History Literature / Caliphate

%%* Actio nGirl: Laurie.

* AgentPeacock: ''Chung Hsiao''[[note]]i.e., Lieutenant-Colonel[[/note]] Lee Gen of the [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard Celestial Kingdom's People's Liberation Army Air Force Intelligence Division]]. Graduate degrees in the plural, speaks multiple languages, ex-military attaché, qualified pilot, spook extraordinaire and deadly CombatPragmatist. And making him this trope, quite the [[AttractiveBentGender vamp]], too.
* AmoralAfrikaner: Since this is a ''massive'' CrapsackWorld, South Africa resembles not so much the Boer era as the antebellum South--Or maybe the [[Literature/TheDraka Draka]]. The Boer airship captain is a rather nasty piece of work and StrawMisogynist personally, who does not mind taking advantage of a pretty slave girl. [[spoiler: Which, however, backfires spectacularly on him, since the girl is really [[CreepyCrossdresser Lee]] in disguise.]]

* BigDamnHeroes: The Swiss Air Force, moments before [[spoiler:the Caliphate airforce blasts the airship full of child slave escapees and the world infecting virus.]]
* BattleCouple: Hamilton and Laurie, though it doesn't last long.

* {{Eurabia}}: A classic example of a novel which is a pundit's nightmare of the topic.

* FascistButInefficient: Played with. Most superpowers are [[CrapsackWorld fascist regimes]], but the European Caliphate is singled out as the most backwards and decayed of them all. The economy is completely reliant on the religious minorities being taxed, and ''only'' them, and they are running out of slaves fast to the point where some slavers are worried. They are also culturally stagnant because of a ChurchPolice that forbids even ''drawings'' from being made. Lee points out that the only thing the caliphate produces of note is fanaticism. By contrast, the ISA and China are considered much wealthier and more technologically advanced even if repressive themselves for different reasons. It really says something that they are reliant on the Free Boer State who provides them with technology that they themselves are unable to produce.

* ILetGwenStacyDie: Hamilton having to give the order to bomb the position where an already-wounded Laurie Hodge (his girlfriend) was surrounded by Filipino Muslim rebels and about to be raped is enough to push him to leave the military.

* InvadingRefugees: The Muslim refugees from the Middle-East who soon overtake and turn Europe into a caliphate. Likewise, the Christian refugees from Europe who flee from it relocate to South Africa.

* MakeTheBearAngryAgain: Subverted. Russia reverts back to an Communist autocracy, but is practically neutral towards everyone else.
* MadnessMantra: When she is raped by Fudail, Petra can only think "It isn't me. It isn't me. It isn't me."
* MiddleEasternCoalition: While the core Middle Eastern lands do become a Caliphate, it does not take part of the story. And with [[CrapsackWorld good reason]].

* When Hamilton is dismayed at the idea of the Chinese chipping their agents:

* ThePardon: President Buckman, in the backstory, uses the power of presidential pardon as a weapon against Americans he politically opposes, pardoning all but one person who murdered his opponents (the exception was due to the murderer having been determined to have killed purely as revenge for an affair between the victim and the killer's wife, and nothing to do with politics).
* PersecutedIntellectuals: "An amazingly large number of academicians" are murdered at the beginning of Buckman's presidency.

* PeoplePuppet: There are chips that can be implanted in a person's head that allow the person so equipped to be operated remotely, [[spoiler:as is done with Bernie Matheson and Zheng Ling]]. It used to be required that ISA agents get one implanted until the Chinese demonstrated how they could be hacked, much to the worse for the ISA. Chip security was improved, but there still remains a strong aversion to "chipping", as the implantation procedure is called, among ISA agents.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: From both sides. The Caliphate treat Christians like second-class citizens slaves, referring to them as ''Nazrani'', whom they kill and rape as they saw fit. On the other hand, Americans treat Muslims like animals and do not hesitate to kill anyone that happens to share their DNA. South Africa also brought back apartheid and even African locals under apartheid are treated ''better'' than Muslims. On the flip side, the Zulus are granted a country of their own for them helping the Neo-Boers.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: An easy way to make a character stand out in vileness is have him commit rape. The Moro rebels, Fudail, the boys that rape [[spoiler:Petra and Gabrielle's daughter]]. Meara is singled out as [[TokenEvilTeammate the most vile of the three scientists]] for having a proclivity for [[PaedoHunt pedophilia]].

* SlaveMooks: The janissaries are young non-Muslim boys taken from their families and brought up in Islam to serve as the Caliphate's armed forces, much like the RealLife version that served the Ottoman Empire.

* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Having your own eyes slashed out just before being stabbed is not an nice way to go. [[spoiler:Fudail had it coming though, after raping Petra and trying to rape his own sister who killed him this way; ]][[spoiler:note that Petra thinks Besma is lying about having been sexually assaulted by Fudail, and thinks Besma killed him as revenge for Petra's own rape - either way he certainly had it coming]].
** As Petra can attest, being sent to a brothel and turned into a prostitute could qualify as AFateWorseThanDeath on its own. Having said that, nobody can feel bad about it happening to [[spoiler:Al Khalifa when she approved Petra's rape]].

** Airships in general. Even if you accept that the writer makes the antagonists stupid due to straw-manning them to hell and back, it doesn't excuse the fact that virtually any anti-aircraft gun would be able to destroy them ''easily''. Give the caliphate any WW2-era anti aircraft gun and it'd probably do well against any slow-moving target.

** Chapter 6 has a supposed "radical" speech from a sermon which has no cited source ''whatsoever'', with the reader only to assume that it represents the entirety of the Islamic faith. In fact, many of the historical quotes are used in a completely incorrect context, with the most egregious example being that of quotes from Martin Luther (as in, the UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation) and Mark Twain.

* ActionGirl: Laurie.
* ActionSurvivor: Petra.

* BareYourMidriff: To be expected of the seraglio.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Mahmoud becomes a Christian and moves to America, so naturally he dies by nuke.

* CurbStompBattle: Hijacking the lightly guarded zeppelin isn't too difficult for a crew of trained intelligence agents. For another example, in the backstory, the Imperial States also made short work of the ''first'' Caliphate, once it became arrogant enough to push their enmity to the point of war. The European Caliphate is not--quite--stupid enough to ask for a repeat performance.
* After America is nuked Buckman's newly formed third party wins the 2016 election with every electoral college vote, as the book notes for the first time since UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington.

* LoopholeAbuse: [[StraightEdgeEvil Drinking alcohol is forbidden in the Caliphate]]. When Latif offers some vodka to Abdul Rahman, he points out the Koran forbids it but Latif points out only fermented grain or grape are, but vodka is made from potatoes and "Allah will be none than wiser". Also apparently, the caliph himself enjoys some scotch too.
* A woman's word is worth less than a man's, so if a girl is raped the courts will rule against her. But if she [[spoiler:kills her (purported) rapist and gets her father to take her side, then when her rapist's mother accuses her the gender dynamic will be inverted and she will win.]]