The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency, #1)

by John Scalzi

The speed of light is not only a good idea, it’s the law. You can’t get to it; the closer you accelerate toward it, the more energy you need to keep going toward, and it’s a horrible idea to go that fast anyway, since space is only mostly empty, and anything you collide with at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light is going to turn your fragile spaceship into explody chunks of metal.

And even that was a crap way of describing it, because human languages are crap at describing things more complex than assembling a tree house.

But there was a time and place for everything, and it was called “university,”

It was one thing to fuck up on your own time. It was another to sideswipe the house while you did it.

“I’m continually confronted with the human tendency to ignore or deny facts until the last possible instant. And then for several days after that, too.”

“The Interdependency was built on a lie, you know,” she said, to Attavio VI. “Yes, I know. If not a lie, then perhaps on the least malignant projection of its original intent.”