Craig M

“personal theory was that the pressure of being in the middle of the food chain was an essential prerequisite for complex intelligence. Like humans (and like Portiid spiders, had he only known), octopuses had developed in a world where they were both hunter and hunted. Top predators, in Senkovi’s assessment, were an intellectual dead end.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Ruin

“You ever think about the fundamental paradox of our society? How they build a tight-knit machine of a state by breaking everyone down into solitary units turned against each other? How you compel mass obedience out of the most individualistic drives of selfishness, greed and fear?”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay

“In his own mind, Senkovi was known for his sense of humour, an organ that in truth amused only himself.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Ruin

“it is still a mournful acknowledgement that the world of today is at variance with the world of yesterday, and today is not the richer for it.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Ruin