Judas Unchained Quotes

“But to have dreamed the dream is to have flown above the mountains so high in all but deed.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Are you sure it is trustworthy, Mellanie?"
"I'd be dead if it wasn't."
"Yes, I suppose that does generate a respectable level of personal confidence.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“I don’t understand why you need verbal trickery to ensnare a temporary mate,” Tochee said. “Are you not attracted to each other by what you are?”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Any species possessing this kind of knowledge base is best left unannoyed.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“During the Trinity test of the very first atom bomb, Fermi wondered if the detonation would ignite the Earth’s atmosphere. They just didn’t know, you see. We think the quantum disruption won’t propagate. If it does, then the whole universe gets converted into energy.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Why do they both refer to your deity while mating?" Tochee inquired as it munched on some rehydrated cabbage. "Is it a request for a blessing?”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“The universe was not built on integrity. In the face of weakness, force can and will triumph. All you can do is choose who wields that force. Us or the Starflyer.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“I don’t get it. There’s nothing here. Send your invasion force halfway across the galaxy so they can build a five star ski resort? That’s crazy.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“rationalize that as something else”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Their electronics are still back in the Stone Age.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Always believing you are the valiant one, that right will triumph in the end. It’s not always like that. The universe was not built on integrity. In the face of weakness, force can and will triumph. All you can do is choose who wields that force.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“I look out at my city every day and I see how inspiringly high we can climb, yet in this room I also witness how low we can go as a species. I never involve myself personally, you understand, I merely survive by making arrangements. Out of this I live the life I want.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“But to have dreamed the dream is to have flown above the mountains so high in all but deed.” “Keats?” “Manby.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Adam hurried into the cool dry interior, for once not pausing to consider, all men being equal, the market-enforced indignity of the doorman having to be servile. Today, anyone whose job it was to hasten him into cool comfort was okay by him.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“That reluctance to exterminate any creature that might be a difficult problem defines us as a species. We don’t operate at their level. That’s got to be worth something.” “Not when you’re dead, it isn’t,” Wilson snapped angrily. He knew that he was actually scared and trying to cover, which in itself was pathetic.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“It’s the assembly system they want to get up and running. They’re using a different method than on the lifeboats, with their preassembled sections. The frigate assembly bays are combined with the station dockyard. Individual components are shipped in directly and integrated up in orbit.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“He always hated it when they had an argument. For a start she was so much better at it than he was.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“The tarn was a long oval shape, with water up to its brim. When the rains came it overflowed into a sharp cleft of black granite at the eastern end.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“This place is like Gaczyna,” she said as they passed a Bab’s Kebabs franchise at the end of a strip mall. “Where?” “A place in Russia that they used to train spies during the Cold War. It supposedly had a perfect replica of an American town, so the agents could familiarize themselves with life in the West. That’s what this is, a replica of the Commonwealth. Everything we associate with everyday life is here, but it’s not actually real.” “The Dynasty’s doing its best to make things comfortable for us.” “Yeah, baby, I know. It wasn’t a complaint, just an observation.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“It was a depressing thought that the answer would be waiting for him when he returned home, a brief historical note within the unisphere.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Music so loud it was on the threshold of pain; black walls, floor, and ceiling producing a darkness that made you squint, until the rig above the mastermix DJ flared with blindingly intense holographic pulses; bodies crunched up so tight you could feel other people’s sweat rub off on you as you squeezed past; Sahara heat; drinks priced contemptuously high; a dance floor so crowded that all you could do was wriggle in imitation sex—apart from the five people in the middle who weren’t imitating anything. Nobody looked over twenty-five; boys dressed in chic suits; girls in wisps of designer cloth. Paula shoved her way aggressively to the bar. Thankfully, she didn’t have to shout herself hoarse for a drink. The barkeeper nodded welcome and immediately mixed her a peach sunset. She”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“One little part of her mind wished she was coming home to someone like Adam Elvin. Not that she needed a man, any man. But Adam would be a lot less hard work than Dudley with his insecurities and paranoia and jealousies. Adam, she imagined, would be a lot calmer and reassuring; someone she could talk to about all her problems with the Starflyer and worrying about being exposed. He’d have answers and solutions, strategies for coping.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“He was a professional, doing what he did out of commitment and belief; he approved of her efforts, offering snippets of advice. It added up to a weird kind of friendship, but in a bizarre way she trusted him a lot more than anyone else in her life right now.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“They are the most extraordinary organisms I’ve ever seen. Why not share it with the Commonwealth?” “Commercial application. Gigalife isn’t quite genuine biological life. Whoever produced them has overcome Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle; there is some kind of nanonic fabrication system operating inside the cells. Look at those central spires. They’re made up from a conical mast of super-strength carbon strands which the cells extrude. The leaf-sheet is simply draped over it. Gigalife is a fusion of ordinary biological processes and molecular mechanics, which we’ve so far been completely unable to duplicate. The implication if we can crack the nanonic properties is incalculable. We’d get everything from true Von Neumannism to bodies which can self-repair. Human immortality would become integral rather than dependent on the crudity of today’s rejuvenation techniques.” Liz wrinkled her nose in disapproval. “How long do the groundplants take to grow?” “We’re not sure. The current structures are about five thousand years old, and just maintain themselves. We’ve never seen one in its growth stage. Several are decaying faster than their regeneration process can cope with. Again, we don’t know if they’re actually dying, or if they’re in a cycle. They could be like terrestrial bulbs and simply recharge their kernels for the next time around.” “You mean they don’t produce seeds?” “Who knows? They have a kernel which is the size of a twenty-story skyscraper. Best guess is that they were manufactured and placed in position by the Planters. If they were produced as seeds, how would they ever spread? They’d either need wheels or rockets.” “Good point,” Liz admitted. “Can you eat them?” Barry piped up. “No. We haven’t found one with proteins that a human can consume. Of course, we haven’t sampled more than a tiny percentage so far. We use noninvasive investigatory techniques, which is why our progress is slower than some in the Dynasty would like. But Nigel and Ozzie both agreed we didn’t want the Planters to return and find we’d damaged anything. Any species possessing this kind of knowledge base is best left unannoyed.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“The assembly bays are putting together complete compartments; that’s why they’re so large and complex. These are like spheres that have six airlocks. All you have to do is stack them together on top of a hyperdrive section, and you can have any size ship you want. It’s the ultimate in modular design concept.” “What’s in the compartments?” “Factory eight is doing suspension tanks,” he said. “Damnit. I bet they’re evacuation ships. I had the placement office call me today and ask if I’d like to work in a team designing state-of-the-art genetic agronomy laboratories. You know what that means?” “Modifying terrestrial crops to grow in alien soil.” Liz sucked on her lower lip. “Sheldon’s going to leave if we lose the war,” she said with grim admiration. “He’ll probably take most of his Dynasty with him. How many suspension tanks are in the compartments?” “A hundred each. We’re receiving all the major subcomponents already integrated; with the exception of the hull and the life-support systems, most of it is standard commercially available hardware. The assembly bays just plug all the pieces together. There’s a lot of development gone into this. It would have taken a long time, even with advanced design software. I think he’s been planning this since before the invasion.” “A hundred per compartment?” she mused. “That’s a big ship.” “Very. Factory eight is churning out six completed compartments a week. Some of the other factories are just packaging industrial cybernetics for long-term storage. You’ve seen how many trucks are using the highway; they’re shipping all the completed compartments out somewhere.” “Six a week, in one factory? That’s …” She half closed her eyes as she did some multiplication. “Jesus damn! How big are these ships? He must be planning on taking a whole planet with him.” “If you’re intending to establish a high-technology civilization from scratch, you need a lot of equipment, and a decent population base.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“It had been one hell of a visit, the two of them screwing each other senseless in the little rec room, like teenagers who’d unexpectedly found the house empty one afternoon. Hence the long-lasting smile. That memory of the two of them together was the last one to be loaded into his secure store. So if, as likely, his body was blown to shit on this mission, that would be the strongest memory in his brain when he was re-lifed. Now that was a stylish way to emerge back into reality.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“I was in another Park Avenue apartment yesterday, about a kilometer away from here,” she said. “I thought that was ostentatious, but it would fit in this room and still rattle around.” “Some people are aspirant,” Justine said. “Some of us obtained a long time ago.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“I understand. My offer remains open. And your answer doesn’t prejudice our deal. You should never mix business with pleasure.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“reporting on all the people emigrating to the High Angel. They all think it’ll fly them clear if the worst happens.” “High Angel is a good bet, especially if you don’t have any real money, although they’ll hardly be in charge of their own destiny. Who knows where that machinecreature will take them, or what its ultimate purpose is.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained

“Those sons of bitches,” Mellanie exclaimed. Even after all the time she’d been exposed to the ultra-rich and their political flunkies, the idea that they’d turn tail and run caught her by surprise. “They’re going to leave us to do their dirty fighting for them?” “Now then, Mellanie, don’t whine like some Bolshevik class warrior; it’s a perfectly sensible precaution. Exactly what I expect from that class. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t hop on board if you were presented with a berth?”
― Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained