Hardfought, a cautionary tale very rich in ideas, has two themes that are especially prominent. One is the unifying theme of history. "The thread survives by whim," begins the story; the "thread" is history, and it is the premise of the novella that denying access to history affects, alters, and warps individual lives. In the world of Hardfought, people are made strangers to their past by "overs" who, lying by policy and design, either completely withhold knowledge of history from those under their control or heavily edit what they allow to be known.

Thus glovers like Prufrax have no idea how long the war against the Senexi has been going on, or even why it is being fought. They are allowed to know only what will further serve the purpose they have been molded for, the killing of Senexi. This results in spiritually stunted...