Krista (CubicleBlindness Reviews)

“Welcome aboard the way to Ixion: island of ever-night, ever-youth and never-sleep. Burn bright!’ He gave her a mock salute and disappeared along the long, shadowy deck towards the bridge, leaving her shivering over what she had done. At least the pain from her strip had ebbed, as if his icy hands had robbed it of heat. She could breathe again.”
― Marianne de Pierres, Burn Bright

“Why did you get involved? That’s not a Seal thing to do.’ ‘I … what Brand was doing to Krista-belle … she was scared … like when the warden gave me the obedience strip.’ ‘You had a pain strip? Fross! How did you leave the compound then?’ Retra gave him a small, anxious smile. ‘I practised. The pain.’ Rollo’s expression changed. His eyes widened in a kind of admiration and he enveloped her in a comforting hug. But Retra didn’t want comfort right now. She wanted to leave. As she tried to edge out his grip he held on. ‘There’s something I’m going to tell you. The real reason that I came here,’ he said.”
― Marianne de Pierres, Burn Bright

“Your kind shouldn’t come here. The change is too great for Seals. Yet you have chosen it and rejected your society, so you must learn quickly or perish.”
― Marianne de Pierres, Burn Bright

“Getting down what the writer really cares about—setting down what the writer himself notices, as opposed to what any fool might notice—is all that is meant by the originality of the writer’s eye. Every human being has original vision. Most can’t write it down without cheapening or falsifying. Most human beings haven’t developed what Hemingway called the “built-in shock-resistant shit detector.”
― John Gardner, On Becoming a Novelist