Table of Contents for Perhaps the Stars

Do not open this until you've read the book. Seriously. A list of chapters, their titles, page numbers, and descriptions of notable events and turns of phrase.

Published

Updated

  1. v

    Dedication

  2. vii

    Second Title Page

    9A's title page.

    1. An Admonition from the Anonymous
  3. ix

    The Sides So Far

    Dramatis Personae

    1. ix
      Confirmed Remakers (support the Prince remaking the world)
    2. ix
      Confirmed Hiveguard (oppose the Prince remaking the world)
    3. ix
      Probably Remakers?
    4. x
      Probably Hiveguard?
    5. x
      Neutral or Probably Neutral
    6. xi
      Not sure what side they're on yet if any
    7. xii
      In Memoriam
  4. xiii

    Epigraph

  5. Chapter One

    1

    World Civil War

    9A describes the source of their hope, which bears them through this War.

  6. Chapter Two

    3

    The Battle of Cielo De Pájaros

    The War's second day.

    1. 4
      The cars' fuel
    2. 10
      Chocolate cake
    3. 12
      "We're not incapable of doing real good"
    4. 15
      The first appearance of the Triumvirate
    5. 17
      9A becomes Deputy Censor

  7. Chapter Three

    19

    Now I Am in a Place

    Foe Distance has trapped 9A in Romanova, upon the island Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea. What happens there.

    1. 20
      MASON declares war.
    2. 21
      Cousins, Red Crystal, and the Tiring Guns
    3. 23
      Humanist reply to MASON
    4. 23
      The Second Great Renunciation
    5. 24
      Carlyle saves the world from religion
    6. 27
      The Triumvirate named
    7. 31
      Su-Hyeon Ancelet-Kosala's bash'
    8. 33
      Huxley Mojave introduced

  8. Chapter Four

    36

    The Uniform Question

    In which uniforms are instituted, and rules of war.

    1. 38
      Agreement
    2. 40
      Calling Bryar
    3. 44
      Myrmidons and Servicers
    4. 47-48
      "The public saw the process backwards"
    5. 49
      Tully Mardi's A Practical Guide to Internment and Prisoners of War

  9. Chapter Five

    51

    Operation Baskerville

    "Here there be dragons." Trackers' long-distance communication links severed.

    1. 54
      No Signal
    2. 56
      Huxley explains 'Operation Baskerville'
    3. 57
      "Do you need escort to a barbican?"

  10. Chapter Six

    59

    A Sea of Flags

    Romanova adjusts to the loss of trackers. Territories exchanged therein. MASON's Oath of office revealed.

    1. 61
      Plague
    2. 61
      Romanova's geography and occupants described
    3. 62
      Ride of the Blacklaw cavalry
    4. 63
      By deafening the whales, communication is regained
    5. 66
      "... Utopianos speculas futuri aliturum absecuturumque"

  11. Chapter Seven

    73

    A Secret Friend

    One secret guest is hidden from another. Morse code redeveloped. Romanovan demographics analyzed. Huxley converted.

    1. 75
      "It's not a plague!" Gorgons named.
    2. 78
      "It would be the Vs for you too, right?"
    3. 79
      Toshi Mitsubishi
    4. 80
      Huxley named as Hermes
    5. 86-87
      Huxley's quest and beliefs
    6. 89
      Huxley converted to Remaker

  12. Chapter Eight

    91

    The Battle for the Almagest

    Romanova reconnected. Worldwide happenings; the battle for Utopia's last space elevator. The Ninth Anonymous admonishes the ad-hoc communications networks of the world.

    1. 92
      Special Communications Officer and Interim Minor Senator Kenzie Walkiezicz, and their mirrors
    2. 93
      Romanova's praecones, the world's communications lines
    3. 95
      Actions of the Mitsubishi and Masonic fleets
    4. 97
      U-Beast 'Ráðsviðr mode' rumored
    5. 87-98
      Mitsubishi to rescue Xiao Hei Weng from Alexandria
    6. 98
      "... a hateful messenger in some Shakespeare history"
    7. 101
      Pass it on.

  13. Chapter Nine

    102

    How Carlyle Foster Saved the World

    9A deduces and discovers Carlyle's punishment of Sniper's captor.

    1. 102
      Previously recorded: Isabel Carlos of Spain crowned European Emperor
    2. 103
      August 19, 2454
    3. 105
      The Fifth Dollmaker
    4. 107
      "MASON sentenced Mycroft Canner to work until they dropped. I'm sentencing you."
    5. 107
      Diamonds, onyx, gold, pearls, rubies, ebony, emerald, amber, frankincense, and myrrh
    6. 108
      The Dollhouse videos, or: Sniper's sixteen weeks

  14. Chapter Ten

    Pass-It-On

    9A provides updates from the Pass-It-On network. Commentary upon network administration and moderation.

    1. 113
      How Spain handles Europe
    2. 113
      Cracks within Mitsubishi
    3. 114
      The Gorgons' effects
    4. 115
      Vexillological progress
    5. 115-116
      Tully Mardi's Peacewash
    6. 117
      The Utopian Oath, Huxley's daily gaming hours
    7. 118
      Safe and Well
    8. 119
      The peacewashed, like Servicers
    9. 119
      Bluesmock forces
    10. 121-122
      'Free Speech' a hate phrase.
    11. 122
      Hobbes makes an appearance.
    12. 123
      Papadelias found, Spain missing, Mycroft found.

  15. Chapter the Eleventh

    125

    The God Who Rings the Earth

    or,

    Mycroft Canner's Account of Ninety-Five Lost Days Upon the Sea

    Ada Palmer writes an Odyssey pastiche

    1. 132
      Malta: The island of the Cyclopes
    2. 137
      Captain Kazami: Aeolus
    3. 139
      Kasos: the Laestrygonians
    4. 139-144
      Karpathos and Callias del Sól: Circe
    5. 144-146
      The Cyclades and Kohaku Mardi: Hades and Tiresias
    6. 144
      Cannerbeat: The Sirens
    7. 146
      The Eastern Mediterranean war and the Western Mediterranean Mitsubishis: Charybdis and Scylla
    8. 148
      Becalmed
    9. 149
      Aquatic U-Beast charging point: The Cattle of the Sun
    10. 152
      Halley/Ráðsviðr: the king of Phaeacians
    11. 153
      The masters of Hycesia: Athena tells Odysseus where he is, and fetches Telemachus
    12. 153
      Montecristo: He disguised himself as an old beggar

  16. Chapter the Twelfth

    155

    The Battle for Romanova

    Romanova falls to Hiveguard Mitsubishi, and then to newly-Remaker Europe under Ganymede. Lorelei Cook makes an appearance.

    1. 156
      Loyal Ganymede inspires Europe to Remaker
    2. 161
      A hard-core Victor Hugo fan
    3. 162
      Romanova captured by Hiveguard Mitsubishi
    4. 165
      A pigeon-phoenix's message from Utopia
    5. 166
      "They taught all in the city to stop finding fire beautiful."
    6. 167
      Mycroft described as 'inhuman' by 9A
    7. 170
      Mariscal de la Trémoílle enters Romanova
    8. 175
      Ganymede duels Natekari
    9. 177
      The fate of Apollo Mojave
    10. 178
      Ganymede meets a ba'sib
    11. 181
      Operation Baskerville

  17. Chapter the Thirteenth

    182

    Diary of a U-Beast

    "This document extracted from the gore and datafibres of what was—"

    1. 192
      [Organic network Σ] has no backup

  18. Chapter the Fourteenth

    196

    Faustpact

    Bargains are struck with the devil and her creatures

    1. 197
      Wishgrant
    2. 201
      "There was one field marshal still in Romanova."
    3. 204-205
      Madame's eighth surrender
    4. 207
      'Faustpact' explained
    5. 214
      Why Utopia trusts Madame's minions
    6. 216
      The four spheres of Utopia's militia salutes
    7. 217
      Huxley Mojave introduced

  19. Chapter the Fifteenth

    218

    Man Made

    1. 218
      The Dreadnautilus, The Nemo
    2. 219
      Oh, Canada!
    3. 225
      Thersites; The Count of Monte Cristo
    4. 228
      Martin's notes
    5. 230
      9A asks Achilles about Odysseus

  20. Chapter the Sixteenth

    Damnatio Memoriae

    1. 232
      Alexandria
    2. 233
      DETINE ME CAESARIS SUM
    3. 235
      Patris Captivus sum
    4. 236
      A loyal dog
    5. 239
      Martin's note
    6. 241
      What was censored
    7. 243
      The Clairvoyance Constellation, identified
    8. 245
      Archproditor
    9. 246
      "... the shared today that text creates,"
    10. 247
      Cornel the Merciful
    11. 247
      "Cato Weeksbooth is no longer human."

  21. Chapter the Seventeenth

    The Second Battle for the Almagest

    or,

    I Do Not Know How to Call 'Friend' One Who Does This

    1. 249
      A prayer to Apollo
    2. 251
      Huxley's bare face
    3. 251
      Paths and time, tools of our Maker
    4. 252
      Dougong, Fuxing, Homeland, Greenpeace, and Milae
    5. 253
      The Alien's birthday
    6. 256
      'Stepping-stones'
    7. 257
      "So you must rest more."
    8. 263
      Enter the new inhuman thinking thing
    9. 265
      H.E.L.E.N.
    10. 269
      Achilles' coat design
    11. 275
      "They aren't targeting Earth."
    12. 278
      A voice from the Americas
    13. 280
      Skymaw
    14. 282
      The United Nations of the Great African Reservation
    15. 283
      The Gates of Nineveh
    16. 287
      Jehovah speaks; Alexander awakes
    17. 288
      Lockshell named by its designer
    18. 290
      "My Peer cared."
    19. 294
      MASON goes starwatching

  22. Chapter the Eighteenth

    296

    Help from Outside

    1. 298
      The firstborn of crisis
    2. 297
      Tratié de l'espace
    3. 298
      Sovereign Action
    4. 300
      MASON confesses
    5. 302
      The trunk-war named
    6. 302
      Tripoli
    7. 306
      Where Papa went
    8. 309
      The long pain branch
    9. 309
      The Baskerville actions counted
    10. 312
      The outward and inward branches
    11. 312
      The outward branch's needs
    12. 315
      "World War brings a world of actors"
    13. 318
      "They discounted the Reservationers"

  23. Chapter Nineteen

    320

    Peacemaker

    1. 320
      "Get me proof my allies will believe."
    2. 321, 322, 323, 327, 336
      "We must retake the Almagest"
    3. 322-326
      Three alarming things
    4. 328
      Chichi-ue, Andō
    5. 334-335
      How Patroclus and Sarpedon die
    6. 335
      Mycroft's skin, shed
    7. 337
      Mycroft's addendum
    8. 340
      "Peace comes only after victory!"
    9. 346
      Fire
    10. 248
      H.E.L.E.N.

  24. Chapter Twenty

    350

    Will You Take the Oath, Prince?

    1. 351
      «Asshole-and-a-half, you're shitting me!»
    2. 353
      "future preserves"

  25. Chapter Twenty-One

    354

    Transcript from a Hospital Bed

    9A's ordeal

    1. 354
      New sides in the War
    2. 355
      Contact with the Americas
    3. 355
      Conditions for ending hostilities
    4. 360
      Ghostroad explained
    5. 364-366
      Sniper made it through.

  26. Chapter Twenty-Two

    367

    I Can't Do It Alone and I Don't Have To

    1. 367
      Consent
    2. 372
      Bo Chowdhury saves the day
    3. 372
      The junior Senator, Ptolemy Armsborder
    4. 375-378
      The Tenth Anonymous
    5. 379
      More Cousinly than Cousins

  27. Chapter Twenty-Three

    381

    Until My Uncle Answers Me

    1. 382
      "Ich werde nichts anderes tun, bis Mein Onkel Mir antwortet."
    2. 384
      Brillist values
    3. 386
      Faust on Utopia's plans
    4. 387-388
      Trolley problems
    5. 390
      "I think I Hate Death"
    6. 390
      Devastating and minimal
    7. 393
      "A quarter of Earth's produce"
    8. 395-396
      Something Gordian is willing to kill for
    9. 397
      "Shared experiences pierce time's diaspora"
    10. 396-398
      Hostage negotiations
    11. 399
      Truce and collaboration
    12. 400
      "Do I Hate My Friend?"

  28. Chapter Twenty-Four

    401

    I Have to Move the Mountain

    1. 401
      Throne as prosthesis
    2. 401-404
      Eureka, Tully, Toshi
    3. 404
      Friends helping friends
    4. 405-406
      Danaë, Lesley, Olympian
    5. 407
      Homeland
    6. 410-411
      Homeland's demand, the side effects of perfections
    7. 412-413
      Filial piety
    8. 419
      Vs newly on Masonic uniforms
    9. 420
      Who answer to the title 'woman'
    10. 421
      Saladin's return

  29. Chapter the Twenty-Fifth

    423

    The Wrath of Achilles

    1. 426
      The Seer departs Alexandria
    2. 426, 427
      Carbingers named, their use
    3. 427
      The Ancile Breaker explained
    4. 430-431
      The panics and massacres that shouldn't've happened
    5. 432
      The presence of Atë-Ruin
    6. 434
      Who first freed Thisbe
    7. 436-437
      The Witch, the Ward, and the Warden
    8. 439
      A short war, and Hector
    9. 439
      "Why do the spirits have to fade away?"
    10. 441-442
      That strange tranquility
    11. 443
      Helen's miracle
    12. 444
      The Iliad's end
    13. 445
      Paris

  30. Chapter the Twenty-Sixth

    447

    No One

    Sniper and 9A have a heart-to-heart, the return of Mycroft's narration

    1. 451
      Those murdered by their imprisonment, and not
    2. 451
      Wars not zero-sum
    3. 453
      Obsequious providential thinking
    4. 455
      Anonymous love and asymmetrical relationships
    5. 456
      That silly Utopian Oath
    6. 456
      "There's no right to complacency"
    7. 457
      The 'it' pronoun
    8. 460
      "Screw easy, let's go to space."
    9. 460
      "Humans do hard things for their own sake."
    10. 464
      Mycroft always comes back
    11. 465
      "How many have there been?"

  31. Chapter the Twenty-Seventh

    466

    Melodrama

    Prospero, Spain, Madame, Perry-Kraye

    1. 466-467
      Prospero's trial, sentencing, and war
    2. 467
      The King of Spain rescued and freed
    3. 468
      Ixion, the son of Ares
    4. 468-469
      Isabel, in the bedroom, with a pistol
    5. 470
      "¿Will it stop?"
    6. 471
      Act V, Scene ii
    7. 473
      Treasonable adultery, still a crime
    8. 475
      An offstage death

  32. Chapter the Twenty-Eighth

    476

    An Alphabet for Strangers

    The War of Remaker v. Hiveguard concluded; Dominic Seneschal maimed; The God Who Gropes; The Emperor.

    1. 478
      Hobbes' definition of miracle
    2. 483
      Hostage negotiations, Jehovah's angels
    3. 485
      "O.S.: Our Self-Fulfilling Trolley Problem"
    4. 485-487
      President Ancelet's surrender speech
    5. 491
      Christmas, an old dragon
    6. 491-495
      Dominic Seneschal's condition
    7. 495
      Jehovah cries
    8. 495
      Dominic a Self-Portrait of His Peer
    9. 495-496
      Jehovah contemplates distance and His Peer
    10. 498
      "You Each have changed the Other."
    11. 498
      The news the Utopians had wanted
    12. 500
      Jehovah's Choice as a reflection of His Peer
    13. 500
      "... the path of My first Friend"
    14. 503
      400,000,000 hostages
    15. 509-511
      Jehovah takes MASON's Oath; Cornel's three changed words

  33. Chapter the Twenty-Ninth

    513

    The Battle of Ingolstadt

    1. 513
      The goddess who watches over Mycroft
    2. 514
      Caesar's onee-san
    3. 520
      The least-distant place on Earth: Yangon
    4. 522
      Odysseus loses the Battle of Ingolstadt
    5. 523
      Shearwater
    6. 526-529
      Cato's letter to Cardie; Sniper's reply
    7. 529
      Sniper's oath

  34. Chapter the Thirtieth

    530

    Peacefall

    The Trojan Horse Gambit, the end of War

    1. 530
      The old Swiss fortresses
    2. 531
      Peacefall: The end of lockshell
    3. 532
      The Trojan Horse's gift opens the gates of Troy
    4. 533
      The birds of Acheron
    5. 533
      Faust's work-from-home attire
    6. 536
      Sniper meets Olympian
    7. 537
      Hermes' return: the tracker system rebooted
    8. 539
      Peacefall: the Mardis' success - 1.8 million deaths
    9. 541
      A different kind of mourning

  35. Chapter the Thirty-First

    542

    Seven Peacefalls
    No, More
    And One for Me ...

    The last chapter to our story.

    1. 542-543
      The structure of Our Kind Dictator's post-War decisionmaking
    2. 543
      War as a terra ignota
    3. 544
      Homeland, a.k.a. the United Nation-Strats of the Universal Free Alliance, UNSUFA
    4. 545
      Romanovan Senate seats for Reservationers
    5. 545
      The seven largest Reservation groups
    6. Peacefall: Danaë and Isabel Carlos provide continuity for Europe
    7. 547
      Peacefall: Junior Emperor Martin
    8. 548
      Dembélé's criticism of empire
    9. 549
      Peacefall: The Masonic Hive's senate seats, and a call for new Hives
    10. 549-550
      Return of the Peacedoves
    11. 550
      Hobbes' Leviathan and chloroplasts
    12. 551
      Peacefall: Andalusia Whitewing, Head of the Sensayers' Conclave, and open religion
    13. 553
      Peacefall: Julia Doria-Pamphili to lead Madame's network, and track down Perry-Kraye's
    14. 554
      Sniper to lead the Alliance Commission on Gender
    15. 555
      Julia realizes her position vis-a-vis being murdered
    16. 556
      Peacefall: Mitsubishi's plan for self-revision approved
    17. 557
      Greenpeace stays Mitsubishi
    18. 559
      Peacefall: The Cousins Hive dissolves into the Cousins strat and the Kith Hive
    19. 560
      The Nobel Peace Prizes for 2454 and 2455
    20. 561
      Mycroft's competitor as chronicler
    21. 562
      Jehovah denounces wars with killing
    22. 565-560
      The judgement of minors
    23. 566
      Ten-Hour Servicers
    24. 567
      Peacefall: the self-acquitted and the self-sentenced
    25. 568
      Peacefall: the Servicer majority
    26. 568
      The Humanist Hive's lack of self-reform, or success?
    27. 570-571
      The closure of the gates of the Temple of Janus
    28. 571
      JEDDM, the Adulthood Competency Exam, and humanity
    29. 573
      The Outsider
    30. 575
      Peacefall: Gordian's confession
    31. 577
      Peacefall: Brillism open-sourced
    32. 581
      Jehovah banishes Utopia from Earth
    33. 584
      The outpath's safety and less-trusted sailors
    34. 585
      Cornel Semaphoros, Utopian?
    35. 585
      Resurrected companions for the outpath
    36. 586
      Reader's purpose for Mycroft
    37. 586
      9A's message for Mycroft
  36. 587

    Acknowledgements

    1. 587-590
      The middle voice and thanks
    2. 591
      Limbo for fictional characters
    3. 592
      The role of fictional, dead, imagined characters in asymmetrical relationships
    4. 592
      The ancient spark

A prayer to the reader:
May you find this useful, for whatever purpose you put it to.