Society
They pass their time in intrigues and ritualised 'war', giving the superficial impression to some that they are less than formidable, although it is widely noted that species who interfere with them tend to suffer catastrophic consequences, sometimes millennia later. Over the course of The Algebraist, they show that despite their apparently haphazard attitude to weaponry and other high-tech artefacts, they do maintain exceptionally powerful weapons to defend their gas giants. At one point, when they are threatened by a formidable alien fleet, they deploy a vast spherical weapon which virtually annihilates the enemy with a single shot.
Read more about this topic: Dweller (Banks)
Famous quotes containing the word society:
“The shy man does have some slight revenge upon society for the torture it inflicts upon him. He is able, to a certain extent, to communicate his misery. He frightens other people as much as they frighten him. He acts like a damper upon the whole room, and the most jovial spirits become, in his presence, depressed and nervous.”
—Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)
“Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“Our society is not a community, but merely a collection of isolated family units.”
—Valerie Solanas (b. 1940)