Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy

Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy opens up with a crazy businessman building the tower of Babel in New York City, and a hapeless new hire to the Department of Sewers being eaten by a sewer-dwelling mutant great white shark. It's 2023, and New York is on the brink of a giant earthquake, and that's the least of the city's problems. Penned by Matt Ruff, it's a novel of ecoterrorism, mad AIs, absurdly spacious sewers and an AI construct of Ayn Rand spouting objectivist philosophy and generally having melting down arguments with the rest of the cast.


 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Under New York City. The sewers even have their own ecosystem.
 * Best Is Average, Better Is Best: When two employees of Gant have to decide which is the best kind of toothpaste. One of them finds this trope is the solution, which is correct.
 * Big Applesauce: A great deal of the book takes place in New York.
 * The Croc Is Ticking: Once Meisterbrau swallows a cellphone.
 * The Comically Serious: Befitting her philosophy, Artificial Ayn Rand has great difficulties understanding jokes.
 * Death by Irony: There are one hundred of them. Orchestrated by the Big Bad.]]
 * Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Mutant sharks especially.
 * Eye Scream: The "Shiva's Heat weapon".
 * Flying Seafood Special:
 * General Ripper: Troubadour Penzias, in an unusually cruel and racist way.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: Queen Elizabeth II, still ruling Great Britain in 2023, is moody, arrogant, and tends to poison recalcitrant subordinates.
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Lexa Thatcher, Philo Dufresne and Toshiro Goodhead.
 * Hidden Depths: Matt Ruff apparently likes to eventually unfold detailed backstories for previously sketchy characters.
 * Knock-Knock Joke: Abbie Hoffman has to teach Ayn Rand humor in heaven as punishment for committing suicide. He tries this kind of joke, but Ayn doesn't like to pretend he was knocking a door, because that's unlogical if she can see it!
 * Methuselah Syndrome: Kite
 * New Meat: Eddie Wilder.
 * Multinational Team: The crew of Philo Dufresne's u-boat.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Not quite. Queen Elizabeth II. and many other real-life persons that were still alive at the time of the book appear undisguised. Some are not portrayed especially pleasantly, and others are eventually killed off.
 * Psycho for Hire: Troubadour Penzias.
 * Shark Pool: Meisterbrau is kept in an outside pool by the aquarium employees Frankie and Salvatore.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: Maxwell and Troubadour Penzias. Both are rather insane, in different ways.
 * Take That: Atlas Shrugged is acerbically dissected by Joan.
 * Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Harry Gant's mother is a tall, husky construction forewoman, while his father is a short, rather frail history buff.
 * War Is Hell: A recurring theme. Several characters are insane Shell Shocked Veterans, and Kite stopped viewing war as an adventure when the actual killing began.
 * Why Am I Ticking?: A subplot involves who has been fitted with an explosive collar. It will go off in twenty-four hours, killing him, unless he manages to
 * Why Am I Ticking?: A subplot involves who has been fitted with an explosive collar. It will go off in twenty-four hours, killing him, unless he manages to