Every time he makes plans for his future, he seems to fail. Every time he reaches forward, the world leans against him, pressing him down. - Paolo Bacigalupi

Politics is ugly. Never doubt what small men will do for great power.

No one had ever come for him... not his mom, not his dad, not his brother, not a dozen people who he'd called his friends back in his town on the coast, not a one of them had ever come looking for him, trying to get him back. They'd just let him go. That was the difference. But this castoff cripple-hand civvy girl had come all the way in. Ocho scowled down at her limp body. See what loyalty gets you? See?

A desert's a stupid place to put a river.