The Expert System's Brother (Expert System, #1)

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

That optimism that someone else will come and mend all ills, that your Ma or the Lawgiver or someone will just turn up, and everything will be well, that’s the essence of being a kid.

Better a thief than a corpse, yes, but better a thief than a beggar as well. The world finds it harder to say no to a thief.

We had a destiny, after all. It was a good thing to have when the world was turned against you.

But I did not believe even myself, because how could that ball just hanging in the air mean everywhere I had ever known?

I am ashamed of who I was that night, more so because I became a man who has always been within this body but held back by the regard of others. When we surround ourselves with people who call evil good, how quickly we accept their definitions and speak them back, round and round until every way we experience the world is tainted by it.

It is a great poison, to know you have a destiny and that everything you do is right by default.

Our ancestors made sure that we would never lack for advice, but they did not realise that meant we would forget to find things out for ourselves.

the night sky is full of places we might go, if we can only change ourselves enough to live there.