The Romans have provided a lot of writers with a model for various interstellar empires, of course, and no wonder. The Roman Empire is a really good example of a large empire that, in one form or another, functioned for quite a long time over a very large area. And over all that time, there was all sorts of exciting drama - civil wars and assassinations and revolts and bits breaking off and being forced back in ... But I didn't want my future - however fanciful it was - to be entirely European. The Radchaai aren't meant to be Romans in Space.

Ann Leckie

Categorized in : War Drama Space

Translator Dlique was saying, very earnestly, “Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think? I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken. Or a duck. Or whatever they're programmed to be. You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of the night last week.

regret night mean

To be Radchaai is to be civilised. by Ann Leckie

To be Radchaai is to be civilised.

civilised

Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things. It's just easier to handle those with emotions.

emotion decision feelings

Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing.

choices wish mean

What, after all, was the point of civilisation if not the well-be... by Ann Leckie

What, after all, was the point of civilisation if not the well-being of citizens?

well-being wells citizens

If there was anything any Radchaai considered essential for civil... by Ann Leckie

If there was anything any Radchaai considered essential for civilised life, it was tea.

civilised essentials tea

It's the people without the money and the power, who desperately want to live, for those people small things aren't small at all.

small-things want people

Things happen the way they happen because the world is the way it... by Ann Leckie

Things happen the way they happen because the world is the way it is.

happens way world

Good necessitates evil and the two sides of that disk are not alw... by Ann Leckie

Good necessitates evil and the two sides of that disk are not always clearly marked.

disk two-sides evil

Let every act be just, and proper, and beneficial. by Ann Leckie

Let every act be just, and proper, and beneficial.

beneficial

Or is anyone's identity a matter of fragments held together by convenient or useful narrative, that in ordinary circumstances never reveals itself as a fiction? Or is it really a fiction?

identity together ordinary

Surely it isn't illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.

human-nature complaining people

Falling didn't bother me. I could fall forever and not be hurt. I... by Ann Leckie

Falling didn't bother me. I could fall forever and not be hurt. It's stopping that's the problem.

hurt forever fall

If you're going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance you... by Ann Leckie

If you're going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance you should make it a good one.

desperate hopeless should

Unity, I thought, implies the possibility of disunity. Beginnings... by Ann Leckie

Unity, I thought, implies the possibility of disunity. Beginnings imply and require endings.

disunity possibility unity

When one is the agent of order and civilisation in the universe, one doesn't stoop to negotiate. Especially with nonhumans.

civilisation agents order

The 'science' in 'science fiction' isn't just physics and engineering. It can also be linguistics, anthropology, and psychology.

just engineering physics science

The Internet really lets people connect that wouldn't have in the past, and lets conversations happen and connections happen.

happen internet people past

Junk food's not going anywhere. The specifics of what's being snacked on, and what's considered 'junk' and what's 'healthy' will change, of course, depending on what's available.

will being change food

When I was a kid, I had no perception whatever that science ficti... by Ann Leckie

When I was a kid, I had no perception whatever that science fiction was supposed to be a boys' club.

whatever kid perception science