Contents ( 26)
- Seven Surrenders
- Persons APPEARING IN THIS HISTORY
- CHAPTER THE FIRST
- CHAPTER THE SECOND
- CHAPTER THE THIRD
- CHAPTER THE FOURTH
- CHAPTER THE FIFTH
- CHAPTER THE SIXTH
- CHAPTER THE SEVENTH
- CHAPTER THE EIGHTH
- CHAPTER THE NINTH
- CHAPTER THE TENTH
- CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH
- CHAPTER THE TWELFTH
- CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH
- CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH
- CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH
- CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH
- CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH
- CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH
- CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH
- CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH
- CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST
- CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SECOND
- AUTHOR’S Note AND Acknowledgments
Persons APPEARING IN THIS HISTORY
| Bridger | a child |
| The Major | a veteran |
| Aimer | his lieutenant |
| Looker, Crawler, Medic, Stander-Y, Stander-G, Nogun, Nostand | his men |
| Croucher | a malcontent |
| Mommadoll | a homemaker |
| Mycroft Canner | their guardian |
| Saladin | his lover |
| Thisbe Ottila Saneer (Humanist) | a smelltrack artist |
| Ockham Prospero Saneer (Humanist) | Officer of Security |
| Lesley Juniper Sniper Saneer (Humanist) | a security officer |
| Ojiro Cardigan Sniper (Humanist) | a pentathlete and living doll |
| Eureka Weeksbooth and Sidney Koons (Humanists) | data analysts |
| Kat and Robin Typer (Humanists) | twins |
| Cato Weeksbooth (Humanist) | a mad science teacher |
| Carlyle Foster (Cousin) | their sensayer |
| J.E.D.D. Mason (minor) | a Tribune |
| Madame D’Arouet (Blacklaw Hiveless) | His mother |
| Gibraltar Chagatai (Blacklaw Hiveless) | His housekeeper |
| Martin Guildbreaker (Mason) | His investigator |
| Dominic Seneschal (Blacklaw Hiveless) | His sensayer |
| Heloïse (minor) | His nun |
| Cornel MASON (Mason) | an emperor |
| The Seventh Anonymous | a political voice |
| Brody de Lupa (Humanist) | his proxy |
| Bryar Kosala (Cousin) | a chairperson |
| Vivien Ancelet (Graylaw Hiveless) | her spouse, the Censor |
| Jung Su-Hyeon Ancelet Kosala (Graylaw Hiveless) | their bash’child, the Deputy Censor |
| Ganymede Jean-Louis de la Trémoïlle (Humanist) | a president |
| Hotaka Andō Mitsubishi (Mitsubishi) | a chief director |
| Jyothi Bandyopadhyay, Chen Zhongren, Huang Enlai, Kim Yeong-Uk, Kimura Kunie, Lu Yong, Wang Baobao, Wang Laojing (Mitsubishi) | his colleagues |
| Danaë Marie-Anne de la Trémoïlle Mitsubishi | his wife |
| Jun, Sora, Michi, Ran, Harue, Naō, Setsuna (minors) | their bash’children |
| Masami Mitsubishi (Mitsubishi) | their bash’child, a reporter |
| Toshi Mitsubishi (Graylaw Hiveless) | their bash’child, an analyst for the Censor |
| Hiroaki Mitsubishi (Cousin) | their bash’child, an analyst for the Cousins’ Feedback Bureau |
| Casimir Perry (European) | a prime minister |
| Isabel Carlos II of Spain (European) | a king |
| Felix Faust (Gordian) | a headmaster |
| Julia Doria-Pamphili (European) | Head of the Sensayers’ Conclave |
| Jin Im-Jin (Gordian) | Speaker of the Romanovan Senate |
| Darcy Sok (Cousin) | Head of the Cousins’ Feedback Bureau |
| Lorelei Cook (Cousin) | Romanovan Minister of Education |
| Ektor Carlyle Papadelias (European) | a detective |
| Tully Mardi (Graylaw Hiveless) | a warmonger |
| Aldrin Bester and Voltaire Seldon (Utopians) | ambassadors |
| Mushi Mojave (Utopian) | a Martian entomologist |
| Apollo Mojave (Utopian) | in memoriam |
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say, ‘It lightens.’
–William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act II, scene ii
CHAPTER THE FIRST
Nihil Obstet
Nihil Obstat—‘Nothing prevents it’—was the old license-by-fiat which kings and inquisitors pronounced in stifled ages when no printing press could give its inky kiss to paper until Tyrant Church and Tyrant State had loosed censorship’s universal gag. But ‘nihil obstet’ is something else when He appends it to our permissions page, Good Jehovah Mason. ‘Obstet’ is a prayer, one He made over and over to the many authorities who guard humanity: His Imperial father, the Cousin Chair, the King of Spain, the Sensayers’ Conclave, the far-seeing Censor, Brill’s wise Institute: ‘Let nothing prevent it.’ They feared as much for Him as for themselves, tried to sow doubt in Him, asked Him by His many names: Are You sure You want to do this, J.E.D.D. Mason? Tribune? Porphyrogene? Prince? Tenth Director? Tai-Kun? Xiao Hei Wang? Jed? Jagmohan? Micromegas? Jehovah Epicurus Donatien D’Arouet Mason? Are You sure You want this snarling, wounded Earth to learn so much of You? But Madame D’Arouet, who raised Ἄναξ Jehovah in that strange bash’-out-of-time she cultured in the gold-drenched heart of Paris, also taught Him numbers: one and many, less and more. So, the same grim calculus that compelled Cicero and Seneca to give their lives for bleeding Rome compels Jehovah now to end the desperation-pain of the ten billion who cry for answers, even at the cost of worse pain to those dearest to Him, and Himself. For your sake, reader, He prayed, to one, to many. And for His sake I pray too, to That One Power—absent from our permissions page—Which could still stop us, as It stopped firebrand Apollo. The many mouths of Providence have swallowed up a thousand histories, and could swallow one more. So I pray: Let nothing obstruct this book and the Good it aims at. If there is benevolence in You, strange Creator, nihil obstet.