N.K. Jemisin
But when I got angry, my nerves sought an outlet, and my mouth didn't always guard the gates.Collection: Nerves
Once upon a time there was a Once upon a time there was a Once upon a time there was a Stop this. It's undignified.Collection: Once Upon A Time
I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore. I must try to remember.Collection: Heart
But perhaps that was just the way of power: no such thing as too much.Collection: Too Much
If the gods do decide to wipe us out, is it such a bad thing? Maybe we've earned a little annihilation.Collection: Wipe
Immortality gets very, very boring. You'd be surprised at how interesting the small mundanities of life can seem after a few millennia.Collection: Interesting
You are Insignificant. One of millions, neither special nor unique. I did not ask for this ignominy, and I resent the comparison. Fine. I don't you like you, either.Collection: Unique
Love betrayed has an entirely different sound from hatred outright.Collection: Hatred
...and when I lift my head to scream out my fury, a million stars turn black and die. No one can see them, but they are my tears.Collection: Stars
But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always a little love left, underneath. Yes. Horrible, isn't it?Collection: Powerful
The Cloud Roads has wildly original worldbuilding, diverse and engaging characters, and a thrilling adventure plot. It's that rarest of fantasies: fresh and surprising, with a story that doesn't go where ten thousand others have gone before. I can't wait for my next chance to visit the Three Worlds!Collection: Adventure
It is important to appreciate beauty, even when it is evil.Collection: Appreciate Beauty
They live forever. But many of them are even more lonely and miserable than we are. Why do you think they bother with us? We teach them life's value.Collection: Lonely
Determination could easily become obsession.Collection: Determination
There is no logic to grief.Collection: Grief
Rising from the dead? Glowing at sunrise? What did that make him, the god of cheerful mornings and macabre surprises?Collection: Morning
It was very bad if the council had resorted to recruiting men. By tradition men were our last line of defence, their physical strength bent towards the single and most important task of protecting our homes and children. This meant the council had decided that our only defence was to defeat the enemy, period. Anything else meant the end of Darre.Collection: Children
Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid.Collection: Funny Things
Fortunately, where reason failed, blind panic served well enough.Collection: Panic
I'm tired of being what everyone else has made me," I said. "I want to be myself." "Don't be a child." I looked up, startled and angry, though of course there was nothing to see. "What?" "You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I'm tired of your whining.Collection: Children
We worship Him not because He is the best of our gods, but because He is, or was, the greatest killer among them.Collection: Killers
He was dead again when I got home that day. His corpse was in the kitchen, near the counter, where it appeared he'd been chopping vegetables when the urge to stab himself through the wrist had struck. I slipped on the blood coming in, which annoyed me because that meant it was all over the kitchen floor.Collection: Home
The shadows of Ina-Karekh are the place where nightmares dwell, but not their source. Never forget: the shadowlands are not elsewhere. We create them. They are within.Collection: Shadow
And in that sliver of time, I felt the power around me coalesce, malice-hard and sharp as crystal. That this analogy occurred to me should have been a warning.Collection: Should Have
You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I tire of your whining.Collection: Done
I remembered Nahadoth's lips on my throat and fought to suppress a shudder, only half succeeding. Death as a consequence of lying with a god wasn't something I had considered, but it did not surprise me. A mortal man's strength had its limits. He spent himself and slept. He could be a good lover, but even his best skills were only guesswork - for every caress that sent a woman's head into the clouds, he might try ten that brought her back to earth.Collection: Lying
Loneliness is a darkness of the soulCollection: Loneliness
The priest's lesson: beware the Nightlord, for his pleasure is a mortal's doom. My grandmother's lesson: beware love, especially with the wrong man.Collection: Grandmother
I remembered Nahadoth’s lips on my throat and fought to suppress a shudder, only half succeeding. Death as a consequence of lying with a god wasn’t something I had considered, but it did not surprise me. A mortal man’s strength had its limits. He spent himself and slept. He could be a good lover, but even his best skills were only guesswork – for every caress that sent a woman’s head into the clouds, he might try ten that brought her back to earth.Collection: Romance