Could You Repeat That? 186
Star Wars: Master & Apprentice, Claudia Gray
"Surrender?" Pax said. "Give up before the battle's even begun? Why would I do that?"
"Because you're not holding a blaster in your hand, only a shovel," Qui-Gon said patiently.
City of Ghosts, Victoria Schwab
If we were in a comic book, this would be our origin story.
Some people get a spider bite, or a vat of acid.
We got a river.
Tender is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica
While they smoke, she says, "I don't get why a person's smile is considered attractive. When someone smiles, they're showing their skeleton."
This Is My America, Kim Johnson
An AK-47 in a white hand has more rights than a Black kid with Skittles.
Red Pill, Hari Kunzru
It's not much, but I can say that the most precious part of me isn't my individuality, my luxurious personhood, but the web of reciprocity in which I live my life.
Stargate Atlantis: Inheritors, Jo Graham, Melissa Scott, and Amy Griswold>
"Guide has done his best by his people," Teyla said, and was surprised to find she meant it. "And that best has been very good indeed."
Wolf in the Shadows, Marcia Muller
Sometimes, I thought, the worth of freedom can be measured only by the cost of what you give up to achieve it.
Stargate Atlantis: Unascended, Jo Graham & Amy Griswold
"I actually agree with Dr. McKay," Daniel said, with an expression that made it clear he felt that was a possible sign of the apocalypse.
Scarlet, Marissa Meyer
"This is good. This is progress."
"We found a ransacked house and were identified by the first civilian who spotted us."
"Yeah, because we're famous."
Tunnel of Bones, Victoria Schwab
"Well," Mom says in her conversational way, "about five hundred years ago, there was a queen named Catherine, and she had a henchman named Jean the Skinner."
"This story," says Jacob, "is definitely going to end well."
Stargate Atlantis: Third Path, Melissa Scott & Jo Graham
They gathered around the DHD, everyone looking a bit shaken by the sudden display of vegetable firepower.
Stargate Atlantis: Lost Queen, Melissa Scott
It was a good night for story-making, with the darkness hugging close and the clouds to bring a breath of damp like the kiss of the hives' mists, as good a night as he could wish for, except for the stakes involved.
A Children's Bible, Lydia Millet
What people wanted to be, but never could, traveled along beside them. Company.
The Resisters, Gish Jen
"Because, like, in what omniverse would anyone go back? It's bad enough you were born there."
"Well, at least I know what can happen," answered Gwen. "While you think it can never happen to you."
Murder on the Left Bank, Cara Black
"Who are you, madamoiselle?"
She wondered that herself sometimes.
Stargate Atlantis: The Wild Blue, Melissa Scott
It was like looking at some of the Ancient ruins, Radek thought, that same haunted sense of missing time, people made vividly present by their absence.
Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
The young man dug his hands into his overall pockets, the weight of the tool bag digging into his right shoulder. From where Eugene watched him, he looked like a half-shut penknife, a thing that should be sharp and useful, that was instead closed and waiting and rusting.
Stargate Atlantis: From the Depths, Amy Griswold
Elizabeth and Dr. Lynn had returned full of enthusiasm or some kind of squid repatriation program, for which Rodney and Radek were currently exhibiting significantly less enthusiasm.
Leave the World Behind, Rumann Alam
Ruth had learned only one thing from the current reality, and it was that everything held together by tacit agreement that it would.
Stargate Atlantis: Pride of the Genii, Melissa Scott
"I do not trust the Genii."
"Me, neither," John said. "Not as far as I could throw them."
Teyla gave him a sidelong glance. "Ladon Radim is not so large a man. I expect you could throw him some distance."
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
I looked up at the Statues on the Walls of the Vestibule. 'I need water,' I told them hoarsely. 'Bring me a drink of water.'
But they were only Statues and they could not bring me water. They could only look down on me with Calm Nobility.
Fool's Moon, Jim Butcher
There's more magic in a baby's first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don't let anyone tell you any different.
Cress, Marissa Meyer
"I'm beginning to think that maybe great, epic romances don't just happen. We have to make them ourselves."
Stargate SG-1: Trial by Fire, Sabine C Bauer
What would Oma Desala have to say about that? If you suffer from a migraine, the marble was quarried a long time ago.
Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon, Julie Fortune
Her blue eyes took on that mad-scientist shine, as if it was contagious. Maybe Daniel was a carrier.
Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
"Holy shit," I breathed. "Hellhounds."
"Harry," Michael said sternly. "You know I hate it when you swear."
"You're right. Sorry. Holy shit," I breathed, "heckhounds."
Memorial, Bryan Washington
I've been thinking about what you asked, said Tan, about home.
Really, I said.
Really, said Tan.
And what have you decided.
That loving a person means letting them change when they need to. And letting them go when they need to. And that doesn't make them any less of a home. Just maybe not one for you. Or only for a season or two. But that doesn't diminish the love. It just changes forms.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow, Part 1, Gene Luen Yang
ZUKO: Let me get this straight. You expect me to give up my destiny--my rightful place in the nation--just because a bunch of thugs too cowardly to show their faces asked me to?
THUG: Well...yes.
Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Heroes, Tom Taylor, G Willow Wilson, and Chris Eliopoulos
FINN: Hey. Can you tell us what's down there?
SURVIVOR: Screams in the dark. Fury.
FINN: That's...not as descriptive as you may think.
SURVIVOR: Rage.
FINN: Again, could you be a little more specific?
Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Villains, Tom Taylor
HUX: Did you...did you save me?
REN: Not intentionally.
Stargate SG-1: A Matter of Honor, Sally Malcolm
"You think I'm being too hard on her?"
Choosing not to answer directly, he decided on a more oblique response. "I believe you suspect that Major Carter's decision as not entirely objective. Perhaps you should examine your own response in a similar light?"
The shutters closed. "Right."
Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu
She'd worked with you before, and in the background you were always making cracks, whispering stuff to Fatty Choy or one of the other guys, little jokes under your breath, pretending that you were just trying to deliver a takeout order of Fried Rice Combo but then you accidentally witnessed several murders and that BLACK AND WHITE was really, at its heart, a show about the dangers of eating too much Chinese food.
While Other People Sleep, Marcia Muller
I knew it was going to be a peculiar day when I spilled coffee on the cat.
Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron, Alexander Freed
"All rebel plans look reckless on the surface."
And they all look terrible, she thought, but Quell looked anxious enough without that particular truth.
Bridge of Souls, Victoria Schwab
"Tarot isn't a crystal ball," he says. "It's a mirror."
I don't understand.
"Tarot cards don't tell you what you don't already know. They make you think about what you do."
Stargate SG-1: City of the Gods, Sonny Whitelaw
Teal'c, well, he had left little behind. Just a few candles and six billion people, give or take, who owed their existence to his inviolable sense of honor.
Star Wars: Aftermath, Chuck Wendig
"The Empire is just a skin we wear, you see. A shell. It's not just about law and order. It's about total control. We will always come back for it. No matter how hard you work to beat us back, we are an infection inside the galaxy's bones. And we will always surge forth when you least expect it."
Murder in the Marais, Cara Black
She climbed over the black wrought-iron balcony guard, gripping the thick rail, and was greeted by a dusky sunset over the Louvre and the Seine beyond. It was almost enough to sweep away the anticipation of finding out who was in her office.
Fairest, Marissa Meyer
Looking down, she saw blood spattered across her nightgown. Blood covering their hands. Blood on the two wedding bands he still wore, pressed up against each other.
Here is what I think of love.
Luna: New Moon, Ian McDonald
Agency is a comforting fairy story. Life is a series of doors that only open one way. We can never return.
Winter, Marissa Meyer
Winter started to clap. "Brilliant speech. Such gumption and bravado."
"And yet strangely lacking in any sort of actual strategy," said Scarlet.
"Oh, good, I'm glad you noticed it too," said Iko.
Stargate SG-1: The Cost of Honor, Sally Malcolm
Suddenly he was filled with a nostalgic longing, as acute and poignant as lost love. God, how he wanted to be able to simply wander through the crumbling history of this world, to discover its secrets with nothing but discovery on his mind.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: A Crash of Fate, Zoraida Cordova
"I have more than a couple of questions, Izzy, but maybe we can talk about why you keep shooting people."
Close Up, Amanda Quick
"You are a rather frightening woman, Vivian."
She sighed. "You are not the first man to inform me of that, although most of the others have put it somewhat more diplomatically."
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, Maggie Tokuda-Hall
If she couldn't love Keiko, maybe there was something wrong with her, something inherited from her loveless parents. Maybe she was born with a broken heart.
Stargate SG-1: Siren Song, Holly Scott
Looking down at him she whispered, "Please tell me I'm no good at that seductress stuff."
"You are merely proficient," Teal'c answered.
Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi
"Gifty," she said as I set the bowl of koko down. "Do you still pray?"
It would have been kinder to lie, but I wasn't kind anymore. Maybe I never had been.
A Wild and Lonely Place, Marcia Muller
"It hurts me that so many people are unwilling to see the light, but on the other hand, their horror of the Lord's word can be useful."
"Surrender?" Pax said. "Give up before the battle's even begun? Why would I do that?"
"Because you're not holding a blaster in your hand, only a shovel," Qui-Gon said patiently.
City of Ghosts, Victoria Schwab
If we were in a comic book, this would be our origin story.
Some people get a spider bite, or a vat of acid.
We got a river.
Tender is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica
While they smoke, she says, "I don't get why a person's smile is considered attractive. When someone smiles, they're showing their skeleton."
This Is My America, Kim Johnson
An AK-47 in a white hand has more rights than a Black kid with Skittles.
Red Pill, Hari Kunzru
It's not much, but I can say that the most precious part of me isn't my individuality, my luxurious personhood, but the web of reciprocity in which I live my life.
Stargate Atlantis: Inheritors, Jo Graham, Melissa Scott, and Amy Griswold>
"Guide has done his best by his people," Teyla said, and was surprised to find she meant it. "And that best has been very good indeed."
Wolf in the Shadows, Marcia Muller
Sometimes, I thought, the worth of freedom can be measured only by the cost of what you give up to achieve it.
Stargate Atlantis: Unascended, Jo Graham & Amy Griswold
"I actually agree with Dr. McKay," Daniel said, with an expression that made it clear he felt that was a possible sign of the apocalypse.
Scarlet, Marissa Meyer
"This is good. This is progress."
"We found a ransacked house and were identified by the first civilian who spotted us."
"Yeah, because we're famous."
Tunnel of Bones, Victoria Schwab
"Well," Mom says in her conversational way, "about five hundred years ago, there was a queen named Catherine, and she had a henchman named Jean the Skinner."
"This story," says Jacob, "is definitely going to end well."
Stargate Atlantis: Third Path, Melissa Scott & Jo Graham
They gathered around the DHD, everyone looking a bit shaken by the sudden display of vegetable firepower.
Stargate Atlantis: Lost Queen, Melissa Scott
It was a good night for story-making, with the darkness hugging close and the clouds to bring a breath of damp like the kiss of the hives' mists, as good a night as he could wish for, except for the stakes involved.
A Children's Bible, Lydia Millet
What people wanted to be, but never could, traveled along beside them. Company.
The Resisters, Gish Jen
"Because, like, in what omniverse would anyone go back? It's bad enough you were born there."
"Well, at least I know what can happen," answered Gwen. "While you think it can never happen to you."
Murder on the Left Bank, Cara Black
"Who are you, madamoiselle?"
She wondered that herself sometimes.
Stargate Atlantis: The Wild Blue, Melissa Scott
It was like looking at some of the Ancient ruins, Radek thought, that same haunted sense of missing time, people made vividly present by their absence.
Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
The young man dug his hands into his overall pockets, the weight of the tool bag digging into his right shoulder. From where Eugene watched him, he looked like a half-shut penknife, a thing that should be sharp and useful, that was instead closed and waiting and rusting.
Stargate Atlantis: From the Depths, Amy Griswold
Elizabeth and Dr. Lynn had returned full of enthusiasm or some kind of squid repatriation program, for which Rodney and Radek were currently exhibiting significantly less enthusiasm.
Leave the World Behind, Rumann Alam
Ruth had learned only one thing from the current reality, and it was that everything held together by tacit agreement that it would.
Stargate Atlantis: Pride of the Genii, Melissa Scott
"I do not trust the Genii."
"Me, neither," John said. "Not as far as I could throw them."
Teyla gave him a sidelong glance. "Ladon Radim is not so large a man. I expect you could throw him some distance."
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
I looked up at the Statues on the Walls of the Vestibule. 'I need water,' I told them hoarsely. 'Bring me a drink of water.'
But they were only Statues and they could not bring me water. They could only look down on me with Calm Nobility.
Fool's Moon, Jim Butcher
There's more magic in a baby's first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don't let anyone tell you any different.
Cress, Marissa Meyer
"I'm beginning to think that maybe great, epic romances don't just happen. We have to make them ourselves."
Stargate SG-1: Trial by Fire, Sabine C Bauer
What would Oma Desala have to say about that? If you suffer from a migraine, the marble was quarried a long time ago.
Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon, Julie Fortune
Her blue eyes took on that mad-scientist shine, as if it was contagious. Maybe Daniel was a carrier.
Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
"Holy shit," I breathed. "Hellhounds."
"Harry," Michael said sternly. "You know I hate it when you swear."
"You're right. Sorry. Holy shit," I breathed, "heckhounds."
Memorial, Bryan Washington
I've been thinking about what you asked, said Tan, about home.
Really, I said.
Really, said Tan.
And what have you decided.
That loving a person means letting them change when they need to. And letting them go when they need to. And that doesn't make them any less of a home. Just maybe not one for you. Or only for a season or two. But that doesn't diminish the love. It just changes forms.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow, Part 1, Gene Luen Yang
ZUKO: Let me get this straight. You expect me to give up my destiny--my rightful place in the nation--just because a bunch of thugs too cowardly to show their faces asked me to?
THUG: Well...yes.
Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Heroes, Tom Taylor, G Willow Wilson, and Chris Eliopoulos
FINN: Hey. Can you tell us what's down there?
SURVIVOR: Screams in the dark. Fury.
FINN: That's...not as descriptive as you may think.
SURVIVOR: Rage.
FINN: Again, could you be a little more specific?
Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Villains, Tom Taylor
HUX: Did you...did you save me?
REN: Not intentionally.
Stargate SG-1: A Matter of Honor, Sally Malcolm
"You think I'm being too hard on her?"
Choosing not to answer directly, he decided on a more oblique response. "I believe you suspect that Major Carter's decision as not entirely objective. Perhaps you should examine your own response in a similar light?"
The shutters closed. "Right."
Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu
She'd worked with you before, and in the background you were always making cracks, whispering stuff to Fatty Choy or one of the other guys, little jokes under your breath, pretending that you were just trying to deliver a takeout order of Fried Rice Combo but then you accidentally witnessed several murders and that BLACK AND WHITE was really, at its heart, a show about the dangers of eating too much Chinese food.
While Other People Sleep, Marcia Muller
I knew it was going to be a peculiar day when I spilled coffee on the cat.
Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron, Alexander Freed
"All rebel plans look reckless on the surface."
And they all look terrible, she thought, but Quell looked anxious enough without that particular truth.
Bridge of Souls, Victoria Schwab
"Tarot isn't a crystal ball," he says. "It's a mirror."
I don't understand.
"Tarot cards don't tell you what you don't already know. They make you think about what you do."
Stargate SG-1: City of the Gods, Sonny Whitelaw
Teal'c, well, he had left little behind. Just a few candles and six billion people, give or take, who owed their existence to his inviolable sense of honor.
Star Wars: Aftermath, Chuck Wendig
"The Empire is just a skin we wear, you see. A shell. It's not just about law and order. It's about total control. We will always come back for it. No matter how hard you work to beat us back, we are an infection inside the galaxy's bones. And we will always surge forth when you least expect it."
Murder in the Marais, Cara Black
She climbed over the black wrought-iron balcony guard, gripping the thick rail, and was greeted by a dusky sunset over the Louvre and the Seine beyond. It was almost enough to sweep away the anticipation of finding out who was in her office.
Fairest, Marissa Meyer
Looking down, she saw blood spattered across her nightgown. Blood covering their hands. Blood on the two wedding bands he still wore, pressed up against each other.
Here is what I think of love.
Luna: New Moon, Ian McDonald
Agency is a comforting fairy story. Life is a series of doors that only open one way. We can never return.
Winter, Marissa Meyer
Winter started to clap. "Brilliant speech. Such gumption and bravado."
"And yet strangely lacking in any sort of actual strategy," said Scarlet.
"Oh, good, I'm glad you noticed it too," said Iko.
Stargate SG-1: The Cost of Honor, Sally Malcolm
Suddenly he was filled with a nostalgic longing, as acute and poignant as lost love. God, how he wanted to be able to simply wander through the crumbling history of this world, to discover its secrets with nothing but discovery on his mind.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: A Crash of Fate, Zoraida Cordova
"I have more than a couple of questions, Izzy, but maybe we can talk about why you keep shooting people."
Close Up, Amanda Quick
"You are a rather frightening woman, Vivian."
She sighed. "You are not the first man to inform me of that, although most of the others have put it somewhat more diplomatically."
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, Maggie Tokuda-Hall
If she couldn't love Keiko, maybe there was something wrong with her, something inherited from her loveless parents. Maybe she was born with a broken heart.
Stargate SG-1: Siren Song, Holly Scott
Looking down at him she whispered, "Please tell me I'm no good at that seductress stuff."
"You are merely proficient," Teal'c answered.
Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi
"Gifty," she said as I set the bowl of koko down. "Do you still pray?"
It would have been kinder to lie, but I wasn't kind anymore. Maybe I never had been.
A Wild and Lonely Place, Marcia Muller
"It hurts me that so many people are unwilling to see the light, but on the other hand, their horror of the Lord's word can be useful."