I worry that it's me they're really after." "You don't exist. At the risk of wounding your ego, not everyone in the known universe is obsessed with y… - Alastair Reynolds

People lived and died and did strange, pointless things to themselves. So did societies, be they city-sized states or galactic empires encompassing thousands of solar systems. Everything came and went, everything was new and bright with promise once and old and worn out later, and everything left a small, diminishing stain on eternity, a mark that time would eventually erase.

Such hopes now seemed ludicrous in their naivety, like trying to stop a bulldozer with a feather.

I feel as if I'm missing all the excitement." "In my experience," Tunguska said, making himself a temporary seat, "excitement is always better when it happens to other people.