The Regicide Report Quotes

“a man of many parts, not all of them his own.”
― Charles Stross, The Regicide Report

“She’s a coldly ruthless management shitweasel and evil sorceress with a mind as twisty as a seven-dimensional Möbius strip, but to be scrupulously even-handed, she probably thinks I’m a Generation X slacker unfairly gifted with powers that make me the necromantic equivalent of a walking neutron bomb. And the hell of it is, we’re both right.”
― Charles Stross, The Regicide Report

“Once you let the camel’s nose inside the tent it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the camel follows. And we let the whole dromedary in.”
― Charles Stross, The Regicide Report

“They’ve been planting people here for more than a thousand years. To enter the doors is to tread upon the bones of empire.”
― Charles Stross, The Regicide Report

“There is a common misconception that immortals are all loaded, enriched beyond the dreams of avarice by the magic of compound interest. But it’s only true during periods of political and economic stability. Vulnavia’s family wealth was alienated and then expropriated by two world wars, a depression, and nearly half a century of Communist rule.”
― Charles Stross, The Regicide Report

“Prince Otto Von Bismarck is said to have quipped, “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” And as a civil servant, it behooves me to be familiar with the rhythm of the sausage machine. The sausage machine I work for was first switched on in 1801, has been repeatedly patched and repaired ever since (it’s overdue for a full-scale redesign), and it’s held together by chewing gum, string, and constitutional wishful thinking. Nobody sane would design a legislative system like this, which is probably why the Crawling Chaos is right at home in it. It’s very simple: Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies, and Overseas Territories. It is a bicameral legislature with three parts: the House of Commons (elected by the public, except about 80 percent of the seats in it are owned outright by one party) the House of Lords (unelected except for the 92 seats allocated among hereditary peers—they run for election among their own kind) and the Sovereign, who is all-powerful, except that the Sovereign normally does whatever the Prime Minister tells her to do. Unless she doesn’t feel like it. Exceptions: The House of Lords can poke a stick between the bicycle spokes of the wheel of government and delay any piece of legislation for a year. The House of Commons can trigger a general election at pretty much any moment by throwing an epic tantrum that makes the government lose a vote of confidence. There are bishops of the Church of England (which the Sovereign leads but doesn’t control) in the House of Lords, also a pile of very senior judges and one extremely confused Chief Rabbi. Listen, I don’t make the rules, right?”
― Charles Stross, The Regicide Report