When Arthur first started studying the tablets, he used to think of civilization as a solid edifice, elegantly expressed in marble, wood, glass and metal. A feat of engineering, planning, design and construction. The triumph of humankind over nature. But now, as he traverses this desolate landscape, it seems to him that what they call civilization is, in truth, a storm in waiting. Powerful, protean and perfectly destructive, sooner or later it will burst free of its barriers and engulf everything in its insatiable path.
