History Literature / AlcatrazSeries

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Especially chain-saw wielding sharks.

-->'''Alcatraz:''' It seems that no matter what I did, I ended up in even more danger than I was before. One might even say I was "out of the frying pan and into the fire"... Personally I say "Out of the frying pan and into the the [[PitTrap deadly pit]] filled with [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks sharks]] who are wielding [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]] with [[CatsAreMean killer kittens]] stapled to them." However, that one's having a rough time catching on.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Subverted. Dinosaurs are real, intelligent, talkative, and ''annoying''. No one likes them. Alcatraz even muses that the reason the Librarian "dinosaurs are extinct" myth caught on was because everyone wished it were true.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: The name Smedry actually means "Oculator". [[note]]from Old Nalhallan ''smead-dary'', meaning ''Lens-wielder''[[/note]] Being named after the world's most famous prison ain't too shabby, neither!

The Alcatraz series is a stand-alone series written by Creator/BrandonSanderson, unconnected to his [[Literature/TheCosmere Cosmere]]. The series at present consists of five books:

* StunGuns: Both the Librarians and the Free Kingdoms have weapons that can put their targets into a coma for an indefinite amount of time. The cure for each is a secret that is not known to the opposing side, meaning, for example, those that are put into a coma by Librarian weapons can only be revived by one of the few Librarians entrusted with the cure. While these weapons do reduce the death rates for warfare between Librarians and the Free Kingdoms, they don't result in complete NonLethalWarfare, as a lot of other weapons, like swords, don't have a non-lethal setting.

** Ms. Fletcher/[[spoiler:Shasta Smedry]] sees herself as the OnlySaneWoman trying to maintain the peace between two warring factions she sees as [[NotSoDifferent equally good or bad]].

* NotSoDifferent: An unusual version played for drama. Because of unknowingly having the Breaking Talent all his life, every time something broke in the foster home Alcatraz was in, he was blamed. He often lamented that he was tired of being blamed for things that weren't his fault. When he learned about his Talent, he blamed it for everything that happened and treated it as a malicious and independent entity, even though he was willing enough to use it when it suited him. The seeming independence and maliciousness is heightened in the fourth book, where it seems he can only control it if he 'convinces' it that what it is breaking is precious to Alcatraz in some way and that he doen't want 'the Talent' to break it. [[spoiler:In the fifth book, after Talents become broken and non-functional,]] Alcatraz begins seeing an anthropomorphism of his Talent in mirrors and eventually confronts its, asking why it [[spoiler:Broke the Talents and 'abandoned' Alcatraz]].
-->'''The Breaking Talent''': Maybe I was tired of being blamed for things that are not my fault.

** Averted in book five, where [[spoiler:Grandpa Smedry is shot in the face.]] On hindsight, it makes a lot of sense, since [[spoiler:the Smedry Talents are broken in that book]], but the series spends so much time playing this trope straight that when RealityEnsues it's completely unexpected.

* InMediasRes[=/=]ActionPrologue: The opening of the first book starts with Alcatraz about to get sacrificed on an alter of outdated encyclopedias, but then he skips to a story of his childhood growing up and leaves the reader hanging.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: Of course, OurDragonsAreDifferent. For example, the Dragonaut is a dragon shaped flying ship, with six wings, and six legs. Oh, and it's made of glass, of course. Other dragons are serving prison sentences in Nalhalla by acting as taxicabs.

* SpoiledByTheFormat: A kind of meta example: [[spoiler:Though ''Alcatraz Vs The Dark Talent'' appears to end with TheBadGuyWins, we the readers know that that's not the end of the story, because Alcatraz has to survive to write the books. And sure enough, there's a postscript from Bastille confirming that the story's not over]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Kaz uses "Rocky Mountain oysters" as an expletive. While this doesn't seem to go with his use of nuts as curses throughout the rest of the book, some people may know that Rocky Mountain oysters are an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_oysters entirely different type of nut]]. Also, in the fifth book the chapters were "allowed to name themselves," all except chapter four. Alcatraz claims he had to put his foot down an veto the extra "O" in the middle of its chosen name. The chapter title? Bob.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: The name Smedry actually means "Oculator". [[note]]from Old Nalhallan ''smead-dary'', meaning ''Lens-wielder''[[/note]]

** "I stared at the ground.[[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy And no, it didn't want to be friends with me.]]"

** "I stared at the ground.[[Literature/TheHitchhiker'sGuideToTheGalaxy And no, it didn't want to be friends with me.]]"

* EyeBeams: Any Oculatory lens with "-bringer's" in the name (e.g. [[FrickinLaserBeams Firebringer's Lenses]], [[AnIcePerson Frostbringer's Lenses]], etc).

* KansasCityShuffle: How Attica sneaks into the Highbrary. [[spoiler:All Lenses glow when being used inside. So he uses Disguisers Lenses to disguise himself as one of the ghost Librarians from Alexandria, which are supposed to be glowing. When everyone's scrambling to wonder why there's an Alexandrian ghost librarian, nobody wonders if he's a spy]].

* ChildOfTwoWorlds: Alcatraz is a Freelander raised in the Hushlands, so that he could properly infiltrate the Librarians. While he's generally ignorant of things Freelanders would consider commonplace, he has a fresh perspective on all things Freeland. For example, it's common knowledge that science is [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic stuff that anyone can do]] and magic is what's restricted to certain people. To Alcatraz, Freelander science seems just as magical as their magic--which is why [[spoiler:he can see that it's the same thing]].

* FunWithAcronyms: In the second book, Kaz's swearing follows a nut theme—hazelnut, nutmeg, National Union of Teachers…

* HowWeGotHere: The first sentence of the entire series is Alcatraz explaining that he is tied to an altar about to be sacrificed, before cutting to the beginning of his adventures. The entire series is then a lead-up to that moment.

* ItRunsInTheFamily: "A family full of eccentric, weird and sometimes insane relatives..." The Smedrys are especially known for being reckless, which annoys their bodyguards to no end.

** Lenses can normally only be used by Occulators, who are born to specific families. Lenses forged in the blood of an Occulator, however, can be used by anyone. Sounds like [[Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy Hemalurgy]] exists in every universe after all.
** Windstormer's lenses [[BlowYouAway make wind that blows away from the user]], and the lens with a pulling wind is called Voidstormer's lens. The opposite of a Highstorm in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' is a Voidstorm, and it blows in the opposite direction.

-->'''Alcatraz:''' It seems that no matter what I did, I ended up in even more danger than I was before. One might even say I was "out of the frying pan and into the fire"... Personally I say "Out of the frying pan and into the the [[PitTrap deadly pit]] filled with [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks sharks]] who are wielding [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]] with [[CatsAreMean killer kittens]] stapled to them." However that one's having a rough time catching on.

* MythologyGag: Near the beginning of ''The Dark Talent'', Shasta is seen reading a book. While nothing specific is mentioned in the text, the illustration shows that the book is ''[[Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy Mistborn]]''.

** Windstormer's lenses [[BlowYouAway make wind that blows away from the user]], and the lens with a lens that pulls wind is called Voidstormer's lens. The opposite of a Highstorm in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' is a Voidstorm, and it blows in the opposite direction.

* BothOrderAndChaosAreDangerous: The main enemies of the book are the Evil Librarians, who are obsessed with order. [[spoiler:However, they turn out to be right that giving Smedry talents to everyone, as Attica Smedry wants to do, would result in catastrophe.]]

* ForegoneConclusion: Will Alcatraz Smedry be sacrificed by Evil Librarians? Will he be killed by a Dark Oculator? Will he die when he breaks his own flying dragon ship? Will he be killed in the deadly pit filled with sharks who are wielding chainsaws with killer kittens stapled to them? Of course not, because he's still alive to tell the story. The suspense comes from finding out how he overcomes obstacles and whether or not anyone else dies.[[BlatantLies Of course, Bastille totally dies at the end of book 2.]]

* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Oculators use lenses that have a variety of powers. Each type of lens has its own function. These include tracking lenses, lenses that shoot laser beams, lenses that generate whirlwinds, etc.

* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Averted with Alcatraz and Bastille. Bastille tends to smash things apart with her huge Crystin sword, while Alcatraz, being infinitely more squishy than a super-powered teenage girl, prefers to hang back as the strategist or adopt more cunning solutions to his problems. In addition, his main weapons are Oculatory lenses, where the offensive ones shoot rays of various substances at the target.

* HiddenInPlainSight: The Highbrary has defenses that will make anyone using Disguise Lenses glow, giving them away. How does Alcatraz's father avoid this? [[spoiler:By disguising himself as a Curator of the Library of Alexandria, which are ''supposed'' to be glowing.]]

--->'''Alcatraz:''' So, there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil Librarians...

* TheInfiltration: Played straight in Book 1, where Alcatraz infiltrates the local library. Mostly played straight in Book 5, where they infiltrate the Highbrary, though the Librarians are on high alert since they didn't make the quietest entrance.

* TheMasquerade: The Hushlands are controlled by evil Librarians who use their control of information to teach all sorts of lies about history, economics, geography, physics, etc. The Free Kingdoms are continents that have not yet been conquered by the Evil Librarians, so they don't even appear on Librarian-approved maps. For example, one of the Free Kingdoms is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You didn't really think there was nothing but water and tiny islands in all that space, did you?

* VillainHasAPoint: The Librarians are ''usually'' wrong about the dangers of letting silimatic technology be commonly used. However, they are unfortunately right about how [[spoiler:giving everyone in the world Smedry talents like Alcatraz's dad wants to do]] would be the worst idea ever. Also, despite what the Free Kingdomers would tell you, there are advantages to organizing information.

Alcatraz Smedry is an orphan who has been passed around the foster care system for his thirteen years of life due to his habit of breaking anything he touches. It's nothing intentional, it's just like things he touches fall apart. Door handles, pots, ovens... one time he picked up a chicken, only for it to lose all its feathers and only eat cat food from then on.

On his [[TheHerosBirthday 13th birthday]], he receives a letter from his father, bequeathing him his inheritance: A bag of sand. The next day, Alcatraz's grandfather arrives (late, as usual) to take him on an adventure to recover the sands from his evil Librarian caseworker Ms. Fletcher.

Alcatraz as a Smedry has a Talent--in his case, the Talent to break things. His grandfather is always late, his father could lose things, his uncle can lose ''himself'', his cousins can trip, or wake up really ugly, or speak nonsense. All these are important and powerful Talents that they use to fight the Librarians and preserve the freedom of the world.

* AbsentMindedProfessor: A lot of the Smedrys are intelligent academics while at the same time being eccentric, absent minded or just plain strange.

* AmbiguousSituation: In the fourth book, Alcatraz wonders if Aydee is really that bad at math, or has just learned to blurt out the first number that pops into her head in order to activate her Talent. He spends a few paragraphs musing that he might be reading too much into a clever look in her eyes... [[SubvertedTrope before realizing, as he's writing, that he can just go and ask her]]. He does, and she confirms she's doing it on purpose.

** Takes a darker turn in the fifth book, where Alcatraz flatout admits the filler is there to make the books longer... to delay him having to write out a horrible revelation at the end of the fifth book.

* BeneathTheEarth: The Highbrary is mostly under Washington, D.C., and the Library of Alexandria is a massive underground facility.
* BigFancyCastle: Nalhalla is ''full of them.'' There are three notable castles: the massive black one that is home to the Smedrys, the fancy turret one that belongs to King Dartmoor, and the huge glass mushroom that is better known as Crystallia.

* BlatantLies: Much of what Alcatraz says at the beginning of the chapters, such as when he claimed to be a fish.
* BlackMagic: Dark Oculary is an evil form of Ocularlry comprable to necromancy.
* BlessedWithSuck or CursedWithAwesome: All the Smedry Talents contain elements of both, to one degree or another. They take what seems like a major disadvantage and turn it into something that can be useful. For example, Grandpa Smedry is always late, which is usually a real pain, but it has also saved is life on multiple occassions because he keeps showing up too late for his own death.
* BlowYouAway: Windstormer Lenses are capable of generating huge blasts of air.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Just about every Smedry. They're smart and mostly academics, but they're... well, Smedrys.
* CastOfSnowflakes: Every single Smedry is special in some way or another, mostly due to their Talents.

* TheCavalry: In ''The Shattered Lens'', the city of Tuki Tuki just needs to hold out until Grandpa Smedry and 200 Crystins can arrive. But subverted: Alcatraz saves the day, rendering them moot.

* CulturalPosturing: Free Kingdomers are ''convinced'' that every piece of technology they use is superior to the Hushlands equivalent. This extends to considering stairs more advanced than elevators ([[InsaneTrollLogic people can go up and down a flight of stairs at the same time, while an elevator can only go in one direction!]]). Sometimes justified by the fact that Free Kingdoms technology tend to be more advanced than it seems--e.g., torches that never burn out and that spread heat if and only if you want them to ''are'' arguably better than electric lights. Sometimes semi-justified by Free Kingdomers not actually knowing that much about the Hushlands and assuming that their technology hasn't advanced since the middle ages--e.g., they think swords are superior to guns because to them a "gun" is something like a flintlock pistol and a "sword" is a silimatic AbsurdlySharpBlade. A lot of the time, though, it's simply that Free Kingdomers absolutely refuse to believe that Librarian slave-states could ''ever'' do anything as well as them.
* DarkIsEvil: Alcatraz's breaking talent is referred to as the Dark Talent that brought about the fall of the Incarna. In addition, Dark Oculators are Librarian Oculators who practice evil forms of Oculary like Alivening things.

* DeathByNewberyMedal: This trope isn't used, so much as it's repeatedly mocked. Alcatraz insists that authors must hate mothers and dogs because they are always trying to write meaningful books that kill off one or the other, or sometimes even both.
* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Alcatraz's child services worker was always telling him how useless he was. [[spoiler:Turns out she was his mother. And she's the nicer of his parents]].

* ElegantWeaponForAMoreCivilizedAge: The [[CoolSword crystal swords]] used by the Knights of Crystallia.

** Ms. Fletcher/[[spoiler:Shasta Smedry]] sees herself as the OnlySaneWoman trying to maintain the peace between two warring factions she sees, [[GoldenMeanFallacy against all evidence,]] as [[NotSoDifferent equally good or bad]].
** [[spoiler:Attica Smedry]] wants to unleash forces that could cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, because he thinks that that will [[WellIntentionedExtremist break the Librarians' control]] and [[GlorySeeker make everyone adore him as the hero who saved the Free Kingdoms.]]

* ForegoneConclusion: Will Alcatraz Smedry be sacrificed by Evil Librarians? Will he be killed by a Dark Oculator? Will he die when he breaks his own flying dragon ship? Will he be killed in the deadly pit filled with sharks who are wielding chainsaws with killer kittens stapled to them? Of course not, because he's still alive to tell the story. The suspense comes from finding out how he overcomes obstacles and whether or not anyone else dies. [[spoiler:[[BlatantLies Of course, Bastille totally dies at the end of book 2.]]]]
* FunctionalMagic: Even when the Free Kingdomers call it Silimatic Technology, the glass is still magic glass.

* GameChanger: Attica's findings in the third book, which lead him to believe he can [[spoiler:give everyone a Smedry talent]]. This results in [[spoiler:Alcatraz teaming up with his evil librarian mother in the fifth book to stop his father from bringing about the end of the world.]]

* GreatBigLibraryOfEverything: The Library of Alexandria is a massive dungeon like place with almost every book in the world, however it is run by undead librarians that try to steal your soul.

** We finally see it in the fifth book. [[spoiler:Biblioden has returned, and wants a willing sacrifice to make his ritual more powerful. He tells Alcatraz and Alcatraz's father that they can choose which one lives and dies. Alcatraz's father volunteers... at the same moment Alcatraz offers up his father as well]].

* InMediasRes[=/=]ActionPrologue: The opening of the first book starts with Alcatraz about to get sacrificed on an alter of outdated encyclopedias, but then he skips to a story of his childhood growing up, and leaves the reader hanging.

* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Alcatraz's emotionally abusive case-worker turns out to be an Evil Librarian cultist. Then it turns out that she's his mother.]]

* TheMasquerade: The Hushlands are controlled by Evil Librarians who use their control of information to teach all sorts of lies about history, economics, geography, physics, etc. The Free Kingdoms are continents that have not yet been conquered by the Evil Librarians, so they don't even appear on Librarian-approved maps. For example, one of the Free Kingdoms is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You didn't really think there was nothing but water and tiny islands in all that space, did you?
* MasterOfDisguise: Disguiser's Lenses allow the wearer to change their outward appearance. The only catch is they'll always be wearing the lenses in whatever appearance they choose.

* MilkmanConspiracy: The aforementioned cult of evil librarians that control the world.

* MythologyGag: Near the beginning of ''The Dark Talent'', Shasta is seen reading a book. While nothing is mentioned in the text, the illustration shows that the book is ''[[Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy Mistborn]]''.

* NotSoDifferent: An unusual version played for drama. Because of unknowingly having the Breaking Talent all his life, every time something broke in the foster home Alcatraz was in, he was blamed. He often lamented that he was tired of being blamed for things that weren't his fault. When he learned about his Talent, he blamed it for everything that happened and treated it as a malicious and independent entity, even though he was willing enough to use it when it suited him. The seeming independence and malliciousness is heightened in the fourth book, where it seems he can only control it if he 'convinces' it that what it is breaking is precious to Alcatrz in some way and that he doen't want 'the Talent' to break it. [[spoiler:In the fifth book, after Talents become broken and non-functional,]] Alcatraz begins seeing an anthropomorphism of his Talent in mirrors and eventually confronts its, asking why it [[spoiler:Broke the Talents and 'abandoned' Alcatraz]].

* OrderVersusChaos: The overall nature of the conflict between the Hushlands, where the Librarians control everything and everyone supposedly for their own good, and the quirky, colourful Free Kingdoms and the eccentric, heroic Smedry family in particular. The latter are pretty clearly the good guys, but the picture is made somewhat more complicated by the addition of sympathetic Librarian dissenters (showing that a little order can be good) and at least one Free Kingdomer, [[spoiler:Attica Smedry]], whose recklessness and [[GlorySeeker yearning for personal heroism]] makes him a villain (showing that too much chaos can be bad).

* SetSwordsToStun: Actually, swords are some of the few weapons that don't have a stun setting.

** "I hadn't forgotten how [[spoiler:my mother]]'d given Himalaya up to be executed, nor how she'd sold me [[spoiler:her own son]] to Blackburn, the one-eyed Oculator. [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Or how she killed Asmodean"]].

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Alcatraz and Shasta in Book 5.

** Grandpa Smedry tends to use alliterative exclamations like "Clustering Campbells," (every one taking the form of "verb-ing last name of a sci-fi or fantasy author!") and Kaz will use various words likes curses. Even the often uttered "gak!" is occasional used almost like a swear.

* VillainHasAPoint: The Librarians are ''usually'' wrong about the dangers of letting silimatic technology be commonly used. However, they are unfortunately right about how [[spoiler:giving everyone in the world Smedry talents, like Alcatraz's dad wants to do,]] would be the worst idea ever. Also, despite what the Free Kingdomers would tell you, there are advantages to organizing information.
* WalkingTechBane: Not just technology but pretty much everything. Alcatraz even broke a chicken once. It's not just him; Smedry Talents in general tend to be particularly effective against Hushlander technology, due to the large number of moving parts.

* AbsentMindedProfessor: A lot of the Smedries are intelligent academics while at the same time being eccentric, absent minded or just plain strange.

* CulturalPosturing: Free Kingdomers are ''convinced'' that every piece of technology they use is superior to the Hushlands equivalent. This extends to considering stairs more advanced than elevators ([[InsaneTrollLogic people can go up and down a flight of stairs at the same time, while an elevator can only go in one direction!]]). Sometimes justified by the fact that Free Kingdoms technology tend to be more advanced than it seems--e.g., torches that never burn out and that spread heat if and only if you want them to ''are'' arguably better than electric lights. Sometimes semi-justified by Free Kingdomers not actually knowing that much about the Hushlands and assuming that their technology haven't advanced since the middle ages--e.g., they think swords are superior to guns because to them a "gun" is something like a flintlock pistol and a "sword" is a silimatic AbsurdlySharpBlade. A lot of the time, though, it's simply that Free Kingdomers absolutely refuse to believe that Librarian slave-states could ''ever'' do anything as well as them.
* DarkIsEvil: Alcatraz's breaking talent is referred to as the Dark Talent that brought about the fall of the Incarna.

* TheDitz: Australia Smedry isn't dim-witted. She just has trouble remembering that she is smart.

** Biblioden wants a WorldOfSilence where nothing strange or irregular is allowed to exist. He is clearly shown to be the worst of the three--while Alcatraz grudgingly admits that the first two [[AntiVillain means well in their own way and have some degree of human feelings,]] the sight of Biblioden's soul ''horrifies'' him. [[spoiler:Biblioden is also the one who stands victorious at the end of the book, having killed Attica and stolen his research for his own ends.]]

* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: Of course, OurDragonsAreDifferent. For example, the Dragonaut is a dragon shaped flying ship, with six wings, and six legs. Oh, and it's made of glass, of course.

* LivingBattery: [[spoiler:All of the Smedrys. At the time of the Incarna, the first Smedry was given an unknown power in order to power occulator glass. However, it proved to be too much and caused the destruction of their civilization. The Smedry Talents are a way of siphoning off that energy.]]
* LongList: In book 5, Alcatraz says he doesn't like to been blown up and lists way to die. Including [[Literature/HarryPotter Aveda Kedavra and being sued by J.K.Rowling.]] (As you see, some ways are less deadly.)

* OmnicidalManiac: Biblioden is a PG version of this. He '''hates''' everything "weird" and uncontrollable. Talking dinosaurs, magic glass, and ''especially'' the Smedrys. He wants to crush the Free Kingdoms to create a perfect, calm utopia where everyone obeys his will. When Alcatraz reads him with the Shaper's Lens, this is represented by a pure black void.

** Alcatraz uses Creator/{{Plato}} and the PlatonicCave concept to explain why Hushlanders never realize that they are being kept ignorant. He also uses Plato to proof that somewhere, there must be a perfect slice of cheese cake.

* StealthPun: In the second book, Alcatraz spends one chapter telling the reader that he's a fish. Then he explains that, by telling such a {{Blatant Lie|s}}, he hid a smaller lie about the color of his sneakers. He makes a lesson that you should look past the fish and notice the sneakers. [[spoiler:The fish, then, is a RedHerring.]]

* VillainHasAPoint: The librarians are ''usually'' wrong about the dangers of letting silimatic technology be commonly used. However, they are unfortunately right about how [[spoiler:giving everyone in the world Smedry talents, like Alcatraz's dad wants to do,]] would be the worst idea ever. Also, despite what the Free Kingdomers would tell you, there are advantages to organizing information.