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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Literature.Lacuna 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Literature.Lacuna, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license)
 
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{{work}}
[[File:Cover_7_TV_Tropes_Size_3466.png|frame|It's basically [[Battlestar Galactica|BSG]] with Chinese people. And the aliens from [[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]]. ]]
 
 
{{quote|''This story is less a love note to TV Tropes and more a [[One of Us|proposal of marriage]].''|'''[[Word of God]]'''}}
 
Lacuna is science fiction story series [[Twenty Minutes in The Future|Twenty Minutes In The Future]] by David Adams, with the first being [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006RZNR3Y/ "Demons of the Void"]. The plot of the first novel centres around aliens coming and blowing up three cities on Earth, so Humans build three starships to go out into space with the aims of finding out why and preventing it from happening again. Primarily told through the eyes of Captain Melissa Liao and her ship, the ''TFR Beijing''. A 4/4.5 on [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness]].
 
Author is a troper and the work contains many shout-outs to TV Tropes and assorted tropes by name.
 
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{{tropelist}}
=== These books contain examples of: ===
 
* [[Ace Pilot]]: Alex "Jazz" Aharoni, at least in his own mind.
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* [[The Alliance]]: The Toralii have one. They're pricks.
* [[All Nations Are Superpowers]]: Toyed with. The main demographics of the crew are Chinese (justified), Iran (possibly) and Australia ([[Author Avatar|huh]]). The United States is barely mentioned, except they couldn't join the Task Force because of [[Truth in Television|some significant economic trouble]].
* [[Always Onon Duty]]: Much like in [[Star Trek]], the cool stuff only happens when Liao's on duty.
* [[Apocalypse How]]: Type 0 for Sydney, Beijing and Tehran. {{spoiler|[[Apocalypse How/Class X|Class X]]-2 for the Toralii homeworld. [[Apocalypse How/Class X|Class X]]-4 for everyone, eventually}}.
* [[Artificial Gravity]]: Modified gravity generators serve as engines, artificial gravity and {{spoiler|space mines}}.
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* [[The Battlestar]]: The ''TFR Beijing''.
* [[Boarding Party]]: {{spoiler|The final chapter, sans epilogue}}.
* [[Bond One -Liner]]: Summer Rowe, a civilian, wants a handgun like the rest of the crew so if the opportunity comes she can deliver an [[Shout -Out|XKCD inspired]] [[Bond One -Liner]]. {{spoiler|She gets her chance. "Bangarang, ''motherfucker''".}}
* [[The Bridge]]: Most of the action takes place in Operations, which is in the heavily armoured centre of the ship.
* [[Call a Rabbit Aa Smeerp]]: Saara talks about distinctly Earthly things, such as tomatoes, in her own language and can't physically speak English. It's unclear if she's using her own words or trying her best to pronounce it in English.
* [[Can't Argue Withwith Elves|Can't Argue With Aliens]]: The Toralii Alliance don't seem to be fond of doing much but pontificating about their upcoming victories before opening fire. It's implied that only the moderates in the alliance keep them from simply exterminating species they encounter {{spoiler|with jump drive}}.
* [[Catfolk]]: {{spoiler|The Toralii are distinctly catlike}}.
* [[Casual Interstellar Travel]]: Played straight {{spoiler|except for the dire warnings of the Toralii who tell them that overusing the technology, or using it incorrectly, can create a universe destroying [[Negative Space Wedgie]]. This has already happened three times already; since the singularities continue to grow and never stop, eventually they'll consume everything}}.
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* [[Deflector Shields]]: The three Pillars of the Earth, such as the ''TFR Beijing'' can charge their hull to strengthen it, but this is far from invulnerability and the larger Toralii ships can easily {{spoiler|take on all three of the Pillars without breaking too much of a sweat, until the ''TFR Tehran'' [[Ramming Always Works|rams them]]}}.
* [[Earth That Used to Be Better]]: Occasionally this, occasionally [[Crapsack World]].
* [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]: The attacks on Earth united {{spoiler|most of}} the population against the alien threat.
* [[Energy Weapon]]: Averted for the Humans. Weapons are either nukes or railgun slugs. The Toralii have generic energy weapons designed to heat up their targets {{spoiler|and the [[Wave Motion Gun]] that blew up parts of Earth, which they use on some of the ships at the end}}.
* [[Thrown Out the Airlock]]: People {{spoiler|especially Sheng}} wonder why Liao doesn't do this to {{spoiler|Saara}}. More humourously, Alex and Summer shag in a (temporarily) pressured missile launch tube, leading to Cheung to speculate that if anything went wrong they'd be vented to space and nobody would ever know. Liao is not amused.
* [[Explosions in Space]]: Averted. Most explosions seem to be the ship simply breaking up.
* [[Exposed Extraterrestrials]]: Averted. {{spoiler|Saara had clothes but the surgeons cut them off her to operate. The Toralii boarding party wear space suits.}}
* [[Faster -Than -Light Travel]]: {{spoiler|The reason why the Toralii attacked was to warn humanity not to do this. They didn't listen}}.
* [[Fetish Fuel Future]]: Summer and Alex seem to enjoy sex in strange locations, such as missile tubes and fully stocked armouries.
* [[First Contact]]: {{spoiler|And then [[It Got Worse]]}}.
* [[Flawed Prototype]]: The ''TFR Sydney'' is constantly plagued by mechanical malfunctions and stays out of the action for most of the first book.
* [[Fixed Forward -Facing Weapon]]: The ‘’TFR Beijing‘’ (and the other two ships) are equipped with railguns that run the whole length of the ship.
* [[Going Critical]]: The ''TFR Beijing's'' reactors if they can't radiate away their heat efficiently.
* [[Grey Goo]]: Summer finds some strange goo {{spoiler|in the Toralii fighter. It has some funky properties but its ultimate purpose remains a mystery}}.
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* [[In Space Everyone Can See Your Face]]: The Toralii space suits obscure the face unless the visor is raised. {{spoiler|For Vasian the Immortal, this was a remarkably poor choice}}.
* [[In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves]]: The Toralii believe this about Humans (and, indeed, every species they encounter). {{spoiler|That's why they stop other species from possessing jump drives}}.
* [[Ironic Name]]: Varsian the Immortal. {{spoiler|Soon after his introduction Rowe stabs him in the eye then delivers her much-desired [[Bond One -Liner]] as she kills him}}.
* ISO Standard Human Spaceship: Averted for the Human ships. Played straight with the Toralii.
* [[It Only Works Once|It Only Works Thrice]]: The Humans suspect this about the Toralii [[Wave Motion Gun]]. Possibly justified.
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* [[Made of Phlebotinum]]: The complex, extremely strong hull material nicknamed ''indestructium''.
* [[Mad Scientist Laboratory]]: The research facility Liao and James visit is basically this meets a college dorm.
* {{[[Matriarchy}}]]: Most senior positions on the ''Beijing'' are held by women (Captain, Chief Engineer, Chief of Marines, {{spoiler|Resident Alien}}).
* [[Middle -Eastern Coalition]]: Iran, given its real-world level of technological development, is possibly one of these.
* [[Military Science Fiction]]: The book is this. The crew, where applicable, have People's Army ranks.
* [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness]]: [[Word of God]] says he was aiming for 4/4.5.
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* [[Negative Space Wedgie]]: {{spoiler|Treating jump drive trivially leads to one of these}}.
* [[No Sex Allowed]]: Liao and {{spoiler|James}}'s relationship is strongly implied to be against regulations.
* [["No Warping" Zone]]: Anywhere with strong gravity fields (such as inside a solar system). Very specific points, Lagrange points, allow the use of the jump drive in-system.
* [[Nuke 'Em]]: Humanity's response to the Toralii.
* [[One World Order]]: The Toralii had this {{spoiler|until the great cataclysm}}.
* [[Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions]]: Almost all of the characters are agnostics or outright atheists, especially James.
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* [[Ramming Always Works]]: James invokes this trope by name when discussing his actions in the war games. {{spoiler|In the final chapter, it works for real}}.
* [[Ray Gun]]: Summer invokes this trope by name when {{spoiler|they find the Toralii energy pistol}}.
* [[Reactionless Drive]]: The main ship is powered by this when not using its jump drive to move around between Lagrange points. [[Shout -Out|It's even explicitly referred to as a Reactionless Drive]].
* [[Reality Warping Is Not a Toy]]: {{spoiler|Why the Toralii attack Earth}}.
* [[Red Alert]]: Called 'General Quarters'.
* [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]: Most Toralii.
* [[Sci -Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]: Averted. Summer Rowe makes a point of writing "Not To Scale" on a map of the map of the solar system to try and show how vast it is, and to go anywhere without using the jump drive takes a really really long time.
* [[Screw You, Elves|Screw You, Toralii!]]: The Toralii instruct Humanity not to build jump drive. Humanity builds jump drive.
* [[Secret Government Warehouse]]: Where the jump drive was developed. {{spoiler|It goes boom}}.
* [[Shout -Out]]: So many.
** XKCD: Twice... even once as a major plot point. {{spoiler|Bangarang, ''motherfucker''.}}
** [[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]: {{spoiler|I just love it when a plan comes together!}}
** [[Harry Potter]], [[Star Trek]], [[Star Wars]], many many tropes by name... and [[One of Us|TV Tropes itself]].
* [[Something Only They Would Say]]: When {{spoiler|debating if the unknown contact is the ''Tehran'' or not, it sends out a signal in Morse Code which is a reference to a gift James gave Melissa}}.
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* [[Space X]]: Summer calls the {{spoiler|strange device found in the Toralii fighter cockpit a 'space dildo'}}.
* [[Superweapon Surprise]]: {{spoiler|The Toralii use the weapon they devastated Earth with against the Pillars of the Earth}}.
* [[Token Heroic Orc]]: {{spoiler|Saara. Also [[Token Non -Human]].}}
* [[Two of Your Earth Minutes]]: The Toralii give the Humans a certain number of Earth rotations to comply. {{spoiler|They don’t.}}
* [[Unpredictable Results]]: {{spoiler|Prolongued, careless use of the jump drive leads to universe destroying singularities}}.
* [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]]: The Toralii have one and use it to destroy Sydney, Tehran and Beijing. {{spoiler|And later, they use it on the Pillars of the Earth. Technically the jump drive, if improperly cared for, counts too}}.
* [[We Will Wear Armor in Thethe Future]]: {{spoiler|At least, the Toralii will}}.
* [[The World Is Not Ready]]: {{spoiler|Part of the reason the Toralii attack}}.
 
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