The Raven Tower

by Ann Leckie

gods are, as a rule, more easily able to help those who have already made their own efforts.

And a god’s words must be true. If they are not true already, that god’s power must change the world—or try.

Vastai is full of people. And so, of course, it is also full of drama

“It’s easy enough once events are clear to you, if you already believe some prediction must have been made true, to twist and turn the words until you find some way to make them so, however labored, however tortuous.

considering one disaster among several possibilities is not the same as being confronted with the reality of it.

“How do you keep from crying?” He’d begun weeping again. “I don’t always,” you admitted. “Sometimes you can’t.”