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, who knew of the emperox’s utter lack of religiosity, despite being the official head of the Church of the Interdependency, suppressed the smallest of wry smiles.

“I worked in marketing,” Rachela I said. “Before I was a prophet. After, too, but we didn’t call it that after that point.”

It was nice when you could look up to your parent, even as an adult, and think, This is who I fucking want to be when I grow up.

Even without the Interdependency, being interdependent was the best way for humanity to survive.

“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.”

“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.”