I was going to call it a mistake, but you could argue that there are no mistakes in war, only fortunate and less fortunate events. - Alastair Reynolds

How long have we been friends, Dan?" "I wouldn't exactly call it friendship; more a kind of mutual parasitism.

Kanu closed his eyes, opened them again, hoping that the world would have done the decent thing and changed into a less problematic version of itself.

There had been a human soul in that skull only a few hours earlier, and now no authority in the universe could bring her back. We were like monkeys sitting around a fire that had just extinguished, wondering why the warmth and light had gone away.