Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, #2)

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

What was the use of a mad scientist if they suddenly decided to start making sane decisions?

he’d tell himself it was to save the universe from them, in reality he just wanted to know.

It was a terrible thing to look into the heart of your culture and know that you were intended for monstrosity and only an active devotion to the good of others would keep you from it, even when those others hated you.