Quotes from Martha Wells

Humans never think to tell their bots things like, say, don't respond to random individuals wandering the outside of the station. Bots are instructed to report and repel theft attempts, but no one ever tells them not to answer polite requests from other bots.)

Ratthi came to my cabin. I didn't have to let him in, so I did.

For one thing, the shows and serials were trying to communicate accurately with the viewer. As far as I could tell, real humans usually didn't know what the hell they were doing.

But the fact remained that a tense situation just made McKay think faster. You could probably phrase it as an equation, where the increasing awfulness of whatever tight spot they were in was directly proportional to the speed of McKay's ability to think a way out of it.

Why is this ship so old and shitty?

Why, thank you for your permission, Tremaine." Tremaine made a derisive noise, unimpressed. "Somebody's got to give you permission, if you won't give it to yourself.

Annoying people is something of a talent of mine. I gave it up for a while, but lately it's started to come back to me.

That's how SecUnits are taught to fight: throw your body at the target and kill the shit out of it

TargetControlSystem hit me with everything it had. It told me I would never take the ship. I told it. "Okay you keep the ship. I'll take the planet.

I wanted to put my fist through the nearest corporate logo. Idiotic humans don't understand how to be safe, idiotic humans thought every place was like stupid boring Preservation!

They don't want anything to come between them and their goal. They have their ideas, they don't want facts to bother them.

The company had never given us armor that nice, though in its defense, our armor did get blasted off us at regular intervals.

Jade turned to Malachite, incredulous. "We're going to help them fight off a Fell flight." Malachite didn't take her gaze off the sky. "I am." A growl rose in Jade's throat. She shouldn't have been surprised. The bloodline resemblance between Moon and Malachite was particularly strong, though Moon couldn't see it. And you have five of them back home in the nurseries, she reminded herself.

I thought I had one of your father, but it didn't develop." Tremaine nodded ruefully. "It's the silver nitrate in the film stock. He doesn't show up on it." Giaren stared at her blankly. "That was a joke," she added belatedly. "Oh." He sounded relieved.

as you may have noticed that for a terrifying murderbot I fuck up a lot.

If you raise a daughter to be both independent and an excellent marksman, you have to accept the fact that your control over her actions is at an end.

For my entire existence, at least the parts I could remember, I had done nothing but accept the inevitable. I was tired of it.

Kai stepped close, circled to face his prey, and wrapped his hand around the ghoul's throat. "Do mortals just walk into your channel house all the time? Am I one? Am I stupid? The ghoul choked out, "I didn't know you were a..." "Say it." Kai smiled. "... a demon." "You idiot." Kai leaned closer to whisper, "I'm the demon.

I was lying on the procedure table, my armor gone, just wearing what was left of my suit skin, the humans gathered around. That was a bit of a nightmare image.

We're not murderers, Tremaine. We're killers. There's a difference. A small difference, but a difference nonetheless.

I should know by now that Tremaine's definition of eccentric is… eccentric.

I couldn't pin down what was bothering me. Scan was negative, and this far away from the team there was no ambient sound except the whisper through the air system. Maybe it was the lack of security camera access, but I'd been in worse places with no cameras. Maybe it was something subliminal. Actually, it felt pretty liminal. Pro-liminal. Up-liminal? Whatever, there was no knowledge base here to look it up.

I know, I said, if the humans were dead, who would make the media?

He looked up to see Ranea staring at him, her eyes brilliant with rage. She said, "You did this." "No. I was here." In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have smiled when he said it.