christopher brown

October 31, 2020 by achrilock

“It was weirdly awesome, Donny thought, even as it was horrifying. Something about the sight of the convoy stimulated his inner eleven-year-old, the sheer wonder of the massive power of the nation-state on display. That shock and awe was how they wanted you to react.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Rule of Capture’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/31/4752/

October 28, 2020 by achrilock

“It was a map she had taken from the Library. New Orleans from before the floods, even before the fighting. A motorist’s map to a perfectly normal American city, one of those maps from the era when you could get away with never thinking about geography. When you could think of the city as a static thing, made by people, to their design. Instead of a product of nature, organic, dynamic, entropic.”

— Christopher Brown, ‘Failed State’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/28/4672/

October 22, 2020 by achrilock

“They won’t start torturing lawyers until they get done stealing the election.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Rule of Capture’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/22/4392/

October 19, 2020 by achrilock

“PRESIDENT RE-ELECT DEPLOYS MOTHERLAND GUARD IN FORTY CITIES TO SHUT DOWN TERROR CELLS, read the banner across the bottom. DECLARES NATIONAL CALL TO ORDER.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Rule of Capture’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/19/4323/

October 16, 2020 by achrilock

“Donny liked the Atlanteans, though, with their trees inside the temples and mythical wild animals roaming the streets like furry neighbors and their magic spells and their libraries without end. The Spartans were so corporate, the little warlord band that wanted to raid and pillage and run the world. And it was the Spartans, with their machines, who pissed of Poseidon.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Failed State’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/16/4274/

October 11, 2020 by achrilock

“‘We can change. Build better systems and come a lot closer than we do now. Do a better job of making sure everyone gets their fair share.’
‘Maybe,’ said Joyce. ‘Probably. But it’s hard to care about people once you see what they’re capable of. And once you learn what these guys have taught me.’
‘What’s that?’ asked Donny.
‘That the only thing that people really respond to is pain, or the fear of pain.’”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Failed State’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/11/4160/

October 5, 2020 by achrilock

“‘Calling them a government is generous,’ said Donny.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Failed State’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/05/4021/

October 1, 2020 by achrilock

“When Donny got up the next morning, Mack was on TV declaring victory. Texas Governor Pat Jackson and his handpicked Secretary of State said the popular vote could not be validated. Between the refugees and the Texans who had been relocated by that summer’s storms—storms that had caused the evacuations of large portions of the coastal region and the declaration of martial law in an even wider area—it was impossible to have confidence in the polls. Citing the emergency powers the Legislature had given him, the Governor overrode the popular vote. He would pick his own slate of electors, pledged to vote for the President in the interest of maintaining the peace.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Rule of Capture’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/10/01/3912/

September 30, 2020 by achrilock

“So on Wednesday morning after the vote, as the talking heads equivocated, he sent his ‘peacekeepers’ out to stop the protests before they could even get out the door. And then he lawyered up, to make sure his seizure of power could be papered over as the rule of law.
Like most people, Donny was sure he couldn’t get away with it. That such a craven disregard of the popular will would be a bridge too far.
The problem was, it was legal.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Rule of Capture’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/09/30/3884/

September 28, 2020 by achrilock

“The instability was compounded by deeper changes in the population, changes everyone had long known were coming, the same way they knew the heavy weather was coming, neither of which changes anyone could stop. The people who had the power saw that to keep it, they needed to make sure those changes didn’t take it away. So they went to war on the future.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Rule of Capture’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/09/28/3822/

September 27, 2020 by achrilock

“‘It’s business,’ said Moco, raising a can of Huckleberry Lite.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Tropic of Kansas’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/09/27/3786/

September 16, 2020 by achrilock

“If we don’t have a change in the political system real soon, we won’t have to imagine the end of the world.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Tropic of Kansas’

Pages: 1 2 3

https://achrilock.com/2020/09/16/3463/

September 14, 2020 by achrilock

“The people who try to do something real about it get squashed. Tricked.”
— Christopher Brown, ‘Tropic of Kansas’

Pages: 1 2

https://achrilock.com/2020/09/14/3406/