“He had sworn on his father's honour, his mother's life, his brother's masculinity, his sister's purity and his prophet's beard that he would never set foot there again. God, knowing people, thinks little of honour or purity or even life, but vows made on his prophet he loves to confound.”

Source: The Dervish House (2010), Ch. 5, §6 (p. 178)

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Ian McDonald 30
British science fiction novelist 1960

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