Mike Brooks > Quotes

“Flight and guidance systems are theoretically foolproof these days, but fools are surprisingly ingenious.”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Deeds

“Striving for perfection is not foolish, but assuming you have achieved it most certainly is.”
― Mike Brooks, Alpharius: Head of the Hydra

“I asked myself in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra whether the so-called victory was worth the cost. Now I wonder if we won at all.”
― Mike Brooks, The Lion: Son of the Forest

“Ufthak would be the first to admit that ork accuracy wasn’t exactly brilliant, as a rule, but that was because aiming was for cowards.”
― Mike Brooks, Brutal Kunnin'

“Roboute Guilliman was able to focus on dozens of things at once and give them attention in excess of what most mortal minds could achieve dealing with just one such subject. It was what made him such a good logistician, and while the Lion might not have a great many compliments ready for his brother, the Lord of Ultramar’s organisational skills could not be denied: many of the Ultramarines’ successes came down to simply never encountering a situation for which they were not prepared. Guilliman himself had only ever been an adequate combatant in person, however; at least so far as their brotherhood went. The Lion has sometimes wondered if that was because Roboute was never able to properly give his full attention to anything.”
― Mike Brooks, The Lion: Son of the Forest

“Sometimes you just need to steer into the wind, meet the wave head-on, and trust in your ship.”
― Mike Brooks, The Black Coast

“The Emperor sent the Space Wolves when he wanted to make an example of an enemy that would linger in the memories of all, and he sent the First when he wanted no record of the enemy to remain.”
― Mike Brooks, The Lion: Son of the Forest

“He bumped the door open with his hip and spun through, sweeping the rifle's barrel across what did indeed prove to be a small but well-appointed kitchen. He debated opening the drawers to ensure they weren't some sort of façade concealing a hiding place but decided against it; it was clearly just a d*** kitchen, and he didn't have Kelsier pegged as the sort of man who was paranoid enough to build a bolt-hole into a kitchen located in a secret network of tunnels in the middle of a lonely asteroid. You had to draw the line somewhere.”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Run

“Leadership was about setting an example.”
― Mike Brooks, Rites of Passage

“Now the ladz scattered.
Not quickly enough, in some cases: assorted body parts flew past Ufthak, too torn and mangled to be of any use to even the most desperate painboy. He actually tripped on a hand that someone had carelessly dropped, and went head over heels, landing on his back in the spoil and sliding gracelessly further down the slope as the filthy stuff shifted beneath his weight”
― Mike Brooks, Brutal Kunnin'

“I’d manipulated the electronic records regarding the assignations of bays to expected arrivals and departures more for my own amusement than anything else, but it had been good practice. Winnika hadn’t noticed my intrusion into her systems, perhaps because I’d actually made things flow more smoothly.”
― Mike Brooks, Alpharius: Head of the Hydra

“Ufthak nutted him, and Deffrow sat down rapidly, involuntarily, and in a state of some confusion.”
― Mike Brooks, Brutal Kunnin'

“Dat's an ork,' Wazzock said, with feeling.
'Well, obviously dat's an ork,' Mogrot replied. 'He ain't a zoggin' squiggoth, is 'e?'
'Nah, I mean dat is an ork,' Wazzock said. 'Dat's an ork wot knows where 'e's goin'.”
― Mike Brooks, Brutal Kunnin'

“To knowingly welcome ignorance is not his way.”
― Mike Brooks, The Lion: Son of the Forest

“There’s always room to be someone else, and there’s always somewhere people will be willing to let the past slide.” He”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Run

“The galaxy’s huge, but humanity’s still only settled pinpricks of it,” Rourke replied, turning and leading the way towards the cargo bay once more, “and people who’ve made a career of doing the sort of things we do . . . well, we tend to cluster around the same pinpricks. It’s the nature of the business.”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Sky

“Whoo'za good squig?' Ufthak asked Princess, as the squig bounded up to him. 'Izzit yoo?' Apparently it was, because Princess squealed raucously, so Ufthak tossed it a humie arm that seemed mostly meat, and it crunched it down gleefully.”
― Mike Brooks, Brutal Kunnin'

“I must confess I get lost with all these shades of grey.”
― Mike Brooks, Rites of Passage

“As a result, the only sensible course of action for trade on a void station was to talk loudly, swagger noticeably, wear your weapons openly, and check everything twice; or, failing that, see who the people who could manage those things bought from and do the same, on the basis that those merchants were likely to be fairly honest at least some of the time. “Let’s”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Run

“…This lack of morality is not limited to rank. In Alaba, for example, even the simplest social structures are ignored. Alabans claim that concepts of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ do not apply, and insist they have either five or six genders, depending on how they are counted, between which these heathens will move depending on their whims. As a tonal language, the same sound with different inflections carries different meanings, so a Naridan must be very careful to avoid misrepresenting himself: for example, ‘mè’ is ‘high masculine’, used by those in whom the fire of manhood burns strongly, while ‘mê’ is ‘low masculine’, for in Alaban society it is no great shame for a man to admit to womanly character. The largely uninflected ‘me’ is the gender-neutral formal, but ‘mé’ is ‘low feminine’, favoured by women who lack the qualities appropriate for their gender, and ‘mē’ is ‘high feminine’, the only appropriate usage for any Naridan lady of decency. Even stranger is ‘më’, used only by those who insist they have no gender, even in the most informal settings. Such immorality is hardly unsurprising in a land that has provided succour to exiled pretenders since the Splintering.
Needless to say, Naridans should resist these pernicious local customs and only use the ‘high’ forms for themselves when visiting this land, lest they cause themselves considerable embarrassment.”
― Mike Brooks, The Black Coast

“Chetta said something about her and Jaxx helping each other,’ he said, keeping his voice level.
‘Why do you talk like that, anyway?’ Chetta asked, ignoring him. ‘What’s wrong with saying “you”?’
‘Who is “you”?’ Jaxx laughed. ‘You, Chetta? You, women? You, nobles? You, everyone-who-isn’t-Jaxx? Other houses speak sideways, think backwards, walk at angles. Goliaths talk straight and act true. Goliaths have no time for misunderstandings.’ He grunted. ‘Goliaths have no time.’
Chetta nodded. ‘And your apparent aversion to the word “I”? There surely can’t be any confusion about that.’
Jaxx shrugged. ‘Jaxx won’t live long. Jaxx needs his name to be remembered.”
― Mike Brooks, A Common Ground

“So when I turn dis on, it uses da energy of dese warp engines to cause a katastroffic warp implosion!’ Ufthak frowned. ‘Is dat good?’ ‘Course it’s good!’ Da Boffin scoffed. ‘S’got a lot of fingies, syllables, innit? Like, “grot” is bad, but “Wazbom Blastajet” is good.’ Ufthak nodded. It was a powerful argument.”
― Mike Brooks, Where Dere’s da Warp Dere’s a Way

“Once a person gets outside, he gets all these ideas of being free, and that plays merry hell for a government.” He nodded firmly. “Keep a man inside behind steel walls and thick windows, tell him that what you do, it’s for his own protection. Make him think he relies on you, let him think the prison is his home, and he’ll thank you for it.”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Run

“Just because you were human didn't mean you weren't a monster.”
― Mike Brooks, Road to Redemption

“Emil’s mouth dried as he heard his own thoughts twisted up and presented back to him, but as Solomon turned away he found that his well of defiance was not yet quite dry.
‘My progena will never believe your lies!’ he yelled at Solomon’s back.
The Alpha Legionnaire paused. Then he spoke without turning.
‘Why not? They believed yours.”
― Mike Brooks, The Brightest And Best

“Let they who are without a shameful past cast the first grenade.”
― Mike Brooks, Road to Redemption

“My dad never did anything, though,” Jenna continued. “He never . . . I don’t know, he never went off to join the star force so he could help guard ships, or anything. I don’t know if it was even because he was scared to. I think it’s just that he wouldn’t have got paid enough.”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Deeds

“The way I see it, all governments are just a different flavour of bastard.”
― Mike Brooks, Dark Sky

“The cogitator was an old-fashioned affair, but Tekoa’s invocation of the Litany of Activation, his burning of the sacred incense, and his administration of the ritual blow to its side, appeared to appease the machine-spirit, and it flickered into life readily enough.”
― Mike Brooks, Rites of Passage

“One by one, the orks who'd scattered across the side of the spoil heap mobbed up on him - or at least, the ones who'd scattered in one piece. The one's who'd been scattered courtesy of humie high explosives stayed where they were, which was generally here and there, and sometimes a different there as well”
― Mike Brooks, Brutal Kunnin'