Axiom's End (Noumena, #1)

by Lindsay Ellis

An axiom developed that planets that support life are so competitive and dangerous that advanced civilizations can never evolve, and advancements such as ours are unlikely to the point of impossibility. This is an idea grounded as much in propaganda as reality, as it places the Superorganism at the top of even hypothetical hierarchies.

“You are the civilization that disproves this axiom. You would be both the greatest discovery in the history of the Superorganism and the greatest threat to its conception of itself as divinely unique.”

She felt like her veins had dried into husks from spending so many hours in terror;