all, the nature of moments."