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352 pages, Paperback
First published February 6, 2020
“I like books. They’re quiet, dignified and absolute. A man might falter but his words, once written, will hold.”
“In my short and sorry life, I’ve seen many people hide a desire for terrible deeds beneath an apparent higher calling. It’s not hard to find a belief system that will support your own selfish needs. The big surprise for me was discovering that it works the other way too. These broken-winged brothers, even without their story, just have naturally decent hearts.”
“I was only in my thirties but I was old. You don’t measure age in years, you measure it in lessons learned and repeated mistakes and how hard it is to force a little hope into your heart. Old just means jaded and cynical and tired. And boy, was I tired.”
“Maybe nobody gets better. Maybe bad people just gets worse. It’s not the bad things that make people bad, though. From what I’ve seen, we all work together in the face of adversity. Join up like brothers and work to overcome whatever big old evil wants to hold us down. The thing that kills is the hope. Give a good man something to protect and you’ll turn him into a killer.”
“But it’s easy to accept your fate when you know you can’t change it. Things get harder when you have a little hope.”
“Mostly, these historical legends come in pairs. Nothing allows a man to flourish quite like an adversary of equal strength. On their own, some of these figures might never have been noticed, but face them off against each other in bloody conflict and both names get drilled into the record book. A good man is made through a lifetime of work. Great men are made by their monsters.”
“Sometimes, the one who looks like a monster turns out to be a monster.”
“A cop was a cop was a cop. Like pieces of fruit; there’s good ones and bad ones but once you smash ’em into jam they’re all the same.”
“The raindrops attacked the street like it was personal and wind pushed the water up at every angle, filling gutters, boots and eyelids.”
Life once felt so grand and meaningful. This new world is hushed. Diminished. Fleeting.
What had I become, when laughter felt like a lashing?
A good man is made through a lifetime of work. Great men are made by their monsters.
I like books. They’re quiet, dignified and absolute. A man might falter but his words, once written, will hold.
We all fear the other, and if we ever make friends with our enemy, the first thing we do as allies is identify some new foe. There is no real peace, only the brief moments while we turn our heads from one adversary to the next. .
"It was over. The world will continue to turn and there will still be jobs and seasons and kissing and chocolate; there just won't be music in it anymore. We can bite the fruit and understand that it is sweet but not taste it. We will look at the sunrise and do our best to will some warmth into our hearts and feel nothing."
"There was no denying that it was bad taste for him to become a mortician after the Coda, but where else does a Necromancer go when the dead stop rising to his call? Sometimes it's just too hard to say goodbye to old friends."
"The thing that kills us is the hope. Give a good man something to protect and you'll turn him into a killer."
"I like books. They're quiet, dignified and absolute. A man might falter but his words, once written, will hold."