The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency, #1)

by John Scalzi

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.

Cardenia looked up, confused, as she was being stripped down. “I just saw you in the audience.” “That’s because I was just in the audience.” “How did you get here so quickly?” “Because it’s my job,” Naffa said, and magically a clipboard appeared. “How are you doing?” “Tell me I never have to do this again.” “It’s exceedingly rare for an emperox to have two coronation ceremonies, so, yes. You will never have to do this again.”

Ghreni, it doesn’t matter whether you actually have anything to apologize for. The act of apologizing is the thing. You should know that already. That’s basic diplomacy.”

“What if the rebel leader presents herself? Livy Onjsten, their general.” Mount snorted. “I’m not going to appoint her just because the duke died and now she doesn’t have to overthrow him. They are still in rebellion. You don’t win a rebellion by default.”

“That’s the human brain,” Attavio VI said. “It creates patterns when there aren’t any. Imagines causality when there is none. Imagines a narrative where none exists. It’s in the design of the brain itself. It’s primed to lie.”