Thrilling Quotes

“No one knew more than he how fast life could change. He pulled a trigger and four seconds later the life of a man a thousand meters away was over.”
― William Kely McClung, Black Fire

“Why is your species so dissatisfied?”
“How so?”
“Humans are individuals, quite social in nature. You strive to
become more than yourselves using Silicon reconstructions in your
bodies and filaments in your brains connecting you, unnaturally, to
the NET.”
“Our bodies are mortal. We employ silicon and alloys to extend
our bodies’ existence.”
“You appear to be attempting the same strategy with your brains’
architectures.”
“By using the NET? Is that what you mean?”
“You will never accomplish this. You must know it.”
“Surely you can understand that as we are now, we have what we
consider a limited lifespan, and, it seems, so does this planet. When
the inevitable happens, we will not be able to travel any substantial
distance in space. We cannot escape our dying planet. Humanity will
cease to exist if we fail. We face our ultimate existential crisis as a species.
Our most basic instinct is the survival of our species, so you see
we must try. It is in our nature. It is evolution or elimination.”
― Brian Van Norman, Against the Machine: Evolution

“You must realize from your studies, Miss Feng, with the complexity
of our MEG society, algorithms have become indispensable for
analysis and decision making in our data-saturated environment.
Digitization creates information beyond the processing capacity of
Human intelligence, yet provides a stable mental environment powered
by a set of logical rules. That is how we keep order in Toronto MEG.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Zhang,” Ke Hui said, somewhat uncomfortably,
“but the invisibility of algorithmic systems and the obscurity of their
operations hint at a society where algorithms do not reflect the public
interest. Issues involving ethics and values I mean, from my reading
of MEG history, challenge the assumptions of the neutrality of algorithmic
systems. Would this not undermine democratic governance
through reliance on technocratic resolutions?”
― Brian Van Norman, Against the Machine: Evolution

“All of these things, however, were but like methadone to a heroin addict. They only masked the withdrawal pains without satisfying the addiction. So even as they tried truly to break up many times, they always found their way back to each other.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“No,” said the doctor. “It’s something I’ve never seen before. Something I don’t think anyone has seen before.”  ”
― Steven Decker, Child of Another Kind

“We theorize that if these disruptions continue to happen, eventually the separate realities will begin to compete with our primary reality for dominance, and there will end up being no safe reality to live in.”
― Steven Decker, The Balance of Time

“I must admit that if there was ever going to be a woman to take my mind and heart off of Annette, it would have been Aideen.”
― Steven Decker, Addicted to Time

“He sped up. The right mirror was the first to go, then the left, followed by angry honking from the cars his mirrors hit as he threaded the needle between the narrow lanes.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“He grabbed her arm and karate-chopped her wrist to force the weapon out of her hand. She lost her balance and fell backward, but he kept a grip on her.”
― Karl Braungart, Triple Deception

“That must be Bogrov,” Alexei said as he put on a black ski mask. Laughing, he tossed one to Torn. “Don’t worry, it’s clean. Let me do the talking. This is how we take depositions in the Wild Wild East!”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“How many languages do you speak, you barely monolingual prick?”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“After purifying himself he walked through a small red gate to the shrine, dropped a goen, or five yen coin, the Japanese word for which also means good luck, into the wooden collection box in front of the shrine.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“Cars slowed to a crawl as drivers rubber-necked to watch her ride by. She was a glamorous hazard to traffic safety.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“The young officer, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, stopped for a moment and then said, a bit shakily, “You’re under arrest.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“He enjoyed the lying and the fooling of those around him. It made him feel in control, like his true self was not here, just somewhere else, arriving but never quite present. Never quite awake.”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“I drank a portion of her blood, just enough to keep the virus under control, but not enough to kill her. It was like drinking one of Ophelia’s cocktails. The alcohol in her bloodstream filled me with dizzy thoughts, while the blood filled the virus with more hunger.”
― Eli Wilde, My Unbeating Heart

“Humans were not the beings I first thought them to be. Why had my mind convinced me they were angelic when I first became aware that I too, was once human? It seemed that both the mind of a human as well as the mind of a vampire could twist and alter the truth. ”
― Eli Wilde, My Unbeating Heart

“You needed to be taught a lesson. The kind of lesson that binds one man to another man. You removed a valuable commodity from me. A commodity that was going to provide me with a new face.”
― Eli Wilde, My Unbeating Heart

“From now on the value of your life is wholly determined by you. Keep this sword close and remember, when a man learns to kill others he also learns how to die. And therefore, how to live.”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“When the tip of his nose touched my skin and gently followed the contours of my neck, it was like all my sensitive trigger points had been hit in one go and my mind was saturated with immense, electrical sensations.”
― Eli Wilde, My Unbeating Heart

“The ground trembled. “Okay, so you’ve blown something. “If you’ve killed Felicity, you’d better brace yourself for the hellscape I’m going to rain down on your nasty little heads.”
He checked the data gathered by the spider droid in the one remaining exit. He had to hand it to these daemons—he was now certain Bast wasn’t here—they were damned good at concealment. There were at least two in this tunnel, possibly more, and he couldn’t be sure he’d trapped, injured or killed those covering the exits he’d just destroyed. No worries, he still had a couple of toys in his arsenal.”
― Patrick G Cox, First into the Fray

“From government ministers to hit men, - it must have been interesting to attend one of his parties.”
― Phil Hall, Murder O'clock

“Prophecy is not meant to see into the future, but to understand the meaning of the future when it occurs.”
― Guy Morris, Swarm

“A shout and the sound of plasma fire distracted the security team for a fraction of a second. Bast tensed, wondering if she could take out all three Security officers. Before she could act, however, all three were giving their attention to her again. Under her breath she cursed again, but managed to play the role she’d set herself. “Oh! What was that about?”
― Patrick G Cox, First into the Fray

“Like a pinball, she ricocheted off the solid wall of his chest.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Stage Fright

“She needed to have a good hard look at her priorities because, as of this moment, she’d been racing down the same road as Bessie.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Stage Fright

“This?' he demands, looking down at the waves far beneath them. 'This is how you travelled? What if the enchantment ended while Vivi wasn't with you?'

'I suppose I would have plummeted out of the air,' Jude tells him with troubling equanimity, her expression saying, Horrible risks are entirely normal to me.

Cardan has to admit that the ragwort steeds are swift and that there is something thrilling about tangling his hand in a leafy mane and racing across the sky. It's not as though he doesn't enjoy a little danger, just that he doesn't gorge himself on it, unlike some people.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“I would prefer that you not touch me," I said when her hand moved as if she intended to comb her long nails through my hair.

"I’m afraid it can’t be helped," she replied. Her fingers passed close to my ear as they divided my straight lengths into sections and lifted the whole away from my face. There was a brazenness to her smile for a moment. She then released my hair, letting it fall onto my shoulders.

I swallowed back a rise of anxiety, wondering if Thaddeus was right to fear her.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, The Tarishe Curse

“…she’d been plagued with feelings of being watched or followed, but on each occasion, she’d been proved wrong—talk about being a drama queen. ”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Stage Fright

“I had to remind myself of all the ways that he might be Buffalo Bill, and my erotically charged moment was his puts the lotion on its skin. He could take me anywhere. He looked like the kind of guy who'd be savvy about which highway exit had the best wooded area for dumping a body. Maybe that was why he drove a truck. Which I was currently sitting in.
Which of those options honestly scared me more--- that he could be up to some dark shit, or just that I had a crush? Maybe my true crime reading had desensitized me after all, because I knew which of those made my heart speed up.”
― Alicia Thompson, Love in the Time of Serial Killers