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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jacek_dukaj.png]]
2Jacek Dukaj (born 30 July 1974) is a Polish novelist, mainly associated with {{Science Fiction}} genre. His works explore philosophical themes by building vast, complicated fictional worlds based on certain worldviews (e.g. the philosophy of Creator/{{Aristotle}}). This results in each of his books being nothing like previous ones, as physical, political, social and linguistic aspects of the world change with each work. Like Creator/StanislawLem (who is often cited as one of Dukaj's inspirations), he frequently invents new words to describe beings and ideas from different realities. His books are notable for overwhelming the reader with many unexplained concepts and neologisms, thus presenting the fictional world as a riddle to solve. Dukaj's favourite topics include space exploration, aliens, transhumanism, parallel worlds, alternate history, cybernetics, virtual realities and scientific progress.
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4His protagonists often struggle with their identity, typically (but not universally) starting as weak or broken, but slowly gaining strength and rising as powerful leaders, sometimes reaching {{A God Am I}} status. Many of them are or become {{Transhuman}}.
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6Dukaj’s works are yet to be fully translated into English (as of 2015, ''The Old Axolotl'' is his only novel published in both Polish and English), but if you’re curious, you can read more [[http://www.dukaj.pl/en/ here]].
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8!!!His works include:
9* ''Xavras Wyżryn'' (1997)
10* ''In the Land of Unbelievers'' (2000)
11* ''Black Oceans'' (2001)
12* ''The Plunderer's Daughter'' (2002)
13* ''Extensa'' (2002)
14* ''Literature/{{Other Songs}}'' (2003)
15* ''An Ideal Imperfection'' (2004)
16* ''Ice'' (2007)
17* ''The Crowe'' (2009)
18* ''King of Pain'' (2010)
19* ''The Old Axolotl'' (2015)
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21
22----
23!! His work includes examples of:
24
25* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Aliens in the short story ''In partibus infidelium''.
26* AGodAmI: Words spoken by [[spoiler: Benedykt Gierosławski at the very end of ''Ice'']] are basically this.
27* AllTheoriesAreTrue: The main premise of most of his works.
28* AlternateHistory: ''Ice'', ''Xavras Wyżryn'', and others. Godwin's Law of Alternate History is in effect.
29* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Benedykt Gierosławski after he becomes unfrozen at the end of ''Ice''.]]
30* AnIcePerson: [[spoiler: Filip Gierosławski in ''Ice''.]]
31* ArmorPiercingQuestion and ArmorPiercingResponse: The last sentence of ''Ice'' in original Polish. [[spoiler: ''Co teraz Lód dla mnie?'', which could be translated as ''What is Ice now for me?'' as well as ''What do I care of Ice now?''. Answer the protagonist gives? ''Me.'']]
32* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Many of Dukaj's protagonists. Special mention goes to [[spoiler:Adam Zamoyski from ''An Ideal Imperfection''.]]
33* AuthorVocabularyCalendar: Whenever Dukaj comes up with a fun new word, or cool alternate (usually antiquated) spelling, he WILL shove it down your throat. No mercy.
34* BrainComputerInterface: In ''Black Oceans'' and several short stories.
35* CelibateHero: Benedykt Gierosławski, most of the time, [[spoiler: though the book stays purposefully ambiguous whether or not he and Jelena had sex in Transsiberian Express... or even whether Benedykt KNOWS whether they did. He finally gives in to temptation in von Azenhoff’s brothel.]]
36* CityNoir: Arguably, the nameless city in ''Wroniec'' (''The Crowe'') after the eponymous bird takes over.
37* CreatorsOddball:
38** ''The Crowe'' is a dark fairytale with a child protagonist, which stands out among Dukaj's adult-centered, hard SF works.
39** For comparison, ''The Iron General'' is technically fantasy, but written in very much the same hard SF mindset as all the rest of Dukaj's stories.
40* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler:Young Adam agrees to sacrifice his magical storytelling powers in order to get his father back in ''The Crowe''.]]
41* DeathIsNotPermanent: One of the side effects of mysterious Ice, [[spoiler:Nikola Tesla]] being the most prominent example.
42** ''An Ideal Imperfection'' begins with a character assassinated twice in a row. Afterwards he appreciates the artfulness of the assassination method.
43* {{Defictionalization}}: The grammatical gender Dukaj invented for post-human post-gendered beings in ''An Ideal Imperfection'' has become quite popular among Poles who identify as non-binary.[[note]]The Polish language is gendered, but it lacks a "singular they", and while it has a neuter, [[ItIsDehumanizing it's not suitable for discussing people unless they're a small child]].[[/note]] This is colloquially known as "dukaisms". The irony lies in that Dukaj, although (unlike [[WriterOnBoard many other writers]]) he avoids politicising, can be described as mildly conservative -- he's just the only one in recent history of the Polish language to care about coming up with grammar for that. And to his credit, he apparently approves, having published his heretofore undisclosed notes for the benefit of all whom it may concern.
44* DemocracyIsBad: In ''An Ideal Imperfection'' Adam Zamoyski argues that democracy is against the laws of physics - people are not born equal and those who are stronger and more intelligent will always rule over others.
45* DesignerBabies: ''The Plunderer's Daughter'' has artificially created minds implanted into fetuses. They are fully conscious and can manifest outside the womb as holograms.
46* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Paweł Kostrzewa from the short story ''The Line of Resistance''. It turns out to be the most difficult goal of his life. For that matter, there is a whole branch of industry devoted to fabricating meanings for people's lives.
47* DisappearedDad: Gierosławski's father in ''Ice''. Finding him is one of the protagonist's main goals.
48* DisposingOfABody: Somewhat played for laughs in ''Ice'' with one of the body-carriers fainting. Also subverted since the goal is to [[spoiler:resurrect Tesla, not get rid of the body.]]
49* DoorStopper: Most of his novels are several hundred pages long. Polish edition of ''Ice'' reaches the page count of over a thousand.
50* {{Dystopia}}: Almost every single world created by Dukaj turns out to be this in some way.
51* EndlessWinter: In ''Ice''. Political factions all around the world, but especially in Russia, take opposite sides on the issue whether to fight the winter or to keep it as long as possible and milk it for profits.
52* EveryoneIsASuspect: On the Trans-Siberian Express in ''Ice''.
53* EverythingIsOnline: In ''Black Oceans'', quite literally. Also in ''An Ideal Imperfection'', to the point that the fact that characters suddenly find themselves ''offline'' becomes a plot point.
54* FakeMemories: One of the indications that a character has undergone {{Mind Rape}} in ''Black Oceans''. Also possibly what happens to [[spoiler: Benedykt Gierosławski in ''Ice'']], although it's hard to determine since [[spoiler:it's not sure if real memories even exist without the Ice.]]
55* FisherKing: In the novel ''Inne pieśni'' (''Other Songs''), people called ''kratistoi'' influence everything from weather to humand minds by sheer power of will. In fact, they are so powerful that when any of them physically moves (e.g. to another city), their ''kingdom'' moves as well.
56* FishOutOfTemporalWater: [[spoiler:Adam Zamoyski]] in ''An Ideal Imperfection''.
57* FleshGolem: Mad scientist called Piegnar tries to create those in ''Ice''. [[spoiler: Apparently, he succeeded as flesh golems attack Benedykt Gierosławski shortly before he meets with his father.]]
58* ForScience: Why Benedykt Gierosławski performs a couple of morally questionable acts (such as corporate espionage) in ''Ice''.
59* FracturedFairyTale: ''The Crowe''.
60* GoodWithNumbers: Benedykt Gierosławski.
61* HarmlessFreezing: Well, not exactly harmless, but much less harmful than it should be when [[spoiler: Benedykt Gierosławski freezes himself while fighting Frankenstein-like creatures near the end of ''Ice''.]]
62* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: Nikola Tesla in ''Ice'' (as if he needed that in the first place). He even [[spoiler:comes back from the dead.]]
63* HumanPopsicle: Using slightly different technology:[[spoiler:Adam Zamoyski]] in ''An Ideal Imperfection''.
64* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: Revolver that glows in the dark and shoots bullets that ''freeze the target on impact''. Named ''Archmaster''.
65** Subverted in that it is AwesomeButImpractical, because the freezing effect also causes severe frostbites on the user's hand. It's kinda hard to hit anything when your shooting hand is frostbitten, right? But it's still the only weapon capable of [[spoiler: wounding the Ice itself.]]
66** The protagonist of ''Other Songs'' gets two, one is a dagger he gets through black-market weapon dealers, imbued with a poison so potent it can one-shot an elephant, the other a sword made of essence of corruption forged specifically to take on an EldritchAbomination.
67* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: Several in short story collection ''In The Land Of Unbelievers''.
68* InsideAComputerSystem: The story ''Irrehaare'' is set within a VirtualReality MMORPG overtaken by a powerful script-running {{griefer}}, causing the trapped players to run a guerrilla campaign spread over multiple servers against him and his bots.
69* LossOfIdentity: An extreme case can be found in ''Ice'', where the protagonist claims that he does not exist. Although this may seem paradoxical, his reasoning is quite logical: he's pathologically ashamed, forced to constantly react defensively to other people's actions in order to avoid more shame, so he can never act the way he wants. So does he really exist? [[spoiler: He finally overcomes his emotional problems after confronting his father and from that point forward he can exist again.]]
70** Happens to an extent in Hieronim Berbelek's backstory, who retained his memories, but his entire force of will was broken and he was reduced from a powerful military commander to a lowly merchant.
71* MadnessMantra: Inversion: Hieronim Berbelek counts to stay sane.
72* MechanicalEvolution: Found in ''Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość'' (''An Ideal Imperfection'') in form of terrifying Wars: {{Pocket Dimension}}s full of ever-evolving killing machines.
73* MindVirus: A strange one in [[spoiler:''Black Oceans'' causes telepathy.]]
74* MoodWhiplash: Lovemaking scene in ''Extensa'' suddenly ends with [[spoiler: protagonist’s wife hitting her head on a rock and dying.]]
75* NeuralImplanting: Notably in ''Black Oceans''.
76* UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla: One of the main characters in ''Ice''.
77* PercussiveMaintenance: Hilariously, the ''default'' method of interacting with one of the computers in ''An Ideal Imperfection''.
78* PrivatelyOwnedSociety: Slowly becoming reality in short story ''The Line of Resistance''.
79* RandomNumberGod: Probability and unpredictability are one of Dukaj’s favourite themes.
80* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler:Soldier who protects Marina]] in ''Black Oceans''. Also, [[spoiler:Rasputin himself]] in ''Ice''.
81* RecycledINSPACE: Short story ''The Heart of Darkness'' is Joseph Conrad's famous novel ON ANOTHER PLANET. With Nazis.
82* ResurrectionSickness: Experienced by [[spoiler:Angelika]] in ''An Ideal Imperfection''.
83* ScienceHero: About 80% of Dukaj's protagonists.
84* SelfServingMemory: ''Ice'' argues that every memory is like that: our memories are altered, created or deleted to fit our present state of mind.
85* StarfishAliens: Many, many kinds. Special mention goes to ''skoliodoi'' in ''Other Songs''.
86* TakeOverTheWorld: What [[spoiler: Benedykt Gierosławski]] is hoping to achieve in [[spoiler:the final chapters of ''Ice'']]. And the book strongly suggests that he will succeed.
87* TechnologyPorn: By the trainloads.
88* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler:''Black Oceans''.]]
89* TheSingularity: The protagonist of ''Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość'' (''An Ideal Imperfection'') lives in a world after one. This is probably the most notable case, there also are many others.
90* TheTunguskaEvent: What set in motion the events of ''Lód'' (''Ice''). It turns out to be [[spoiler:a meteorite made of so-called tungetitium, element not found on Earth with unique, world-changing physical properties]], which makes it extremely valuable.
91* ThrillerOnTheExpress: About one-third of ''Ice''.
92* VictoryIsBoring: for the gamer protagonist of ''The Line of Resistance''. Because of that he's constantly on the verge of suicide.
93* ViewersAreGeniuses: Some of Dukaj’s work are almost incomprehensible if you don’t happen to be a philosophy major. Most require at least a decent understanding of physics, mathematics and/or anthropology.
94* WhatCouldHaveBeen: ''An Ideal Imperfection'' was supposed to be part one of a trilogy, but the author has since lost interest and moved on to other projects. There is also a chapter from ''Black Oceans'' that was posted online as a teaser - but this chapter is nowhere to be found in the published book.
95* WhamLine: In ''Ice'', [[spoiler:"I am Nikola Tesla".]]
96* WordOfGod: Mostly averted. Dukaj usually refuses to explain his works, even putting a statement to this effect on his official website. He famously made an exception for short story ''Medjugorje'' which he felt got somewhat confusing by the end.
97* WorldBuilding: AW HELL YEAH. Dukaj is known for things like building rich and unique universes for purposes of a single short story, or setting a single novel in a world that could accommodate several story cycles.
98* WoundThatWillNotHeal: King of Pain in one of the short stories suffers from a brain mutation that causes constant, neverending pain.
99* YourMindMakesItReal: Many times, especially in ''Irrehaare''.

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