Theme · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Entertainment as machinery

Everyone Carl meets is a part of the same inexorable machine — Zev's phrase — from the AI that tailors loot to the narrative, to the PR agent who asks him to repeat a line without coughing, to the prince who buys doomed crawlers for a game show. The game is cruel because cruelty is what tunnels.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — Porthus; Welcome to Faction Wars
• Chapter 7 — Donut Holes; the Semeru dwarf
• Chapter 16 — Everly; Glory Bound
• Chapter 60 — Meatus; the King's Point erupts

Progression

Merchandise of Donut's backside she gets nothing for (ch. 7); the AI running a temple fight as a pay-per-view with a 2X Jackpot (ch. 53); a news channel renamed seven times an hour (ch. 43); spectators Carl imagines unfollowing him for a lack of blood (ch. 85); Chaco's chair offered to Carl and Donut (epilogue).