Discordia is a 2021 audio novella by Max Barry.
It starts in Malibu, California, where a young Hispanic man named Diego is hired to dig a hole in someone else's backyard. He finds a strange-looking box the size of a coffin. One thing leads to another, and a man named Carter comes out of the box, claiming to be an alien from another dimension. Just then, another alien’s existence is announced on the news, but this one is an honest-to-God Nazi. Both claim to have arrived to save this Earth from something of someone. Before long, more and more interdimensional visitors arrive via the box, each claiming to want to save this world from something or other. One of the visitors is a militant nun named Patience from a theocratic world. Her mission is to stop Carter at any cost. Diego is stuck right in the middle of all this, as the world goes to hell all around him.
The book contains examples of the following tropes:
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Carter keeps insisting that he needs something called scarfoil to dampen the vibrations that power the box. Diego has no idea what that is and neither does the hardware store clerk. Much later, Diego and Carter stop by a gas station, and Carter sees a bag of marshmallows and angrily points out that this world has scarfoil after all. He is annoyed at Diego for not bringing it to him, only for Diego to points out they no one on this Earth uses marshmallows to dampen vibrations. He has Carter taste one, and Carter is shocked to learn that the people of this world put sugar in scarfoil.
- Church Militant: Patience comes from a theocratic world. She was taken from her parents at a very young age and trained to be a "prayer warrior". She is sent to kill Carter and will be herself killed the moment she awakens in her world. Being hyper-religious, she's, naturally, looking forward to going to Heaven.
- Defiled Forever: Patience believes that a single kiss from Diego has damned her soul to Hell. Like other "prayer warriors" that have been "corrupted", she throws herself into sin, since she believes that there's no longer any forgiveness for her. In her case, she becomes a stripper. Diego tracks her down and tries to convince her that she doesn't need to jump to the other extreme. She sends him away but then comes to find him in Vegas and ends up killing Carter to complete her mission. She tells Diego she wants to die to go to Heaven, but at the end of the story meets him at a bus stop and explains that she has changed her mind and wants to stay with him.
- Democracy Is Bad: This is the view held by Bob, the Unknown. When Diego finally forces him to open up, Bob explains that the current state of Diego's world is sad because of too much corruption at the top and the failure of the democratic process. He particularly focuses on the US and states that both conservatives and liberals have moved away from their ideologies into the wrong direction. His plan is to establish a dictatorship that will do what needs to be done to get the masses educated (even if they have to be forced out of their willful ignorance) and environment restored. Will there be freedom? No. Will things get better? Yes. He even tells Diego that he, Bob, won't stay in this world forever, since other worlds need to be protected from the aliens, so he'll need someone else, like Diego, to take over being in charge. Diego contemplates it for a minute, then sends the car with Bob in it off a cliff, while jumping out himself.
- Dimensional Traveler: All the "aliens" are human visitors from other Earths. Most arrive via the box, which is powered by vibrations. At least one seems to have the ability to travel across dimensions on his own. The vast majority of travelers remain physically in their own worlds, while sending a copy of their consciousness to this Earth. If they die, they wake up in their own world with all the memories of the journey. One world seems to use a more permanent method that doesn't duplicate the consciousness.
- Gym Class Hell: The Fitizen is from a world where everyone must meet the required physical criteria or be placed into concentration fat camps.
- Knows the Ropes: Patience can turn anything that's flexible and long enough into a weapon. Carter says she can even kill someone with a long sock.
- The Metric System Is Here to Stay: The Metricist seeks to convert the US (and any other holdouts) to the metric system. He finds support among engineers and Silicon Valley types. While his initial message seems benign and even beneficial, once he gets going, he begins mentioning that those who refuse to accept the metric system must not be allowed to reproduce.
- The Multiverse: There is an infinite number of parallel worlds. Some have discovered a way to move between them. Many worlds run by extremists appear to be in a state of cold war with one another, unwilling to engage in destructive nuclear exchanges and instead fighting proxy wars.
- Off with His Head!: Under the influence of an alien, the people of France rise up against their government and bring back the guillotine. When the rest of the government flees to Germany, they threaten Germany with nukes if they don't return them.
- One Nation Under Copyright: Carter's world is entirely run by a corporation called Botany, named after Botany Bay, an Australian penal colony.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As soon as the Fitizen learns that Bob is in this world, he kills himself, unwilling to waste any time on a lost cause.
- Space Cold War: Well, more like interdimensional cold war. Most of the aliens come from dimensions that are hostile to one another. But pretty much all of them possess powerful nuclear weapons. Should they come to direct blows, it would result in untold devastation for all participants. It's why they fight by sending "fencers" to other dimensions and secure them for takeover.
- Straw Feminist: Grace is from a world that embodies the worst extreme of feminism and other similar ideologies. Anyone who doesn't agree with Grace 100% must be a tool of the patriarchy. She constantly criticized anything Diego says or does simply because he's male, turning it all into oppression.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Jason Brightman comes from a world controlled by Nazis. He claims he wants to save this world from intermixed races and "pollution of the gene pool". He tells Diego he has no problems with other races, as long as they "know their place". Naturally, he finds a large following of white supremacists in the US. Diego is reluctant to kill him at first, but the longer Brightman talks, the more that reluctance melts away, until Diego finally hits him over the head with a bottle.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Most of the aliens seem to be of this type. They genuinely believe that their goal is to improve this world. But their methods are extreme, to put it mildly. Most involve either concentration camps or outright executions.
