The Reality Dysfunction (Night's Dawn, #1)

by Peter F. Hamilton

“Don’t forget, come back. You promised.” How far will he go? she asked Sinon as a soaking Thetis was hauled over the edge of the raft by a couple of his friends. As far as he wishes. And how long will it last? As long as he wants. Daddy! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be flippant. Probably about ten or fifteen years. You see, even childhood will ultimately pale. Games that defy adults and friends that mean the whole world are all very well, but a major part of what a ten-year-old is, is the wish to be old; his actions are a shadow of what he sees as adult behaviour. There is an old saying, that the boy is the father of the man. So when he has had his fill of adventure and realizes he will never be that man, that he is a sterile child, his identity will fade out of the multiplicity into the overall personality. Like all of us will eventually, Sly-minx, even you. You mean he will lose hope. No. Death is the loss of hope, everything else is merely despair. The children were paddling now, getting the hang of the raft. Thetis was sitting at the front shouting orders, in his element. He looked round, smiled and waved. Syrinx raised a hand. Adamists lose hope, she said. The Dymasio’s captain lost all hope. That’s why he did what he did. Adamists are incomplete. We know we will continue after the body dies; In some way, some fraction of us will linger for hundreds of millennia. For myself, I cannot even contemplate abandoning the multiplicity segment of the personality, not with you ...