Line #8 Literature/SewerGasAndElectric


1	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sewer_Gas_and_Electric_7355.jpg]]
2
3	''Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy'' opens up with a crazy businessman building the tower of Babel in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, and a hapless new hire to the Department of Sewers being eaten by a sewer-dwelling mutant great white shark. It's 2023, and New York is on the brink of a giant earthquake, and that's the least of the city's problems. Penned by Creator/MattRuff, it's a novel of ecoterrorism, mad [=AIs=], {{absurdly spacious sewer}}s and an AI construct of Creator/AynRand spouting [[UsefulNotes/{{Objectivism}} objectivist philosophy]] and generally having melting down arguments with the rest of the cast.
4
5	----
6	!!This book provides examples of the following tropes:
7	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Under New York City. The sewers even have their own ecosystem.
8	%%* AIIsACrapshoot: G. A. S. and the Eye of Africa.
9	* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: The ''Yabba-Dabba-Doo'''s blue hamsters.
10	* ApocalypseHow: Regional Class 3 for most of Africa.
11	* BaitAndSwitch: Morris Kazenstein is routinely given a hard time by his five adoptive Palestinian siblings, who hassle him about wanting a homeland despite having grown up to be Oxford professors in Britain. [[spoiler: When he finally pisses them off for real, they lambast him for being ''American'' rather than for being Jewish.]]
12	* BigApplesauce: A great deal of the book takes place in New York.
13	* BrickJoke: During the eco-terrorists' opening move against an oil-survey icebreaker bound for Antarctica, it's mentioned in passing that their hackers' bots call every pizza place in Manhatten to request a delivery to Gant's office. The later conversation between Gant and his underlings over the resulting media brouhaha ends when Crowd Control calls up from the Phoenix's ground floor to ask if he'd ordered two thousand pizzas.
14	* TheCrocIsTicking: Once Meisterbrau swallows a digital watch.
15	* TheComicallySerious: Befitting her philosophy, Artificial Ayn Rand has great difficulties understanding jokes.
16	* ConspicuousConsumption: The ten-pack of condoms, which cost $50,000.
17	* CoolBoat: ''Yabba Dabba Doo''
18	* DeathByIrony: There are one thousand of them. [[spoiler: Orchestrated by the BigBad.]]
19	* ExpospeakGag: Standard policy in the Zoological Bureau of the Department of Sewers, where referring to any of the dangerous sewer-lurking wildlife by anything but its taxonomic name - i.e. by any name that the public or press might recognize and freak out about - is a ''big'' no-no.
20	* EyeScream: Shiva's Cinder. [[spoiler:It consists of a laser, which scans the landscape for reflecting surfaces like binoculars or glasses, and in case of a discovery is tuned to full power to burn out the eyes of anyone in range.]]
21	* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: [[spoiler:Meisterbrau eventually unfolds wings.]]
22	* GadgeteerGenius: Morris Kazenstein
23	* GeneralRipper: Troubadour Penzias, in an unusually cruel and racist way.
24	* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: Seraphina was ''born'' with smilies painted on her soul, due to a neurochemical quirk in her brain. She'd probably be angry about that, if she could ''be'' angry; as it is, the closest she can come to wanting to retaliate against somebody who crosses her is to play practical jokes on them.
25	* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Queen Elizabeth II, still ruling Great Britain in 2023, is moody, arrogant, and tends to poison recalcitrant subordinates.
26	* HiddenDepths: Matt Ruff apparently likes to eventually unfold detailed backstories for previously sketchy characters.
27	* ImprobableWeaponUser: After hurling arctic bunnies with [[InstantSedation euphoria-tipped toenails]] at polluting ships' personnel, Ninety-Nine Words For Snow clouts the ones still standing [[RefugeInAudacity with a rubber fish]].
28	* JackassGenie: [[spoiler:The evil AI antagonist of the novel deliberately "misunderstands" a couple of men ordering dinner at a restaurant as a command to unleash a murderous campaign and also as an [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters excuse to kill its creator]].]]
29	* KnockKnockJoke: Abbie Hoffman has to teach Creator/AynRand humor in heaven as punishment for committing suicide. He tries this kind of joke, but Ayn doesn't like to pretend he was knocking a door, because that's unlogical if she can see it!
30	* MethuselahSyndrome: Kite
31	* NewMeat: Eddie Wilder.
32	* MultinationalTeam: The crew of Philo Dufresne's u-boat.
33	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Not quite. Queen Elizabeth II. and many other real-life persons that were still alive at the time of the book appear undisguised. Some are not portrayed especially pleasantly, and others are eventually killed off.
34	* PsychoForHire: Troubadour Penzias.
35	* RefugeInAudacity: A big part of the eco-activists' strategy is to attack polluters in such ridiculous ways that their targets are utterly humiliated on live television.
36	* ScoutOut: The Boy and Girl Scouts have merged into a single organization, and become so urbanized that a troop goes on a "nature walk" in the slums, taking notes on graffiti and studying a dead mutant rat for their wildlife lesson.
37	* SewerGator: Averted; Teddy May's crew wiped out all of [=NYC=]'s sub-surface alligators in the 1930s. Just don't ask about the gharials, Nile crocodiles, electric eels, piranha, or mutant great white sharks....
38	* ShamuFu: Ninety-Nine Words clouts members of a polluting ship's crew with a rubber trout.
39	* SharkPool: Meisterbrau is kept in an outside pool by the aquarium employees Frankie and Salvatore. [[spoiler:It does not end well.]]
40	* ShellShockedVeteran: Maxwell and Troubadour Penzias. Both are rather insane, in different ways.
41	* [[StarshipLuxurious Submarine Luxurious]]: The ''Yabba-Dabba-Doo'' is the only sub ever equipped with hamster tubing and an arboretum.
42	* SubmarinePirates: The Ecoterrorists.
43	* TakeThat: ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is acerbically dissected by Joan.
44	** One of the shark-bait aquarium workers points out the FridgeLogic in a scene from ''Film/ANewHope''.
45	* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Harry Gant's mother is a tall, husky construction forewoman, while his father is a short, rather frail history buff.
46	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
47	* {{Xenofiction}}: In-universe, Dufresne's attempt at a first novel is written from the POV of whales and dolphins.
48	* WarIsHell: A recurring theme. Several characters are insane {{Shell Shocked Veteran}}s, and Kite stopped viewing war as an adventure when the actual killing began.
49	* WhyAmITicking: A subplot involves [[spoiler:a greedy capitalist]] who has been fitted with an explosive collar. It will go off in twenty-four hours, killing him, unless he manages to [[spoiler:[[IronicHell earn $1000 by begging in Grand Central, and feed all the bills through a shredder attached to the collar]]. Naturally, people are [[FromBadToWorse less likely to give him money when they see what he's doing with it]]...]]
50

Context Literature / SewerGasAndElectric