City of Last Chances (The Tyrant Philosophers #1)

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Sage-Archivist Ochelby had a kindly face. It crinkled in pleasant, paternal ways when he was conducting the more demanding tasks his position required. Such as deconstructing primitive magical belief systems – a task that often involved deconstructing primitive magicians.

He worked tirelessly for a world in which a flawed vessel such as he could not use such underhand tactics to prosper. But until then…

He’d aimed his question at the Indweller he thought had been talking at the Anchorage. The woman, he decided. She struck him more as a woman and, once he had made that decision, the conclusion seemed so obvious he wondered how he could have questioned it. All things in their properly catalogued place. The perfect world has no room for uncertainties and edge cases.

We will be ashamed of what we did here, one day. And at least, if that came true, it would mean things had got better. A better tomorrow bought with a succession of compromised todays.