Dave Jenkins asked Laurence E. Dahners:

In the Hyllis Family series, if there is no federal authority above the city-states, how is it that books of the ancients are universally illegal?

Laurence E. Dahners I would say I think of it that books aren't universally "illegal" so much as generally frowned upon, often vehemently - by customs that are enforced by laws in some areas. Something like the way, in medieval times, witches/satan-worship/atheism were viewed with vigorous disfavor almost everywhere. I would think that in other places, distant from the area covered by the stories, custom would be different - perhaps books might be revered but little read, or have been read so much in times gone by that few survive.
I suspect that customs themselves spread somewhat like memes or bad advice on the internet, sometimes crushing those who (reasonably) protest that they're inadvisable. There's certainly a lot of blame-mongering during the current Covid-19 crisis. Fortunately little of it is aimed at science as most seem to recognise that science offers the best solutions (but in other areas, even today, there are those who feel science is a villain!)
I would hope that in a real world apocalypse, we'd have better sense than that which led to a disrespect for science in the Hyllis universe...
Laury Dahners

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