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Hugos: Perdido St Station; Chronoliths; American Gods?
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<blockquote data-quote="Scarab" data-source="post: 199411" data-attributes="member: 1221"><p>I really loved Perdido Street Station -- its on my top five list of 'darn good books everyone should read'. A little quote:</p><p></p><p>He indicated that Yagharek should turn the page. Yagharek did so, and something clucked deep in his throat. Isaac supposed it was the garuda equivalent of a sudden intake of breath. Isaac looked briefly at the picture, then looked up, not too quickly, at Yagharek's face.</p><p>'Those things in the background like melting statues used to be houses,' he said levelly. 'The thing you're looking at, as far as they could work out, is descended from the domestic goat. Apparently they used to keep them as pets in Suroch. This could be second, tenth, twentieth generation post-Torque, obviously. We don't know how long they live.'</p><p>Yagharek stared at the dead thing in the heliotype.</p><p>'They had to shoot it, he explains in the text,' Isaac went on. 'It killed two of the militia. They had a go at an autopsy, but those horns in its stomach weren't dead, even though the rest of it was. They fought back, nearly killed the biologist. Do you see the carapace? Weird splicing going on there.' Yagharek nodded slowly.</p><p>'Turn the page, Yag. This next one, no one has the slightest idea what it used to be. Might have been spontaneously generated in the Torque explosion. But I think those gears are descended from train engines.'</p><p></p><p>[...]</p><p></p><p>'There were twenty militia, Sacramundi the heliotypist and three research scientists, plus a couple of engineers who stayed in the airship the whole time.</p><p>Seven militia, Sacramundi and one chymist came out of Suroch. Some were Torque-wounded. By the time they got back to New Crobuzon one militiaman had died. Another had barbed tentacles where his eyes should be, and pieces of the scientist's body were disappearing every night. No blood, no pain, just... smooth holes in her abdomen or arm or whatever. She killed herself.'</p><p></p><p>[...]</p><p></p><p>'Yag,' Isaac said softly, 'we ain't going to use the Torque. You might be thinking "You still use hammers and some people are murdered with them". Right? Eh? "Rivers can flood and kill thousands or they can drive water turbines." Yes? Trust me... speaking as one who used to think the Torque was /terribly/ exciting... it's not a /tool/. It's /not/ a hammer, it's not like water. It's... the Torque is /rogue/ /power/. We're not talking crisis energy here, right? Get that /right/ out of your head. Crisis is the energy underpinning the whole of physics. Torque's not about physics. It's not /about/ anything. It's... it's an entirely pathological force. We don't know where it comes from, why it appears, where it goes. All bets are off. No rules apply. You can't tap it -- well, you can try, but you've seen the results -- you can't play with it, you can't trust it, you can't understand it, you sure as godsdamn-<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> can't control it.'</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Scarab, post: 199411, member: 1221"] I really loved Perdido Street Station -- its on my top five list of 'darn good books everyone should read'. A little quote: He indicated that Yagharek should turn the page. Yagharek did so, and something clucked deep in his throat. Isaac supposed it was the garuda equivalent of a sudden intake of breath. Isaac looked briefly at the picture, then looked up, not too quickly, at Yagharek's face. 'Those things in the background like melting statues used to be houses,' he said levelly. 'The thing you're looking at, as far as they could work out, is descended from the domestic goat. Apparently they used to keep them as pets in Suroch. This could be second, tenth, twentieth generation post-Torque, obviously. We don't know how long they live.' Yagharek stared at the dead thing in the heliotype. 'They had to shoot it, he explains in the text,' Isaac went on. 'It killed two of the militia. They had a go at an autopsy, but those horns in its stomach weren't dead, even though the rest of it was. They fought back, nearly killed the biologist. Do you see the carapace? Weird splicing going on there.' Yagharek nodded slowly. 'Turn the page, Yag. This next one, no one has the slightest idea what it used to be. Might have been spontaneously generated in the Torque explosion. But I think those gears are descended from train engines.' [...] 'There were twenty militia, Sacramundi the heliotypist and three research scientists, plus a couple of engineers who stayed in the airship the whole time. Seven militia, Sacramundi and one chymist came out of Suroch. Some were Torque-wounded. By the time they got back to New Crobuzon one militiaman had died. Another had barbed tentacles where his eyes should be, and pieces of the scientist's body were disappearing every night. No blood, no pain, just... smooth holes in her abdomen or arm or whatever. She killed herself.' [...] 'Yag,' Isaac said softly, 'we ain't going to use the Torque. You might be thinking "You still use hammers and some people are murdered with them". Right? Eh? "Rivers can flood and kill thousands or they can drive water turbines." Yes? Trust me... speaking as one who used to think the Torque was /terribly/ exciting... it's not a /tool/. It's /not/ a hammer, it's not like water. It's... the Torque is /rogue/ /power/. We're not talking crisis energy here, right? Get that /right/ out of your head. Crisis is the energy underpinning the whole of physics. Torque's not about physics. It's not /about/ anything. It's... it's an entirely pathological force. We don't know where it comes from, why it appears, where it goes. All bets are off. No rules apply. You can't tap it -- well, you can try, but you've seen the results -- you can't play with it, you can't trust it, you can't understand it, you sure as godsdamn-:):):):) can't control it.' [/QUOTE]
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