here is maë. girl. mortal. philosopher. harbinger of death. here is armie. boy. god. lover. armageddon. and here is the end of the world.

Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World. Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the keeping of a network of "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches. Now, though, the "ad hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents, and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It's only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it's war...

Set after the postwar collapse of an interstellar empire, a young orphan girl embarks on a quest for violent retribution. Six years old when her mother was killed, Buttercup endured an unforgiving adolescence on the streets of her home city. She's scraped by ever since, always searching for the man responsible, knowing one day she'll find him.