A human exposed without protection to the conditions required to support Affronter life would be dying in at least three excitingly different and painful ways anyway without having to worry about being crushed by a cage of leg-thick tentacles.
- Iain Banks Rate and Discuss this quote

It was used mainly as a regimental mess and dining hall and so was hung with flags, banners, the hides of enemies, bits and pieces of old weapons and military paraphenalia.
- Iain Banks Rate and Discuss this quote

The combination of modern ordnance and outdated tactics had, as ever, created enormous casualties on both sides.
- Iain Banks Rate and Discuss this quote

The double-sun system was relatively poor in comets; there were only a hundred billion of them.
- Iain Banks Rate and Discuss this quote

...there came a point when if a conspiracy was that powerful and subtle it became pointless to worry about it.
- Iain Banks Rate and Discuss this quote