View source for Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy

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''[[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 Sewer|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.

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* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: Under New York City. The sewers even have their own ecosystem.
* {{spoiler|[[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: G. A. S. and the Eye of Africa.}}
* [[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". {{spoiler|It consists of a laser, which scans the landscape for reflecting surfaces like binoculars or glasses, and in case of a discovery is tuned to full power to burn out the eyes of anyone in range.}}
* [[Flying Seafood Special]]: {{spoiler|Meisterbrau eventually unfolds wings.}}
* [[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 [[Three-Way Sex|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. {{spoiler|It does not end well.}}
* [[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 Veteran|Shell Shocked Veterans]], and Kite stopped viewing war as an adventure when the actual killing began.
* [[Why Am I Ticking?]]: A subplot involves {{spoiler|a [[Acceptable Targets|greedy capitalist]]}} who has been fitted with an explosive collar. It will go off in twenty-four hours, killing him, unless he manages to {{spoiler|[[Ironic Hell|earn $1000 by begging in Grand Central, and feed all the bills through a shredder attached to the collar]]. Naturally, people are [[It Got Worse|less likely to give him money when they see what he's doing with it]]...}}

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[[Category:Thriller Literature]]
[[Category:Literature]]
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