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Strange Girl is a disambiguation now, so it\'s not a trope anymore.
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* StrangeGirl: Allowing for it being a superscience setting rather than a supernatural one, Wednesday fits the description quite well.
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* StatusQuoIsGod: Almost literally. The ban on violating causality is a status quo engineered by the Eschaton and enforced with its godlike powers.
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Hottip cleanup.
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* FutureImperfect: Unsurprising, given the mess the Eschaton left behind it, but Rachel's grasp of 20th century history is a bit muddled (she compares the cruise ship she's on to an old-fashioned nuclear vessel like the ''Titanic''), and Martin comes from a "traditionalist" village in [[BalkanizeMe the People's Republic]] of [[OopNorth West Yorkshire]] where they believe that real Yorkshiremen [[ManInAKilt wear kilts]] and drink pints of Tetley's tea [[hottip:Note:Tetley, as well as being the world's second largest tea company, is also the name of an unrelated Yorkshire brewery]].
to:
* FutureImperfect: Unsurprising, given the mess the Eschaton left behind it, but Rachel's grasp of 20th century history is a bit muddled (she compares the cruise ship she's on to an old-fashioned nuclear vessel like the ''Titanic''), and Martin comes from a "traditionalist" village in [[BalkanizeMe the People's Republic]] of [[OopNorth West Yorkshire]] where they believe that real Yorkshiremen [[ManInAKilt wear kilts]] and drink pints of Tetley's tea [[hottip:Note:Tetley, [[note]]Tetley, as well as being the world's second largest tea company, is also the name of an unrelated Yorkshire brewery]].brewery[[/note]].
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None
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* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make ''Literature/TheDraka'' look like pleasant company.
to:
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: ([[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make ''Literature/TheDraka'' look like pleasant company.
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None
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* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AI perceives time in a non-linear fashion, hence causality weapons give it a major headache. Despite this, it does not have any "Future" memories of this Nazi cult and is understandably worried, as its hinted that this is a sign that the [=ReMastered=] won their cold war. How this can happen is unusual considering that Eschaton can, and will erase threats to itself from existence.]]
to:
* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: The Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AI perceives time in a non-linear fashion, hence causality weapons give it a major headache. Despite this, it does not have any "Future" memories of this Nazi cult and is understandably worried, as its hinted that this is a sign that the [=ReMastered=] won their cold war. How this can happen is unusual considering that Eschaton can, and will erase threats to itself from existence.]]
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*** [[RuleOfFunny Even though in the next book she shows a perfect understanding of what the Cold War was...]]
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* TheDragon: Portia Hoechst in ''Iron Sunrise'', as an ambitious field commander for the ReMastered.
to:
* TheDragon: Portia Hoechst in ''Iron Sunrise'', as an ambitious field commander for the ReMastered.[=ReMastered=].
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None
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* BittersweetEnding: In ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:disaster is averted, and Rachel gets her vengeance on the CorruptBureaucrat, but in doing so finds out that the [=ReMastered=] have infiltrated old Earth and realizes there's a lot more work to do]]
to:
* BittersweetEnding: In ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:disaster is averted, and Rachel gets her vengeance on the CorruptBureaucrat, but in doing so finds out that the [=ReMastered=] have infiltrated old Old Earth and realizes there's a lot more work to do]]
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None
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* ActionGirl: Rachel Mansour
to:
* ActionGirl: Rachel MansourMansour.
* AlcubierreDrive: One of about six methods of FTL travel or communication currently in use. It's mentioned to be extremely dangerous and difficult to use.
* AlcubierreDrive: One of about six methods of FTL travel or communication currently in use. It's mentioned to be extremely dangerous and difficult to use.
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real inspiration for this
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** Stross [[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/05/crib-sheet-singularity-sky.html#more says]] his inspiration for the book was the Russian Baltic fleet's 18,000-mile journey to its crushing defeat in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima]] during the Russo-Japanese War. Complete with an analog of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_incident Dogger Bank incident]].
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Stross confirms this
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** Stross [[WordOfGod confirms]] that the Festival was inspired by the real-life Edinburgh Festival in [[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/05/crib-sheet-singularity-sky.html#more this 2013 blog post]].
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None
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* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make TheDraka look like pleasant company.
to:
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make TheDraka ''Literature/TheDraka'' look like pleasant company.
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None
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* FutureImperfect: Unsurprising, given the mess the Eschaton left behind it, but Rachel's grasp of 20th century history is a bit muddled (she compares the cruise ship she's on to an old-fashioned nuclear vessel like the ''Titanic''), and Martin comes from a "traditionalist" village in [[BalkanizeMe the People's Republic]] of [[OopNorth West Yorkshire]] where they believe that real Yorkshiremen wear kilts and drink pints of Tetley's tea.
to:
* FutureImperfect: Unsurprising, given the mess the Eschaton left behind it, but Rachel's grasp of 20th century history is a bit muddled (she compares the cruise ship she's on to an old-fashioned nuclear vessel like the ''Titanic''), and Martin comes from a "traditionalist" village in [[BalkanizeMe the People's Republic]] of [[OopNorth West Yorkshire]] where they believe that real Yorkshiremen [[ManInAKilt wear kilts kilts]] and drink pints of Tetley's tea.tea [[hottip:Note:Tetley, as well as being the world's second largest tea company, is also the name of an unrelated Yorkshire brewery]].
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Ooh Me Accent\'s Slipping
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* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Rachel laughs at Martin's supposed West Yorkshire accent during the lifeboat's escape.
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working title reflected this
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** In fact, Stross's working title for the book was ''Space Nazis Must Die''.
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Orphaned Series
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* OrphanedSeries: Stross has [[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/09/books-i-will-not-write-4-escha.html explained]] that he will not be writing a third book in the series because he feels he made some mistakes so serious at the end of ''Iron Sunrise'' as to make that universe unviable.
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* LukeIAmYourFather: Vassily Muller reveals that he is Burya Rubenstein's son just before trying to kill him near the end of ''Singularity Sky''.
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clarify
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* TheDragon: Portia Hoechst in ''Iron Sunrise''.
to:
* TheDragon: Portia Hoechst in ''Iron Sunrise''.Sunrise'', as an ambitious field commander for the ReMastered.
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oops
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* ThePurge: In ''Iron Sunrise'', Portia has all the agents who supported Vannevar Bush's rogue operation killed (at least temporarily) when she takes over his department.
to:
* ThePurge: In ''Iron Sunrise'', Portia has all the agents who supported Vannevar Bush's Scott's rogue operation killed (at least temporarily) when she takes over his department.
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Heel Face Turn
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* AGodIAmNot: The Escathon.
to:
* AGodIAmNot: The Escathon.Eschaton.
* HeelFaceTurn: Franz, gradually over the course of ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:because Portia killed his girlfriend, but not without leaving open the possibility of resurrecting her to make him cooperate]].
* HeelFaceTurn: Franz, gradually over the course of ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:because Portia killed his girlfriend, but not without leaving open the possibility of resurrecting her to make him cooperate]].
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The Dragon
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* TheDragon: Portia Hoechst in ''Iron Sunrise''.
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clarify which work
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* ThePurge: Portia has all the agents who supported Vannevar Bush's rogue operation killed (at least temporarily) when she takes over his department.
to:
* ThePurge: In ''Iron Sunrise'', Portia has all the agents who supported Vannevar Bush's rogue operation killed (at least temporarily) when she takes over his department.
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The Purge
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* ThePurge: Portia has all the agents who supported Vannevar Bush's rogue operation killed (at least temporarily) when she takes over his department.
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You Have failed Me
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* YouHaveFailedMe: In ''Iron Sunrise'', Portia Hoechst strangles a subordinate who bungled his assignment to abduct Wednesday as soon as she gets him back on the ship.
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fix trope
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* SunKiller: The weapon that inadvertently triggers the ''Iron Sunrise''.
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* SunKiller: StarKilling: The weapon that whose test inadvertently triggers the ''Iron Sunrise''.
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no need to spoil this
* SunKiller: The weapon that inadvertently triggers the ''Iron Sunrise''.
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* WeaponOfMassDestruction: The device which caused the eponymous ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:which refers to a supernova]].)
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Slasher Smile
** Brits who lived out the [[MargaretThatcher Thatcher years]] will recognize a reference to the People's Republic of ''South'' Yorkshire. (The seat held by the man who made that remark is now held by NickClegg...).
* SlasherSmile: Portia Hoechst in ''Iron Sunrise''.
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* ShoutOut: Brits who lived out the [[MargaretThatcher Thatcher years]] will recognize a reference to the People's Republic of ''South'' Yorkshire. (The seat held by the man who made that remark is now held by NickClegg...).
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None
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A SpeculativeFiction series by CharlesStross about a universe where a godlike AI called the "Eschaton" has randomly uprooted and spread humanity across the universe. Contains two books, ''Singularity Sky'' and ''Iron Sunrise''
to:
A SpeculativeFiction series by CharlesStross Creator/CharlesStross about a universe where a godlike AI called the "Eschaton" has randomly uprooted and spread humanity across the universe. Contains two books, ''Singularity Sky'' and ''Iron Sunrise''
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None
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* LaResistance: The New Rebublic's determined attempt to recreate 19th century East European feudalism in a post-Singularity universe has naturally created one of these, with a philosophy that combines communism, anarcho-capitalism and radical transhumanism.
* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AI percieves time in a non-linear fashion, hence causality weapons give it a major headache. Despite this, it does not have any "Future" memories of this Nazi cult and is understandably worried, as its hinted that this is a sign that the [=ReMastered=] won their cold war. How this can happen is unusual considering that Eschaton can, and will erase threats to itself from existence.]]
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make the {{Draka}} look like pleasant company.
* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AI percieves time in a non-linear fashion, hence causality weapons give it a major headache. Despite this, it does not have any "Future" memories of this Nazi cult and is understandably worried, as its hinted that this is a sign that the [=ReMastered=] won their cold war. How this can happen is unusual considering that Eschaton can, and will erase threats to itself from existence.]]
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make the {{Draka}} look like pleasant company.
to:
* LaResistance: The New Rebublic's Republic's determined attempt to recreate 19th century East European feudalism in a post-Singularity universe has naturally created one of these, with a philosophy that combines communism, anarcho-capitalism and radical transhumanism.
* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AIpercieves perceives time in a non-linear fashion, hence causality weapons give it a major headache. Despite this, it does not have any "Future" memories of this Nazi cult and is understandably worried, as its hinted that this is a sign that the [=ReMastered=] won their cold war. How this can happen is unusual considering that Eschaton can, and will erase threats to itself from existence.]]
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they makethe {{Draka}} TheDraka look like pleasant company.
* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AI
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make
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move to namespace
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A SpeculativeFiction series by CharlesStross about a universe where a godlike AI called the "Eschaton" has randomly uprooted and spread humanity across the universe. Contains two books, ''Singularity Sky'' and ''Iron Sunrise''
----
!! This series provides examples of:
* AGodAmI: Subverted in that the Eschaton specifically [[AGodIAmNot states it is not God]] - however, it is willingly to take strong, Old Testament action so that causality will not be violated.
** A number of the tribal communities that Eschaton recruited ''colonists'' from ignore this rule and worship Eschaton, and tend to be [[AxCrazy belligerent]] about it with those that read the Eschaton's laws as written. Warbloggers are able to make quite a living off these conflicts.
* ActionGirl: Rachel Mansour
* BalkanizeMe: Earth is mentioned to have tens if not hundreds of thousands of states. They seem to get along, however. At one point when the New Republic is trying to establish what "nationality" Martin is, he tries to explain that they don't really think that way on Earth any more.
* BeamSpam: The New Republic's ships are covered with powerful LIDAR sensor grids, which double as a massive laser batteries.
* BigBad: In the second book, the [=ReMastered=]
* BittersweetEnding: In ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:disaster is averted, and Rachel gets her vengeance on the CorruptBureaucrat, but in doing so finds out that the [=ReMastered=] have infiltrated old Earth and realizes there's a lot more work to do]]
** Arguably this is over-shadowed [[spoiler:by the epic Downer Ending]].
* CurbStompBattle - At the end of Singularity Sky [[spoiler: the Festival offhandedly eats the New Republic's entire navy. The author has compared it in interviews to a Napoleonic-era fleet of tall ships going up against a modern-day submarine.]]
** [[spoiler: A submarine whose automatically-launched torpedoes destroy the fleet ''before the circus-cum-sysadmin running the thing has even realised there's a threat''.]]
* DayOfTheWeekName: Wednesday Shadowmist
* DeusEstMachina: The Eschaton bootstrapped its self from a telephone exchange.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Festival descends on a quiet and fairly conservative people; causes chaos in its pursuit of entertainment; is accompanied by Critics, Traders, a bewildering Fringe and terrifying [[EnemyMime Mimes]]; and finally departs as suddenly as it came, leaving the locals still wondering what happened. Charles Stross currently lives in Edinburgh.
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding:]] Iron Sunrise [[spoiler:All indications show that multi-cultural space Nazis will beat an all powerful AI with a non-intervention rule so painfully it posses no memory of their existence...]]
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Wednesday Shadowmist in ''Iron Sunrise'' - although she's pale because she wants to be. She has chromatophores in her skin which means she can change her skin color.
* FetishFuel: ''Lolitas'' are mentioned explicitly in passing and various fetishes are very explicitly mentioned in the second book. Wednesday comments on exhibitionist BDSM in progress. [[invoked]]
* FutureImperfect: Unsurprising, given the mess the Eschaton left behind it, but Rachel's grasp of 20th century history is a bit muddled (she compares the cruise ship she's on to an old-fashioned nuclear vessel like the ''Titanic''), and Martin comes from a "traditionalist" village in [[BalkanizeMe the People's Republic]] of [[OopNorth West Yorkshire]] where they believe that real Yorkshiremen wear kilts and drink pints of Tetley's tea.
** "The ColdWar was all about who could build the biggest refrigerator, wasn't it?"
* AGodIAmNot: The Escathon.
* InspirationNod: Having made the New Republic military a concious parody of Napoleonic-era Prussia, Stross then gives their leader, Admiral Kurtz, the same delusion as Prussia's Generalfeldmarschall von Blucher: he believes he's pregnant with an ''elephant''.
* IntrepidReporter: Frank "the Nose" Johnson, whose blog has the rights to the name "The ''Times'' of London".
* LaResistance: The New Rebublic's determined attempt to recreate 19th century East European feudalism in a post-Singularity universe has naturally created one of these, with a philosophy that combines communism, anarcho-capitalism and radical transhumanism.
* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AI percieves time in a non-linear fashion, hence causality weapons give it a major headache. Despite this, it does not have any "Future" memories of this Nazi cult and is understandably worried, as its hinted that this is a sign that the [=ReMastered=] won their cold war. How this can happen is unusual considering that Eschaton can, and will erase threats to itself from existence.]]
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make the {{Draka}} look like pleasant company.
* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Or, rather, "Never bring a tazer to an artillery duel."
* [[OutsideContextVillain Outside Context Antagonist]]: The Festival is definitely a threat to the New Republic, in more ways than one. However, the Republic's government & military have no idea of what the threat ''really'' is, and reflexively place the Festival in the nice, neat mental box of "enemy invasion." [[spoiler: This leads directly to the aforementioned CurbStompBattle.]]
* RodentsOfUnusualSize: The Critics are giant intelligent mole-rats.
* ShoutOut: Little references to other works are scattered throughout the books. At one point a wheelchair-bound character stands up and shouts, "[[DrStrangelove My emperor! I can walk!]]"
* StrangeGirl: Allowing for it being a superscience setting rather than a supernatural one, Wednesday fits the description quite well.
* SubspaceAnsible: FTL communications are possible via "causal channels," which make use of quantum-entangled particles.
* TheCommandments: The Eschaton gave humanity three:
-->I am the Eschaton. I am not your god.
-->I am descended from you, and I exist in your future.
-->Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. [[DeathFromAbove Or]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom else.]]
* TheSingularity: The big one was the emergence of the Eschaton. The New Republic gets another one when the Festival arrives.
* TimeTravel: Used quite originally in ''Singularity Sky'' - the New Republic, thinking they are being invaded in far off world, send a fleet designed to get there just after the news of the invasion was sent from the world, so that from the perspective of the people sending the message the fleet arrives immediately. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]
* ShoutOut: Brits who lived out the [[MargaretThatcher Thatcher years]] will recognize a reference to the People's Republic of ''South'' Yorkshire. (The seat held by the man who made that remark is now held by NickClegg...).
* {{Trickster}}: The Festival is a whole ''race'' of tricksters who desire stories.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: Averted, much to the shame of the New Republic.
* UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: In a very peculiar way. It mostly leaves local governments on Earth alone, but it has scores of agents tasked with enforcing the laws of the Eschaton. It also a lot of pull in backwards worlds (like the New Republic) for the mythical association with EarthThatWas (which they usually can't distinguish from Earth-That-Still-Is).
** It should be noted that this UN is ''not'' the same organization, but rather a development of the Internet Engineering Task Force (yes) that took on the responsibilities and form of the UN after the post-Singularity Earth had settled down (i.e. suitably modified for a world of ''tens of thousands'' of polities and ''millions to billions'' of sovereign individuals, rather than 193 nation-states).
* WeaponOfMassDestruction: The device which caused the eponymous ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:which refers to a supernova]].)
----
----
!! This series provides examples of:
* AGodAmI: Subverted in that the Eschaton specifically [[AGodIAmNot states it is not God]] - however, it is willingly to take strong, Old Testament action so that causality will not be violated.
** A number of the tribal communities that Eschaton recruited ''colonists'' from ignore this rule and worship Eschaton, and tend to be [[AxCrazy belligerent]] about it with those that read the Eschaton's laws as written. Warbloggers are able to make quite a living off these conflicts.
* ActionGirl: Rachel Mansour
* BalkanizeMe: Earth is mentioned to have tens if not hundreds of thousands of states. They seem to get along, however. At one point when the New Republic is trying to establish what "nationality" Martin is, he tries to explain that they don't really think that way on Earth any more.
* BeamSpam: The New Republic's ships are covered with powerful LIDAR sensor grids, which double as a massive laser batteries.
* BigBad: In the second book, the [=ReMastered=]
* BittersweetEnding: In ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:disaster is averted, and Rachel gets her vengeance on the CorruptBureaucrat, but in doing so finds out that the [=ReMastered=] have infiltrated old Earth and realizes there's a lot more work to do]]
** Arguably this is over-shadowed [[spoiler:by the epic Downer Ending]].
* CurbStompBattle - At the end of Singularity Sky [[spoiler: the Festival offhandedly eats the New Republic's entire navy. The author has compared it in interviews to a Napoleonic-era fleet of tall ships going up against a modern-day submarine.]]
** [[spoiler: A submarine whose automatically-launched torpedoes destroy the fleet ''before the circus-cum-sysadmin running the thing has even realised there's a threat''.]]
* DayOfTheWeekName: Wednesday Shadowmist
* DeusEstMachina: The Eschaton bootstrapped its self from a telephone exchange.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Festival descends on a quiet and fairly conservative people; causes chaos in its pursuit of entertainment; is accompanied by Critics, Traders, a bewildering Fringe and terrifying [[EnemyMime Mimes]]; and finally departs as suddenly as it came, leaving the locals still wondering what happened. Charles Stross currently lives in Edinburgh.
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding:]] Iron Sunrise [[spoiler:All indications show that multi-cultural space Nazis will beat an all powerful AI with a non-intervention rule so painfully it posses no memory of their existence...]]
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Wednesday Shadowmist in ''Iron Sunrise'' - although she's pale because she wants to be. She has chromatophores in her skin which means she can change her skin color.
* FetishFuel: ''Lolitas'' are mentioned explicitly in passing and various fetishes are very explicitly mentioned in the second book. Wednesday comments on exhibitionist BDSM in progress. [[invoked]]
* FutureImperfect: Unsurprising, given the mess the Eschaton left behind it, but Rachel's grasp of 20th century history is a bit muddled (she compares the cruise ship she's on to an old-fashioned nuclear vessel like the ''Titanic''), and Martin comes from a "traditionalist" village in [[BalkanizeMe the People's Republic]] of [[OopNorth West Yorkshire]] where they believe that real Yorkshiremen wear kilts and drink pints of Tetley's tea.
** "The ColdWar was all about who could build the biggest refrigerator, wasn't it?"
* AGodIAmNot: The Escathon.
* InspirationNod: Having made the New Republic military a concious parody of Napoleonic-era Prussia, Stross then gives their leader, Admiral Kurtz, the same delusion as Prussia's Generalfeldmarschall von Blucher: he believes he's pregnant with an ''elephant''.
* IntrepidReporter: Frank "the Nose" Johnson, whose blog has the rights to the name "The ''Times'' of London".
* LaResistance: The New Rebublic's determined attempt to recreate 19th century East European feudalism in a post-Singularity universe has naturally created one of these, with a philosophy that combines communism, anarcho-capitalism and radical transhumanism.
* LensmanArmsRace + SpaceColdWar: Eschaton and [[spoiler: the [=ReMastered=]. The AI percieves time in a non-linear fashion, hence causality weapons give it a major headache. Despite this, it does not have any "Future" memories of this Nazi cult and is understandably worried, as its hinted that this is a sign that the [=ReMastered=] won their cold war. How this can happen is unusual considering that Eschaton can, and will erase threats to itself from existence.]]
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The [=ReMastered=] are very Nazi-like - [[spoiler: their philosophy has been "memetically engineered" from Nazism to be just as unpleasant ''without'' containing the seeds of its own destruction]].) To the point where they make the {{Draka}} look like pleasant company.
* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Or, rather, "Never bring a tazer to an artillery duel."
* [[OutsideContextVillain Outside Context Antagonist]]: The Festival is definitely a threat to the New Republic, in more ways than one. However, the Republic's government & military have no idea of what the threat ''really'' is, and reflexively place the Festival in the nice, neat mental box of "enemy invasion." [[spoiler: This leads directly to the aforementioned CurbStompBattle.]]
* RodentsOfUnusualSize: The Critics are giant intelligent mole-rats.
* ShoutOut: Little references to other works are scattered throughout the books. At one point a wheelchair-bound character stands up and shouts, "[[DrStrangelove My emperor! I can walk!]]"
* StrangeGirl: Allowing for it being a superscience setting rather than a supernatural one, Wednesday fits the description quite well.
* SubspaceAnsible: FTL communications are possible via "causal channels," which make use of quantum-entangled particles.
* TheCommandments: The Eschaton gave humanity three:
-->I am the Eschaton. I am not your god.
-->I am descended from you, and I exist in your future.
-->Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. [[DeathFromAbove Or]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom else.]]
* TheSingularity: The big one was the emergence of the Eschaton. The New Republic gets another one when the Festival arrives.
* TimeTravel: Used quite originally in ''Singularity Sky'' - the New Republic, thinking they are being invaded in far off world, send a fleet designed to get there just after the news of the invasion was sent from the world, so that from the perspective of the people sending the message the fleet arrives immediately. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]
* ShoutOut: Brits who lived out the [[MargaretThatcher Thatcher years]] will recognize a reference to the People's Republic of ''South'' Yorkshire. (The seat held by the man who made that remark is now held by NickClegg...).
* {{Trickster}}: The Festival is a whole ''race'' of tricksters who desire stories.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: Averted, much to the shame of the New Republic.
* UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: In a very peculiar way. It mostly leaves local governments on Earth alone, but it has scores of agents tasked with enforcing the laws of the Eschaton. It also a lot of pull in backwards worlds (like the New Republic) for the mythical association with EarthThatWas (which they usually can't distinguish from Earth-That-Still-Is).
** It should be noted that this UN is ''not'' the same organization, but rather a development of the Internet Engineering Task Force (yes) that took on the responsibilities and form of the UN after the post-Singularity Earth had settled down (i.e. suitably modified for a world of ''tens of thousands'' of polities and ''millions to billions'' of sovereign individuals, rather than 193 nation-states).
* WeaponOfMassDestruction: The device which caused the eponymous ''Iron Sunrise'', [[spoiler:which refers to a supernova]].)
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