The Ruin of Angels (Craft Sequence, #6)

by Max Gladstone

Feelings don’t strike turn by turn: they well up stepwise with slow reaction rates, as an alchemist would say, causes transforming into effects even as traces of cause remain. Human features, no matter how expressive, are too slow and simple to convey this welling conflict, and tend to freeze in some awkward intermediate position while the process works out.

“You know what’s the problem?” Kai cracked a smile. “The world,” she said, quoting one of their more hapless presenters, “is becoming increasingly global?”