Teaser Tuesday: “The Will to Battle”

So this week I was reading the third book in the four-book “Terra Ignota” trilogy (just go with it), The Will To Battle, by Ada Palmer:

The basic premise of the “Terra Ignota” series is that, in the future, geographic nations have been replaced by “Hives”, which are, essentially, distributed collections of like-minded individuals who agree to abide by a certain set of laws, customs, and norms*; so you have discontiguous groups like the Humanists, the Masons, the Utopians, etc., who all, under the aegis of a worldwide Senate, coexist more or less harmoniously. At least, they used to, until the events of the previous two books pushed the world to the brink of war. Fortunately the Senate is on the job to try to defuse the situation. Or not.

Speaker Jin Im-Jin took a deep breath as the ranks of Senators burst into hubbub. “Order! Order! This emergency session was convened to … Order! Order!” Grandpa’s face made plain the true complaint: Is anyone in this room not having a temper tantrum?

Seeing Grandpa’s exasperation, Grandma rose to her feet, Charlemagne Guildbreaker Sr., ever-smiling champion of order and courtesy, whose wooly beard, white against the dark warmth of Persian skin, has for decades been Romanova’s symbol for calm. Charlemagne was no longer Minister of Labor, nor even technically the leading Mason in the Senate, but had passed those honors on in order to graduate to the more essential office of assisting the Speaker as the Unofficial Nonpartisan Resolver of Unnecessary Bickering.

Ada Palmer, The Will to Battle

Hmm. I thought I was reading fiction. Seems like we sure could use one of those Nonpartisan Resolver of Unnecessary Bickering thingies around here these days, couldn’t we? But who could possibly fill such a role? Hmm …

Or maybe …

* It’s actually waaaayyyy more complicated than this.