The Saucy Wenches Book Club

The ocean was a magician, I saw that now. These waves, their rippling crests and troughs, were an illusory trick, a veneer for everything that existed beneath. I had glimpsed that other world, and the one I had been born into was transformed forever. ~ EJ Swift, The Coral Bones

“It turns out executing a deliberate, convincing distraction is a lot harder than being a distraction accidentally.” ~ Martha Wells, Platform Decay ( The Murderbot Diaries #8)

“Even at my most fucked up I like to make sense. At least to myself. Don’t you?” ~ Mason Coile (Andrew Pyper), Exiles

...the immortal words that flowed forth from mission specialist Jack Vo’s mouth as he became the first human to set foot on this new planet were: What the fuck is that? ~ Becky Chambers, To Be Taught, If Fortunate

“They will not break me. Fuck them all. They will not break me. But I will break them. This is my promise to myself, to my friends, and to you, anyone who reads these words. I will break them all.”   Crawler Carl, 25th Edition of The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook ~ Matt Dinniman, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook ( Dungeon Crawler Carl #3)

... It’s about learning to live in partnership with one another in small communities, and at the same time, working out a sustainable partnership with our environment. It’s about treating education and adaptability as the absolute essentials that they are. ~ Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

But there are no new thoughts. They’re just old thoughts born into new moments – and in these moments is the thought: without that earth we are all finished. We couldn’t survive a second without its grace, we are sailors on a ship on a deep, dark unswimmable sea. ~ Samantha Harvey, Orbital

“But courage and training yourself not to feel are two different things.” ~ Mason Coile (Andrew Pyper), Exiles

“You can’t crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them. By refusing to think, refusing to change.” ~ Ursula K. Leguin, The Dispossessed

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. ~ George Orwell, 1984

I knew this was all a construction. But it was so easy to get caught up in the story. So easy to forget who the true enemy was. ~ Matt Dinniman, The Gate of the Feral Gods ( Dungeon Crawler Carl #4)

“None of this happened, Paul,” she says. “You and I never existed. There is no Antimemetics Division.” ~ qntm, Sam Hughes, There Is No Antimemetics Division

“Oh my god, Carl. It’s porn. This is unauthorized derriere porn! The Donut Holes are an unauthorized fan group, and now they have merch! Merch that exploits my backside! Carl, do something!” “Donut,” I said. “It’s enchanted. He’s wearing it because it helps him. You can’t even see it.” “How would you like it if someone was wearing a shirt featuring your butthole, Carl?” “I don’t stick my butthole in everybody’s face when they’re trying to sit down and eat.” “Well, excuse me for showing affection. I mean really.” ~ Matt Dinniman, This Inevitable Ruin ( Dungeon Crawler Carl #7)

“No life is ordinary. No life is without hope, without light, even during the unimaginable.” ~ Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men

“And in case you didn’t get the memo, I think the shit hit the fan and it’s all over the goddamn ceiling.” ~ Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark

They were warned about what would happen with repeated exposure to this seamless earth. You will see, they were told, its fullness, its absence of borders except those between land and sea. You’ll see no countries, just a rolling indivisible globe which knows no possibility of separation, let alone war. And you’ll feel yourself pulled in two directions at once. Exhilaration, anxiety, rapture, depression, tenderness, anger, hope, despair. ~ Samantha Harvey, Orbital

The regimes had learned, from watching how other autocratic systems were toppled, that compromise was death. They made no reforms. They promised nothing. They simply jailed, beat, harassed, and killed as many people as was necessary. ~ Ray Nayler, Where the Axe Is Buried

“Cats are assholes. I get it. But do you know why people like cats, despite their asshole-ness? It’s because they don’t fucking talk . If they did, and they were all like you, they’d all be extinct because we’d have killed you all by now.” ~ Matt Dinniman, Dungeon Crawler Carl

“Look at them. They’re pretending, they behave as though they still have some control over their lives and make momentous decisions about which vegetable to cook first.” ~ Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men

“Still, humans were humans. They wanted you to know their opinions about your body, even if you hadn’t asked.” ~ Annalee Newitz, Automatic Noodle