The Peshawar Lancers: Difference between revisions

* [[The British Empire]]: Known in the book either as the Angrezi Raj or the New Empire, based in Delhi. Australia-New Zealand and South Africa are Viceroyalties (each having their own colonies).

** The old British accent vanished long before. Since the "Imperial English" used (at least in India and the elite) is mentioned as a pidgin language with heavy Hindi borrowings. Australia and the Cape use more "conservative" versions closer to the Victorians.

* [[Colony Drop]]: The Fall

* {{spoiler|[[Deus Sex Machina]]: Yasmini's ''only'' means to preserve her sanity involves some quality time with Athelstane.}}

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: A reader could be forgiven for thinking the book is an RPG transcript; Athelstane and co. have to deal with attacks from devil-worshippers, Afghans, ninjas, Thugee, bandits, white supremacists and air pirates!

** {{spoiler|And practically all of them were bribed/manipulated/set up by Count Ignatieff.}}

* [[Expy]]: The Kapenaar (Anglo-Afrikaner South Africans) are essentially [[The Draka|Draka]] if the British managed to restrain them. With the added touch of them being the only ones left wearing Pith helmets. They're even called the "Bad boys" of the Empire by Stirling himself.

* [[Feudal Future]]: It's more of a Victorian [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]

* [[Girls Love]]/[[Les Yay]]: It's mentioned briefly that Cassandra once gave this a go, but was disappointed by the result. In the actual novel, [[Rebellious Princess|Sita]] goes out of her way to make it look like she and Cassandra (her tutor) are having an affair. (This is quite possibly the smallest amount of [[Les Yay]] in any S.M. Stirling book.)

* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: Oh so very much. The ''Kunwar'' is bound by his ''rajadharma'' for the good of the ''Angrezi Raj''.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Sita's bodyguard and {{spoiler|King-Emperor John}}.

* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: Yasmini only comes up to Athelstane's chest.

* [[The Wise Prince]]: Charles (who's implied to be the ''OTL'' Prince Charles).

* [[The Woobie]]: Yasmini was born and raised as a slave of an apocalyptic death-cult, gets dragged around India by the main villain who treats her like dirt, fully expects to start going mad and then be forcibly 'bred', and has increasingly unpleasant fainting fits and bouts of waking dreams as the story progresses. Couple that with her frequently remarked upon exotic beauty and you have the literary equivalent of a [[Moe|Moeblob]].

** Which [[wikipedia:Stirling engine|are a real thing]], by the way.