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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jack_mcdevitt_firebird.png]]
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* WhatYearIsThis: Asked by [[spoiler:Dot Garber]] in ''Firebird''.
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* WhatYearIsThis: Asked by [[spoiler:Dot Garber]] in ''Firebird''.''Firebird''.
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Commented out Zero Context Examples. Never ever hide a trope's name under a spoiler tag.
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* {{Antimatter}}
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* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:The crew of the ''Polaris'']].
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* FlyingDutchman: [[spoiler:Numerous ships in ''Firebird'' thanks to drive malfunctions that keep them jumping uncontrollably through space and time. One ship over 7000 years old (two weeks in their frame of reference) is recovered at the end of the book.]]
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** FlyingDutchman: [[spoiler:Numerous ships in ''Firebird'' thanks to drive malfunctions that keep them jumping uncontrollably through space and time. One ship over 7000 years old (two weeks in their frame of reference) is recovered at the end of the book.]]
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* [[spoiler:HumanAliens]]: Part of the plot of ''Echo'', though not revealed until the very end.
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* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: One book mentions offhand that the current faster-than-light drive is fast enough to reach the Andromeda Galaxy in about a year. Nobody's tried it because there's really no need at the moment.
** Compare with ''A Talent For War'', where one of the aspects of [[spoiler: the Corsarius-type FTL drive]] highlighted is that it suddenly makes an extragalactic exploration journey to Andromeda possible in practice.
** Compare with ''A Talent For War'', where one of the aspects of [[spoiler: the Corsarius-type FTL drive]] highlighted is that it suddenly makes an extragalactic exploration journey to Andromeda possible in practice.
to:
* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: One book mentions offhand that the current faster-than-light drive is fast enough to reach the Andromeda Galaxy in about a year. Nobody's tried it because there's really no need at the moment.
**moment. Compare with ''A Talent For War'', where one of the aspects of [[spoiler: the Corsarius-type FTL drive]] highlighted is that it suddenly makes an extragalactic exploration journey to Andromeda possible in practice.
**
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* TheMole: [[spoiler:Windy]]
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* NothingPersonal: Said to Alex by the villain in ''Polaris''.
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* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Quinda Arin]] in ''A Talent For War''.
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* TelepathicSpacemen: The Mutes
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* TelepathicSpacemen: The MutesMutes.
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* LibertariansInSpace: Heavily featured in ''Seeker'''s backstory. Seeker was a colony ship manned by a faction known as the "Margolians" who were fleeing the then-oppressive society of Earth in hopes of establishing a free world.
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* ModernStasis: Justified trope.
** Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from modern day America. This is because science largely ran out of new concepts to explore millenia ago.
** Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from modern day America. This is because science largely ran out of new concepts to explore millenia ago.
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* ModernStasis: Justified trope.
ModernStasis:
** Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from [[CreatorProvincialism modern dayAmerica. This is because science largely ran out of new concepts to explore millenia ago.America.]]
** Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from [[CreatorProvincialism modern day
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* RevealingCoverup: ''Polaris'' kicks off with a bombing intended to destroy evidence of something -- evidence which, it turns out, was never actually there to begin with. No one would've even suspected there was anything to hide if someone wasn't clearly trying to hide something.
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* RevealingCoverup: ''Polaris'' kicks off with a bombing intended to destroy evidence of something -- evidence which, it turns out, was never actually there to begin with. No one would've even suspected there was anything to hide if someone wasn't clearly trying to hide something.something (though it took other attempted cover-ups for people to connect the dots -- the bombing was cleverly timed to ''look'' like a perfectly plausible, even likely assassination attempt: had it ''stopped'' at the bombing no-one would have been the wiser).
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* TheEternalChurchill: The Administrator uses a famous Churchill quote in one of his speeches in ''The Devil's Eye''; only Alex recognizes that he is cribbing, and from who.
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* LastStand: The Administrator uses a famous Churchill quote in one of his speeches in ''The Devil's Eye''; only Alex recognizes that he is cribbing, and from who.
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** Compare with ''A Talent For War'', where one of the aspects of [[spoiler: the Corsarius-type FTL drive]] highlighted is that it suddenly makes an extragalactic exploration journey to Andromeda possible in practice.
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Rewritten to make it clear that Chase is a major character in A Talent For War, just not the viewpoint one.
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''A Talent For War'' is told from Alex's point of view, since he hasn't hired Chase on as an assistant. All subsequent novels take place from her POV.
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''A Talent For War'' is told from Alex's point of view, since he hasn't hired doesn't hire Chase on as an assistant.assistant until a fair bit into the novel. All subsequent novels take place from her POV.
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Minor punctuation fix
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The series consists of ''A Talent For War'', ''Polaris'', ''Seeker'', ''The Devil's Eye'', ''Echo'', and ''Firebird''. A seventh novel,''Coming Home'', is scheduled for 2014.
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The series consists of ''A Talent For War'', ''Polaris'', ''Seeker'', ''The Devil's Eye'', ''Echo'', and ''Firebird''. A seventh novel,''Coming novel, ''Coming Home'', is scheduled for 2014.
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Adding an upcoming novel
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The series consists of ''A Talent For War'', ''Polaris'', ''Seeker'', ''The Devil's Eye'', ''Echo'', and ''Firebird''.
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The series consists of ''A Talent For War'', ''Polaris'', ''Seeker'', ''The Devil's Eye'', ''Echo'', and ''Firebird''.
''Firebird''. A seventh novel,''Coming Home'', is scheduled for 2014.
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Added Death Of Personality to the list
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* DeathOfPersonality: The local police chief was originally a serial killer who had had his memory overwritten. [[spoiler: It's a RedHerring, by the way: the apparent ChekhovsGun never goes off.]]
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Renamed trope
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** In ''Firebird'', we have Villanueva, a GhostPlanet which went through a Class 3-4 thanks to drifting into a light-blocking nebula that froze the planet to death, leaving only the [=AIs=] intact -- [[TooDumbToLive something everyone saw coming centuries in advance]] [[SomebodyElsesProblem but put off doing something about until it was far, far too late]].
to:
** In ''Firebird'', we have Villanueva, a GhostPlanet which went through a Class 3-4 thanks to drifting into a light-blocking nebula that froze the planet to death, leaving only the [=AIs=] intact -- [[TooDumbToLive something everyone saw coming centuries in advance]] [[SomebodyElsesProblem [[BystanderSyndrome but put off doing something about until it was far, far too late]].
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A little spoilerish and hard to just spoiler tag.
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* InsistentTerminology: [=AIs=] from Villanueva and others later influenced to argue for equal rights prefer to call themselves "Betas."
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* InsistentTerminology: [=AIs=] from Villanueva and others later influenced to argue for equal rights prefer to call themselves "Betas."
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* ApocalypseHow: Features in several stories, often as a critical element to the mystery.
** ''The Devil's Eye'' [[spoiler:is about an imminent Planetary Class 4, the cover up since it's nigh-impossible to save everyone, and how everyone reacts once it's discovered.]]
** ''Echo'' [[spoiler:features an accidental Planetary Class 2-3 via ColonyDrop against a pre-space culture. Note that this is a culture which had already been through another collapse of civilization in their ancient past sometime after landing a base on another planet in their system.]]
** In ''Firebird'', we have Villanueva, a GhostPlanet which went through a Class 3-4 thanks to drifting into a light-blocking nebula that froze the planet to death, leaving only the [=AIs=] intact -- [[TooDumbToLive something everyone saw coming centuries in advance]] [[SomebodyElsesProblem but put off doing something about until it was far, far too late]].
** ''The Devil's Eye'' [[spoiler:is about an imminent Planetary Class 4, the cover up since it's nigh-impossible to save everyone, and how everyone reacts once it's discovered.]]
** ''Echo'' [[spoiler:features an accidental Planetary Class 2-3 via ColonyDrop against a pre-space culture. Note that this is a culture which had already been through another collapse of civilization in their ancient past sometime after landing a base on another planet in their system.]]
** In ''Firebird'', we have Villanueva, a GhostPlanet which went through a Class 3-4 thanks to drifting into a light-blocking nebula that froze the planet to death, leaving only the [=AIs=] intact -- [[TooDumbToLive something everyone saw coming centuries in advance]] [[SomebodyElsesProblem but put off doing something about until it was far, far too late]].
* ClassicalTongue: Modern English went out of usage in the third millennium, and modern French disappeared sometime around 7000 years ago. People don't even know what French ''sounded like'' anymore thanks to no surviving recordings. [[spoiler:Also, the symbols of one of the lost ships in ''Firebird'' is a forgotten human language.]]
** FlyingDutchman: [[spoiler:Numerous ships in ''Firebird'' thanks to drive malfunctions that keep them jumping uncontrollably through space and time. One ship over 7000 years old (two weeks in their frame of reference) is recovered at the end of the book.]]
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* KillerRobot: The autonomous machines on Villanueva.
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* InsistentTerminology: [=AIs=] from Villanueva and others later influenced to argue for equal rights prefer to call themselves "Betas."
* KillerRobot: The autonomous machines onVillanueva.Villanueva make it a DeathWorld.
* KillerRobot: The autonomous machines on
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* ModernStasis: Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from modern day America.
to:
* ModernStasis: ModernStasis: Justified trope.
** Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from modern dayAmerica.America. This is because science largely ran out of new concepts to explore millenia ago.
** The Ashiyyur were a space-faring culture before ''homo sapiens'' even evolved, but they are around the same level of technological advancement as humanity. Then again, they pride spiritual rather than material advancement as an index of civilization and are up against the same wall of scientific exploration as humanity.
** Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from modern day
** The Ashiyyur were a space-faring culture before ''homo sapiens'' even evolved, but they are around the same level of technological advancement as humanity. Then again, they pride spiritual rather than material advancement as an index of civilization and are up against the same wall of scientific exploration as humanity.
* NoTranshumanismAllowed: The closest thing in the setting are Avatars, digital copies of dead people. It's not clear the process by which they are made, but they are often programmed by the deceased to cast them in the best light.
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* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Chase's opinion of Alex at the beginning of ''Polaris'', though she's revised her opinion of him by ''The Devil's Eye''.
to:
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Chase's opinion of Alex at the beginning of ''Polaris'', though she's revised her opinion of him by ''The Devil's Eye''. Most academic archaeologists think this trope is in effect and consider Rainbow Enterprises to be little more than looters with an unjustified good reputation.
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* ThanatosGambit: Vicki Greene at the beginning of ''The Devil's Eye''.
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* ThanatosGambit: Vicki Greene at the beginning of ''The Devil's Eye''.Eye'', via mind-wipe.
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* AbsentAliens:
** Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in one book.
** Subverted by the Ashiyyur. Humanity has been in contact with them so long that they don't really consider them really "aliens" for purposes of debate of whether there's anyone else out there.
** Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in one book.
** Subverted by the Ashiyyur. Humanity has been in contact with them so long that they don't really consider them really "aliens" for purposes of debate of whether there's anyone else out there.
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* AbsentAliens:
** Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in one book.
AbsentAliens:
** Subverted by the Ashiyyur. Humanity has been in contact with them so long that they don't really consider them really "aliens" for purposes of debate of whether there's anyone else out there.
** The question of whether this trope applies is central to the plot of ''Echo''.
** Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in one book.
** Subverted by the Ashiyyur. Humanity has been in contact with them so long that they don't really consider them really "aliens" for purposes of debate of whether there's anyone else out there.
** The question of whether this trope applies is central to the plot of ''Echo''.
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* GovernmentConspiracy: The villains of ''The Devil's Eye''.
to:
* GovernmentConspiracy: The [[spoiler:The villains of ''The Devil's Eye''.]]
* [[spoiler:HumanAliens]]: Part of the plot of ''Echo'', though not revealed until the very end.
* [[spoiler:HumanAliens]]: Part of the plot of ''Echo'', though not revealed until the very end.
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* ImmortalitySeeker: Dunnager of ''Polaris'', who made it his life's mission to find a way to stop ageing.
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* ImmortalitySeeker: Dunnager of ''Polaris'', who made it his life's mission to find a way to stop ageing.aging.
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* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Mind wipes are widely used in place of the death penalty, though there are some who argue that there is essentially no difference between the two.
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* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Mind wipes are widely used in place of the death penalty, though there are some who argue that there is essentially no difference between the two. Kicks off the plot of ''The Devil's Eye''.
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* VirtualGhost: Many people maintain avatars, artificial intelligences programmed with their memories, that people can talk to after their deaths. Though, as Chase notes, one cannot be guaranteed of perfect accuracy, since the people creaing the avatars tend to emphasize their good points and leave out the negative traits.
to:
* VirtualGhost: Many people maintain avatars, artificial intelligences programmed with their memories, that people can talk to after their deaths. Though, as Chase notes, one cannot be guaranteed of perfect accuracy, since the people creaing creating the avatars tend to emphasize their good points and leave out the negative traits.
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* AbsentAliens: Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in one book.
to:
* AbsentAliens: AbsentAliens:
** Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in onebook.book.
** Subverted by the Ashiyyur. Humanity has been in contact with them so long that they don't really consider them really "aliens" for purposes of debate of whether there's anyone else out there.
** Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in one
** Subverted by the Ashiyyur. Humanity has been in contact with them so long that they don't really consider them really "aliens" for purposes of debate of whether there's anyone else out there.
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''A Talent For War'' is told from Alex's point of view, since he hasn't hired Chase on as an assistant. All subsequent novels take place from her POV.
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* FrazettaMan: An Ashiyyur museum dedicated to humans leads off with a hulking Neanderthal brute, a not-so-subtle dig at humanity as "unevolved" savages, which is their racist stereotype of us.
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* GoldenAge: Modern times are considered part of the "Golden Age of Scientific Discovery" before we essentially ran out of new physics to explore, leaving science to revert to cataloging (i.e. biology and astronomy) and engineering to refine what we already have.
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* ModernStasis: Despite being ''thousands'' of years in the future, long enough for entire human empires to rise and fall across space and leave behind ruins and artifacts to explore and trade, technology and society aren't really that much different from modern day America.
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* OncePerEpisode:
** The opening chapter will show a flashback to an event later referred to in the story.
** Someone, usually an assassin of some sort, will try to kill Alex and Chase.
** There will be an aerial action sequence that shows off Chase's piloting skills. Usually this is due to sabotage to their air car.
** Chase will break up with a boyfriend, often over how much she travels for her job.
** The opening chapter will show a flashback to an event later referred to in the story.
** Someone, usually an assassin of some sort, will try to kill Alex and Chase.
** There will be an aerial action sequence that shows off Chase's piloting skills. Usually this is due to sabotage to their air car.
** Chase will break up with a boyfriend, often over how much she travels for her job.
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* AbsentAliens: Sort of. There ''are'' aliens capable of space travel, but they only play a supporting role in one book.
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namespace
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The ''Alex Benedict'' series consists of a number of science-fiction novels written by Jack [=McDevitt=].
to:
The ''Alex Benedict'' series consists of a number of science-fiction novels written by Jack [=McDevitt=].Creator/JackMcDevitt.
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* ChekhovsGun: In ''A Talent For War'', a number of discrepancies regarding exactly ''where'' the Corsarius fought lead Alex to ask an Ashiyyur about what they think of it. [[spoiler: The discrepancies turns out to be foreshadowing for the Corsarius' secret -- that it had a revolutionary star-drive operating on different principles than the standard Armstrong drive -- while the Ashiyyur consulted shows up again in the climax of the story.]]
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* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: One book mentions offhand that the current faster-than-light drive is fast enough to reach the Andromeda Galaxy in about a year. Nobody's tried it because there's really no need at the moment.
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* WhatYearIsThis: Asked by [[spoiler:Dot Garber]] in ''Firebird''.
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* AIIsACrapshoot: When the colony of Villanueva died, the artificial intelligences continued running for the next seven thousand years. Being abandoned for so long caused some of them to go insane.
* DistantFinale: The end of ''Firebird'' takes place 67 years in the future.
* KillerRobot: The autonomous machines on Villanueva.
* ShipTease: Alex and Chase. They are implied to have hooked up a couple of times, but always deny that they are dating and are usually seeing other people during the stories in the novels.
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* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The artificial intelligences in the series are not considered sentient, and no one cares much when they are destroyed -- though Chase does have a pang of conscience when she sends the [=AI=] Gabe on a suicide mission in ''Polaris''.
to:
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The artificial intelligences in the series are not considered sentient, and no one cares much when they are destroyed -- though Chase does have a pang of conscience when she sends the [=AI=] Gabe on a suicide mission in ''Polaris''. This eventually becomes a central issue in ''Firebird''.
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The ''Alex Benedict'' series consists of a number of science-fiction novels written by Jack [=McDevitt=].
The main characters are Alex Benedict, an antiquities dealer, and Chase Kolpath, an interstellar pilot. They run a company called Rainbow Enterprises which specializes in the finding and selling of ancient historical artifacts. The novels follow their adventures as they solve historical mysteries and find long-lost artifacts, usually while facing opposition from some form of conspiracy.
The series consists of ''A Talent For War'', ''Polaris'', ''Seeker'', ''The Devil's Eye'', ''Echo'', and ''Firebird''.
!!This series provides examples of:
* AdventurerArchaeologist: Alex is the sci-fi version of this trope.
* TheAgeless: [[spoiler:The crew of the ''Polaris''.]]
* {{Antimatter}}
* EmbarrassingFirstName: ''Polaris'' reveals that Chase's first name, as printed on her pilot license, is Agnes.
* TheEternalChurchill: The Administrator uses a famous Churchill quote in one of his speeches in ''The Devil's Eye''; only Alex recognizes that he is cribbing, and from who.
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:The crew of the ''Polaris'']].
* GhostShip: The ''Polaris''. The entire crew vanished, but the lander and spacesuits were still there.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The villains of ''The Devil's Eye''.
* HumansAreFlawed: The general feeling of the Mutes regarding humanity (though Chase is quick to point out that the Mutes themselves don't exactly have a spotless record).
* ImmortalityImmorality: One of the concerns about life-extension that occurs to Chase in ''Polaris'' is that people who live forever might cease to care about other humans.
* ImmortalitySeeker: Dunnager of ''Polaris'', who made it his life's mission to find a way to stop ageing.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Mind wipes are widely used in place of the death penalty, though there are some who argue that there is essentially no difference between the two.
* LostColony: Margolia in ''Seeker''.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Windy]]
* NothingPersonal: Said to Alex by the villain in ''Polaris''.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Chase's opinion of Alex at the beginning of ''Polaris'', though she's revised her opinion of him by ''The Devil's Eye''.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mutes have to make up nicknames for humans to refer to them by, since their own language doesn't have a phonetic component.
* PsychicStatic: After his first encounter with the psychic Mutes leads to them stealing some important information from his mind, Alex learns to do this.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Used by the villain in ''Polaris''. [[spoiler:Backfires big-time]].
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Quinda Arin]] in ''A Talent For War''.
* RevealingCoverup: ''Polaris'' kicks off with a bombing intended to destroy evidence of something -- evidence which, it turns out, was never actually there to begin with. No one would've even suspected there was anything to hide if someone wasn't clearly trying to hide something.
* TelepathicSpacemen: The Mutes
* ThanatosGambit: Vicki Greene at the beginning of ''The Devil's Eye''.
* VirtualGhost: Many people maintain avatars, artificial intelligences programmed with their memories, that people can talk to after their deaths. Though, as Chase notes, one cannot be guaranteed of perfect accuracy, since the people creaing the avatars tend to emphasize their good points and leave out the negative traits.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: A number of them show up throughout the series as villains.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The artificial intelligences in the series are not considered sentient, and no one cares much when they are destroyed -- though Chase does have a pang of conscience when she sends the [=AI=] Gabe on a suicide mission in ''Polaris''.
The main characters are Alex Benedict, an antiquities dealer, and Chase Kolpath, an interstellar pilot. They run a company called Rainbow Enterprises which specializes in the finding and selling of ancient historical artifacts. The novels follow their adventures as they solve historical mysteries and find long-lost artifacts, usually while facing opposition from some form of conspiracy.
The series consists of ''A Talent For War'', ''Polaris'', ''Seeker'', ''The Devil's Eye'', ''Echo'', and ''Firebird''.
!!This series provides examples of:
* AdventurerArchaeologist: Alex is the sci-fi version of this trope.
* TheAgeless: [[spoiler:The crew of the ''Polaris''.]]
* {{Antimatter}}
* EmbarrassingFirstName: ''Polaris'' reveals that Chase's first name, as printed on her pilot license, is Agnes.
* TheEternalChurchill: The Administrator uses a famous Churchill quote in one of his speeches in ''The Devil's Eye''; only Alex recognizes that he is cribbing, and from who.
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:The crew of the ''Polaris'']].
* GhostShip: The ''Polaris''. The entire crew vanished, but the lander and spacesuits were still there.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The villains of ''The Devil's Eye''.
* HumansAreFlawed: The general feeling of the Mutes regarding humanity (though Chase is quick to point out that the Mutes themselves don't exactly have a spotless record).
* ImmortalityImmorality: One of the concerns about life-extension that occurs to Chase in ''Polaris'' is that people who live forever might cease to care about other humans.
* ImmortalitySeeker: Dunnager of ''Polaris'', who made it his life's mission to find a way to stop ageing.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Mind wipes are widely used in place of the death penalty, though there are some who argue that there is essentially no difference between the two.
* LostColony: Margolia in ''Seeker''.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Windy]]
* NothingPersonal: Said to Alex by the villain in ''Polaris''.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Chase's opinion of Alex at the beginning of ''Polaris'', though she's revised her opinion of him by ''The Devil's Eye''.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mutes have to make up nicknames for humans to refer to them by, since their own language doesn't have a phonetic component.
* PsychicStatic: After his first encounter with the psychic Mutes leads to them stealing some important information from his mind, Alex learns to do this.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Used by the villain in ''Polaris''. [[spoiler:Backfires big-time]].
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Quinda Arin]] in ''A Talent For War''.
* RevealingCoverup: ''Polaris'' kicks off with a bombing intended to destroy evidence of something -- evidence which, it turns out, was never actually there to begin with. No one would've even suspected there was anything to hide if someone wasn't clearly trying to hide something.
* TelepathicSpacemen: The Mutes
* ThanatosGambit: Vicki Greene at the beginning of ''The Devil's Eye''.
* VirtualGhost: Many people maintain avatars, artificial intelligences programmed with their memories, that people can talk to after their deaths. Though, as Chase notes, one cannot be guaranteed of perfect accuracy, since the people creaing the avatars tend to emphasize their good points and leave out the negative traits.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: A number of them show up throughout the series as villains.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The artificial intelligences in the series are not considered sentient, and no one cares much when they are destroyed -- though Chase does have a pang of conscience when she sends the [=AI=] Gabe on a suicide mission in ''Polaris''.
