The Will to Battle

The carefully maintained peace of the twenty-fifth century is collapsing. For generations, the Hive leaders secretly orchestrated targeted assassinations to keep the balance of power stable, but that secret is spreading, and with it the prospect of war on a scale not seen in centuries. Ada Palmer's third Terra Ignota novel follows multiple factions, emperors, saints, and ordinary people as they scramble to position themselves for a conflict that now seems inevitable, while the philosophical questions at the series' heart grow more urgent.

T. Ryder Smith has built one of the most distinctive voices in science fiction narration through this series, handling Palmer's dense, multilingual, allusion-saturated prose with genuine relish. The novel's formal register, styled as a confession written for future readers, requires unusual commitment from a narrator, and Smith meets it. At over seventeen hours, this is demanding listening that rewards listeners who have stayed with the series.