Ben’s Reviews > Speaking Bones > Status Update

"Such is the fate of all mortals: The life of the parent, no matter how glorious and vivid in their prime, is destined to fade, to fall, to disappear into the soil of memory of the child."

"It's the nature of narrative artifice that even those striving to tell the truth must flatten reality to a sketch"

"In the name of justice, new injustices are done. Retribution does not restore, and neither does hatred heal. To blame is to be trapped in cycles of recrimination from which there is no escape."

"A standing army is an insatiable beast: It demands foes and growth. More, always more. More funds, more weapons, more soldiers, more victories. It comes to dominate the economy, as inventors devote their minds to methods of killing and industry becomes entwined with the machinery of war. Expropriation and conquest become more valued than cultivation and production."