History Literature / CommonwealthSaga

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Lampshaded. In [[spoiler:the attack on the factory where the starship ''Second Chance'' is being built]], three military-grade killbots become unexpectedly involved in the attack - the FamedInStory Alamo Avengers. Characters are awestruck by their presence (or also horrified, in the case of the ones on the receiving end of their assault), and the text describes them as somewhat resembling dinosaurs.

* ProudScholarRaceGuy: The Silfen are definitely type 2 - a portal network that consists of walking through the woods, technology damping fields, etc.

* SaveScumming: Humans of the future carry "memorycells" that provide insurance against death. When a person dies unexpectedly, their memorycell is placed into a cloned body. If the memorycell is destroyed, a previous memory file is uploaded instead. Destruction of a person's last body ''and'' their save file is the only way to permanently kill someone, and is regarded as the most heinous of crimes. See also {{Immortality}}.
** While most people accept a clone with a previous memory file as being the same person, the older generations who remember actual mortality don't put as much stock in them, regarding them as just that - a clone with a previous memory. Note that the difference between this and a memorycell is that the memorycell most certainly IS the same person, because it was recording that person's life right up until their death.
*** Well, leaving aside the issue of whether "souls" exist. It's certainly the same person to all outward appearances, though.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The Primes are organized into motiles, which are basically feral animals, and immotiles, which are made from 4 or more motiles melding together and multiplying their brainpower, thus becoming sentient. Immotiles can produce more motiles, and control each one with a direct brain-to-brain link, by touching the nodules on their heads together (they have no language to speak of; when they discovered radio, they started sending signals via transmitters; immotiles also gained ''sight'' at this point, since they lose the motile's eyes when they meld). Each immotile identifies itself with the last image the motiles that created it saw before melding (having identities like [=ColdLakePromontory, TemperateSeaIsland, or SouthernRockPlateau=]). Each immotile is practically immortal, since it only have to create another immotile next to it and link up to transfer consciousness (each collective is actually millions of immotiles grouped together).

The Commonwealth Saga starts off in the 24th century, where cybernetics and biotechnology have advanced to the point where immortality becomes optional. Wormhole technology has also been developed, allowing easy transportation through space. The series itself is a space opera with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: It wouldn't be Peter F. Hamilton with anything less that 100 characters.

[[quoteright:110:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Misspent-Youth-Commonwealth-3165746-3_3417.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:110:If only everyone could spend their youths as [[FloatingHeadSyndrome giant floating heads]].]]

* TeleportersAndTransporters: The galaxy is connected by a network of stargate-like wormholes. The preferred method for interplanetary travel? Railroad, of course...
** Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaacs, the guys who invented wormhole generators, have their own ''private'' units, which they can use to appear almost ''anywhere'' in the Commonwealth at a moment's notice.

* UterineReplicator: People can opt to have children via Womb Tank rather than give birth naturally. It's so common that [[spoiler:a woman going through pregnancy and childbirth is an anomaly and a plot point]].

The series includes the books ''Literature/PandorasStar'' and ''Literature/JudasUnchained''. ''Misspent Youth'' takes place a century or two earlier in the same universe but is usually excluded from the "Saga" designation, including on the [[http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/index.php?page=commonwealth author's website]], since the plot is unrelated. The Saga is followed 1500 years later by the ''Literature/VoidTrilogy'': ''The Dreaming Void'', ''The Temporal Void'', and ''The Evolutionary Void''. Together these series comprise the "Commonwealth Universe".

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Played with. While religion is not as influential across society and its implied that the alien races are non-religious, at least two real-life religions are depicted as still practiced and existing (two minor characters get married in a Christian church - even hearing a 22nd century hymn, and one minor character is a reporter who's Muslim). While the diminished presence of religion is not stated to be a bad thing in the novel, the setting does display an accompanying moral decline (see CrapsaccharineWorld above). Religion features more prominently in later works [[Literature/VoidTrilogy later]]. The Guardians of Selfhood have their own religion based on Bradley Johansson's experiences with the [[SpaceElves Silfen]].

** Not to mention the Silfen, who have three circular sets of razor-sharp teeth (but otherwise come off as space elves). [[spoiler: Also they have an adult stage which changes their physiology to something more humanoid, yet airborne]]

* FreeLoveFuture: Polyamory and alternate sexuality is pretty common in the Commonwealth.

* InspectorJavert: Paula Myo, but she's genetically designed to be that way.

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Religion has for the most part been abandoned, although some churches still exist (two minor characters get married in one, even hearing a 22nd century hymn) as does knowledge (albeit mostly depicted in the story through characters using religious expletives). While the diminished presence of religion is not stated to be a bad thing in the novel, the setting does display an accompanying moral decline (see CrapsaccharineWorld above). Religion features more prominently in later works [[Literature/VoidTrilogy later]]. The Guardians of Selfhood have their own religion based on Bradley Johansson's experiences with the [[SpaceElves Silfen]].

* UterineReplicator: People can opt to have children via Womb Tank rather than give birth naturally.

* EternalEnglish: Justified. Regeneration allows essentially eternal life - so the centuries old aristocracy maintains the general vernacular.

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Religion has for the most part been abandoned, although some churches still exist (two minor characters get married in one, even hearing a 22nd century hymn). Religion features more prominently in later works [[Literature/VoidTrilogy later]]. The Guardians of Selfhood have their own religion based on Bradley Johansson's experiences with the [[SpaceElves Silfen]].

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Religion has for the most part been abandoned, although it reappears [[Literature/VoidTrilogy later]]. The Guardians of Selfhood have their own religion based on Bradley Johansson's experiences with the [[SpaceElves Silfen]].

** Not to mention the Silfen, who have three circular sets of razor-sharp teeth (but otherwise come off as space elves).