History Literature / SaturnsChildren

* FlatEarthAtheist: Most robots, based on design schematics and such, believe that they were created by human beings. A few, however, believe in [[StrawmanPolitical the holy doctrine of Evolution]], and its prophets [[CharlesDarwin Darwin]], [[UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins Dawkins]], and Gould.

* SexBot: The protagonist of ''Saturn's Children'' is a sexbot in a world where humanity is extinct, making her existence almost pointless -- though for some reason, the majority of the robot population is capable of having and enjoying sex anyways. It's not just the humaniforms; interplanetary transports provide "internal massages" to their passengers, both to pass the time and to pad them against acceleration, but probably the most questionable example is when Freya has sex with a sentient ''hotel''.

* SexBot: The protagonist of ''Saturn's Children'' is a sexbot in a world where humanity is extinct, making her existence almost pointless -- though for some reason, the majority of the robot population is capable of having and enjoying sex anyways. It's not just the humaniforms; interplanetary transports provide "internal massages" to their passengers, both to pass the time and to pad them against acceleration, but probably the most questionable example is when Freya has sex with a sentient *hotel*.

* SexBot: The protagonist of ''Saturn's Children'' is a sexbot in a world where humanity is extinct, making her existence almost pointless.

* FlatEarthAtheist: Most robots, based on design schematics and such, believe that they were created by human beings. A few, however, believe in [[StrawmanPolitical the holy doctrine of Evolution]], and its prophets [[CharlesDarwin Darwin]], [[RichardDawkins Dawkins]], and Gould.

** There's a brief reference to one of Stross' other works, [[HaltingState]]. In that book, "Hentai Animatics" is a company writing computer games. By the time of ''Saturn's Children'', they're designing sexbots like Freya.

The sequel, ''Neptune's Brood'', is set 5,000 years later. The story follows a mild-mannered "[[MechanicalLifeforms metahuman]]" named Krina as she searches for her sister on the water world of Shin-Tethys. Along the way she is abducted - then hired - by SpacePirates, stalked by a [[{{Doppelganger}} Doppelgänger]] assassin, and unravels the complex financial cons that permeate the interstellar economy. All the while she holds her own secrets about the "Atlantis Carnet", the key to either the greatest treasure in the galaxy or its greatest scam.

** Played straighter in ''Neptune's Brood'' where stray and escaped "mechanocytes" have started to form a strange new [[MechanicalLifeform web of life]] that so far consists mostly of scavengers, and any metahuman damaged to the point of losing sentience either decomposes into its component mechanocytes or becomes a ravening zombie until it consumes enough resources to restore itself.

** Completely averted in ''Neptune's Brood'': the robots have developed further and no longer have obedience hard-coded. They've resurrected humanity several times but we keep dying out. As such, they refer to us as "The Fragile" and view us with a kind of pity.

** In ''Neptune's Brood'' this applies to Krina Alizond-114 and her "sisters", who are all clones of their mother Sondra Alizond.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Justified. The (extinct) "[[ThankTheMaker Creators]]" never figured out how to program self-aware AIs from scratch. Instead they just copied the way human brains work. Played with in ''Neptune's Brood'' where the "robots" are advanced mechanical lifeforms with their own kind of biology and cells. The main character basically looks human, but many metahumans take other wildy different forms, such as bats, mermaids, or octopi.

** Played a little more seriously in ''Neptunes Brood'' with the Church of the Fragile, which is dedicated to fulfilling the robots' original purpose of spreading old-fashioned organic humanity throughout the universe. If only we didn't keep going extinct on them...

* SeriousBusiness: In ''Neptune's Brood'' banking and finance have effectively beome diplomacy and war, audits are frequently fatal, and insurance adjusters bear letters of Marque and Reprisal.

** In ''Neptune's Brood'', there is a pirate crew who call themselves [[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife The Crimson Permanent Assurance]] who [[spoiler:turn out to be unusually aggressive insurance underwriters]].

* {{Transhumanism}}: by the time of ''Neptune's Brood'' robots have effectively become humanity, (aka "metahumanity") with a physiology that combines the best of synthetic and biological processes ("marrow", "techne" and mechanocytes.)

''Saturn's Children'', and its sequel ''[[Literature/NeptunesBrood]]'', are a pair of science fiction novels by Creator/CharlesStross, set in a universe where humanity has gone extinct and our robot descendants are the dominant civilization.

''Saturn's Children'', and its sequel ''[[Neptune's Brood]]'', are a pair of science fiction novels by Creator/CharlesStross, set in a universe where humanity has gone extinct and our robot descendants are the dominant civilization.

''Saturn's Children'', and its sequel ''Neptune's Brood'', are a pair of science fiction novels by Creator/CharlesStross, set in a universe where humanity has gone extinct and our robot descendants are the dominant civilization.

* AscendedFridgeHorror: Freya was programmed to be overwhelmed by lust at the mere sight of ''Homo sapiens''--how, [[DontAsk you may ask]], do you condition a robot to behave in such away? Later on in the novel, we find out that [[HumansAreBastards Freya's long-dead designers]] did so by [[spoiler:[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil inflicting traumatic sexual abuse on her during her "adolescence"]].]]

* DeathIsCheap: assuming one is properly backed up and their soul chip survives ''and'' it happens to fall into the hands of someone with an emotional or financial interest in resurecting them.

* HumansAreCthulhu: Humanity died out long ago and left behind a race of intelligent robots that took its place. ''Saturn's Children'' deals with a plot by a consortium of wealthy robots who are trying to recreate a living human, which could have cataclysmic effects on robot society because obedience to humans is still hard-coded into their programming. A military organization called the "Pink Police" is dedicated to ensuring that something like this never happens.

** In ''Saturn's Children'', Freya is "instantiated" from a line of robots who all have the same body and wake up believing they are the original bot, Rhea. They avert this by taking individual names. However, she then encounters The Jeeves Corporation, run by a line whom all refer to themselves as Jeeves. Later on, a specific Jeeves is referred to as "Reginald"; fans of Wodehouse won't find this helps the confusion much.

* TakeThat: While ''Saturn's Children'' is mostly AffectionateParody, there's a few swipes at Heinlein as well; WordOfGod is that the first impetus for the creation of Freya was to ask why anyone's [[Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast nipples would go "Spung!"]], and there's two separate swipes at the "specialization is for insects" line - at one point Freya notes she ''can't'' do most of the things Heinlein's RenaissanceMan can do; as a generalist, her main ability is to find a specialist who can do them for her, and the colony ship requires lots and lots of specialists, and a few generalists to cover everything else.

* Transhumanism: by the time of ''Neptune's Brood'' robots have effectively become humanity, (aka "metahumanity") with a physiology that combines the best of synthetic and biological processes ("marrow", "techne" and mechanocytes.)

* MechanicalLifeforms: Metahuman "biology" (for lack of a better term) evolved from the combination of biological strategies and organization with mechanical processes.

** Played straighter in ''Neptune's Brood'' where stray and escaped "mechanocytes" have started to form a strange new [[MechanicalLifeform web of life]] that so far consists mostly of scavengers, and any metahuman damaged to the point of losing sentience will either decompose into its component mechanocytes because its "soul" can no longer impose its will on them or become a ravening zombie until it consumes enough resources to restore itself.

* NotUsingTheZWord: ''Saturn's Children'' justifies this by explaining the actual term "robot" is considered a FantasticSlur. ''Neptune's Brood'' shows that their technology has advanced to the point where they're basically advanced MechanicalLifeforms (with actual mechanical cells, analogous to our biological cells). They just call themselves "metahuman", and refer to regular humans as the "Fragile".

** Played a little more seriously in ''Neptunes Brood'' with the church of the fragile, which is dedicated to fulfilling the robot' original purpose of spreading old-fashioned organic humanity throughout the universe. If only we didn't keep going extinct on them...

* Transhumanism: by the time of ''Neptune's Brood'' robots have effectively become humanity, with a physiology that combines the best of synthetic and biological processes.

** In ''Neptune's Brood'', there is a pirate crew who call themselves [[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife The Permanent Crimson]], and who [[spoiler:turn out to be unusually aggressive insurance underwriters]].

The sequel, ''Neptune's Brood'', is set 5,000 years later. The story follows a mild-mannered "[[MechanicalLifeforms metahuman]]" named Krina as she searches for her sister on the water world of Shin-Tethys. Along the way she is abducted - then hired - by SpacePirates, stalked by a [[{{Doppelganger}} Doppelgänger]] assassin, and unravels the complex financial cons that permeate the interstellar economy. All the while holding her own secrets about the "Atlantis Carnet", the key to either the greatest treasure in the galaxy or it's greatest scam.

* ThreeLawsCompliant: In ''Saturn's Children'', the robots were all basically created this way - in fact, the book quotes the three laws right at the beginning. However, with mankind extinct, the first law doesn't apply so much any more. In fact, the possibility of the first law complicating their lives is why ''some'' robots are so thoroughly opposed to the thought of trying to bring man back using genetic records and the like.

''Saturn's Children'', and it's sequel ''Neptune's Brood'', are a pair of science fiction novels by Creator/CharlesStross, set in a universe where humanity has gone extinct and our robot descendants are the dominant civilization.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Justified. The (extinct) "[[ThankTheMaker Creators]]" never figured out how to program self-aware AIs from scratch. Instead they just copied the way human brains work. Played with in ''Neptune's Children'' where the "robots" are advanced mechanical lifeforms with their own kind of biology and cells. The main character basically looks human, but many metahumans take other wildy different forms, such as bats, mermaids, or octopi.

* StarfishRobots: In ''Saturn's Children'', after the demise of humanity, the robots least attached to their creators have formed a new aristocracy, and the SexBot protagonist is despised for her DeceptivelyHumanRobot appearance. Most other robots have a more practical appearance for living and working in outer space or other planets. The "metahumans" in ''Neptune's Brood'' take on a variety of odd forms, such as giant bats or aquatic creatures.

* GlobalWarming: After humanity went extinct, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything waste heat from the nano-economy combined with indifference from the surviving robots to cause a runaway greenhouse effect on Earth]] (the Gulf of Mexico is describe as having reached a roiling boil).

* AfterTheEnd: The novel explores a Solar System inhabited only by robots centuries after the mysterious extinction of humanity.

* CloningBlues: In a robotic version, the protagonist is a sexbot who describes how she, and other AIs similar to herself are created. AI's with human level intelligence take as long as a human would to develop, so no [[InstantAIJustAddWater instant AI]], with one loophole: an AI can be duplicated easily. The standard procedure for artificial beings like her was to raise one prototype as desired than clone the AI into identical bodies.

* HumansAreCthulhu: Humanity died out long ago and left behind a race of intelligent robots that took its place. The book deals with a plot by a consortium of wealthy robots who are trying to recreate a living human, which could have cataclysmic effects on robot society because obedience to humans is still hard-coded into their programming. A military organization called the "Pink Police" is dedicated to ensuring that something like this never happens.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: At the end, we learn that the book we have just read is a message Freya is about to send back to her sisters on Earth, to warn them that [[spoiler:their supposedly long-dead mother Rhea is still alive and dangerously insane]].
* MercurialBase: There is a city on Mercury that's mounted on tracks that stretch around the planet, and which follows the terminator to avoid getting too hot or too cold. The protagonist's enemies [[spoiler:[[ChainedToARailway tie her to the tracks]] and leave her for dead]].
* MyEyesAreLeaking: The {{sexbot}} protagonist is alarmed for a moment when her vision becomes blurred and she registers saline leakage; a surprisingly non-functional response to emotions programmed into her by her long-extinct creators.
* NonIndicativeTitle: While the plot takes place on several different planets and moons in the solar system, Saturn isn't one of them, and there are no children, as such, in the story.
* NotUsingTheZWord: The novel justifies this in regard to its robots--the actual term "robot" is considered a FantasticSlur.

* PlanetOfSteves: The main character is 'instantiated' from a line of robots, whom all have the same body and wake up believing they are the original bot, Rhea. They avert this by taking individual names. However, she then encounters The Jeeves Corporation, run by a line whom all refer to themselves as Jeeves. Later on, a specific Jeeves is referred to as "Reginald"; fans of Wodehouse won't find this helps the confusion much.
* PlotCoupon: {{Lampshaded}} via pun:

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Justified. The (extinct) "[[ThankTheMaker Creators]]" never figured out how to program self-aware AIs from scratch. Instead they just copied the way human brains work. [[spoiler:And then you find out ''how'' [[PoweredByAForsakenChild they did it]]...]]
* RobotGirl: The protagonist. A RobotGirl SexSlave no less, in a universe where humans no longer exist.
* RobotReligion: PlayedForLaughs. Some robots have examined all the relevant scientific evidence and concluded that robots were intelligently designed by a creator. Others fervently believe that robots evolved from simpler forms by means of natural selection, as described in their holy text: Darwin's ''Origin of Species''...
* RobotsEnslavingRobots: The book is all about this trope. One of the protagonist's main worries (everyone in the book is an AI of one sort or another) is ensuring that she always has enough credit in the bank to ensure that she never becomes another AI's property.
* SexBot: The protagonist is a sexbot in a world where humanity is extinct, making her existence almost pointless.
* ShoutOut: In addition to numerous {{Shout Out}}s to Creator/RobertHeinlein, the book has a McGuffin disguised as [[TheMalteseFalcon a statue of a black bird]] and an organisation of robot butlers who are all called [[JeevesAndWooster Jeeves]] [[spoiler: one of whom has taken the name "Reginald"; Jeeves's first name in the books.]]

* SpaceElevator: Mars has one giant space elevator called Bifrost.
* StarfishRobots: After the demise of humanity those robots least attached to their creators have formed the new aristocracy, and the SexBot protagonist is despised for her DeceptivelyHumanRobot appearance. Most other robots have a more practical appearance for living and working in outer space or other planets.
* TakeThat: While it's mostly AffectionateParody, there's a few swipes at Heinlein as well; WordOfGod is that the first impetus for the creation of Freya was to ask why anyone's [[Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast nipples would go "Spung!"]], and there's two seperate swipes at the "specialisation is for insects" line - at one point Freya notes she ''can't'' do most of the things Heinlein's RenaissanceMan can do; as a generalist, her main ability is to find a specialist who can do them for her, and the colony ship requires lots and lots of specialists, and a few generalists to cover everything else.
* ThreeLawsCompliant: The robots were all basically created this way--in fact, the book quotes the three laws right at the beginning. However, with mankind extinct, the first law doesn't apply so much any more. In fact, the possibility of the first law complicating their lives is why ''some'' robots are so thoroughly opposed to the thought of trying to bring man back using genetic records and the like.

* WhatWouldXDo: When Freya is posing as an the Honorable Katherine Sorico, she has to keep asking herself "[=WWtHKSd=]?"