History Literature / TheQuantumThief

* NotAGame: Isidore's detective work, as he tells Pixel.

** Pixel's Zoku. What would you expect from an upload collective descended from online roleplaying guilds?

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: The last scene of the series is another Jean le Flambeur being rescued from the Archon prison. Whether by the Pellegrinni or the effects of the Kaminari Jewel is left ambiguous.]]

** [[spoiler: The All Defector was planning a Class X-5 using the Kaminari Jewel.]]

** In the third book [[spoiler: it is revealed the ultimate goal of the All Defector is to use the Kaminari Jewel to become an expanding bubble of space time and [[ApocalypseHow assimilate all other universes into itself.]]]]

** The All Defector. [[spoiler: It's a perfect sociopath who believes in nothing but its own survival. Its ultimate goal is to use the Kaminari Jewel to become an expanding bubble of space time and assimilate all reality into itself, since from its perspective this is the only rational conclusion to be made and the fact that they're still alive is just evidence that no one else has been able to do it yet.]]

** The Pellegrinni failed to realize [[spoiler: the ''All Defector'' was well named, and releasing it from the Archon Prison lead directly to it enslaving her.]]

** For its part [[spoiler: the All Defector underestimated Jean in the Chen guberniya and didn't stop to consider the wisdom of making endless perfectly modeled copies of him. This ultimately lead to its and Chen's defeat.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: The Sobornost Founders arguably qualify, especially the highly evolved forks from Deep Time in a guberniya. The All Defector only ever appeared humanoid, but [[NothingIsScarier it's exact nature was never really clear]]

* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler: The Jana of the Cannon is really an ancient computer system that contains a brain backup of Chen as a child. Inside it the gogol of Chen is playing on a beach, with his memory resetting every few minutes so he won't notice he's alone.]]

** Pixil's Zoku. What would you expect from an upload collective descended from online roleplaying guilds?

* TooDumbToLive: The pellegrini honestly thought that she could use the All-Defector for her own ends, forgetting what defines that entity. It's in the name!

* VigilanteMan: The Zadikim. Undeniably good, protecting the Oubliette from mind thieves and trying to root out the Chryptarchs. [[spoiler: Subverted, as they are the brainwashed, UnwittingPawn of the Chryptarchs.]]

* {{Brainwashed}}: [[spoiler: The Zadakim along with the majority of the Oubliette. From the Cryptarchs' perspective it's BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood, as the true history of the Oubliette is rather unpleasant and the relatively small amount of mind theft they allow and facilitate keeps Sobornost from seriously considering invading.]]

** Zoku means "community" in Japanese.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: The last scene of the series is another Jean le Flambeur being retrieved from the Archon prison by the Pellegrinni.]]

** Jean le Flambeur's Oubliette alter ego is named Paul Sernine -- an anagram of ArseneLupin, on whom Jean's character is based.

* BoxedCrook: After getting broken out of the Dilemma Prison, Jean is put in a Sobornost body thats functions can be limited or cut off by Mieli at any time to ensure his compliance.

* BoxedCrook: After getting broken out of the Dilemma Prison, Jean is put in a Sobornost body that's functions can be limited or cut off by Mieli at any time to ensure his compliance.

* BilingualBonus[=/=]MeaningfulName: The Oortians speak the author's native tongue, Finnish. Mieli means "mind" and Sydän means "heart". Perhonen stands for "butterfly".

* InfoDrop: The author seems particularly averse to exposition, so the only hope a reader has to figure anything out is to piece all the disparate tidbits together. [[LoveItOrHateIt Depending on your disposition]], this is either part of the series' charm, or horribly frustrating.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: In ''The Causal Angel'' it is revealed that Jean and the Pellegrini were responsible for The Collapse. Upon realizing what he had done, Jean was horrified leading him to abandon her and become the God of Thieves. When he learns this again - see MemoryGambit - he decides he wants nothing to do with his past self and becomes even more motivated to save Mieli and Child!Chen.]]

* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: Perhonen's avatars aboard ship take the form of a bunch of butterflies whose wings make a human face. Rather fitting since she's a gogol made from the uploaded mind of an ancient Oortian who Meili recalled from [[TheAlternet the alinen]].

* BarbarianTribe: The Oortians are seen like this by the rest of the Solar System. They live in hollowed out comets in small family groups and construct handcrafted spaceships, AIs and other fantastic creations out of smartcoral through religious rites.

** Comes up again on Earth where one of the most cost effective ways of getting around without having to deal with Wild Code is by using a steam engine on train tracks.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The Aun. [[Were they ancient gods hiding in the memetic noise inside monkey brains, or the imaginary friends of a lonely child genius elevated into post human entities by the collapse?]]

* ApocalypseHow: A Class 4 and Class X happen before the story starts, with the Collapse wiping out or otherwise altering the entire earth biosphere, and the Spike destroying Jupiter.

** [[spoiler: A Class 6 and two more Class X happen throughout the series - when everything on Earth gets eaten by the Dragons; when Mars is destroyed by the Great Game Zoku; and when Saturn is consumed by another Spike event in the climax of the series.]]
** [[spoiler: And the hsien-kus were planning ''another'' Class 5 on Earth to upload the entire planet into their guberniya, although it was going to be much more orderly and thought out than a typical example of the trope.]]
** [[spoiler: A second Class 6 happens when the Chen guberniya is wiped, depending on how exactly you count gogols and the guberniyas.]]

* [[spoiler: A second Class 6 happens when the Chen guberniya is wiped, depending on how exactly you count gogols and the guberniyas.]]

* [[spoiler: A second Class 6 happens when the Chen guberniya is wiped, depending on what exactly you consider the guberniyas to be.]]

* ApocalypseHow: A Class 4 and Class 5 happen before the story starts, with the Collapse wiping out or otherwise altering the entire earth biosphere, and the Spike destroying Jupiter.
** [[spoiler: Three more Class 5 happen throughout the series - when earth gets eaten by the Dragons; when Mars is destroyed by the Great Game Zoku; and when Saturn is consumed by another Spike event in the climax of the series.]]

* AlienSky: A minor example, but part of the Mars terraforming effort involved turning Deimos into a miniature star.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: The last scene of the series is another Jean le Flambeur being retrieved from the Archon prison, likely by the Pellegrinni.]]

** [[spoiler: He later learns she's the Zadik he's been working with for tears.]]

MissingMom: Isidore's mother withdrew her permissions from her family to remember anything about her, effectively disappearing completely in an instant. [[spoiler: He later learns she's the Zadik he's been working with for tears.]]