Sea of Tranquility: A novel

The first colony on the moon was intended as a prototype, a practice run for establishing a presence in other solar systems in the coming centuries. “Because we’ll have to,” the president of China said, at the press conference where construction on the first colony was announced, “eventually, whether we want to or not, unless we want all of human h

“Which operating system do you use on your device?” “Zephyr,” I said. “Same. You remember that weird Zephyr bug a couple years ago, this only lasted a day or two, but sometimes you’d open a text file on your device and you’d hear whatever music you’d been listening to last?” “Sure. That was annoying.” I only vaguely remembered it. “It was file corr

“You’ve traveled through time,” I said, and my awe at my sister was boundless in that moment. “Where did you go?” “I can’t talk about it.” Her expression was grim. “Can you at least tell me why you don’t want to do it anymore? I’d think it’d be…” “You’d think it’d be interesting,” she said. “It is. At first it’s fascinating. It’s a portal to a diff

He just desires no further movement, for the time being. If there’s pleasure in action, there’s peace in stillness.

If there’s pleasure in action, there’s peace in stillness.

What you have to understand is that bureaucracy is an organism, and the prime goal of every organism is self-protection. Bureaucracy exists to protect itself.”

but on the other hand, isn’t that reality? Won’t most of us die in fairly unclimactic ways, our passing unremarked by almost everyone, our deaths becoming plot points in the narratives of the people around us?

I’ve always loved rain, and knowing that it isn’t coming from clouds doesn’t make me love it less.

We knew it was coming but we behaved inconsistently. We stocked up on supplies—just in case—but sent our children to school, because how do you get any work done with the kids at home? (We were still thinking in terms of getting work done. The most shocking thing in retrospect was the degree to which all of us completely missed the point.)