The Will to Battle

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The Will to Battle

First edition, cover artist Victor Mosquera
Author	Ada Palmer
Language	English
Series	Terra Ignota #3
Genre	Science fiction, speculative fiction
Publisher	Tor Books
Publication date	2017
Publication place	United States
Pages	352 pp
ISBN	9781786699565

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.