History Literature / PrinceRoger

a.k.a. ''The Empire of Man'' series or the ''March Upcountry'' series.

** [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red dawn!]]
** Prince Roger is apparently a Tolkien fan as he also mutters "the kazoos, the kazoos of North." upon hearing the small horns of the Vashim.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Marines' equipment supplier. "Your weapon was made by the lowest bidder", indeed - this kills a ''third'' of the Marines, when their equipment either fails after extended exposure to conditions where they're supposed to be functional, or have a random chance of just blowing up when you use them.

** This doesn't work on Roger, his heart rate and blood pressure stay low, no matter how angry or excited he gets. Julian calls this "scary".

* CassandraTruth: Soon after crashing on Marduk, several Marines needlessly die in an animal attack because the commanding officer refused to listen to Roger who, as an experienced hunter, recognized warning signs. Pahner assumed Roger was just shooting for pleasure's sake, but later apologized.

* GunStripping: Happens a good bit because this is a military squad in a hostile environment that really does need to clean and maintain its gear, but special recognition goes to Julian, who can strip down a 40-piece plasma rifle in 7 seconds, if you don't mind chasing down all the pieces that flew off in the process, afterward.

* GunStripping: Julian can field strip a plasma rifle in under seven seconds. The process leaves pieces of the gun scattered around the room (the bet was about how fast he could take the gun apart, not how neatly).

* ExtendedDisarming: Pedi Karuse takes a bit of time to shed all her weaponry when visiting a mobster [[spoiler:who's holding Dsepereaux hostage]] in ''We Few''.

* MedalOfDishonor: Roger makes personalized friendly joke versions for every one of his men who make it off Marduk alive. For example Poertena gets a little pocking wrench so he can [[PercussiveMaintenance beat up little pocking pieces of armor]].

* MedalOfDishonor: Roger makes personalized friendly joke versions for every one of his men who make it off Marduk alive.

* TheEngineer: Poertena is The Mechanic. Pahner and Julian are very technically savvy as well, and all of the Guard can function as The Combat Engineer with their demo experience. The former Laborers of God can all fulfill the Support Engineer role since their old job was to build levies, dams, canals, and other civilian, fortification-like structures.

* HiddenDepths: Prerequisite for acceptance to the Empress' Own. TheCaptain is a pretty good machinist, [[SergeantRock the senior NCO]] is a skilled seamstress doubling as chaplain, the armorer is [[ChekhovsSkill a journeyman shipwright]], their [[AcePilot best pilot]] is a CombatMedic, [[TheLoad the Prince]] is an amateur geologist and master sniper, one of their heavy gunners is [[BreadEggsMilkSquick an accomplished car thief]].

** Zig-zagged with Dobrescu. First, he protests that he's a shuttle pilot, not a medic (his MOS is shuttle pilot, but he is trained as a medic too). Then he gets to start treating Mardukans...

* PyrrhicVictory: The battle for the tramp freighter at the end of ''March to the Stars''. Not only do they lose [[spoiler:Captain Pahner]] and several other marines, but their Mardukan allies practically gut the ship with plasma fire, not really knowing better.

** Aside from the Guard is everyone ''else'' who tags along with Roger. The humans include a valet, tutor who provides political advice to both humans and Mardukans, pilot/medic, and reporter previously captured by the locals while on assignment, while the Mardukans that join up include an eccentric old mentor, a princess, a mercenary band, and an entire sepoy regiment.

* AnyoneCanDie: Except for the title character, do not take anyone else's life as a given. The group was down to only 12 by the time they leave Marduk.

** Subverted. Julian is monitoring [[spoiler:Despreaux's]] blood pressure and heartrate. When both go up, they're having an argument with Roger. [[spoiler:When the heart rate goes up and the blood pressure drops, it's time to send in a MomentKiller.]]

* NestedOwnership: D'nal Cord [[IOweYouMyLife owes Roger his life]], and later acquires a life-debt of his own when he saves Pedi Caruse from pirates. Prince Roger has a good laugh at the latter, noting that D'nal's OhCrap reaction when he realizes Pedi's culture has life-debts exactly mirrored his own after he saved D'nal.

** Just about everyone has a computer implant in their brain, called a "toot", and the implant can be hacked. [[spoiler:The chain of events leading to being stranded on Marduk was from a sailor whose toot was hacked by the conspiracy.]]

* FreudianExcuse: Roger has these in spades and justifiably given the way Alexandra [[TheUnfavorite has treated him]].
* FriendlyFireproof: Played with. When the group is ambushed by a horde of natives and forced to melee, Prince Roger picks up a grenade launcher and ''fires it into the mixed group''. On the one hand, this is smarter than it sounds since the light armor marines wear will protect them from the worst the damage, and it would shred the natives. On the other hand, they could've broken the assault without it, and he cost the team needless broken bones and minor shrapnel injuries.

* AbortedArc: [[PunnyName Ima Hooker]], amongst other characters, were given some importance in the first book. They're [[AnyoneCanDie slaughtered within minutes]] of the second book.

* AnimalWrongsGroup: The Saints are this trope on the scale of a star nation, though their leadership is later revealed not to believe their own rhetoric.

** Several Mardukan poisons are shown to not work on humans, and vice-versa. One poison, which to Mardukans is tasteless, tastes like rotten fennel to humans. Another poison fails much, much harder-- it inspires the doc to check other native chemistry that's not food-related, which leads him to discover an effective ''dietary supplement'' for human biology, ''saving'' the lives of much of the expedition by stretching out the dwindling supplies of manufactured supplements they need to survive on the partially-indigestible Mardukan diet.

* HeroicBastard: The titular prince, [[OverlyLongName Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock]], after [[TookALevelInBadass he took multiple levels of badass]]. He also develops into the other type of bastard, the literal meaning already applicable since the Empress had never married his father:
-->'''Sgt. Catrone:''' Order received and understood, and I will comply. You bastard.\\
'''Prince Roger:''' That I am. Literally and figuratively. The last bastard standing. The flag of the ''Basik's'' Own wears a bar sinister proudly.

* TheEmpath: Phaenurs, a race of centaroid-lizards whose abilities make them {{Living Lie Detector}}s. They are one of the only races never to engage in physical war or have never engaged in cannibalism.

* {{Adorkable}}: Roger whenever he tries to talk to Despreaux.

* CharacterDevelopment: Mostly focused on Roger himself as he has to stop being a RoyalBrat and becomes a {{badass}}.

** Pedi Karuse. It falls behind both her ({{lampshaded}}) FieryRedhead personality and being a {{Badass}} as a defining trait for her, but she's the ''only'' fashion & makeup loving Mardukan (since most came from cultures that didn't wear clothes), and she's the only woman of any species to qualify on the team as well.

** Prince Roger takes ''several'', and goes from being thought of as a pompous LongHairedPrettyBoy to {{Badass}} [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething warrior prince]] over the course of the series, mentally toughened up by [[DeathWorld Marduk]] as he treks across it to get to a spaceport so he can return home.