Redemption Ark (Revelation Space, #2)

by Alastair Reynolds

Clavain did not need to be reminded that war was horrific, but from a distance it could also have a terrible searing beauty.

A second was a long time in war. Fifteen seconds was even longer. There was a lot you could do, a lot you could think, in fifteen seconds.

Again, there was no element of surprise. But there almost never was in space war, where hiding places and opportunities for camouflage were so few and far between.

Once you’ve touched someone else’s mind, walked through their dreams, seen the world through their eyes, felt the world through their skin ... well . . . there never seemed to be any real need to go back to the old way.

Most of the time it was dark enough that she did not see the ship at all, but two or three times a minute a major explosion - some detonating mine, warhead, drive-unit or weapons-trigger - threw light against the hull, momentarily picking it out the way a lighthouse might glance against a jagged pinnacle rising from the depths of a storm-racked ocean.