David Weber

"Narration: But the universe wasn't really unfair, she thought, and her mouth quirked. It just didn't give much of a damn one way or the other."

"Narration: But what kept them on their feet when there was no sane reason for hope were the bonds between them, loyalty to one another, the knowledge that others depended on them even as they depended…"

"Randy Steilman: Oh, Christ! We're all gonna die. You seen the kinds'a casualty lists she comes up with?"

"W.E.B. Du Havel: God, I love the "fine morality" of the wealthy and powerful. You'll spill tears over your own, in a heartbeat. And then never even look twice at people below you, whose very lives are…"

"InfoDump AKA Pearls of Weber — includes maps, timeline"

"Narration: No one else knew how she'd longed for extinction, how much part of her had hungered simply to quit. To end. She'd once intended, coldly and logically, to do just that... She'd sacrificed he…"

"Narration: Perhaps his love for her made him less than impartial, but he also knew how deeply she'd been hurt and chided her for judging herself so much more harshly than she would have judged someone…"

"Narration: The reason for his anguish, the intolerable burden which had broken him at last, was the simplest thing in the world: he loved his wife. He always had, and he always would. Nothing could ch…"