The Coming Storm is an unpublished novel detailing a war set on another planet. It shines a philosophical light over the whole situation as the Big Bad is shown to have many positive qualities and the heroes are shown to have many evil qualities. The focus of the book is to try and make the reader reconsider what they see as good and evil.
The story details the war between The Defenders and The Scars, both groups who fight against each other in belief that if their side wins, they will be able to impose their ideas of what is right onto Asancra, the planet it is set on. The Defenders are made up of the leader, CS, with the other big names being Sypha, Chila and Sheila Elza, Donger, and the recent addition of Scarlett Johnson. The Scars consist of the leader, Necrosis, his General often nicknamed Acid Eagle, his second-in-command Shellna, with other big names such as Incite, Puncture and Maspectra.
The novel contains elements of most genres but is primarily Sci-Fi and Fantasy. While not dominant it also frequents in the realm of comedy.
The Coming Storm provides examples of:
- Adam and Eve Plot: Donger suggests the possibility of killing everyone in the world just so Scarlett and him could start over. Scarlett, obviously, is not impressed.
- All According to Plan: Linda's predictions have her involve herself in such a way that everything goes the way she wants.
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Alternate Character Interpretation: It's up to you whether the Defenders are right or wrong. The same applies to the Scars. - Arc Number: 21. Apart from the 21 Demons of Necrosis and the fact the war lasted for 21 years, there are a lot of subtle references to 21.
- Attention Whore: CS and Scarlett intentionally try and get as involved as much as they can, for fame.
- Beach Episode: Ironically, 'Night Terrors'. Apart from the Nightmare Fuel going on from CS' side, the Defenders' side has them on a world-famous resort.
- Berserk Button: Most characters have one, but by far, you do NOT want to mess with any of Patricia's books.
- Beware the Nice Ones: It's rare that Sheila is in a fight, but when she is, she does a lot better than you'd expect. For a non-combat example, the woman who 'loses her child in the temple' in Terminal Velocity.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Defenders in general get one of these every other chapter. A worthy one is when CS barges into Fort-Fifty-Seven with naught but a shotgun with 6 bullets, and breaks Scarlett out.
- Blatant Lies: The Scars plans in Fort Fifty-Seven are blatant lies to CS (though Scarlett falls for them.)
- Book Dumb: Unlike her Badass Bookworm sister, Chila, Sheila is not too familiar with texts, but is still intelligent enough to deserve her status as a leading figure.
- Butt-Monkey: Donger is the Defenders' Butt Monkey. However, he uses this as an excuse to make Scarlett his personal Butt Monkey, much to the disapproval of the rest of the Defenders.
- Captain Obvious: Scarlett tends to point out some things obvious to everyone else (albeit some of these things aren't apparent to the reader, which makes her steer close to The Watson.)
- Cast From Hitpoints: A strange variant. Spells can be cast for an infinite amount of time, but become to volatile to maintain once the caster has been hurt by a certain amount, and must be dropped.
- Catchphrase: Linda tends to throw the term 'Just a prediction.' around by an unhealthy amount.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Towards the end of the story, it focuses less on who is right or wrong and more on the action scenes.
- Chekhov's Gun: 'This rope is important.' Linda summed it up well.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Hawk plays a big role in both Terminal Velocity and Stormwind. Linda technically counts but she appears more frequently than Hawk.
- Chekhov's Skill: A strange variation. It's established early on that CS doesn't sleep, on the chance the base is attacked. When he finally does sleep, he can finally contact Linda, who has been trying to contact him for a long time.
- The Climax: The battle againt the Darqueen and the Moment of Awesome race against time easily counts.
- Closed Circle: Several. The Torn Rift has a habit of making people await rescue.
- Commonplace Rare: A Dolphin, of all things.
- Curbstomp Battle: In Stormwind, the Defenders handle the Skatimars with general ease (considering it's an invasion force.)
- Darkisnotevil: The people of Ebonia are associated with darkness. They're not the most social people around, but it'd be ignorant to class them all as evil.
- Death Trap: The Defender base after Donger takes control in A Perfect Cage.
- Determinator: CS. He has what is possibly a fatal wound and he still fights off an invasion, to protect his planet.
- Didn't See That Coming: Despite Linda's predictions, most of the events that occur seem to surprise the Defenders. Especially Scarlett.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Darqueen is the greatest being of an entire planet. And the Defenders defeat it.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: CS is presumed to have done this with the Dire, by the other Defenders.
- Dungeon Bypass: Averted in Dreamscape, invoked on Asancra. Scarlett is so used to Dungeon delving that she can normally find the shortcut to the end, get over to it, and find the best loot without the hassle of doing the dungeon.
- Elemental Embodiment: Day One sees a Nature Elemental. It's mentioned there are more Elementals, but they're not seen.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Coming Storm builds up to the deployment of the Stormwind. Which has been coming.
- Fantasy Pantheon: Gahroogamesh. However, he's often ignored. The 10 Gods normally worshipped are Siren, Vinsan, Thomas the Mysterious, Pandora, Voidraco, Lucien, Eternal, Armados, Zeugolo and Ebonoc.
- Feel No Pain: CS tries to train any new Defenders to follow this, by exposing them to methods that are more painful than easy alternatives.
- Figure It Out Yourself: 'Take this rope. You'll figure it out.' Linda again.
- First-Name Basis: Everyone in the Defenders uses each others First Name. In fact, most of the Defender's surnames are only found out late into the book. CS and Sypha avert this, however. CS is his initials and Sypha is a nickname.
- Flaw Exploitation: Puncture draws CS to him by threatening his homeland. CS is very patriotic.
- Fridge Brilliance: Think about what the initials for 'The Coming Storm' is. Obviously, 'the' doesn't count. This was completely unintended, but CS could possibly be seen as a Coming Storm to the Scars.
- Foreshadowing: Linda's predictions. Admittedly, you'll be hard-pressed to make sense of them until the events actually happen.
- Geton The Boat: Boats are the only way (minus Teleporters, but only the Defenders make use of these) between countries.
- Girl with Psycho Weapon: Scarlett enjoys her Cleaver.
- Grim Up North: Shellna set up camp in the Etan Wastelands, a desolate, craggy area. On the northen-most point of the World Map.
- A God Am I: Puncture sets himself up as a god to the people of Lorkan.
- Hammerspace: The banking system. Weapons (or anything else) can be withdrawn in many unlikely places.
- Heroic BSoD: See My God, What Have I Done?.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Maspectra is fatally wounded by his own spell.
- Hurricane of Euphemisms: If Scarlett's around, CS will let loose one of these. Justified in that he thinks it will help her understand. He never makes a Euphemism if Scarlett's not around.
- An Ice Person: Anything that moves in the Underfreeze.
- Idiot Ball: Scarlett holds this for several chapters. Most notably when she unleashes the Skylion in Terminal Velocity. CS similarly holds it when he unleashes a Foudestro in The Great Mistake.
- Improbable Weapon User: Remember the lump of Ice Scarlett got in The Frozen Tundra? Guess what lands the final blow on the Thornewyrm in The Fridgate.
- It's Probably Nothing: The logic CS uses in Night Terrors, Isolation and Maspectra. Undoubtedly, he'd lose his sanity if he let the noises and ghosts bug him.
- Just Friends: CS and Scarlett. Admittedly, it goes nowhere. Scarlett has feelings for CS, but CS is already engaged to Chila. CS sees his relationship with Scarlett as more of a Big Brother - Little Sister relationship.
- Karma Houdini: Necrosis. Nothing that happens in the novel affects him even moderately. CS, in the mean time, does get his fair share of Karma.
- Leitmotif: A rare literature example. The Trinital sisters play music whenever the Defenders are fighting someone, so the enemy ends up with such a Leitmotif.
- Major Injury Underreaction: CS faints after having his liver torn out by a Foudestro. He's up and walking by the next day, and by the end of said day, he's as fit as ever.
- Manipulative Bastard: Linda, Linda, Linda. She's this Trope to a T.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: CS often treats Donger as an exception.
- My God, What Have I Done?: CS quotes this after releasing the Foudestro in The Great Mistake.
- My Nayme Is: In Tooth and Claws, Scarlett uses the fake name of... Scarlet.
- No Fourth Wall: The Narrator has a habit of referring to himself and the reader as 'we'.
- Oh, Crap!: When CS discovers that he's gotten the Foudestro in position too early and has no choice but to take one for the team.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. There's a town guard called Jim in most towns. Not to mention Scarlett and Scarlette.
- Pals with Jesus: CS and Pandora are somewhat friends.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Donger doesn't even use a disguise when he goes undercover in Tooth and Claws. Justified, though, since it's common knowledge that Donger was transformed into Dorb in A Perfect Cage, but not common knowledge that CS can transform him back at will.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: A variant. While not skills specifically, Cults of Lorkan has every character split up to find information, and each one of them has a scenario to overcome.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Right before the Puncture Battle.CS: 'If you see yourself as a deity, then me and Pandora will have more in common than we thought.'
Puncture: 'How so?'
CS: 'We both murdered a God.' - Precision F-Strike: Several. Chila and Scarlett are the major invokers.
- Required Secondary Powers: A strange aversion. The immortality that CS and the other Defenders have gives them Eternal Youth, but they're still very easy to kill through other methods.
- Schmuck Bait: The notice about buried treasure in The Great Mistake.
- Sidekick Creature Nuisance: Yaptors are half the size of Asancrans and absolute HELL for the owner of the Muffin Mart.
- Title Drop: Tim, Linda, Hawk and CS all make reference to The Coming Storm.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Scarlett shoots the Elephant in the room by asking why they never killed Velvet when they had the chance. Only to be told Demons cannot be killed.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Some of the Scars are happy to allow time for talking before, during and after battle. Other Scars will kill you by the time you've opened your mouth.
- The Unfought: Necrosis, Acid Eagle and Incite are still alive and well at the end, with no fights against them at all.
- The Watson: Scarlett asks the questions the reader wants to know the answers to.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Depending on your point of view, the Defenders and/or the Scars count.
- A Wizard Did It: Subverted. CS says that the Information Radar being able to make sound without speakers is due to magic. Scarlett challenges this (quoting a Wizard Did it), and CS explains the actual reasoning behind it (which is very technical, to which Scarlett remarks 'Magic it is').
- What Happened to the Mouse?: CS' Raolnans are practically unheard of after Chapter 1, despite being very useful.
- Wolfpack Boss: Freeda Monroe's fight has her assisted by several Dunewyrms.
- Younger Than They Look: Most of the Defenders are younger than they look, since they've stopped aging.
