The Will to Battle (2017)

The Will to Battle is the third novel in a science fiction quartet called Terra Ignota, written by the American author Ada Palmer. It was published on December 19, 2017. It was a finalist for the 2018 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It is preceded by Too Like the Lightning (2016) and Seven Surrenders (2017). It is followed by Perhaps the Stars (2021).

Set in the year 2454, the Earth of the Terra Ignota quartet has seen several centuries of near-total peace and prosperity, but is preparing to go to war. The Will to Battle presents itself as a chronicle of those global escalations and preparations. It is narrated by self-confessed unreliable narrator Mycroft Canner, a brilliant, infamous, and paroled criminal who often serves the world's most powerful leaders.

After the events of Seven Surrenders, the world is experiencing escalating tensions, threatening to burst into war at any provocation. Sides are formed: Sniper's Hiveguard and J.E.D.D. Mason's Remakers. All sides agree to a truce until the Olympic Games in August, in order to prepare and reduce the lethality of the war. The novel ends with a ceremony, an attack, and the world newly at war.

Setting

Advanced technology has led to the advent of a near-utopian golden age. However, the tensions among political groups, such as over distribution of land, population, and income, has escalated into preparations for a global war. Though there were initially seven Hives, they have each shifted into new governance systems or collapsed.

The Will to Battle takes place over a much longer timespan than the previous two books combined. The events occur between April 8 and September 6, 2454, and were written between July 6 and September 14, 2454.

Gendered language

By default, almost all characters use gender-neutral language, with "they/them" the predominant pronoun used. Mycroft, the primary narrator, finds his world's obsession with gender-neutrality oppressive, so often uses gendered pronouns to refer to other characters, assigning genders based on the characters' personalities and roles, as they relate to traditional Western gender roles. For instance, Chagatai is referred to using "she/her" pronouns because of their fierce, lioness-like strength when protecting their nephew from attack. The author has explained that Mycroft frequently "misuses" gendered pronouns, just as people in real life often make mistakes when using gender-neutral pronouns. Also, in its chapter at the start of Seven Surrenders, Sniper advises the reader to not "trust the gendered pronouns Mycroft gives people, they all come from Madame". Mycroft sometimes varies the gendered pronouns he gives characters. For instance, Carlyle is mostly referred to using she/her pronouns starting with Seven Surrenders, whereas in the first book Carlyle is referred to with he/him pronouns.

Style

The "history" of the first two books were written for contemporaneous public release; this volume has been written for posterity. Thus it is ostensibly less closely edited by the Ninth Anonymous (9A). This is marked by several stylistic changes, including the presentation of more conversations as simple dialogues, as if in a script. The Ninth Anonymous, Mycroft's apprentice, narrates the final chapter.

The novels make frequent direct addresses to a "reader", inspired by eighteenth-century literature. However, the reader is not the actual reader of the book, but an imagined in-universe reader whom Mycroft supposes is either his contemporary or someone in his future. Mycroft's sanity is waning and throughout the text he has numerous dialogues with deceased friends, such as several of the Mardi bash', Thomas Hobbes, the reader, and sometimes conversations among these.

Plot

April

Ten days after the events of Seven Surrenders, newly elected Humanist President Vivien Ancelet visits Ockham, now Prospero, Saneer in prison. They discuss the legal details of O.S. and plan for Prospero to plea terra ignota: uncertainty over whether or not the O.S. assassinations were a crime.

Achilles, transformed from the toy known as the Major into a human by Bridger's suicide, helps world leaders prepare for war, stockpiling food and increasing medical facilities so that the upcoming war is as humane as it can be. Mycroft and Saladin even recruit black market traders to keep supplies flowing to civilians if mainstream channels fail.

At a second emergency session of the Universal Free Alliance Senate, urgent matters are chaotically negotiated:

Su-Hyeon Ancelet-Kosala is confirmed as official Censor.

The Sensayers' Conclave is ordered to address the global theological crisis caused by J.E.D.D. Mason's resurrection.

Lorelai "Cookie" Cook re-proposes the Eighth "Black" Law, banning the development of set-sets and other brainwashing practices like those at Madame's. It is deferred to the next session.

The Blacklaws call for Sniper's death, but the motion is deferred to the next session.

The Deputy Commissioner General asks whether the Court should accept or reject Ockham Prospero Saneer's petition for a terra ignota trial.

During the debate, Humanist hero-Senator Aesop Quarriman pins a bull's eye symbol to her chest as though to say, if killing me would help the planet, do it.

Achilles, watching with Mycroft and the Servicers, notes that the bull's eye symbol marks the moment when sides in the conflict take clear shape. Over a hundred thousand Servicers choose to swear loyalty to Achilles and begin military training as Myrmidons.