Line #7 Literature/CommonwealthSaga


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commonwealth_saga.jpg]]
2	A series of Science Fiction novels written by Creator/PeterFHamilton.
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4	The Commonwealth Saga starts off in the 24th century, where cybernetics and biotechnology have advanced to the point where immortality becomes optional. Wormhole technology has also been developed, allowing easy transportation through space. The series itself is a space opera with numerous characters.
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6	The series includes the books ''Literature/PandorasStar'' and ''Literature/JudasUnchained''. ''Misspent Youth'' takes place a century or two earlier in the same universe but is usually excluded from the "Saga" designation, including on the [[http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/index.php?page=commonwealth author's website]], since the plot is unrelated. The Saga is followed 1500 years later by the ''Literature/VoidTrilogy'' and the ''Literature/ChronicleOfTheFallers'', which take place roughly in parallel. Together these series comprise the "Commonwealth Universe".
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8	Tropes specific to one of the books should be listed on that book's page. Use this page for tropes that describe the Commonwealth Saga as a whole.
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10	----
11	!! This series provides examples of:
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13	* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Primes are this. Primes exist as sentient, immobile "immotiles" that control vast armies of sub-sentient "motiles" and battle each other for resources and out of paranoia. You can guess what happened when they started building nukes. Also, the moment one of them [[spoiler:discovers wormhole technology]], it exterminates all others and starts building a vast fleet in order to kill off every single living thing in the universe, other than itself. Its own psychology and lack of imagination prevent it from realising the utter futility of its endeavour until it is far too late for it.
14	-->'''[=MorningLightMountain=]''': There is only one Universe and it can only contain one life. Me.
15	* AIIsACrapshoot: The [[ArtificialIntelligence Sentient Intelligence]] is not evil. However, it will choose odd times and places to intervene. This sometimes comes off as a HandWave, but when done well it adds to the idea that the SI has an alien perspective on things that humans cannot comprehend.
16	-->'''SI''': If we rush to your assistance at every hint of trouble, your culture would become utterly dependent on us, and we would become your masters. If that were ever to happen, you would rebel and lash out at us, for that is the strongest part of your nature. We do not want that situation to arise.
17	* AlienKudzu: The Primes flood local waters with their base cells, which are essential to reproduction; these invasive organisms kill off most other things that are in the water with them.
18	** It ends up utterly ''hating'' a certain species of fish for persistently eating its base cells.
19	* AliensAreBastards: Some of them.
20	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted. Prime intra-species communication is entirely through direct-brain linkages.
21	** Tochee doesn't speak or even understand the concept of sound since it can't hear. Its species communicates through body language and flashing ultraviolet light from one of their eyes.
22	* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Averted. Wormhole technology allows the ever present [[MegaCorp CST]] to use its exploration wormholes to scout new solar systems for "H-congruous" planets capable of supporting human life. The Commonwealth spans a vast amount of space, and most intervening systems between H-congruous planets are untouched completely by humans.
23	* AlwaysGetsHisMan: Paula Myo fits this trope to a T. Genetically engineered to be an incorruptible super-cop, she has been working for the Serious Crimes Directorate for centuries, and in all that time has only failed to solve ''one'' case. Which she is still pursuing, after a century and a half. [[spoiler: When circumstances force her to decide between arresting the WellIntentionedExtremist perpetrator and saving the human race from extinction, she suffers a near-fatal nervous breakdown.]]
24	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Most species who reach their Singularity do this.
25	* AugmentedReality: Humans can control objects, send messages, and watch emailed videos in their minds thanks to digital implants.
26	** Several particularly rich and/or tech-savvy humans keep an expanded consciousness that inhabits the computer systems in their home (or whatever local computer processors they're around).
27	* BizarreAlienBiology: The Primes are organized into motiles, which are basically feral animals, and immotiles, which are made from 4 or more motiles melding together and multiplying their brainpower, thus becoming sentient. Immotiles can produce more motiles, and control each one with a direct brain-to-brain link, by touching the nodules on their heads together (they have no language to speak of; when they discovered radio, they started sending signals via transmitters; immotiles also gained ''sight'' at this point, since they lose the motile's eyes when they meld). Each immotile identifies itself with the last image the motiles that created it saw before melding (having identities like [=ColdLakePromontory, TemperateSeaIsland, or SouthernRockPlateau=]). Each immotile is practically immortal, since it only has to create another immotile next to it and link up to transfer consciousness (each collective is actually millions of immotiles grouped together).
28	** Not to mention the Silfen, who have three circular sets of razor-sharp teeth (but otherwise come off as space elves). [[spoiler: Also they have an adult stage which changes their physiology to something more humanoid, yet airborne]].
29	** The Ralei, who have elephant like bodies, six joint-less legs, and their "arms" are a cluster of tentacles protruding from their chin and neck. They can also absorb the memories of humans from memorycells, to the point that they can recall those memories even better than the original owner could.
30	* BizarreHumanBiology: Genetic modification allows the realization of a lot of things.
31	* BrainUploading: See SaveScumming, below.
32	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Silfen, who are largely incomprehensible to humans and have no problem stranding people in weird parts of the universe. It's not entirely clear they understand why this is bad.
33	* CasualInterstellarTravel: with trains (and a PortalNetwork).
34	* ChekhovsArmoury: Anything introduced at all will have some factor later on. ''Anything''. If not here, then in the far future of ''The Literature/VoidTrilogy''.
35	* {{Cliffhanger}}: Literally. [[spoiler: The first book ends while Ozzie is falling down seemingly bottomless waterfall in a raft]].
36	* CoolHorse / HellishHorse: The genetically modified cyborg warhorses the Guardians of Selfhood use to raid the Halgarth institute.
37	* CoolTrain: Not so much a Cool Train, as a Cool ''Railway''. Thanks to wormholes, every human world is connected via an interstellar railway network. The trains themselves are massive and often nuclear powered. Some even include weapons platforms.
38	* CorralledCosmos: Averted. The author makes it clear that, if anything, humanity has too much room and too many resources.
39	* CrapsaccharineWorld: The Commonwealth overall fits this bill. Despite it's advanced technology, abundance of resources and near physical immortality, there are many problems. Poverty still exists (on the more isolated worlds) and terrorism attacks occur (most of which are done by a socialist group). Many people are vain, selfish, jaded and/or manipulative (genuine loyalty is hard to find even among the protagonists, and charities are almost unheard of) and crime is rampant, it's just better concealed from the general public and law enforcement. All of this is before relations to alien races are factored in.
40	* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: ''Misspent Youth'' features some rather ham-handed antipiracy propaganda, assuming a future where the authorities stopped caring about copyright in 2010, at which point all art turned to crap. We see later in the Commonwealth Saga that the world has evolved into an almost-utopia nonetheless (which, this being Hamilton, [[HordeOfAlienLocusts doesn't last]]) leaving us [[BrokenAesop confused as to Hamilton's actual message.]] Especially as fans, and Hamilton himself, consider ''Misspent Youth'' one of his weaker works.
41	** It is likely that instead of trying to convey a message Hamilton was simply trying to extrapolate what he thought was likely to happen to media from technological trends. This is how he comes up with most of the social and technological developments in his books.
42	* ElectronicEyes: [[IncrediblyLamePun Virtually]] all citizens of the commonwealth have Virtual Vision, giving them an AugmentedReality display over their normal vision.
43	* EternalEnglish: Justified. Regeneration allows near physical immortality - so the centuries old aristocracy maintains the general vernacular.
44	* ETGaveUsWifi: A more believable "future" variation of this trope - force field technology as an industry was created by the Halgarths reverse engineering the crashed alien ship ''Marie Celeste''.
45	* TheFederation: The Commonwealth.
46	* FourLinesAllWaiting: The ''[[{{Literature/CommonwealthSaga}} Commonwealth Saga]]'' follows something like seven plots all at once, and they'd each be enough for a book of their own.
47	* FreeLoveFuture: Polyamory, polygamy and alternate sexuality is pretty common in the Commonwealth.
48	* HiveMind: Prime Immotiles control their Motile minions via radio receivers implanted into each one, making each Immotile into an intellect spread across a vast number of individual bodies.
49	* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The Prime.
50	* HyperlinkStory: All of the many plot lines come together at the climax of the story.
51	* {{Infodump}}: In copious amounts.
52	* InspectorJavert: Paula Myo. While she's genetically designed to be that way, she has no qualms with this [[spoiler:until the end of the first book, where a conflict of interest causes her to nearly have a nervous breakdown]].
53	* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Mellanie realizes this while investigating Cox Educational Charity.
54	* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: A favored weapon in starship combat is the Douvoir missile. Essentially, the idea is that it's possible to control the speed at which the endpoints of a wormhole are moving. It is therefore possible to leave a wormhole at whatever relative speed you want, without spending time or onboard fuel to accelerate to that speed. Douvoir missiles are simple projectiles that are shot out of a wormhole at a significant percentage of light speed, and as such do an enormous amount of damage.
55	* LiteralSurveillanceBug: The spindleflies.
56	* MasterRace: [=MorningLightMountain=] wishes to be the only life in the universe.
57	* MegaCorp: The railway operator Compression Space Transport, or CST.
58	* MemeticBadass: Ozzie in-universe, to the general public in the Commonwealth.
59	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Played with. While religion is not as influential across society and its implied that the alien races are non-religious, at least two real-life religions are depicted as still practiced and existing (two minor characters get married in a Christian church - even hearing a 22nd century hymn, and one minor character is a reporter who's Muslim) along with various religions spread out across humanity being alluded to. While the reduced influence of religion is not stated to be a bad thing in the novel, the setting does display an accompanying moral decline (see CrapsaccharineWorld above). Religion features more prominently in later works [[Literature/VoidTrilogy later]]. The Guardians of Selfhood have their own religion based on Bradley Johansson's experiences with the [[SpaceElves Silfen]].
60	* PortalNetwork: The worlds are linked through wormholes even before (much slower) FTL starships are developed.
61	* PoweredArmor: The Commonwealth soldiers wear extremely powerful exoskeletons with advanced forcefields, massive strength amplification and tons of built-in firepower. Unfortunately for them, the Prime troops have similar equipment – and outnumber humanity about a million to one.
62	* ProudScholarRace: The Silfen are definitely type 2 -- a portal network that consists of walking through the woods, technology damping fields, etc.
63	* SapientShip: The ''High Angel'' is a [[TheWatcher pacifistic]] alien ship, which [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien lets aliens and humans alike live in giant crystals that it grows on itself]] depending on how it feels.
64	* SaveScumming: Humans of the future carry "memorycells" that provide insurance against death. When a person dies unexpectedly, their memorycell is placed into a cloned body. If the memorycell is destroyed, a previous memory file is uploaded instead. Destruction of a person's last body ''and'' their save file is the only way to permanently kill someone, and is regarded as the most heinous of crimes. See also {{Immortality}}. While most people accept a clone with a previous memory file as being the same person, the older generations who remember actual mortality don't put as much stock in them, regarding them as just that - a clone with a previous memory. Note that the difference between this and a memorycell is that the memorycell most certainly IS the same person, because it was recording that person's life right up until their death. Well, leaving aside the issue of whether "souls" exist. It's certainly the same person to all outward appearances, though.
65	* ShoutOut: [[SurferDude Ozzie]] and Nigel share some similarities with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.
66	* TheSingularity: This has happened to many, many species who [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence go post-physical]], leaving the universe behind.
67	* SpaceAmish: Ozzie, sometimes. Also, some planets with eccentric owners.
68	** Also, The Hive, a world where everyone is geneteically programmed to have proficiency in a certain field (ie, doctors, police officers, etc.) The planet is described as beind kept in a MedievalStasis of approximately the early 20th century.
69	* SpaceElves: The Silfen, who are almost physically identical to traditional elves and were the [[AncientAstronauts inspiration for elf legends]] (those legends were specifically of TheFairFolk and their morality proves to be [[BlueAndOrangeMorality alien]] in a somewhat similar fashion).
70	* SpaceIsAnOcean: A spaceship is built for exploration (because their wormhole technology doesn't reach far enough).[[spoiler: Then a whole fleet is built for defence and deterrence against spacefaring aliens, and even arkships in case the war goes wrong]]. Somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] because the first one was conceived by 21st century astronauts, and they [[LampshadeHanging acknowledge]] the fact that the design of both the ships stems from 20th and 21st century science fiction. In the ''Void Trilogy'' (set 1500 years later in the same verse), spaceships are comparable to nowadays ships, in terms of use, design, and diversity.
71	* StandardScifiSetting
72	* StarfishAliens: A stranded alien Path Wanderer is too alien for anyone to communicate with or relate to, until Ozzie discovers it communicates with ultraviolet visual signals.
73	* StarfishLanguage: See above.
74	* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Silfen, [[SpaceElves who are basically elves]] that can travel between planets by walking the Silfen Paths. Even though humans are pretty sure the paths are actually disguised wormholes, they aren't able to understand how they work, or even to detect the paths.
75	* SurferDude: Ozzie Isaac is pretty much a surfer dude, despite being a scientific genius responsible for the wormhole network that binds the human Commonwealth together, and owning [[spoiler: slightly less than]] half the company that keeps the wormholes up and running. Due to being one of the inventors of this incredibly important technology, he's also a multi-gazillionaire, which allows him to really make the most of his surfer dude needs, desires, and philosophies.
76	* TangledFamilyTree: Thanks to functional immortality and having multiple spouses (either at once or from multiple marriages over the years), family trees in the Commonwealth can get pretty big and tangled.
77	* ThatOneCase: Paula Myo's hunt for Adam Elvin and the Guardians of Selfhood.
78	* {{Terraforming}}: How Far Away came to be habitable once again, after being sterilized by a mysterious solar flare.
79	* TheSingularity: The Sentient Intelligence is mysterious and its true nature is likely incomprehensible to mankind.
80	* UterineReplicator: People can opt to have children via Womb Tank rather than give birth naturally. It's so common that a woman going through pregnancy and childbirth is an anomaly [[spoiler:and a plot point]].
81	* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:The Starflyer. Just the fact that it's real]] is not at all clear until nearly the end of the first book, despite driving so much of the plot.

Context Literature / CommonwealthSaga