A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought, #1)

by Vernor Vinge

Peregrine Wickwrackrum was of two minds about evil: when enough rules get broken, sometimes there is good amid the carnage.

“All my life I lived in a tiny clump of that. And I thought I was a master of space. I never dreamed to stand and see the whole blessed thing at once.”

And then she guessed, part in sadness, part in joy, that years from now she might look back on these months as goldenly happy.

my only remaining talent appears to be in fooling those who trust me into thinking I still know what I’m doing.

“Some people think it was a ‘super supersurge,’ you know. Something so big it swallowed the races that might have recorded it. Sometimes the biggest disasters aren’t noticed at all—no one’s around to write horror stories.”

To all such—and those living more peaceably around them—we say look out on the universe. It does not care, and even with all our science there are some disasters that we can not avert. All evil and good is petty before Nature. Personally, we take comfort from this, that there is a universe to admire that cannot be twisted to villainy or good, but which simply is.

“You don’t believe me? That’s funny. Once upon a time I was such a good liar; I could talk the fish right into my mouths. But now, when only the truth will work, I can’t convince you … Listen.”