Brian Staveley

“There’s no blade as keen as surprise.”

— Brian Staveley

“You squint hard enough, and everything starts to look suspicious.”

— Brian Staveley

“Pain is suffering because we want to be free of it, and pleasure is suffering because we fear to lose it.”

— Brian Staveley

“The process is the goal,” Kaden responded innocently, trying not to feel smug. It was about time one of those Shin maxims…

— Brian Staveley

“Resist faith. Resist trust. Believe only in what you touch with your hands. The rest is error and air.”

— Brian Staveley

“It’s built into the job. Bakers have flour, fishermen have nets, and leaders have lies.” Adare”

— Brian Staveley

“among a soft folk obsessed with words, choosing the right word is nearly as important as doing the right thing.” The”

— Brian Staveley

“Men tend to die when you slide steel beneath their skin and wiggle it around. Even priests.”

— Brian Staveley

“every son should have a chance to know his father, not as a child knows his protector, but as a man knows…

— Brian Staveley

“Assume nothing,’” he said. The first chapter of the Tactics. “If we figure everyone might be a murderer, we’re less likely to…

— Brian Staveley

“This is what we are for, Alin,” the older guardsman said, turning to his companion. Adare had never heard anyone use Birch’s…

— Brian Staveley

“Are you angry?”

— Brian Staveley

“We all have our hobbies,” Kaden replied. He could have been discussing farming techniques.”

— Brian Staveley

“Bakers have flour, fishermen have nets, and leaders have lies.”

— Brian Staveley

“It was just as all the Kettral said: You went to Hook to escape your problems and came back with a dozen…

— Brian Staveley

“How many?” he asked. “As many as it takes.” Whatever that meant.”

— Brian Staveley

“Often there is no good path. That does not mean we should not walk.”

— Brian Staveley

“The ablest swordsman, Hendran wrote, the consummate tactician, the peerless general: All seem invulnerable until luck turns against them. Make no mistake—place…

— Brian Staveley

“Triste lay in a heap, her dress hitched up around her thighs, whimpering and shuddering until Gwenna shifted to kick her ungently…

— Brian Staveley

“If you hope to play a part in this empire, Sanlitun had told her time and time again, you must learn to…

— Brian Staveley

“If you intend to heal the breach,” she went on, “as you claim. If you intend to abide by the treaty we…

— Brian Staveley

“the standard Kettral horseshit: the trainers insisted that their charges memorize everything about the empire from the price of wheat in Channary…

— Brian Staveley

“Her anger, so useful just moments before, was getting the better of her now. She could hear it; she was too loud.…

— Brian Staveley

“I'd been treating love like a thing, an achievement, a trophy to be and hung around my neck. People talk about it…

— Brian Staveley