Revelation Space (franchise): Difference between revisions

* [[Abusive Precursors]]: And ''how''. But it's [[Playing with a Trope|played with]], as the survival of humanity {{spoiler|really ''DID'' eventually doom the universe}}.

* [[Action Girl]]: Ilia Volyova, Ana Khouri. Often seen as [[Back-to-Back Badasses]]. Scorpio's old friend Orca Cruz is pretty [[Badass]] as well.

* [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: While the {{spoiler|Inhibitors}} never actually stray from their mission of containing spacefaring life, depending on whose narration you trust they may have either started to question themselves near the end or started to become even more traditionally evil, drifting from using minimal force to simply killing for the sake of it.

** Also the ship in {{spoiler|''Nightingale''}} and {{spoiler|the Greenfly from ''Absolution Gap'' and ''Galactic North''}}.

** Also, attempting superluminary travel has been known, according to {{spoiler|the Inhibitors}}, to delete entire civilizations from the timeline.

* [[Asteroid Miners]] : The Skyjacks. Transhuman cyborg spacers with detachable limbs and [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|a surprising affinity]] for industrial-themed arts.

* [[Badass Normal]] : A lot of the main characters, but Volyova probably takes the cake : [[MacGyvering]] ? ''Check.'' [[Batman Gambit|Batman Gambits]] ? ''Check.'' [[Deadpan Snarker]] ? ''Check.'' [[Smoking Is Cool]] ? ''Double check.''

* [[Badass Longcoat]] : Ana Khouri wears one while on a Shadowplay assasination assignment in Chasm City. They're also popular on Sky's Edge, where she was born.

* [[Base on Wheels]] : The "cathedrals" and "caravans" of Hela's [[Fantastic Religious Weirdness|strange local chuches]] from ''Absolution Gap''.

** Though some of them are actually built like giant [[Spider Tank|Spider Tanks]], including the first and greatest, Quaiche's ''[[Meaningful Name|Lady Morwenna]]''.

* [[Big Dumb Object]] : Oodles of them, virtually in every Reynold's work. And particularly in this series. Often overlaps with [[Forgotten Superweapon]], [[Lost Superweapon]] or [[Lost Technology]].

* [[Biopunk]] : The Mixmasters sect and various people attempting genetic modification.

* [[Brain Uploading]]: In the Revelation Space universe, behavioral simulations of people are common and neural simulations also exist; there's also a neutron star that acts as a giant computer and uploads the neural patterns of anyone who gets close enough to it that its gravitational stresses will kill them.

* [[Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie]]: Antoinette Bax and her father in ''Redemption Ark''.

* [[Capital City]]: Chasm City on the old colony world of Yellowstone. ([[Insignificant Little Blue Planet|Earth was dethroned]] roughly when it [[Earth-That-Was|became frozen over]].)

* [[Casual Interplanetary Travel]]: In developed systems like Sol and Yellowstone, planetary travel is fairly cheap.

* [[Casual Interstellar Travel]]: Averted, ''hard''. It takes decades to get between stars, and even getting a ride on a Lighthugger is rare outside of the core planets like Yellowstone. Border worlds may have a Lighthugger drop by only after a couple decades.

* [[Colony Drop]]: In ''Absolution Gap'', {{spoiler|Ararat is devastated when its moon gets blown up during a battle against the Inhibitors. Earlier, they destroyed Resurgam by turning its sun into a giant flamethrower.}}

* [[Cool Starship]]: The ''Nostalgia For Infinity'', ''Zodiacal Light'' and ''Nightshade'' in the ''Revelation Space'' trilogy. Heck, [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B7DmSTO74-c/TsPc1naZ3-I/AAAAAAAAAKM/dbbQI8JaV7E/s1600/lighthugger.jpg any starship] in the series, given how rare and hard to produce they are.{{spoiler|The picture behind the link is Reynold's official lighthugger schematics.}}

** To be fair, {{spoiler|Thorn [[The Scrappy|was a bit tedious]]. The deaths of Skade and Clavain in the first half of ''Absolution Gap'' are more more irritating}}, as they were vastly more interesting characters.

* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|The epilogue of ''Absolution Gap'' suggests that there will be no happy ever afters for anyone, ever again.}}

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: {{spoiler|The Inhibitors and the Shadows.}}

* [[Electronic Eyes]]: Dan Sylveste. They're made using local parts on Resurgam, which means they're really terrible. His eyes break from a flashbang like device, and then can only see greens.

** Even lampshaded: During ''Galactic North'', there is a request for a burial at C (shooting the casket forward while just before decelerating), "An old joke that only worked in a long forgotten language."

* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]] : Quaiche's {{spoiler|tragically deceased lover Morwenna}}. Though bear in mind that Quaiche himself is more of an [[Anti-Villain]].

* [[Fantastic Religious Weirdness]] : ''Revelation Space'' and ''Chasm City'' show a new, monastic-esque faith - the Ice Mendicants - whose clergy and members are dedicated to protecting, helping or healing people who've awakened from [[Human Popsicle|reefersleep after an interstellar journey]] (particularly those who were less lucky). They're [[Genius Bonus|sort of like]] the original version of [[The Knights Hospitallers]] during [[The Crusades]], before they became more of a [[Warrior Monk]] order. Also, they're one of the few new religions that are closer to [[Saintly Church]] rather than [[Corrupt Church]].

** Also, as seen in ''Chasm City'' the various religious cults that sprang up on Sky's Edge after the life, deeds and {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead|supposed]] }} death of the colony's controversial founder, Sky Hausmann, passed into legend. Some of the more avid cults even went so far as to engineer special biomechanic nanoviruses to forcefully indoctrinate unsuspecting people or opponents into new followers of their faith. This becomes a major [[Chekhov's Gun]] in the [[Backstory]] of Horris Quaiche from ''Absolution Gap'' {{spoiler|(who founds his own bizzaro religion, based on a mishmash of old Earth faiths and his own traumatic experiences enhanced by the virus)}}. ''Absolution Gap'' generally goes far deeper into this trope, often to the point of [[Deconstruction]] ''and'' subsequent [[Reconstruction]].

* [[Human Popsicle]]: Most starship passengers, as it's either cryo or spend years or decades awake between stars.

* [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game]]: Shadowplay, in which the bored, virtually immortal residents of Chasm City are hunted by professional assassins according to pre-agreed rules. The game is set up so most of the clients survive, in order that people will keep paying for the thrill-seeking experience.

* [[I Thought Everyone Could Do That]]: Rashmika doesn't lie, because she's a [[Living Lie Detector]] and assumes everyone else is too.

* [[Insistent Terminology]] : "Servitors" [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|for robots]] (non-sentient worker ones, but still).

** '''Mnemosyme''': Hades, Cerberus (Greek mythology), Hela, Haldora (Norse mythology), Roc (giant bird from Persian/Oriental mythology), Zion, Ararat, Golgotha (Biblical), Fand (Irish mythology)

** '''Named The Same''': Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier (US National Parks), Ararat (since it's an [[wikipedia:Mount Ararat|actual mountain in the real world]] as well, not only mythical)

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]:

** What {{spoiler|Dan Sylveste and the Nostalgia's crew}} unwillingly put into motion at the end of ''Revelation Space''.

* [[Off with His Head|Off With Your Head]]: ''Revelation Space'' has space suits with helmets designed to decapitate a person when the suit is breached, then cryo-freeze the head. This allows the person to be revived with prosthetics.

** {{spoiler|Jane Auntmonier}} in ''[[The Prefect]]'', as part of a gambit to {{spoiler|save her life. She gets better}}.

* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]] : Dan Sylveste and his father, Calvin.

* [[Only Smart People May Pass]]: The plot of ''Diamond Dogs'' is a deconstruction of this trope {{spoiler|and the characters}}.

* [[Path of Inspiration]] : The Quaicheist churches of Hela.

* [[Pig Man]]: Hyperpigs, most notably Scorpio and Sparver.

* [[Powered Armor]] : The [[A Mech by Any Other Name|"suits"]] are a very versatile example of this trope.

* [[Praetorian Guard]] / [[Knight Templar]] / [[Church Militant]] : The Cathedral Guard in ''Absolution Gap''.

** The Ultranaut crews (and pretty much anyone who takes a lighthugger from one planetary system to the other) can live very long lives thanks to the relativistic travel speeds of interstellar spacecraft.

* [[Ret-Gone]]: This is a danger of trying to build inertia-dampening fields and similar technology. A bad enough malfunction doesn't merely vaporize you but retroactively erases you, or your ''[[Apocalypse How|entire civilization]]'', from existence.

* [[Russian Guy Suffers Most]] : Averted [[Parodied Trope|to virtually hilarious degrees]] by Volyova in ''Revelation Space''. But even such a skilled and resourceful [[Badass]] like her isn't [[Made of Iron]], so she eventually gets hit hard by this trope in the second half of ''Redemption Ark'' (it's handled pretty subtly though).

* [[Sapient Ship]]: ''Nightingale'', {{spoiler|the ''Nostalgia For Infinity'' after the melding plague takes over}}, and {{spoiler|Antoinette's ship}}

* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]] : [[Hero with Bad Publicity|Nevil Clavain]] is often a tragic [[Anti-Hero]] because he [[Think Nothing of It|selflessly sacrifices a lot]] (including many things dear to him) in order to help those in need, even if they're oblivious to the coming threat and don't believe him.

* [[Schizo-Tech]]: A corollary of the [[Used Future]] setting, and often a result of the Melding Plague's effect on [[Nanomachines]]. In ''Chasm City'', the well-off inhabitants of the lower city use ''[[Steampunk|steam powered vehicles]]'', despite there being laser rifles and interstellar travel. The [[The Virus|Melding Plague]] apparently affects everything beyond 20th century technology. And the inhabitants of the Canopy ride around in cars that grip onto cables in the air, have laser pistols, and live in the remains of the horribly mutated buildings of Chasm City.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]] : Scorpio, natch. Khouri, Volyova and Bax also have their moments.

* [[Space Brasilia]] : Averted, particularly by the shantytown-like cities on Sky's Edge. The "historical" buildings were actually often built from cargo containers and prefabricated materials and the newer ones are more natural. Most town squares in the oldest cities of Sky's Edge have a triangular shape, since they were built around the triangular atmospheric shuttles that brought the colonists to the planet's surface from the orbiting [[Generation Ship]]. Also, Chasm City on the planet Yellowstone has enough variability in its architectural history, even though it's a typical high-tech metropolis.

* [[Space Does Not Work That Way]] : Averted all the way. Related to the [[Shown Their Work]] entry.

* [[Space Elevator]]: On Sky's Edge in ''Chasm City''.

* [[Space Western]] : Bizarrely, even though the setting looks generally un-westernly, there are some elements of this trope thrown in - particularly in places like the Rust Belt and the Mulch on Yellowstone (lawlesness, smugglers, organized crime), or on Resurgam and Hela in general (pioneer settlements, backwater planets, unexplored wastelands, fairly low-tech infrastructure and econonomy, [[New Old West|trucker-like travelers and workers]]). In the case of Resurgam and Hela, it's a crossover between [[Space Western]] and [[Mysterious Antarctica]] : [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Polar Explorer Western]] <small>[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]] !</small>

** ''Chasm City'' is probably the best example of this, since it's mostly set on the habitable, but commercially backwater planet of Sky's Edge, torn by politicking and territorial wars between the colonists. Though it's kinda a mixed bag there : [[Space Western]], but crossed with a [[Banana Republic]] slash [[Darkest Africa]] kind of enviroment.... <small>[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]] !</small>

* [[Stealth in Space]]: Humans discover a loophole in thermodynamics that they use for this. Before that, they sometimes can fake it for short periods of time by using ships with very tightly collimated thrust.

* [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome]] : Reynolds has a rather annoying tendency to [[Kill'Em All|kill off]] a lot of [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|the principal characters]] from the main trilogy in each installment. A good indicator of who will die next is when you notice they've been [[Demoted to Extra]].

* [[Time Dilation]]: Ubiquitous.

* [[Title Drop]] :

** Often invoked in-universe by people opposed to the Conjoiners and their [[Hive Mind|way of life]].

* [[Truly Single Parent]]: Calvin Sylveste in ''Revelation Space''.

* [[Unflinching Walk]]: At the end of ''Absolution Gap''.

* [[Uplifted Animal]] : The hyperpigs and hyperprimates.

* [[Used Future]]: ''So very used.'' Let's just say that during the era in which the main trilogy is set, most of the glory days of the human interstellar colonies are only a distant memory.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: The short stories ''A Spy in Europa'', ''Grafenwalder's Bestiary'' and large parts of ''Chasm City''.

* [[We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future]]: Averted in ''The Great Wall of Mars''.

* [[What a Piece of Junk!]]: The ''Nostalgia For Infinity'' in the ''Revelation Space'' series. It's falling to pieces, with some sections entirely exposed to vacuum or overran by corrupted or broken machines, but it's by far the most powerful and deadly ship in known space - ''before'' it {{spoiler|gets the alien technology}}. The hell-class weapons it carries could presumably raze the surface of a planet.

* [[Wretched Hive]] : The crime and decay ridden lower and ground-level parts of post-Plague Chasm City, known collectively as [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Mulch]].

* [[X Meets Y]] : ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'' meets ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' meets ''[[Event Horizon]]'' meets regular [[Space Opera]].