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Humanx Commonwealth: Difference between revisions
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* There exists a ''[[GURPS]]'' RPG adaptation, sadly out of print.
A timeline of the Commonwealth universe can be found [http://alandeanfoster.com/version2.0/chronomaster.htm here].
{{tropelist}}
* [[0% Approval Rating]]: The Meliorare Society gets this after their scheme to produce genetic supermen is exposed. ''Everyone'' hates them.
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* [[Gene Hunting]]: Flinx does a ''ton'' of this, starting with ''Orphan Star'' and (mercifully) concluding in ''Patrimony''.
* [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]]: The Meliorare Society sought to manipulate the genes of unborn children to create supermen. What they got was... ugly, to say the least, leading to them and their victims being outlawed and hunted down. Flinx and {{spoiler|Mahnahmi}} are the only two altered subjects known to have escaped.
* [[Go Mad
* [[Green Rocks]]: The powerful sacred stones from ''The Howling Stones'' appear to be this at first. When someone not familiar with how to use them tries the results can be very bad. They turn out to be [[Lost Technology]].
* [[Here There Be Dragons]]: The Blight.
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* [[Just Like Robin Hood]]: First line of ''The Tar-Aiym Krang'' -- "The Flinx was an ethical thief, in that he only stole from the rich."
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Too many villainous moments to list (Conda Challis, anyone?), but Flinx gets his own [[Designated Hero]] moment in ''Reunion'' when he uses his projective empathy to infiltrate the Terran Shell.
* [[Knight Templar]]: The Church agents from the Moral Operations branch who pursue Flinx and the Meliorares in ''For Love of Mother-Not'' wish to see the Meliorares destroyed and all their experimental subjects put down or "made normal", regardless of the cost in lives and/or the desires of said subjects.
* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]: The process of mindwipe surgically removes memories from the victim's brain, leaving them "cured" but a [[Empty Shell|shell]] of their former selves. Said to be used in only the most [[Egregious]] of cases.
* [[Last of His Kind]]: Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian. At one point it is suggested that Abalamahalamatandra is the last Hur'rikku, but this theory is quelled. He is the last ''something'', though, even if it's just a [[Living MacGuffin]].
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* [[Street Urchin]]: Flinx starts out as a orphan who spends a lot of time on the streets as a petty thief under the auspices of his adoptive mother. In ''Trouble Magnet'', he takes some urchins under his wing because they remind him of his past.
* [[Subspace Ansible]]: The Deep Space Beams, which use "space minus", but are very expensive. Ordinary interstellar communications are carried on starships through space plus, or sent via messenger drone.
* [[Subspace or Hyperspace]]: Called "space minus" and "space plus", respectively, and occupying the traditional roles for each.
* [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]: The Xunca. Also, the Ulru-Ujurrians ''become'' this over the course of the novels. That is, they grow from illiterate hunter gatherers to near [[Reality Warper]] level in ''less than ten years''.
* [[Super Intelligence]]: The Ulru-Ujurrians are said to be capable of exponential learning, which is triggered by Flinx arriving on their world and offering to teach them the "game of civilization". In the months he spends there, they go from illiterate hunter-gatherers to building spacecraft. Over the next ten years, they learn to tunnel through space-time and are hinted to be [[Reality Warper|Reality Warpers]]. Flinx and the Commonwealth are very lucky that they are ''true'' [[Innocent Aliens]], lacking any malice or ambition.
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* [[Traveling Landmass|Traveling Planet]]: Quofum, which is only occasionally found at its traditional spacetime coordinates. {{spoiler|It's the Xunca homeworld, and they rigged it to dimension hop, which is admittedly more convenient than getting in a starship if you want to go somewhere quickly.}}
* [[Ultimate Evil]]: The galaxy-eating horror that's approaching from across the universe. Although it's presented as the greatest threat to existence ever known, it doesn't do much aside from giving off "evil vibes" and is so far away that it only shows up in the most advanced of astronomical instruments (and Flinx's mental projections). {{spoiler|And then, in ''Flinx Transcendent'', Flinx triggers an ancient Xunca weapon that simply makes it go "foop".}}
* [[
* [[Unperson]]: The United Church puts information about people or places it doesn't want anyone to know about Under Edict. Public records are redacted, the few remaining official records are heavily guarded, and even star maps are altered to remove planetary coordinates. Automated warning systems are placed around Edicted planets with instructions to destroy intruders who don't have a Church override.
* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: The climactic chapters of ''Flinx Transcendent'' read like an exercise in applied string theory. Where did the Xunca go again? How exactly does the [[Lost Superweapon]] work? Better hope you're up on your applied math or have a scientist friend handy.
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[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:
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