"“The only test is whether a subject species is useful. Usefulness is survival.” They were all silent for a moment. The implications of the simple statement were like ice water in Rickar’s blood. Campar chuckled. “Come on, that’s pretty much what every funding committee says.” No one laughed."
James S. A. Corey is the pen name used by collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, authors of the science fiction series The Expanse. The first and last name are taken from Abraham's and Franck's middle names, respectively, and S. A. are the initials of Abraham's daughter. The name is also meant to emulate many of the space opera writers of the 1970s. In Germany, their books are published under
"“‘The predictable limits of a conceptual framework,’” Bobbie said. A phrase from her classroom on Olympus Mons. “It’s always where to hit the enemy. Whoever they turn out to be. When I learned how to do things like this, we were thinking about Earthers and pirates.” Katria laughed. “When I taught myself how to do this, I was thinking of people like you. Strange how the wheel turns.”"
"Human brains needed an answer, even if they had to make up something they knew was bullshit."
"“I’m getting a medal for falling into a pressure hatch, sacrificing an arm and a leg to keep seven sailors from being trapped in a compromised part of the ship. I was unconscious at the time, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it.”"
"Time healed all wounds, but it didn’t erase the scars so much as decorate them."
"Time was supposed to heal all wounds. To Drummer, that was just a nice way of saying that if she waited long enough, none of the things that seemed important to her would turn out to matter. Or at least not the way she’d thought they did."
"Politics is the art of the possible, Captain Pa. When you play at our level, grudges cost lives."