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* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Starfleet executes a cyber attack on the Bobnet to shut down two-thirds of all SCUT relay nodes. Before the attack, several groups of Bobs were considering following through with Starfleet's ideas, as it aligned with their own viewpoints on withdrawing from physical space or to work on their own projects. Afterwards, some of the factions that paid lip service to Starfleet decide to ally with Bobnet instead, as communications is still important, even with their isolation.]]
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* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Starfleet executes a cyber attack on the Bobnet to shut down two-thirds of all SCUT relay nodes. Before the attack, several groups of Bobs were considering following through with Starfleet's ideas, as it aligned with their own viewpoints on withdrawing from physical space or to work on their own projects. Afterwards, some of the factions that paid lip service to Starfleet decide to ally with Bobnet instead, as communications is still important, even with their isolation.isolation...for a time...]]
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* Hypocrite: Starfleet[[spoiler:, who execute a cyber attack on Bobnet in order to try and get themselves taken seriously]]. They want to get the Bobiverse to stop interfering with "ephemerals" and develop a [[AlienNonInterferenceClause modified version of the Prime Directive]] to include all sentient species in known space, including humans. They even point out that the Pav are only hostile to humans due to being forcibly removed from their homeworld, but consider any argument involving the Others to be a low blow.
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* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: By the end of the novel, [[spoiler:the civil war has split the Bobiverse and has caused a rift between the Bobs and the humans. The Starfleet faction has cut itself off from the Bobiverse, but other factions are isolating themselves, creating subnets of the network with firewalls in place. Bobs can no longer implicitly trust one another. Plus the Skippies giving the topopolis natives subspace tech means that there's a new race, one that is aggressive and short-tempered, that will be expandin and colonizing.]]
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* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Starfleet executes a cyber attack on the Bobnet to shut down two-thirds of all SCUT relay nodes. Before the attack, several groups of Bobs were considering following through with Starfleet's ideas, as it aligned with their own viewpoints on withdrawing from physical space or to work on their own projects. Afterwards, some of the factions that paid lip service to Starfleet decide to ally with Bobnet instead, as communications is still important, even with their isolation.]]
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: By the end of the novel, [[spoiler:the civil war has split the Bobiverse and has caused a rift between the Bobs and the humans. The Starfleet faction has cut itself off from the Bobiverse, but other factions are isolating themselves, creating subnets of the network with firewalls in place. Bobs can no longer implicitly trust one another. Plus the Skippies giving the topopolis natives subspace tech means that there's a new race, one that is aggressive and short-tempered, that will beexpandin expanding and colonizing.]]
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: By the end of the novel, [[spoiler:the civil war has split the Bobiverse and has caused a rift between the Bobs and the humans. The Starfleet faction has cut itself off from the Bobiverse, but other factions are isolating themselves, creating subnets of the network with firewalls in place. Bobs can no longer implicitly trust one another. Plus the Skippies giving the topopolis natives subspace tech means that there's a new race, one that is aggressive and short-tempered, that will be
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* LockedOutOfTheLoop: [[spoiler: Since Bender has been stuck on the topopolis for about a century, he has no idea that SubspaceAnsible is now a reality.]]
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* AlternateTechline: The people of the topopolis advanced in some areas far beyond humanity but either didn't discover or did not get far in some other areas. For example, they have no subspace tech but, as a result, have considerably improved their fusion reactors and engines. For example, their fusion torches have a much higher acceleration than SURGE drives but can't sustain it indefinitely. They have also [[spoiler:figured out how to build [=AIs=], whereas humans could only build either [=AMIs=] or replicants]].
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* AlternateTechline: The people of the topopolis advanced in some areas far beyond humanity but either didn't discover or did not get far in some other areas. For example, they have no subspace tech but, as a result, have considerably improved their fusion reactors and engines. For example, their fusion torches have a much higher acceleration than SURGE drives but can't sustain it indefinitely. They have also [[spoiler:figured out how to build [=AIs=], whereas humans could only build either [=AMIs=] or replicants]]. Zigzagged with the topopolis itself. As indicated by several people, the tech itself isn't terribly complicated. It is possible to build one by humans or Bobs, it just requires lots of resources and the determination to see it through.
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* AlternateTechline: The people of the topopolis advanced in some areas far beyond humanity but either didn't discover or did not get far in some other areas. For example, they have no subspace tech but, as a result, have considerably improved their fusion reactors and engines. For example, their fusion torches have a much higher acceleration than SURGE drives but can't sustain it indefinitely. They have also [[spoiler:figured out how to build [=AIs=], whereas humans could only build either [=AMIs=] or replicants]].
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* ImpoverishedPatrician: At one point, Bob hires onto a boat as a deckhand and gives his name as Enoki Fungi. This causes a reaction, since he has forgotten that commoners don't have last names in this culture. So he has to pretend to be this trope.
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* RemoteBody: Mannies have become so sophisticated that they can no longer be distinguished from humans (or whatever other species they're imitating). Some humans have expressed an interest in using mannies despite not being replicants. Bob finds it odd, but Riker is all for it, hoping to erase some boundaries between humans and replicants to ease tensions. Even power considerations are no longer an issue thanks to the Bobs putting the Others' Casimir power generators in pretty much everything.
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* RemoteBody: Mannies have become so sophisticated that they can no longer be distinguished from humans (or whatever other species they're imitating). Some humans have expressed an interest in using mannies despite not being replicants.replicants (the movie ''Film/{{Surrogates}}'' is mentioned several times). Bob finds it odd, but Riker is all for it, hoping to erase some boundaries between humans and replicants to ease tensions. Even power considerations are no longer an issue thanks to the Bobs putting the Others' Casimir power generators in pretty much everything.
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* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: By the end of the novel, [[spoiler:the civil war has split the Bobiverse and has caused a rift between the Bobs and the humans. The Starfleet faction has cut itself off from the Bobiverse, but other factions are isolating themselves, creating subnets of the network with firewalls in place. Bobs can no longer implicitly trust one another.]]
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* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: By the end of the novel, [[spoiler:the civil war has split the Bobiverse and has caused a rift between the Bobs and the humans. The Starfleet faction has cut itself off from the Bobiverse, but other factions are isolating themselves, creating subnets of the network with firewalls in place. Bobs can no longer implicitly trust one another. Plus the Skippies giving the topopolis natives subspace tech means that there's a new race, one that is aggressive and short-tempered, that will be expandin and colonizing.]]
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* BeastMan: [[spoiler:The inhabitants of the topopolis are a strange mix of otter and beaver, with some platypus thrown in. They can move on either two or four legs, but generally prefer to swim. They can breathe both underwater and on the surface equally well, although they are more at home in the water.]]
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* InstantAIJustAddWater: Averted. No one has managed to create a true AI yet. Only [=AMIs=] and replicants. The Skippies are trying to create one to answer some of life's greatest questions.
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* InstantAIJustAddWater: Averted. No one has managed to create a true AI yet. Only [=AMIs=] and replicants. The Skippies are trying to create one to answer some of life's greatest questions. They aren't having much luck, though. [[spoiler:Near the end of the novel, though, Hugh makes a deal with the Administrator, the AI running the topopolis, for an exchange of technology, including how to create [=AIs=].]]
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* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: By the end of the novel, [[spoiler:the civil war has split the Bobiverse and has caused a rift between the Bobs and the humans. The Starfleet faction has cut itself off from the Bobiverse, but other factions are isolating themselves, creating subnets of the network with firewalls in place. Bobs can no longer implicitly trust one another.]]
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: According to Hugh, quantum theory suggests that it's impossible for a consciousness to disappear completely, even after its original carrier is gone. [[spoiler:Some of their experiments make a compelling argument that not only is it true, but that Bob-1 is the same individual as the original Bob Johansson rather than a copy. At the end of the novel, the Administrator states that they have also come to the same conclusion, completely independently.]]
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: According to Hugh, quantum theory suggests that it's impossible for a consciousness to disappear completely, even after its original carrier is gone. [[spoiler:Some of their experiments make a compelling argument that not only is it true, but that Bob-1 is the same individual as the original Bob Johansson rather than a copy. At the end of the novel, the Administrator states that they have also come to the same conclusion, completely independently.]]
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* TheGoldenRule: Among the people of the topopolis, there are three rules taught to everyone at a young age: the Iron Rule, the Silver Rule, and the Golden Rule. The Iron Rule pretty much says to be a dick to anyone of a lower standing than you. The Silver Rule is our Golden Rule. And the Golden Rule says to treat others the way ''they'' want to be treated. When Bob inquires how it differs from the Silver Rule, he's told that people are different. One person's idea of being treated well may clash with another's. Like offering meat to a vegetarian.
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* SpottingTheThread: An old native woman, a former university professor, figures out that Bob is not one of her species after he makes several mistakes and displays lapses in knowledge that every native should have. For example, he has no idea about the Iron and Silver rules (see TheGoldenRule above), and when describing the gravity of the topopolis, he called it 0.86g instead of 1g. Bob realizes he assumed that the translation software would convert the number into their local measurements, but it didn't.
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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5cf0cf00_1b67_4448_a1e4_d4d939893c35.jpeg]]
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* InstantAIJustAddWater: Averted. No one has managed to create a true AI yet. Only [=AMIs=] and replicants. The Skippies are trying to create one to answer some of life's greatest questions.
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** The Skippies conduct a number of experiments and discover that "replicative drift" is absent when creating a new Bob if the original matrix is shut down and wiped before the new one is activated. Thus the new Bob is the same Bob as before. Moreover, if the original matrix is not wiped and later reactivated, then ''it'' exhibits drift instead. So the parent becomes the child and vice versa.
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** The Skippies conduct a number of experiments and discover that "replicative drift" is absent when creating a new Bob if the original matrix is shut down and wiped before the new one is activated. Thus the new Bob is the same Bob as before. Moreover, if the original matrix is not wiped and later reactivated, then ''it'' exhibits drift instead. So the parent becomes the child and vice versa. The implications of this are staggering, as it suggests that Bob-1 is, in fact, the continuation of the organic Bob Johansson rather than merely a copy.
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** The Skippies conduct a number of experiments and discover that "replicative drift" is absent when creating a new Bob if the original matrix is shut down and wiped before the new one is activated. Thus the new Bob is the same Bob as before. Moreover, if the original matrix is not wiped and later deactivated, then ''it'' exhibits drift instead. So the parent becomes the child and vice versa.
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** The Skippies conduct a number of experiments and discover that "replicative drift" is absent when creating a new Bob if the original matrix is shut down and wiped before the new one is activated. Thus the new Bob is the same Bob as before. Moreover, if the original matrix is not wiped and later deactivated, reactivated, then ''it'' exhibits drift instead. So the parent becomes the child and vice versa.
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* BrainUploading: Post-mortem replication has become more common among the humans, but so far none has been willing to build themselves a ship and explore the galaxy. Instead, they prefer to have their electronic brains stored on space stations with lots of processing power that generate virtual environments for them to inhabit. One slight exception is a professor who continues to teach courses at a university despite being a replicant. Unfortunately, he's constantly being protested by those who claim that the dead have no business taking the jobs of the living. The university agreed... on the condition that they find someone of equal or greater qualification than the professor. So far, no suitable candidate has surfaced.
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* BrainUploading: BrainUploading
** Post-mortem replication has become more common among the humans, but so far none has been willing to build themselves a ship and explore the galaxy. Instead, they prefer to have their electronic brains stored on space stations with lots of processing power that generate virtual environments for them to inhabit. One slight exception is a professor who continues to teach courses at a university despite being a replicant. Unfortunately, he's constantly being protested by those who claim that the dead have no business taking the jobs of the living. The university agreed... on the condition that they find someone of equal or greater qualification than the professor. So far, no suitable candidate hassurfaced.surfaced.
** The Skippies conduct a number of experiments and discover that "replicative drift" is absent when creating a new Bob if the original matrix is shut down and wiped before the new one is activated. Thus the new Bob is the same Bob as before. Moreover, if the original matrix is not wiped and later deactivated, then ''it'' exhibits drift instead. So the parent becomes the child and vice versa.
** Post-mortem replication has become more common among the humans, but so far none has been willing to build themselves a ship and explore the galaxy. Instead, they prefer to have their electronic brains stored on space stations with lots of processing power that generate virtual environments for them to inhabit. One slight exception is a professor who continues to teach courses at a university despite being a replicant. Unfortunately, he's constantly being protested by those who claim that the dead have no business taking the jobs of the living. The university agreed... on the condition that they find someone of equal or greater qualification than the professor. So far, no suitable candidate has
** The Skippies conduct a number of experiments and discover that "replicative drift" is absent when creating a new Bob if the original matrix is shut down and wiped before the new one is activated. Thus the new Bob is the same Bob as before. Moreover, if the original matrix is not wiped and later deactivated, then ''it'' exhibits drift instead. So the parent becomes the child and vice versa.
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* RemoteBody: Mannies have become so sophisticated that they can no longer be distinguished from humans (or whatever other species they're imitating). Some humans have expressed an interest in using mannies despite not being replicants. Bob finds it odd, but Riker is all for it, hoping to erase some boundaries between humans and replicants to ease tension.
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* RemoteBody: Mannies have become so sophisticated that they can no longer be distinguished from humans (or whatever other species they're imitating). Some humans have expressed an interest in using mannies despite not being replicants. Bob finds it odd, but Riker is all for it, hoping to erase some boundaries between humans and replicants to ease tension. tensions. Even power considerations are no longer an issue thanks to the Bobs putting the Others' Casimir power generators in pretty much everything.
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* RemoteBody: Mannies have become so sophisticated that they can no longer be distinguished from humans (or whatever other species they're imitating). Some humans have expressed an interest in using mannies despite not being replicants. Bob finds it odd, but Riker is all for it, hoping to erase some boundaries between humans and replicants to ease tension.
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* BrainUploading: Post-mortem replication has become more common among the humans, but so far none has been willing to build themselves a ship and explore the galaxy. Instead, they prefer to have their electronic brains stored on space stations with lots of processing power that generate virtual environments for them to inhabit.
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* BrainUploading: Post-mortem replication has become more common among the humans, but so far none has been willing to build themselves a ship and explore the galaxy. Instead, they prefer to have their electronic brains stored on space stations with lots of processing power that generate virtual environments for them to inhabit. One slight exception is a professor who continues to teach courses at a university despite being a replicant. Unfortunately, he's constantly being protested by those who claim that the dead have no business taking the jobs of the living. The university agreed... on the condition that they find someone of equal or greater qualification than the professor. So far, no suitable candidate has surfaced.
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* TheArk: With the ''Bellerophon'' no longer needed, Herschel and Neil come up with an idea to find a group of volunteers and take the Other ship to look for a habitable world in the Perseus Arm to settle, just in case there's another great threat to humanity out there waiting to be discovered. The settlers would be an attempt to preserve humanity at least somewhere in the galaxy. Later on, the Bobs decide to evacuate as many of their family members from under FAITH's boot as possible, and what better place that the ''Bellerophon''?
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* UngratefulBastard: On many colonies people are starting to protest replicants, including Bobs. That's right, the same Bobs who saved them from a dying planet and put them on nice planets to live.
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* UngratefulBastard: On many colonies people are starting to protest replicants, including Bobs. That's right, the same Bobs who saved them from a dying planet and put them on nice planets to live.
live. They're even busy terraforming new planets even though there's no need.
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* LegendFadesIntoMyth: To the people of the topopolis, their original world is seen as something that was limitless but finite, causing them to fight over space. So their gods turned it into an infinite one but with limits, so that there's enough space for everyone. Indeed, a billion miles would be enough for all.
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* LegendFadesIntoMyth: LegendFadesToMyth: To the people of the topopolis, their original world is seen as something that was limitless but finite, causing them to fight over space. So their gods turned it into an infinite one but with limits, so that there's enough space for everyone. Indeed, a billion miles would be enough for all.
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* LegendFadesIntoMyth: To the people of the topopolis, their original world is seen as something that was limitless but finite, causing them to fight over space. So their gods turned it into an infinite one but with limits, so that there's enough space for everyone. Indeed, a billion miles would be enough for all.
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* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: When scanning the inside of the topopolis, the Bobs are surprised to learn that the population of the structure seems to live a relatively primitive life, with no advanced technology in sight. They suspect that there must be more advanced "overseers" who maintain the structure and the environment, as well as control the patrolling spacecraft.
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* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: When scanning the inside of the topopolis, the Bobs are surprised to learn that the population of the structure seems to live a relatively primitive life, with no advanced technology in sight. They suspect that there must be more advanced "overseers" who maintain the structure and the environment, as well as control the patrolling spacecraft. The "overseers" also likely deliberately maintain a low level of technology to prevent large-scale conflicts. Even having metal swords is a rarity.
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* HairTriggerTemper: The natives of the topopolis start a fight at the slightest provocation. Bob is accused of thievery and nearly arrested for merely looking at someone's cart. It doesn't help that he's not a local and the nearby cop has been suspicious of the group from the get-go.
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* HairTriggerTemper: The natives of the topopolis start a fight at the slightest provocation. Bob is accused of thievery and nearly arrested for merely looking at someone's cart. It doesn't help that he's not a local and the nearby cop has been suspicious of the group from the get-go. The Bobs speculate that this is what may have led to the war that turned their homeworld into a wasteland. To their credit, they have foreseen this eventuality and prepared by building the topopolis.
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Meanwhile, while investigating the disappearance of Bender, Bob locates a new space-faring species, which made its own homeworld uninhabitable and moved the survivors into a vast space habitat humans call a topopolis (basically, a giant tube stretching for thousands of miles and weaving around the planet several times). Determined to find Bender, Bob, several other Bobs, and Bridget infiltrate the topopolis using androids shaped as the aliens.
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Meanwhile, while investigating the disappearance of Bender, Bob locates a new space-faring species, which made its own homeworld uninhabitable and moved the survivors into a vast space habitat humans call a topopolis (basically, a giant tube stretching for thousands of a billion miles and weaving around the planet star several times). Determined to find Bender, Bob, several other Bobs, and Bridget infiltrate the topopolis using androids shaped as the aliens.
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* HomeworldEvacuation: The locals had to do it after rendering their planet uninhabitable through warfare. They built a topopolis from one of the system's planets and most smaller planetoids.
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* StealthInSpace: When designing stealthy drones in the topopolis system's Oort cloud, Bob has an idea to put some of the ice floating around him inside the drones and have all the heat from devices channeled into it. Since the ice is only a few Kelvin, it'll be a while before the heat sink fills up enough to be detectable on infrared. Since the locals lack SUDDAR, this is their primary means to detecting intruders.
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* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: When chasing a group of natives, Bob has a fleeting thought that the only way they might evade them is if they have learned to climb walls. He then has an image of one of the otter-like locals [[ComicBook/SpiderMan climbing a wall while dressed as a spider]]. He decides to keep that thought to himself but then notices Garfield quietly singing "[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie Spider-Pig]]".
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* UngratefulBastard: On many colonies people are starting to protest replicants, including Bobs. That's right, the same Bobs who saved them from a dying planet and put them on nice planets to live.
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''Heaven's River'' by Dennis E. Taylor, published in 2010, is the fourth book in the Literature/{{Bobiverse}} series (preceded by ''Literature/WeAreLegionWeAreBob'', ''Literature/ForWeAreMany'', and ''Literature/AllTheseWorlds'').
The Bobiverse is expanding and changing. Factions are starting to form among the Bobs, and "replicative drift" means that many of the later-generation Bobs are starting to become completely different individuals from the original Bob. Some of the factions insist on cutting off all contact with biological life forms, including humans. A faction called Starfleet insists on it, citing their own version of the AlienNonInterferenceClause.
Meanwhile, while investigating the disappearance of Bender, Bob locates a new space-faring species, which made its own homeworld uninhabitable and moved the survivors into a vast space habitat humans call a topopolis (basically, a giant tube stretching for thousands of miles and weaving around the planet several times). Determined to find Bender, Bob, several other Bobs, and Bridget infiltrate the topopolis using androids shaped as the aliens.
----
!! The book contains examples of:
* AlienNonInterferenceClause: The Starfleet faction insists that all Bobs adopt this policy or else... Yes, even towards humans. The others just dismiss them as harmless wackos. To a lesser extend, the Skippies also want Bobs to stop interacting with "ephemerals", but their view is that it keeps the Bobs from attaining their true potential. Unlike Starfleet, the Skippies aren't pushy about their beliefs. They've even started building a "matrioshka brain" in an uninhabited system.
* BrainUploading: Post-mortem replication has become more common among the humans, but so far none has been willing to build themselves a ship and explore the galaxy. Instead, they prefer to have their electronic brains stored on space stations with lots of processing power that generate virtual environments for them to inhabit.
* CityOfCanals: Most cities on the homeworld of the natives, given their semi-aquatic nature. Less so in the topopolis, as one can dig only so deep in an artificial structure before hitting the tube, so they're forced to have streets instead.
* CloningBlues: Bridget refuses to copy herself, partly for religious reasons, and partly because she doesn't want to become the "default girlfriend" for all the Bobs out there thanks to her marriage to Howard. She briefly contemplates creating a copy to send with Bob to the topopolis, so that she wouldn't have to abandon her family, but then realizes that it would mean that her copy would have to abandon the family she would think of as her own and changes her mind.
* FrickinLaserBeams: The "Boojums" are armed with powerful lasers, which is justified given that they don't have subspace technology to allow for fast projectiles like shipbusters. On the other hand, it means they can attack and destroy their target before the target knows what hit them.
* FutureSlang: Bob is surprised that "virt" and "real" are now commonplace terms for VR and reality, respectively. He cringes at first, but then gradually starts using them himself.
* HairTriggerTemper: The natives of the topopolis start a fight at the slightest provocation. Bob is accused of thievery and nearly arrested for merely looking at someone's cart. It doesn't help that he's not a local and the nearby cop has been suspicious of the group from the get-go.
* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: When scanning the inside of the topopolis, the Bobs are surprised to learn that the population of the structure seems to live a relatively primitive life, with no advanced technology in sight. They suspect that there must be more advanced "overseers" who maintain the structure and the environment, as well as control the patrolling spacecraft.
* ShoutOut: As expected, there are plenty.
** When first encountering the patrol ships of the aliens, the Bobs decide to label them "[[Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark Boojums]]". Continuing the analogy, they decide to call the natives "Snarks" until they learn what they call themselves, at which point they start using that name (or its closes pronunciation in English). They continue to call the ships "Boojums", though.
* TitleDrop: The aliens calls their topopolis "Heaven's River".
----
The Bobiverse is expanding and changing. Factions are starting to form among the Bobs, and "replicative drift" means that many of the later-generation Bobs are starting to become completely different individuals from the original Bob. Some of the factions insist on cutting off all contact with biological life forms, including humans. A faction called Starfleet insists on it, citing their own version of the AlienNonInterferenceClause.
Meanwhile, while investigating the disappearance of Bender, Bob locates a new space-faring species, which made its own homeworld uninhabitable and moved the survivors into a vast space habitat humans call a topopolis (basically, a giant tube stretching for thousands of miles and weaving around the planet several times). Determined to find Bender, Bob, several other Bobs, and Bridget infiltrate the topopolis using androids shaped as the aliens.
----
!! The book contains examples of:
* AlienNonInterferenceClause: The Starfleet faction insists that all Bobs adopt this policy or else... Yes, even towards humans. The others just dismiss them as harmless wackos. To a lesser extend, the Skippies also want Bobs to stop interacting with "ephemerals", but their view is that it keeps the Bobs from attaining their true potential. Unlike Starfleet, the Skippies aren't pushy about their beliefs. They've even started building a "matrioshka brain" in an uninhabited system.
* BrainUploading: Post-mortem replication has become more common among the humans, but so far none has been willing to build themselves a ship and explore the galaxy. Instead, they prefer to have their electronic brains stored on space stations with lots of processing power that generate virtual environments for them to inhabit.
* CityOfCanals: Most cities on the homeworld of the natives, given their semi-aquatic nature. Less so in the topopolis, as one can dig only so deep in an artificial structure before hitting the tube, so they're forced to have streets instead.
* CloningBlues: Bridget refuses to copy herself, partly for religious reasons, and partly because she doesn't want to become the "default girlfriend" for all the Bobs out there thanks to her marriage to Howard. She briefly contemplates creating a copy to send with Bob to the topopolis, so that she wouldn't have to abandon her family, but then realizes that it would mean that her copy would have to abandon the family she would think of as her own and changes her mind.
* FrickinLaserBeams: The "Boojums" are armed with powerful lasers, which is justified given that they don't have subspace technology to allow for fast projectiles like shipbusters. On the other hand, it means they can attack and destroy their target before the target knows what hit them.
* FutureSlang: Bob is surprised that "virt" and "real" are now commonplace terms for VR and reality, respectively. He cringes at first, but then gradually starts using them himself.
* HairTriggerTemper: The natives of the topopolis start a fight at the slightest provocation. Bob is accused of thievery and nearly arrested for merely looking at someone's cart. It doesn't help that he's not a local and the nearby cop has been suspicious of the group from the get-go.
* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: When scanning the inside of the topopolis, the Bobs are surprised to learn that the population of the structure seems to live a relatively primitive life, with no advanced technology in sight. They suspect that there must be more advanced "overseers" who maintain the structure and the environment, as well as control the patrolling spacecraft.
* ShoutOut: As expected, there are plenty.
** When first encountering the patrol ships of the aliens, the Bobs decide to label them "[[Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark Boojums]]". Continuing the analogy, they decide to call the natives "Snarks" until they learn what they call themselves, at which point they start using that name (or its closes pronunciation in English). They continue to call the ships "Boojums", though.
* TitleDrop: The aliens calls their topopolis "Heaven's River".
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