This is Book 6 of The Chronicles of Narnia.

I did not like this book. This would have been the first book of two books triggering my rule "stop reading a series after two consecutive bad books," except it is the second to last book of the series, and, well, I intend to read the whole series. Suffice it to say, I'm glad I have this book from the library.

Part of my dislike of this book is the shallow treatment given to the long trek the main characters, and the seriously little sh-ts said main characters are. Though, really, Pole and Scrubb likely are little sh-ts, as they are kids, and how could one expect a kid to be honest and thoughtful and strong and good and steadfast, without the experience needed to understand how important these characteristics are.

Of course, many adults also lack these characteristics, so I'm unsure why I was so frustrated with these kids, except maybe that Christ-Analogy told them what to do and they ignored him. How many times does someone get to see Asland? How many lives never saw him? Pole sees him, talks with him, receives instructions from him, and still ignores his words. Frustrating.

I will, of course, finish the series, since I'm reading all these classic children's books. I'm glad to be done with this one. Blah.

Jill suddenly flew into a temper (which is quite a likely thing to happen if you have been interrupted in a cry).
Page 3

Yuuuuuuup.

"Now a job like this — a journey up north just as winter’s beginning, looking for a Prince that probably isn’t there, by way of a ruined city that no one has ever seen — will be just the thing. If that doesn’t steady a chap, I don’t know what will.”
Page 76

Jill thought that when, in books, people live on what they shoot, it never tells you what a long, smelly, messy job it is plucking and cleaning dead birds, and how cold it makes your fingers.
Page 84

“The bright side of it is,” said Puddleglum, “that if we break our necks getting down the cliff, then we’re safe from being drowned in the river.”
Page 85

Puddleglum! What a great character! He spends his time imagining the worst and is delighted when things aren't so bad! Too bad the kids ignore him.

“And why were you so stiff and unpleasant? Didn’t you like them?”

“Them?” said the wiggle. “Who’s them? I only saw one.”

“Didn’t you see the Knight?” asked Jill.

“I saw a suit of armor,” said Puddleglum. “Why didn’t he speak?”
Page 92

I'm laughing at that. He also takes things literally.

“Oh, bother his ideas!” said Scrubb. “He’s always expecting the worst, and he’s always wrong."
Page 93

But delighted when wrong - very Stoic in his imagining the worst and being able to accept it.

“That’s all very well,” said Puddleglum. “But what I was saying was — ”

“Oh, shut up,” said Jill crossly.
Page 104

Oh, look, Jill being a b--ch!

If you want to get out of a house without being seen, the middle of the afternoon is in some ways a better time to try it than in the middle of the night. Doors and windows are more likely to be open; and if you are caught, you can always pretend you weren’t meaning to go far and had no particular plans.
Page 125

How often they woke and slept and ate and slept again, none of them could ever remember. And the worst thing about it was that you began to feel as if you had always lived on that ship, in that darkness, and to wonder whether sun and blue skies and wind and birds had not been only a dream.
Page 154

“Where I come from,” said Jill, who was disliking him more every minute, “they don’t think much of men who are bossed about by their wives.”
Page 166

Well, Jill, go back to the horrible world you live in, where women are second-class citizens.

Thirdly, the pain itself made Puddleglum’s head for a moment perfectly clear and he knew exactly what he really thought. There is nothing like a good shock of pain for dissolving certain kinds of magic.
Page 190

"All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so."
Page 190

"It would not have suited well either with my heart or with my honor to have slain a woman."
Page 194

Note to self, grow up to be an evil empress.

"And all’s one, for that. Now, by my counsel, we shall all kneel and kiss his likeness, and then all shake hands one with another, as true friends that may shortly be parted."
Page 200

Kiss... his likeness. Uh, false idols much?

“Friends,” said the Prince, “when once a man is launched on such an adventure as this, he must bid farewell to hopes and fears, otherwise death or deliverance will both come too late to save his honor and his reason."
Page 202

Jill held her tongue. (If you don’t want other people to know how frightened you are, this is always a wise thing to do; it’s your voice that gives you away.)
Page 224

Even in this world, of course, it is the stupidest children who are the most childish and the stupidest grownups who are the most grown-up.
Page 253

This is book 2 of The Themis Files.

I enjoyed the first book enough to read the second book, and this was the second book. It starts about a decade after the last one ended, where everyone has pretty much become used to having a large (like 200' large), alien robot hanging out on the world doing book readings and press conferences.

And then another robot shows up and starts killing everyone.

The book moved at a more frenetic pace than the first one did, which is reasonable given the first one needed to world-build and this one can coast along on those words. Not everyone dies in the end, and we don't see enough of the characters we saw in the first one, and the rough edges have been smoothed off everyone's personality, all which contributed to this being a typical sophomoric book: less good than the first, but sufficient.

There's one more book in the series, coming out in May, which I'll read. I think this book is better experienced on audiobook, to be honest.

Military people — people like me — need intelligence to be useful. We need to know what’s going on. Without intelligence, take my word for it, you do not want your fate in the hands of the military. We do not improvise.
Page 18

Scientists are like children: They always want to know everything, they all ask too many questions, and they never follow orders to the letter.
Page 18

— Do you remember what you told me the second time around to get me to take this job?

— I do.

— You said: “I found you a military post where you’ll never have to kill anyone ever again.”

— I know. I still intend to keep that promise.
Page 21

People do what people do, and you’ll be miserable in the end because you’ll blame yourself for something you really have no power over.
Page 43

Every thought you have is a physical process. We know this for a fact, we can see it happening. We also know that emotions can be described in similar terms. Obviously, what you see, hear, touch, taste, smell is tied to your body.

...

Your soul, if you had one, the part of you that can’t be summed up as a bunch of atoms, would have no physical presence, couldn’t hear, smell, touch, or see anything. It would be incapable of thinking. No thoughts whatsoever, no sense of self. It wouldn’t feel anything either. Your soul would be… a hole… emptiness. There’s nothing special about that.
Page 46

I still find it impolite to give anyone lessons in their field of specialty.
Page 56

It’s not that I dislike the tame version of her — she’s doing it for me. I’d have to be a real asshole to blame her for it — but sometimes I wonder if she’s wiser or just broken. The thing is, she doesn’t seem unhappy. She says she’s happy, and a lot of the times I believe her.
Page 57

— Before Ms. Resnik became… Ms. Resnik, she was a little girl, with a mother of her own. No relationship is perfect, and I imagine that this little girl knew exactly what kind of person she wished her mother to be. Do not underestimate how powerful the wishes of that little girl are, to this day.
Page 58

"If I have, in any way, willingly or not, led you to believe I was remotely interested in your opinion of me, it was my mistake. It will not happen again."
Page 105

I started small and tried to make Themis move by a distance of one. I didn’t know one what, exactly, but I figured I’d probably end up somewhere on the empty lot in front of the hangar.
Page 109

I laughed at this. "One, in the appropriate unit."

"I still disagree with you. I think this is a bad way to die. It’s pointless. I just don’t have anything better to offer."
Page 124

While I am reasonably confident you are not “the chosen one,” you are without doubt one who has been chosen.
Page 125

We cheat and we lie at peacetime because we know the other side does it too. This might be war, and in war, you don’t try to scam your allies.
Page 129

The cost of an eradication effort is, generally speaking, inversely proportional to the population density.
Page 132

"Four million dead is indeed terribly sad."

"I don’t mean that. I mean it’s sad that their deaths aren’t as important just because there are so many."
Page 154

"And therein lies the fundamental difference between us. You would not sacrifice your principles for a greater good. I would not stop to think about it. I am… pragmatic, and you, Dr. Franklin, are an idealist."
Page 194

"Parents feel a great deal of responsibility for the way their children turn out, but there is very little a parent can do that will remotely rival the influence a friend or lover can have."
Page 199

I started out thinking I could remove the bad from the world one piece at a time until there was none left. The world, unfortunately, does not work that way.
Page 203

Remove a bad man from power, and a year later the person you put in his place is just as corrupt. If a policeman stops a drunken man from beating on his wife, what are the odds he will never have to go back? Can he really prevent anything, or is he just delaying the inevitable?
Page 203

Well, you’re not special, no more special than every other magnificent thing in the universe.
Page 233

Kara had the most beautiful smile when she was proud of herself. Smug, like you wouldn’t believe. Made you want to punch her in the face, but it was beautiful.
Page 244

I sure wish you were here with me. I’m better with you around. You know when I’m about to do something dumb. You put your hand on my shoulder to stop me from doing it, or you don’t and we do something even dumber together. Either way, I know everything’ll be OK. I’d give anything to have you with me now. See if you’d put that hand on my shoulder or not. I’d feel a whole lot better if you were here to help me plan this thing.
Page 259

Remember how unhappy I was awhile back? I didn’t even know I was, but I was. It was because I thought I had to be someone else.
Page 260

I’d never do anything if I waited for good ideas.
Page 266

Now I’m overanalyzing everything, wasting time thinking about wasting time.
Page 289