History Literature / TheLostStars

* BigBrotherInstict: Averted, Malin works to keep his half-sister [[spoiler: Drakon and Morgan's daughter]]. alive, but claims it's for for pragmatic reasons, rather than familial ones.

* ItsPronouncedTropay: Readers may be tempted to read the name of the planet Kane as similar to 'cane', but it's in a group of Hawaiian themed planets and thus pronounced 'kah-nay', with long vowels.

* {{Deuteragonist}}: Iceni to Drakon, particularly as Marphissa takes over space combat operations and Drakon conducts more ground combat operations, leaving her in the political role. This is even established as the view of the populace; part of the reason both decline the common practices of the Syndicate Worlds is that their citizens largely view them as a package detail, and if one of them killed the other to rule alone, they'd lose the legitimacy imparted by their overt cooperation.

** One of the colonels in direct command of the ground forces is Gaiene (Gawain, knight of the round table and mephew to Arthur).

* ProperlyParanoid: Everyone, since the Syndicate system fomented this ''on purpose'' as a way to [[UnfriendlyFire pit their underlings]] [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident against each other]], [[UriahGambit to keep them from rebelling]] against the Syndicate leaders.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: The general premise for why people end up stationed at Midway.

* ColonelKilgore: Morgan is this. For obvious reasons listed on this page.

%%* {{Deuteragonist}}: Iceni.

** Drakon and Iceni. Both of whom are constantly worried the other is going to stab them in the back while also having the causal sexual thought of the other. [[spoiler:Resolved by marriage at the end of the series.]]

* MeaningfulName: The "tarnished knight" of the title is named Artur Drakon (cf. [[KingArthur Arthur Pendragon]]).

** Gwen is Gweneviere. Her last name is the name of the tribe of the famous British Queen Boudicca.

* {{Yandere}}: Roh Morgan has many qualities of one. Not only did she hide the full extent of her mental instability, she's utterly obsessed with Drakon, first trying to separate him from all other friends and advisors, then [[spoiler:raping him while he's drunk]], and eventually trying to [[spoiler:murder Iceni at hers and Drakon's wedding]]. All while claiming she has his best intrests in mind.

* FourthDateMarriage: Even earlier than that. [[Drakon and Iceni]]'s RelationshipUpgrade to OfficalCouple comes when the former proposes to the latter.

%%* TheChainsOfCommanding: Iceni

%%* IGaveMyWord: Drakon, to four ISS agents.

* OutWithABang: A Snake gets taken out this way

%%* PostVictoryCollapse: Kontos and his forces

%%* YouAreInCommandNow: Kontos
%%* YourHeadASplode: CEO Hardrad
%%--> Morgan "He was working away at activating those detonation codes when his brains got turned into wallpaper"

''The Lost Stars'' is a hard SF series by [[Creator/JohnHemry Jack Campbell]], a spinoff of his ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series. Taking place shortly after the end of the Alliance-Syndicate War, the Syndicate Worlds have begun collapsing following their defeat in the war. In the star system of Midway, two Syndicate [=CEOs=], Gewn Iceni and Artur Drakon, revolt and free their system from the Syndicate Worlds. It's an uphill struggle but they do have some things going for them. They have the (compromised) loyalty of their subordinates, the (mercurial) consent of the citizenry, and, most importantly, the (tepid) support of Black Jack, the godlike entity who single-handedly brought the Sydicate Worlds to its knees. Working together while always suspecting one is about to double cross the other, the face issues of controlling Midway themselves, and how to alter its oppressive practices, and defend it from the aliens only a star system away.

''The Lost Stars'' is a hard SF series by [[Creator/JohnHemry Jack Campbell]], a spinoff of his ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series. Taking place shortly after the end of the Alliance-Syndicate War, the Syndicate Worlds have begun collapsing following their defeat in the war. In the star system of Midway, two Syndicate [=CEOs=] revolt and free their system from the Syndicate Worlds, to face issues of controlling it themselves, and how to alter its oppressive practices, and defend it from the aliens only a star system away.

* ''Shattered Spear'' May 2016

* AllMenArePerverts: Iceni and Morgan think this.
* AnotherSideAnotherStory: The whole concept of the series, which explores the Syndic side of the end of the war, from Midway's perspective. Iceni and Drakon frequently speculate (incorrectly) about Geary's motives and seem to assume he's running the Alliance now.

** Drakon and Iceni. Both of whom are constantly worried the other is going to stab them in the back while also having the causal sexual thought of the other.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: Iceni
* ColonelBadass: Drakon is this, but gets KickedUpstairs to FourStarBadass. Malin and Morgan sub in. Kommodore Mephisa massively levels up in rank to get here, and proves up to the challenge.

* DarkMessiah: [[spoiler:Morgan believes that she can raise her and Drakon's daughter]] to be a [[YoungConqueror cunning mastermind]] who can take over all of human space.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Iceni.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Or, at least, darkish and morally conflicted Grey can't comprehend Good. A dramatically ironic running gag in the series is that both Iceni and Drakon believe Jack Geary to be a shrewd politician and a masterful power broker, interpreting all his charitable and genuinely kindhearted actions through this lens. The Lost Fleet series proper has already revealed this to be severely not the case, and he has no idea he appears as such to them. Notably, they are utterly confounded by his demotion from Fleet Admiral, wondering what could be the purpose behind a reduction in rank. They are floored and disbelieving when told he did it for love.

* FascistButInefficient: Syndicate Worlds had so much big-time corruption and petty fraud going on that any official data on anything were basically only useful as propaganda, with secret police being about the only thing that really worked (then again, they got overthrown in many systems, even with fanatically loyal troops, ubiquitous surveillance and near-perfect lie detectors at their disposal.)

* FlawExploitation: ISS will believe any CEO is overconfident.

* IGaveMyWord: Drakon, to four ISS agents.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Comes up frequently, since everyone is expecting everyone else to backstab them.

* ItsPronouncedTropay: Readers may be tempted to read the name of the planet Kane as similar to 'cane', but it's in a group of Hawaiian themed planets and thus far more likely pronounced 'kah-nay', with long vowels.

* LastStand: ISS forces

** He had a one night stand with crazy chick Morgan, one of his closest adviser is Malin and his female counterpart is named Gwen.

* PostVictoryCollapse: Kontos and his forces
* PowderKegCrowd: The planet, after the security forces are destroyed.

* ProperlyParanoid: Everyone, since the Syndicate system formented this ''on purpose'' as a way to [[UnfriendlyFire pit their underlings]] [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident against each other]], [[UriahGambit to keep them from rebelling]] against the Syndicate leaders.

* RunningGag: As with the Lost Fleet series, a number of jokes are centered on present day idioms and turns of phrase that have had their context lost to time by the period the books take place in. For instance, Iceni's assitant Togo advises several new names to replace CEO, among them "the Man" and "the Big Cheese," both of which are only known to have been ancient indicators of status.

* StateSec: The ISS, not so fondly referred to as snakes.

* TheVamp: Morgan.

* YouAreInCommandNow: Kontos
* YourHeadASplode: CEO Hardrad
--> Morgan "He was working away at activating those detonation codes when his brains got turned into wallpaper"

* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Hardrad exploits their inability to do this to humiliate.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Marphissa, who is genuinely dedicated making Midway more free, and helps push Iceni consider more reforms.

* {{UST}}: Drakon and Iceni. With the subtly of a brick. [[Spoiler:Eventually taken care of in book 4, with a marriage a few short weeks later.]]

* {{UST}}: Drakon and Iceni. With the subtly of a brick.

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Morgan]]