The Lords of Creation: Difference between revisions
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A series of [[Alternate History]] science fiction novels by [[
As scientific observation of our nearest planetary neighbors intensifies during the early 20th century, it becomes clear that both worlds have oxy-nitrogen atmospheres much like our own. By 1948, the possibility of life on both is so strong that the Space Race kicks in early and ''keeps going'', radically altering political history from that point on as the [[Cold War]] begins to lose importance and military spending is diverted to exploration. And when the Russians finally land a probe on the surface of Venus in 1962, the first image its cameras send back is of a dinosaur-infested jungle. And the ''second'' image is of ''[[Nubile Savage|a beautiful blonde woman]] in a [[Fur Bikini]] being chased by a savage horde of neanderthals''.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Adventurer Archaeologist]]: Lampshaded and played straight in ''The Courts of the Crimson Kings''.
* [[
** Though they're only seen from the viewpoints of their enemies and/or victims.
** At one point a group of Neanderthals give their lives so the women and children can escape, and the main characters reflect that they might have misjudged them.
* [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]]: the Invisible Crown of the Tollamune Emperors supplies its ''own'' awesomeness, but the official ceremony is pretty darn impressive.
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Every Earth person not actually on Earth, as you ''have'' to be this just to qualify for the space program.
* <s>Bamboo</s> [[Bamboo Technology|Shamboo Technology]]: Space travel is EXPENSIVE, which means the Venusian colonists have to make do with bronze age materials for their equipment wherever they can.
* [[Big Creepy
* [[Chess Motifs]]: [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in that [[Variant Chess|atanj, the Martian chesslike game]] from which many a motif is drawn, is ''vastly'' more complex than mere Earthly chess. With ships, merchants, boycotters, bribes, the possibility of pieces defecting on their own, as many as eight players, and the use of dice, it's more like [[Dungeons
* [[Darkskinned Blonde]]: Teesa and the rest of the Cloud Mountain People have olive skin and light blonde hair. The Venusians of Kartahown and its surroundings are mostly dark-haired, but some are either this or [[Dark
* [[Deadly Decadent Court]]: The City That Is A Mountain is ''made'' of this trope.
* [[Desert Punk]]: Mars.
*
* [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Frazetta Man]]: the Wergu.
* [[Giving Radio to
* [[Human Aliens]]: the Venusians ''are'' human, and the Martians have genetically engineered themselves to hell and gone but are still close enough to find humans attractive.
** Though most of them see humans as race of uncultured, gluttonous dwarves that practically ooze sweat.
* [[Human Chess]]: ''Atanj'', the Martian version, see above.
* [[IKEA Erotica]]: Happens due to the nature of the Martian language. ''"I request more energetic intromission, empathic tense!"'' is the closest you can get to talking dirty.
* [[Lawyer
** A justified example: ''New Frontier'' is this universe's version of ''[[Star Trek]]'', and is fundamentally somewhat different due to differences in world culture, but is [[Trope Maker|every]] [[Trope Codifier|bit]] [[Fountain of Memes|as]] [[Trope Overdosed|influential]] as it is in our world.
* [[Lost Technology]]: All over the place, in the form of the Lords of Creations' stuff, but also the fact that the Martians are said to have lost a great deal of their own biotech.
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* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Christopher Blair}}.
* [[Nubile Savage]]: Teesa of the Cloud Mountain People.
* [[Organic Technology]]: Deconstructed. Martians rely on this, in the absence of major metal and fossil fuel resources. Almost all technology more complicated than a sword is biological, to a very high level, with living guns (recharging after firing takes time, which is why swords are not obsolete), living engines to supplement the sailpower of desert-crossing wheeled ships, rugs that crawl onto your feet to warm them, giant creatures that eat rocks and [[Bowel
* [[Planetary Romance]]: ''lots''.
* [[Precursors]]: the Lords of Creation, except that it seems they're not so much Pre- as ''Present''cursors. They're also [[Neglectful Precursors|neglectful]], as ''something'' has gone wrong with their monitoring system and its "schedule" for the three worlds.
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* [[Royal Blood]]: [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the Invisible Crown and the Ruby Throne, which scan your DNA and ''kill'' you if you don't have the Tollamune genome. Given that the instrumentalities of both are vital to keeping Mars viable in the long term, the Tollamunes themselves have come to regret the system.
* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: Martian Demotic is an extremely precise, detailed, and ''blunt'' language.
* [[Shout
** Teesa's dead former mate, [[
** The zeppelin ''Vepaja'' is named after the major friendly nation on Burroughs' Venus.
** ''[[Ice Age|Scrat]]'' of all rodents has a cameo on Venus, believe it or else.
** Christopher Blair. ''[[Wing Commander (
** [[Rodents of Unusual Size]] are found in the caverns under Olympus. Mind you, the "unusual" size is ''small''.
** A ''[[Up to Eleven|Scream Out]]'': "Hey, that's a stereotype. [[Star Trek|Like the unemotional half-Martian Science Officer on the Federation Starship]] ''[[Star Trek|New Frontier]]''..."
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** How about the band [[King Crimson]], and their album "In the Court of the Crimson King"?
** The convention scene in the opening chapter of "Courts of the Crimson Kings" which features just about every significant science-fiction author of the time.
** The "very weird dig" in Arizona that was the only exciting thing to happen to Jeremy Wainman before he went to Mars appears to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20140301214303/http://www.literature.org/authors/burroughs-edgar-rice/a-princess-of-mars/chapter-28.html the cave in which John Carter's body lay during his first astral trip to Barsoom].
** When the excavating party are attacked by [[It Makes Sense in Context|feral engines]], there are [[The
* [[Single Biome Planet]]: Averted sort of; Mars has several ''varieties'' of "cold and dry", for example.
* [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying]]: [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that the Lords of Creation seeded Venus with Earthly lifeforms two hundred million years ago, and have been coming back and adding new batches of Earthly life roughly every two million years since then, including human specimens only a few thousand years ago; with no mass extinction on Venus, dinosaurs coexist semi-peacefully with critters from every era since. The harsher Martian climate, coupled with extensive bioengineering, averts this.
** [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] [[In
* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: The species that flourished on Venus happen to be all the popular ones, like triceratops.
* [[That Makes Me Feel Angry]]: The [[Planet of Hats|hat]] of the Martians.
* [[Transplanted Humans]]
* [[Vertical Kidnapping]]: [[Oh Crap|"FERAL ENGINES!"]]
* [[Vestigial Empire]]: The Tollamune emperors once ruled all of Mars. By the time of the story they are reduced to ruling the territory around their capital at Olympus Mons, where all the old court officials and functionaries continue, though largely without actual functions.
* [[Zeppelins
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Alternate History Literature]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:
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