John DeChancie

John DeChancie (born August 3, 1946) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy.

Quotes

Castle Perilous

The sections in these novels are not numbered. They are numbered here for ease of reference.

Castle Perilous (1988)

All page numbers from the mass market first edition published by Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-09418-X, 5th printing

• The silence was deep, yet it was the sort of restful, contemplative silence befitting and peculiar to a library.
  • Chapter 22, “Keep-Upper Levels” (p. 148)

• The truth lay on him like the rubble of a landslide.
  • Chapter 24, “Library” (p. 164)

• This look into the far future has lightened my heart. Simply to know that there is a future is somehow reassuring.
  • Chapter 31, “King’s Study” (p. 200)

• The desire to rule, to dictate, is born of nothing but contempt.
  • Chapter 42, “Atop The Citadel, And At Its Base” (p. 241)

Castle for Rent (1989)

All page numbers from the mass market first edition published by Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-09406-6, 5th printing

• “You’ve been planning moves in advance.”
  “As necessary in life as in chess.”
  • Chapter 9, “164 East 64th Street” (p. 55)

• “Deems, this new pastime of yours may prove your undoing.”
  “Eh?”
  “Thinking. You’ve done so little of it in your life. This much exertion all at once…Well, it can’t be healthy.”
  • Chapter 21, “Keep—Family Residence” (pp. 129-130)

• Silence hung like a boulder precariously balanced.
  • Chapter 26, “Castle” (p. 154)

Castle Kidnapped (1989)

All page numbers from the mass market first edition published by Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-09408-2, 1st printing

• Chico’s was busy that night, the dance floor a scrummage of writhing humanity. Snowclaw couldn’t get over the noise in the place. It had taken some getting used to. He didn’t quite understand what all the thumping and screeching was about, though he knew it had something to do with music. And the dancing was completely incomprehensible. Snowy took it to be some complex courting ritual. But what did the flashing lights have to do with anything?
  • Chapter 19, “Long Island” (p. 94)

• Things are going to change around here. I realize that taboos are hard to overcome, but it simply has to be done if your people are going to have any future.
  • Chapter 22, “Plains” (p. 111)

Castle War! (1990)

All page numbers from the mass market first edition published by Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-09270-5, 4th printing

Italics and ellipses as in the book

• Jeremy shook his head. “I used to dream about women like you. Hell, every guy does. You’re like a centerfold.”
  “Why, thank you.”
  “I mean it. You’re beautiful. But I just can’t believe that you’re real.”
  “But I am.”
  “You’re a computer program, for pete’s sake.”
  “What difference does that make?”
  “What difference? Well, I mean, you don’t just go around making out with computer programs. A program is just a…”
  “Just a pattern of information.”
  “Yeah. Just a pattern.”
  “So are you.”
  “What do you mean?”
  “You’re just a pattern of information, too. What makes you you is the configuration of data that’s in your brain. Your brain is just holding the information, just like a storage device. No difference. Your pattern is stored in a body, mine in a computer.”
  Jeremy was silent. Then he said, “I never thought of it that way.”
  “We’re both software, Jeremy. Why can’t we interface?”
  “I guess…well, maybe. But where did your body come from?”
  She shrugged. “I guess you could say that my body is just a pattern of information, too. Everything is merely a configuration of data.”
  “I don’t get it. But I’ll tell you one thing. I like your configuration a lot.”
  She smiled and kissed him.
  • Chapter 10, “Laboratory” (pp. 56-57)

• Fate, eh? Bloody bad luck, I call it.
  • Chapter 13, “Golfing Hell” (p. 75)

• Tell my doppelgänger not to do anything I wouldn’t do.
  • Chapter 15, “Laboratory” (p. 90)

• “It might have something to do with quantum uncertainty. ‘Quantum uncertainty’ is good for explaining just about anything that doesn’t make sense.”
  • Chapter 20, “Laboratory” (p. 125)

• So far, so good, the man said as he fell thirty-nine of forty stories.
  • Chapter 23, “Weirdworld” (p. 145)

• The sixteenth hole wouldn’t have gone well even if the herd of wyverns hadn’t showed up.
  • Chapter 28, “Moor” (p. 186)

• Look, we’re not getting anywhere. Why don’t we all return to our respective…whatever you call them. Continua, quantum glitches, Erewhons, reflections of reflections—
  • Chapter 38, “King’s Study” (p. 232)

• Nobody ever gained anything by playing chess with himself.
  • Chapter 38, “King’s Study” (p. 232)