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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/across_the_universe.png]]
''Across the Universe'' is a trilogy of sci-fi books by Beth Revis, set on a GenerationShip making a slow sublight journey to a planet to [[SettlingTheFrontier set up a colony]]. The future colonists are kept in cryogenic pods, while generation after generation of shippers keep the ''Godspeed'' functioning.
Amy, the teenage daughter of two essential personnel, is abruptly woken up while the ship is still en route when her cryogenic pod is unplugged -- someone tried to murder her. Amy tries to adapt to the strange dystopian society aboard ''Godspeed'' and track down the attempted murderer before he can do the same to any of the other colonists.
The story alternates between her perspective and that of Elder, the future leader-in-training of ''Godspeed''. He believes that the current leader, Eldest, is keeping secrets about the ship and its journey from them, and is determined to uncover them. He also has a crush on Amy, who is utterly unlike any of the other women on the ship.
The trilogy consists of:
* ''Across the Universe''
* ''A Million Suns''
* ''Shades of Earth''
----
!These books contain examples of:
%%* Action Girl: Amy becomes this in the third book.
%%** Emma Bledsoe
* AerithAndBob: For once {{inverted|Trope}}, Amy has the weirdest name on the ship because she's from Sol-Earth, Victria, Lorin, Bartie and Stevy are the norm.
** Played straight in Shades of Earth.
* AffectionateNickname: Harley calls Amy "Lttle Fish" because her red hair reminds him of the koi fish he likes to paint.
* AgeGapRomance: [[spoiler:Victria]] loves [[spoiler:Orion]], her twenty-years-older literary mentor. It's not known whether he feels the same way.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Amy is shunned by almost the entire population due to her unique appearance.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Eldest's explanation of the broken engine, although this is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and {{subverted|Trope}} in the second book.
%%* AttemptedRape: Happens to [[spoiler:Amy]] during the Season.
%%* AndIMustScream: Cryosleep, at least for Amy.
%%* AnyoneCanDie: And how. Try not to become attached to anyone.
* AwfulTruth: One of the messages of this book is that even an awful truth is better than a lie. Elder and Amy end up disclosing a lot of the ship's secrets, including the Phydus, the fact that [[spoiler:''Godspeed'' is 250 years behind schedule]] and [[spoiler:the mutiny]] rather than keep the population in ignorance. Elder even confesses to Amy that [[spoiler:he unplugged her]], and she's grateful enough for his honesty to somewhat forgive him.
** In ''A Million Suns'', we get ''another'' layer of secrets: it turns out ''Godspeed'' has been [[spoiler:orbiting the new planet all along!]].
** We get a ridiculous amount of secrets in ''Shades of Earth''.
%%* BigBad: [[spoiler:Orion of the first book and Doc of the second.]]
%%** [[spoiler:Chris of the third.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Yes! Amy and the rest of the ship managed to land...but more than five hundred ended up dead including both of her parents, war is right around the corner with Earth, Amy is now a hybrid and the murderer of both her parents walks free...but at least she's got Elder!]].
* BinarySuns: Centauri-Earth is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumbinary_planet circumbinary planet]] that orbits its suns' barycenter.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: How Colonel Martin deals with Centauri-Earth.
* BurialInSpace: Referred to as being "sent to the stars".
* CallingTheOldManOut: Elder to Eldest, both times emphasized with a punch.
* CanNotSpitItOut: Amy finds it impossible to talk about her own [[spoiler:NearRapeExperience]], so instead she focuses on Victria's.
%%* CaptainsLog: In the second book, Amy finds one written by the original Eldest.
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Every Elder and Eldest is a clone of the Plague Eldest.]]
* CleanPrettyReliable: In ''A Million Suns'', [[spoiler:Amy does this to Elder when he comes back from his space walk oxygen-deprived due to a malfunctioning suit.]]
* CryonicsFailure: Nearly happens to Amy; does happen to several other would-be colonists.
%%* DaddysGirl: Amy.
* DepopulationBomb: The Plague, which killed 3/4 of ''Godspeed'''s population. [[spoiler:It's a lie.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Harley]], followed by several people during Elder's Phydus-free regime who can't cope with uninhibited emotion.
* DrowningMySorrows: Eldest tries to drown his troubled conscience with moonshine alcohol. After [[spoiler: his death]], Elder goes on a three-day drinking binge of his own.
* DropShip: [[spoiler:The cargo section is converted into one, which Elder, Amy and a few of the colonists use to land on Centauri-Earth.]]
%%* {{Dystopia}}: The current state of ''Godspeed''
* DesignerBabies: All babies are genetically modified in utero to eliminate the effects of incest and bestow aptitude in certain areas.
%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
* EarthThatWas: Contact with Earth was lost during the Plague, and it has become ShroudedInMyth on ''Godspeed''.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: According to Eldest, individual thought is one of the three main causes of discord.
%%* FieryRedhead: Amy.
%%* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Amy.
* FutureSlang: "Frex"; "chutz"; "scamp out"; "uni"; "gen"; "brilly".
** Actually rather brilliant in terms of frex: the third book reveals a lot of stuff about the FRX, AKA the people behind the mission. Suffice it to say, using the acronym as a swear word is very fitting.
* GenerationShip: ''Godspeed''
* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: The effect of Phydus.
* GotMeDoingIt: Amy is appalled to catch herself cursing "frex!" and referring to her homeworld as Sol-Earth instead of Earth, as she's afraid of forgetting her heritage.
* GovernmentDrugEnforcement: Drugs and hormones are pumped into the water supply to keep the population docile.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: The real reason for [[spoiler:Kayleigh]]'s death: [[spoiler:Eldest caught her near the cargo shuttle and wanted to silence her]].
** [[spoiler:The reason for Emma's death in Book 3 as well.]]
* HarmlessFreezing: Not quite. Even when done properly, the freezing process is rather unpleasant. When ''not'' done properly, the results are compared to [[BodyHorror a wet sponge]]. And even if someone is frozen and thawed safely, they can't survive the process a second time.
* HumanPopsicle: ''Godspeed'' carries about a hundred of these, including Amy.
* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Due to the limited gene pool on ''Godspeed'', everyone currently living on the ship is the same race. The multiethnic cryogenically frozen colonists are therefore very visually distinct from them.
* InadequateInheritor: Eldest sees Elder as this. Not without reason, it turns out, considering the massive social upheavals in book two.
* IncestIsRelative: After the Plague killed 3/4 of the population, the limited gene pool made incest inevitable. Genetic engineering is used to mitigate the effects.
* InternalRetcon: Amy discovers that the historical database about Earth has been heavily edited.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Eldest dies from getting a bucket of Phydus dumped over him by Orion.]]
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: [[spoiler:Amy and Victria immobilize Luthe with a Phydus patch and kick the stuffing out of him as a revenge for being raped.]]
* JerkAss: Colonel Martin, Luthor, Doc, Eldest, Orion and Bartie come to mind.
* LightspeedLeapfrog: [[spoiler:The big twist of book three: by the time ''Godspeed'' actually reached Centauri-Earth, FRX had developed FTL travel and colonized the planet ahead of them.]]
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: All the book titles in the series thus far are pulled directly from the lyrics of Music/TheBeatles' "Across the Universe."
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Victria's]] love for [[spoiler:Orion]], even after his being frozen, leads to her becoming a willing accessory to murder to have him revived.
* LoveTriangle: One arises in Shades of Earth between [[spoiler:Elder, Amy and Chris.]]
* MadArtist: Played with. All the residents of the hospital's psychiatric ward are actually artists, scientists, engineers and other creative thinkers necessary to the running of the ship. They are more or less sane by the reader's standards, but labeled "crazy" to distinguish them from the mindless mainstream. The "medication" they take are actually pills to inhibit Phydus. Harley, a painter with dark mood swings, and Victria, an embittered novelist, are somewhat more straightforward examples of this trope.
* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:The former Elder took on the name Orion, "the Hunter"]].
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Doc supports Eldest without question, even when the latter's extreme measures give him pause. [[spoiler: This lands Elder in big trouble later on, since Doc is not loyal to the man so much as the ''system'' - and Elder's rule deviates from the plan.]] Later, Marae and Shelby do the same thing for Elder.
* NamingYourColonyWorld: They call their destination Centauri-Earth, as opposed to Sol-Earth.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: It turns out ''Elder'' unplugged Amy, without knowing it would nearly kill her, strand her in a hostile environment, separate her from her parents forever and give Orion the nasty idea of unplugging colonists just to see how he would react.]]
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: There is no religion on ''Godspeed''. Subverted in that this is explicitly done to keep the population passive.
* PrecisionFStrike: It's not an official swear word, but on the one occasion Elder calls Amy a "freak" during an argument, the effect is just the same.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:Elder is implied to have killed Luthe without a trial as punishment for raping Victria and nearly raping Amy. When Amy finds Luthe's body, she throws it out the airlock without telling anyone.]]
* RedShirt: A lot of minor characters die in the second book.
* RelationshipUpgrade: [[spoiler:Elder and Amy]] in ''A Million Suns''.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: An unusual example, seen through the eyes of the leader rather than the revolutionaries. Poor Elder really has enough on his plate without having angry anarchists rioting against him.
* RedPillBluePill: [[spoiler:Orion, via posthumous letters,]] offers Amy a choice that will determine the fate of the ship - [[spoiler:risk untold dangers by colonizing Centauri-Earth, or stay aboard a slowly degrading ''Godspeed''?]] Justified as she's the only one who knows [[spoiler:what life on a planet is like]].
* TheRival: Bartie, Elder's former friend who challenges him for leadership.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Harley still feels this way about his girlfriend, who died two years before the story starts. "Why would I want to be with any other woman?"
** Elder also comes to mind, {{averted|Trope}} with Amy who
* SmallSecludedWorld: ''Godspeed''
* SpaceFriction: The "adrift if the engine stops" fallacy is in play, deliberately invoked by the Shippers to hide the fact that [[spoiler:the ship isn't moving at all]].
* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:Elder wakes Amy because he's in love with her red hair]].
* SuperOCD: Doc. [[spoiler:This makes him the villain of the second book, since he sees anything that deviates from his view of "order" as needing to be "fixed" with drugs, lethal ones if necessary.]]
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: Eldest threatens Amy with this.
** [[spoiler:Many characters receive this fate, Victria and Shelby come to mind.]]
** [[spoiler:This happens to five hundred people, including Amy's mother, in the third book.]]
* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Eldest and his predecessors. "Doesn't matter how. Just keep the frexing ship alive."
* TrackingDevice: Everyone on the ship has one implanted in one of their ears.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Elder feels this way about Eldest.
* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: For those over 60. [[spoiler:Specifically those who remember the last time the prediction of when the ship would land was pushed back]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"There was never any Plague."]]
** [[spoiler:'''Elder''':]] "I'm the one who unplugged you."
* WithAFriendAndAStranger: Elder, Harley, and Amy fit this trope, [[spoiler:until Harley's suicide, that is.]]
* WritersCannotDoMath: The 20-year-old Feeders are looking forward to planet landing in 49 years - in a society where everyone dies at 60. [[spoiler: The Feeders are put down when they start remembering the last time such a prediction was made - there is no reason an individual would expect that to happen to them.]]
* YouWouldntShootMe: [[spoiler:Doc to Amy in ''A Million Suns''. He's wrong, but being a soldier's daughter who knows how to handle guns, she manages to shoot him in a nonlethal place.]]
----
''Across the Universe'' is a trilogy of sci-fi books by Beth Revis, set on a GenerationShip making a slow sublight journey to a planet to [[SettlingTheFrontier set up a colony]]. The future colonists are kept in cryogenic pods, while generation after generation of shippers keep the ''Godspeed'' functioning.
Amy, the teenage daughter of two essential personnel, is abruptly woken up while the ship is still en route when her cryogenic pod is unplugged -- someone tried to murder her. Amy tries to adapt to the strange dystopian society aboard ''Godspeed'' and track down the attempted murderer before he can do the same to any of the other colonists.
The story alternates between her perspective and that of Elder, the future leader-in-training of ''Godspeed''. He believes that the current leader, Eldest, is keeping secrets about the ship and its journey from them, and is determined to uncover them. He also has a crush on Amy, who is utterly unlike any of the other women on the ship.
The trilogy consists of:
* ''Across the Universe''
* ''A Million Suns''
* ''Shades of Earth''
----
!These books contain examples of:
%%* Action Girl: Amy becomes this in the third book.
%%** Emma Bledsoe
* AerithAndBob: For once {{inverted|Trope}}, Amy has the weirdest name on the ship because she's from Sol-Earth, Victria, Lorin, Bartie and Stevy are the norm.
** Played straight in Shades of Earth.
* AffectionateNickname: Harley calls Amy "Lttle Fish" because her red hair reminds him of the koi fish he likes to paint.
* AgeGapRomance: [[spoiler:Victria]] loves [[spoiler:Orion]], her twenty-years-older literary mentor. It's not known whether he feels the same way.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Amy is shunned by almost the entire population due to her unique appearance.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Eldest's explanation of the broken engine, although this is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and {{subverted|Trope}} in the second book.
%%* AttemptedRape: Happens to [[spoiler:Amy]] during the Season.
%%* AndIMustScream: Cryosleep, at least for Amy.
%%* AnyoneCanDie: And how. Try not to become attached to anyone.
* AwfulTruth: One of the messages of this book is that even an awful truth is better than a lie. Elder and Amy end up disclosing a lot of the ship's secrets, including the Phydus, the fact that [[spoiler:''Godspeed'' is 250 years behind schedule]] and [[spoiler:the mutiny]] rather than keep the population in ignorance. Elder even confesses to Amy that [[spoiler:he unplugged her]], and she's grateful enough for his honesty to somewhat forgive him.
** In ''A Million Suns'', we get ''another'' layer of secrets: it turns out ''Godspeed'' has been [[spoiler:orbiting the new planet all along!]].
** We get a ridiculous amount of secrets in ''Shades of Earth''.
%%* BigBad: [[spoiler:Orion of the first book and Doc of the second.]]
%%** [[spoiler:Chris of the third.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Yes! Amy and the rest of the ship managed to land...but more than five hundred ended up dead including both of her parents, war is right around the corner with Earth, Amy is now a hybrid and the murderer of both her parents walks free...but at least she's got Elder!]].
* BinarySuns: Centauri-Earth is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumbinary_planet circumbinary planet]] that orbits its suns' barycenter.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: How Colonel Martin deals with Centauri-Earth.
* BurialInSpace: Referred to as being "sent to the stars".
* CallingTheOldManOut: Elder to Eldest, both times emphasized with a punch.
* CanNotSpitItOut: Amy finds it impossible to talk about her own [[spoiler:NearRapeExperience]], so instead she focuses on Victria's.
%%* CaptainsLog: In the second book, Amy finds one written by the original Eldest.
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Every Elder and Eldest is a clone of the Plague Eldest.]]
* CleanPrettyReliable: In ''A Million Suns'', [[spoiler:Amy does this to Elder when he comes back from his space walk oxygen-deprived due to a malfunctioning suit.]]
* CryonicsFailure: Nearly happens to Amy; does happen to several other would-be colonists.
%%* DaddysGirl: Amy.
* DepopulationBomb: The Plague, which killed 3/4 of ''Godspeed'''s population. [[spoiler:It's a lie.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Harley]], followed by several people during Elder's Phydus-free regime who can't cope with uninhibited emotion.
* DrowningMySorrows: Eldest tries to drown his troubled conscience with moonshine alcohol. After [[spoiler: his death]], Elder goes on a three-day drinking binge of his own.
* DropShip: [[spoiler:The cargo section is converted into one, which Elder, Amy and a few of the colonists use to land on Centauri-Earth.]]
%%* {{Dystopia}}: The current state of ''Godspeed''
* DesignerBabies: All babies are genetically modified in utero to eliminate the effects of incest and bestow aptitude in certain areas.
%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
* EarthThatWas: Contact with Earth was lost during the Plague, and it has become ShroudedInMyth on ''Godspeed''.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: According to Eldest, individual thought is one of the three main causes of discord.
%%* FieryRedhead: Amy.
%%* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Amy.
* FutureSlang: "Frex"; "chutz"; "scamp out"; "uni"; "gen"; "brilly".
** Actually rather brilliant in terms of frex: the third book reveals a lot of stuff about the FRX, AKA the people behind the mission. Suffice it to say, using the acronym as a swear word is very fitting.
* GenerationShip: ''Godspeed''
* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: The effect of Phydus.
* GotMeDoingIt: Amy is appalled to catch herself cursing "frex!" and referring to her homeworld as Sol-Earth instead of Earth, as she's afraid of forgetting her heritage.
* GovernmentDrugEnforcement: Drugs and hormones are pumped into the water supply to keep the population docile.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: The real reason for [[spoiler:Kayleigh]]'s death: [[spoiler:Eldest caught her near the cargo shuttle and wanted to silence her]].
** [[spoiler:The reason for Emma's death in Book 3 as well.]]
* HarmlessFreezing: Not quite. Even when done properly, the freezing process is rather unpleasant. When ''not'' done properly, the results are compared to [[BodyHorror a wet sponge]]. And even if someone is frozen and thawed safely, they can't survive the process a second time.
* HumanPopsicle: ''Godspeed'' carries about a hundred of these, including Amy.
* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Due to the limited gene pool on ''Godspeed'', everyone currently living on the ship is the same race. The multiethnic cryogenically frozen colonists are therefore very visually distinct from them.
* InadequateInheritor: Eldest sees Elder as this. Not without reason, it turns out, considering the massive social upheavals in book two.
* IncestIsRelative: After the Plague killed 3/4 of the population, the limited gene pool made incest inevitable. Genetic engineering is used to mitigate the effects.
* InternalRetcon: Amy discovers that the historical database about Earth has been heavily edited.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Eldest dies from getting a bucket of Phydus dumped over him by Orion.]]
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: [[spoiler:Amy and Victria immobilize Luthe with a Phydus patch and kick the stuffing out of him as a revenge for being raped.]]
* JerkAss: Colonel Martin, Luthor, Doc, Eldest, Orion and Bartie come to mind.
* LightspeedLeapfrog: [[spoiler:The big twist of book three: by the time ''Godspeed'' actually reached Centauri-Earth, FRX had developed FTL travel and colonized the planet ahead of them.]]
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: All the book titles in the series thus far are pulled directly from the lyrics of Music/TheBeatles' "Across the Universe."
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Victria's]] love for [[spoiler:Orion]], even after his being frozen, leads to her becoming a willing accessory to murder to have him revived.
* LoveTriangle: One arises in Shades of Earth between [[spoiler:Elder, Amy and Chris.]]
* MadArtist: Played with. All the residents of the hospital's psychiatric ward are actually artists, scientists, engineers and other creative thinkers necessary to the running of the ship. They are more or less sane by the reader's standards, but labeled "crazy" to distinguish them from the mindless mainstream. The "medication" they take are actually pills to inhibit Phydus. Harley, a painter with dark mood swings, and Victria, an embittered novelist, are somewhat more straightforward examples of this trope.
* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:The former Elder took on the name Orion, "the Hunter"]].
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Doc supports Eldest without question, even when the latter's extreme measures give him pause. [[spoiler: This lands Elder in big trouble later on, since Doc is not loyal to the man so much as the ''system'' - and Elder's rule deviates from the plan.]] Later, Marae and Shelby do the same thing for Elder.
* NamingYourColonyWorld: They call their destination Centauri-Earth, as opposed to Sol-Earth.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: It turns out ''Elder'' unplugged Amy, without knowing it would nearly kill her, strand her in a hostile environment, separate her from her parents forever and give Orion the nasty idea of unplugging colonists just to see how he would react.]]
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: There is no religion on ''Godspeed''. Subverted in that this is explicitly done to keep the population passive.
* PrecisionFStrike: It's not an official swear word, but on the one occasion Elder calls Amy a "freak" during an argument, the effect is just the same.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:Elder is implied to have killed Luthe without a trial as punishment for raping Victria and nearly raping Amy. When Amy finds Luthe's body, she throws it out the airlock without telling anyone.]]
* RedShirt: A lot of minor characters die in the second book.
* RelationshipUpgrade: [[spoiler:Elder and Amy]] in ''A Million Suns''.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: An unusual example, seen through the eyes of the leader rather than the revolutionaries. Poor Elder really has enough on his plate without having angry anarchists rioting against him.
* RedPillBluePill: [[spoiler:Orion, via posthumous letters,]] offers Amy a choice that will determine the fate of the ship - [[spoiler:risk untold dangers by colonizing Centauri-Earth, or stay aboard a slowly degrading ''Godspeed''?]] Justified as she's the only one who knows [[spoiler:what life on a planet is like]].
* TheRival: Bartie, Elder's former friend who challenges him for leadership.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Harley still feels this way about his girlfriend, who died two years before the story starts. "Why would I want to be with any other woman?"
** Elder also comes to mind, {{averted|Trope}} with Amy who
* SmallSecludedWorld: ''Godspeed''
* SpaceFriction: The "adrift if the engine stops" fallacy is in play, deliberately invoked by the Shippers to hide the fact that [[spoiler:the ship isn't moving at all]].
* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:Elder wakes Amy because he's in love with her red hair]].
* SuperOCD: Doc. [[spoiler:This makes him the villain of the second book, since he sees anything that deviates from his view of "order" as needing to be "fixed" with drugs, lethal ones if necessary.]]
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: Eldest threatens Amy with this.
** [[spoiler:Many characters receive this fate, Victria and Shelby come to mind.]]
** [[spoiler:This happens to five hundred people, including Amy's mother, in the third book.]]
* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Eldest and his predecessors. "Doesn't matter how. Just keep the frexing ship alive."
* TrackingDevice: Everyone on the ship has one implanted in one of their ears.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Elder feels this way about Eldest.
* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: For those over 60. [[spoiler:Specifically those who remember the last time the prediction of when the ship would land was pushed back]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"There was never any Plague."]]
** [[spoiler:'''Elder''':]] "I'm the one who unplugged you."
* WithAFriendAndAStranger: Elder, Harley, and Amy fit this trope, [[spoiler:until Harley's suicide, that is.]]
* WritersCannotDoMath: The 20-year-old Feeders are looking forward to planet landing in 49 years - in a society where everyone dies at 60. [[spoiler: The Feeders are put down when they start remembering the last time such a prediction was made - there is no reason an individual would expect that to happen to them.]]
* YouWouldntShootMe: [[spoiler:Doc to Amy in ''A Million Suns''. He's wrong, but being a soldier's daughter who knows how to handle guns, she manages to shoot him in a nonlethal place.]]
----
to:
''Across the Universe'' is a trilogy of sci-fi books by Beth Revis, set on a GenerationShip making a slow sublight journey to a planet to [[SettlingTheFrontier set up a colony]]. The future colonists are kept in cryogenic pods, while generation after generation of shippers keep the ''Godspeed'' functioning.
Amy, the teenage daughter of two essential personnel, is abruptly woken up while the ship is still en route when her cryogenic pod is unplugged -- someone tried to murder her. Amy tries to adapt to the strange dystopian society aboard ''Godspeed'' and track down the attempted murderer before he can do the same to any of the other colonists.
The story alternates between her perspective and that of Elder, the future leader-in-training of ''Godspeed''. He believes that the current leader, Eldest, is keeping secrets about the ship and its journey from them, and is determined to uncover them. He also has a crush on Amy, who is utterly unlike any of the other women on the ship.
The trilogy consists of:
* ''Across the Universe''
* ''A Million Suns''
* ''Shades of Earth''
----
!These books contain examples of:
%%* Action Girl: Amy becomes this in the third book.
%%** Emma Bledsoe
* AerithAndBob: For once {{inverted|Trope}}, Amy has the weirdest name on the ship because she's from Sol-Earth, Victria, Lorin, Bartie and Stevy are the norm.
** Played straight in Shades of Earth.
* AffectionateNickname: Harley calls Amy "Lttle Fish" because her red hair reminds him of the koi fish he likes to paint.
* AgeGapRomance: [[spoiler:Victria]] loves [[spoiler:Orion]], her twenty-years-older literary mentor. It's not known whether he feels the same way.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Amy is shunned by almost the entire population due to her unique appearance.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Eldest's explanation of the broken engine, although this is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and {{subverted|Trope}} in the second book.
%%* AttemptedRape: Happens to [[spoiler:Amy]] during the Season.
%%* AndIMustScream: Cryosleep, at least for Amy.
%%* AnyoneCanDie: And how. Try not to become attached to anyone.
* AwfulTruth: One of the messages of this book is that even an awful truth is better than a lie. Elder and Amy end up disclosing a lot of the ship's secrets, including the Phydus, the fact that [[spoiler:''Godspeed'' is 250 years behind schedule]] and [[spoiler:the mutiny]] rather than keep the population in ignorance. Elder even confesses to Amy that [[spoiler:he unplugged her]], and she's grateful enough for his honesty to somewhat forgive him.
** In ''A Million Suns'', we get ''another'' layer of secrets: it turns out ''Godspeed'' has been [[spoiler:orbiting the new planet all along!]].
** We get a ridiculous amount of secrets in ''Shades of Earth''.
%%* BigBad: [[spoiler:Orion of the first book and Doc of the second.]]
%%** [[spoiler:Chris of the third.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Yes! Amy and the rest of the ship managed to land...but more than five hundred ended up dead including both of her parents, war is right around the corner with Earth, Amy is now a hybrid and the murderer of both her parents walks free...but at least she's got Elder!]].
* BinarySuns: Centauri-Earth is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumbinary_planet circumbinary planet]] that orbits its suns' barycenter.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: How Colonel Martin deals with Centauri-Earth.
* BurialInSpace: Referred to as being "sent to the stars".
* CallingTheOldManOut: Elder to Eldest, both times emphasized with a punch.
* CanNotSpitItOut: Amy finds it impossible to talk about her own [[spoiler:NearRapeExperience]], so instead she focuses on Victria's.
%%* CaptainsLog: In the second book, Amy finds one written by the original Eldest.
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Every Elder and Eldest is a clone of the Plague Eldest.]]
* CleanPrettyReliable: In ''A Million Suns'', [[spoiler:Amy does this to Elder when he comes back from his space walk oxygen-deprived due to a malfunctioning suit.]]
* CryonicsFailure: Nearly happens to Amy; does happen to several other would-be colonists.
%%* DaddysGirl: Amy.
* DepopulationBomb: The Plague, which killed 3/4 of ''Godspeed'''s population. [[spoiler:It's a lie.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Harley]], followed by several people during Elder's Phydus-free regime who can't cope with uninhibited emotion.
* DrowningMySorrows: Eldest tries to drown his troubled conscience with moonshine alcohol. After [[spoiler: his death]], Elder goes on a three-day drinking binge of his own.
* DropShip: [[spoiler:The cargo section is converted into one, which Elder, Amy and a few of the colonists use to land on Centauri-Earth.]]
%%* {{Dystopia}}: The current state of ''Godspeed''
* DesignerBabies: All babies are genetically modified in utero to eliminate the effects of incest and bestow aptitude in certain areas.
%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
* EarthThatWas: Contact with Earth was lost during the Plague, and it has become ShroudedInMyth on ''Godspeed''.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: According to Eldest, individual thought is one of the three main causes of discord.
%%* FieryRedhead: Amy.
%%* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Amy.
* FutureSlang: "Frex"; "chutz"; "scamp out"; "uni"; "gen"; "brilly".
** Actually rather brilliant in terms of frex: the third book reveals a lot of stuff about the FRX, AKA the people behind the mission. Suffice it to say, using the acronym as a swear word is very fitting.
* GenerationShip: ''Godspeed''
* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: The effect of Phydus.
* GotMeDoingIt: Amy is appalled to catch herself cursing "frex!" and referring to her homeworld as Sol-Earth instead of Earth, as she's afraid of forgetting her heritage.
* GovernmentDrugEnforcement: Drugs and hormones are pumped into the water supply to keep the population docile.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: The real reason for [[spoiler:Kayleigh]]'s death: [[spoiler:Eldest caught her near the cargo shuttle and wanted to silence her]].
** [[spoiler:The reason for Emma's death in Book 3 as well.]]
* HarmlessFreezing: Not quite. Even when done properly, the freezing process is rather unpleasant. When ''not'' done properly, the results are compared to [[BodyHorror a wet sponge]]. And even if someone is frozen and thawed safely, they can't survive the process a second time.
* HumanPopsicle: ''Godspeed'' carries about a hundred of these, including Amy.
* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Due to the limited gene pool on ''Godspeed'', everyone currently living on the ship is the same race. The multiethnic cryogenically frozen colonists are therefore very visually distinct from them.
* InadequateInheritor: Eldest sees Elder as this. Not without reason, it turns out, considering the massive social upheavals in book two.
* IncestIsRelative: After the Plague killed 3/4 of the population, the limited gene pool made incest inevitable. Genetic engineering is used to mitigate the effects.
* InternalRetcon: Amy discovers that the historical database about Earth has been heavily edited.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Eldest dies from getting a bucket of Phydus dumped over him by Orion.]]
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: [[spoiler:Amy and Victria immobilize Luthe with a Phydus patch and kick the stuffing out of him as a revenge for being raped.]]
* JerkAss: Colonel Martin, Luthor, Doc, Eldest, Orion and Bartie come to mind.
* LightspeedLeapfrog: [[spoiler:The big twist of book three: by the time ''Godspeed'' actually reached Centauri-Earth, FRX had developed FTL travel and colonized the planet ahead of them.]]
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: All the book titles in the series thus far are pulled directly from the lyrics of Music/TheBeatles' "Across the Universe."
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Victria's]] love for [[spoiler:Orion]], even after his being frozen, leads to her becoming a willing accessory to murder to have him revived.
* LoveTriangle: One arises in Shades of Earth between [[spoiler:Elder, Amy and Chris.]]
* MadArtist: Played with. All the residents of the hospital's psychiatric ward are actually artists, scientists, engineers and other creative thinkers necessary to the running of the ship. They are more or less sane by the reader's standards, but labeled "crazy" to distinguish them from the mindless mainstream. The "medication" they take are actually pills to inhibit Phydus. Harley, a painter with dark mood swings, and Victria, an embittered novelist, are somewhat more straightforward examples of this trope.
* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:The former Elder took on the name Orion, "the Hunter"]].
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Doc supports Eldest without question, even when the latter's extreme measures give him pause. [[spoiler: This lands Elder in big trouble later on, since Doc is not loyal to the man so much as the ''system'' - and Elder's rule deviates from the plan.]] Later, Marae and Shelby do the same thing for Elder.
* NamingYourColonyWorld: They call their destination Centauri-Earth, as opposed to Sol-Earth.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: It turns out ''Elder'' unplugged Amy, without knowing it would nearly kill her, strand her in a hostile environment, separate her from her parents forever and give Orion the nasty idea of unplugging colonists just to see how he would react.]]
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: There is no religion on ''Godspeed''. Subverted in that this is explicitly done to keep the population passive.
* PrecisionFStrike: It's not an official swear word, but on the one occasion Elder calls Amy a "freak" during an argument, the effect is just the same.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:Elder is implied to have killed Luthe without a trial as punishment for raping Victria and nearly raping Amy. When Amy finds Luthe's body, she throws it out the airlock without telling anyone.]]
* RedShirt: A lot of minor characters die in the second book.
* RelationshipUpgrade: [[spoiler:Elder and Amy]] in ''A Million Suns''.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: An unusual example, seen through the eyes of the leader rather than the revolutionaries. Poor Elder really has enough on his plate without having angry anarchists rioting against him.
* RedPillBluePill: [[spoiler:Orion, via posthumous letters,]] offers Amy a choice that will determine the fate of the ship - [[spoiler:risk untold dangers by colonizing Centauri-Earth, or stay aboard a slowly degrading ''Godspeed''?]] Justified as she's the only one who knows [[spoiler:what life on a planet is like]].
* TheRival: Bartie, Elder's former friend who challenges him for leadership.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Harley still feels this way about his girlfriend, who died two years before the story starts. "Why would I want to be with any other woman?"
** Elder also comes to mind, {{averted|Trope}} with Amy who
* SmallSecludedWorld: ''Godspeed''
* SpaceFriction: The "adrift if the engine stops" fallacy is in play, deliberately invoked by the Shippers to hide the fact that [[spoiler:the ship isn't moving at all]].
* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:Elder wakes Amy because he's in love with her red hair]].
* SuperOCD: Doc. [[spoiler:This makes him the villain of the second book, since he sees anything that deviates from his view of "order" as needing to be "fixed" with drugs, lethal ones if necessary.]]
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: Eldest threatens Amy with this.
** [[spoiler:Many characters receive this fate, Victria and Shelby come to mind.]]
** [[spoiler:This happens to five hundred people, including Amy's mother, in the third book.]]
* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Eldest and his predecessors. "Doesn't matter how. Just keep the frexing ship alive."
* TrackingDevice: Everyone on the ship has one implanted in one of their ears.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Elder feels this way about Eldest.
* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: For those over 60. [[spoiler:Specifically those who remember the last time the prediction of when the ship would land was pushed back]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"There was never any Plague."]]
** [[spoiler:'''Elder''':]] "I'm the one who unplugged you."
* WithAFriendAndAStranger: Elder, Harley, and Amy fit this trope, [[spoiler:until Harley's suicide, that is.]]
* WritersCannotDoMath: The 20-year-old Feeders are looking forward to planet landing in 49 years - in a society where everyone dies at 60. [[spoiler: The Feeders are put down when they start remembering the last time such a prediction was made - there is no reason an individual would expect that to happen to them.]]
* YouWouldntShootMe: [[spoiler:Doc to Amy in ''A Million Suns''. He's wrong, but being a soldier's daughter who knows how to handle guns, she manages to shoot him in a nonlethal place.]]
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* NotSoDifferent: Elder and Eldest, especially when they argue.
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* ActionGirl: Amy becomes this in the third book.
** Emma Bledsoe
** Emma Bledsoe
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* AttemptedRape: Happens to [[spoiler:Amy]] during the Season.
* AndIMustScream: Cryosleep, at least for Amy.
* AnyoneCanDie: And how. Try not to become attached to anyone.
* AndIMustScream: Cryosleep, at least for Amy.
* AnyoneCanDie: And how. Try not to become attached to anyone.
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* BigBad: [[spoiler:Orion of the first book and Doc of the second.]]
** [[spoiler:Chris of the third.]]
** [[spoiler:Chris of the third.]]
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* CaptainsLog: In the second book, Amy finds one written by the original Eldest.
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* DaddysGirl: Amy.
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* {{Dystopia}}: The current state of ''Godspeed''
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* EarnYourHappyEnding
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* FieryRedhead: Amy.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Amy.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Amy.
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* YourCheatingHeart: Back on Earth, a jealous ex informed Amy that her boyfriend Jason might have been cheating on her. Her greatest regret is not confronting him about it.
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* BinarySuns: Centauri-Earth has them.
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* BinarySuns: Centauri-Earth has them.is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumbinary_planet circumbinary planet]] that orbits its suns' barycenter.
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* HeKnowsTooMuch: The real reason for [[spoiler:Kayleigh]]'s death.
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* HeKnowsTooMuch: The real reason for [[spoiler:Kayleigh]]'s death.death: [[spoiler:Eldest caught her near the cargo shuttle and wanted to silence her]].
* LightspeedLeapfrog: [[spoiler:The big twist of book three: by the time ''Godspeed'' actually reached Centauri-Earth, FRX had developed FTL travel and colonized the planet ahead of them.]]
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* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:Elder is implied to have killed Luthe without a trial as punishment for raping Victria (and, unknown to him, nearly raping Amy). When Amy finds Luthe's body, she throws it out the airlock without telling anyone.]]
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* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:Elder is implied to have killed Luthe without a trial as punishment for raping Victria (and, unknown to him, and nearly raping Amy).Amy. When Amy finds Luthe's body, she throws it out the airlock without telling anyone.]]
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* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:Elder wakes Amy because he's in love with her red hair]].
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* BlackandGrayMorality: How Colonel Martin deals with Centauri-Earth.
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* BlackandGrayMorality: BlackAndGrayMorality: How Colonel Martin deals with Centauri-Earth.
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''Across the Universe'' is a planned trilogy of sci-fi books by Beth Revis, set on a GenerationShip making a slow sublight journey to a planet to [[SettlingTheFrontier set up a colony]]. The future colonists are kept in cryogenic pods, while generation after generation of shippers keep the ''Godspeed'' functioning.
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''Across the Universe'' is a planned trilogy of sci-fi books by Beth Revis, set on a GenerationShip making a slow sublight journey to a planet to [[SettlingTheFrontier set up a colony]]. The future colonists are kept in cryogenic pods, while generation after generation of shippers keep the ''Godspeed'' functioning.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/across_the_universe.png]]
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* [[spoiler:BittersweetEnding: Yes! Amy and the rest of the ship managed to land...but more than five hundred ended up dead including both of her parents, war is right around the corner with Earth, Amy is now a hybrid and the murderer of both her parents walks free...but at least she's got Elder!]].
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* [[spoiler:BittersweetEnding: Yes! BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Yes! Amy and the rest of the ship managed to land...but more than five hundred ended up dead including both of her parents, war is right around the corner with Earth, Amy is now a hybrid and the murderer of both her parents walks free...but at least she's got Elder!]].
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* AgeGapRomance: [[spoiler:Victria]] loves [[spoiler:Orion]], her twenty-years-older literary mentor. It's not known whether he feels the same way.
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* MayDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:Victria]] loves [[spoiler:Orion]], her twenty-years-older literary mentor. It's not known whether he feels the same way.
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* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Eldest's explanation of the broken engine, although this is lampshade|Hanging}}d and {{subverted|Trope}} in the second book.
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* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Eldest's explanation of the broken engine, although this is lampshade|Hanging}}d [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and {{subverted|Trope}} in the second book.
