Zana’s Reviews > Slow Gods > Status Update

“It’s pointless.
It’s pointless.
It’s pointless, said the doctor.
All of this.
Everything we do.
All of this.
We can’t stop anything.
We can’t make enough of a difference.
It’s pointless.”

“These same officers had, for every one of theirs who’d died, ordered the execution of ten more, but that was just business. That was just war. If only their enemies would understand, if only they’d get it into their thick heads that the way of peace was of submission and obedience, none of this would be necessary. None of this needed to happen.”

“I did not fully understand, until much later, when it occurred to me that the thing that was forbidden – the thing that is always forbidden in all wars, especially the longest – is thinking of your enemy as people.”

“Afterwards, there was an orgy.

Prolonged, wild sexual celebrations as a form of cathartic emotional relief was, I was told, another fairly standard cultural aspect of the Nitashi, even – if not especially – in these times. Those few crew members who weren’t Nitashi were invited to participate, in much the same way as you might be invited for a cup of kol in another place.”

👁️👄👁️

“Enough time had passed for the Edge to weaken, and so on Cha-mdo the people would die from radiation sickness, over days, maybe weeks, depending on where they were relative to the poles, or how deep they managed to burrow beneath the planet’s surface. They would sicken slowly, their organs dissolving, their skin sloughing off like water, hair falling out, teeth falling out...”

Jesus Christ

“Here are some of the minds I have felt, Tryphon interfaced with my skull, strapped to a Pilot’s chair:

In a bunker made of sickness and stone, her name was Jaikyun...

All of them, all of them screaming, all of them calling out where are you, where are you, help me, I’m here, I’m here, I’m here where are you?”

Creepy AND cool

‘“Every Executive of every Venture inherited their Shine,” I snap. “They started their lives with wealth and promise, and used their wealth and promise to keep power to themselves. That is not the Shine of the first colonies, and you know it, so let’s not waste each other’s time.”’

It's giving nepo baby

“If anything, a century of bio-treatments and genetic enhancements had left his skin mirror-bright, taut where it wrapped around the visible contours of hís skull....”

Mar a lago face

“Hís long silver braid still ran down hís back, and the scar across hís face had now been added to with a long scar carefully cut across the front of hís skull, slicing through hís hairline in a raised pale ridge. Five little cuts above hís artificial eye denoted hís genius for a deal; a white ridge through hís lower lip spoke of hís mastery at negotiation...”

Hello daddy

“I am assured that of the many, many people I killed that day, hearts ripped from chests, nerves from bone...”

Kinda scared, kinda turned on 🙊🙈