The Will to Battle
Published on 19. December 2017
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-78669-956-5 (ISBN)
Description
The year is 2454. Three centuries of peace and a hard-won golden age have come to an abrupt end.
The once steadfast leadership of the seven Hives is crumbling, soured by corruption and deception. Savagery and bloodlust, three-centuries suppressed, have been unleashed.
The terrible truth is that centuries of peace were bought with a trickle of secret murders. The killings were mathematically planned, meticulously organised to preserve the balance - to ensure no faction could dominate.
But now the secret is out, the balance has tipped, the Hives' utopian facade has slipped. Just days ago, humanity stood at the pinnacle of civilization. Now everyone - Hives and Hiveless, Utopians and sensayers, emperors and convicts, warriors and saints - is preparing for war.
The once steadfast leadership of the seven Hives is crumbling, soured by corruption and deception. Savagery and bloodlust, three-centuries suppressed, have been unleashed.
The terrible truth is that centuries of peace were bought with a trickle of secret murders. The killings were mathematically planned, meticulously organised to preserve the balance - to ensure no faction could dominate.
But now the secret is out, the balance has tipped, the Hives' utopian facade has slipped. Just days ago, humanity stood at the pinnacle of civilization. Now everyone - Hives and Hiveless, Utopians and sensayers, emperors and convicts, warriors and saints - is preparing for war.
Reviews / Votes
Bold, furiously inventive, and mesmerizing... The best science fiction I've read in a long while' -- Robert Charles Wilson The kind of science fiction that makes me excited all over again about what science fiction can do -- Jo Walton Provocative, erudite, inventive, resplendent -- Ken Liu Part novel, part series of nested essays, part project, The Will to Battle is much greater than the whole; an exercise in both narrative flexibility and philosophy... It's a powerful expression of what the genre can do' * Starburst magazine *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 145 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78669-956-5 (9781786699565)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Ada Palmer is an author, historian and composer. She did her PhD at Harvard, teaches History at the University of Chicago, blogs at ExUrbe.com, composes close harmony folk music and performs with the a capella group Sassafrass.