Only Superhuman is a 2013 book written by Christopher L. Bennett, and published through Tom Doherty Associates. 2107 AD: A generation ago, Earth and the cislunar colonies banned genetic and cybernetic modifications. But out in the Asteroid Belt, anything goes. Dozens of flourishing space habitats are spawning exotic new societies and strange new varieties of humans. It’s a volatile situation that threatens the peace and stability of the entire solar system. Emerald Blair is a Troubleshooter. Inspired by the classic superhero comics of the twentieth century, she’s joined with other mods to try to police the unruly Asteroid Belt. But her loyalties are tested when she finds herself torn between rival factions of superhumans with very different agendas. Emerald wants to put her special abilities to good use, but what do you do when you can’t tell the heroes from the villains? Only Superhuman is a rollicking hard-
Science Fiction adventure set in a complex and fascinating future.
Tropes for this book include:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Nobody has ever been able to create a consciousness, AI or human, that substantially exceeds the intellect of the greatest human geniuses. You could make a cyber that thought faster than Einstein and had access to a greater range of knowledge, but try to make its mind more complex and you soon passed a point of diminishing returns, the same as if you tried to pile too much muscle or too many extra limbs on a human body and ended up with a form too cumbersome to function. Attempts to create metasapience had resulted only in either this trope or total cognitive collapse.
- An Arm and a Leg: Juan Lopez lost his legs as a child.
- Artificial Limbs Juan has interchangeable bionic lower appendages that serve various functions as needed.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Psyche has augmented social and communication abilities, including superior ability to read others nonverbally, control her own nonverbal cues.
- Bio-Augmentation: Mods is a term that came to apply to transhumans themselves as well as their enhancements.
- Genetic modification means there is modification in the genetic material. While transgenic refers to the movement or insertion of a gene into an organism that normally does not have a copy of that gene.
- Brain/Computer Interface: Deconstructed as an Awesome, but Impractical attempt at human immortality due to the near-insurmountable challenge of monitoring the chemical activity of billions of neurons in a squishy, moving mass.
- Padhma Rao had this done to her by her parents who were pursuing human-machine unity. The result is parietal lobe shuts down, removing her sense of self as distinct from the computer. While this sometimes enables useful insights, it is often an impediment, as she’s susceptible to ecstatic fits on exposure to certain RF or magnetic fields.
- Captain Ethnic: Maryam Khalid invokes this. A liberal Muslim, she takes cues from female Muslim freedom fighters of the past who used their veiled anonymity to gain freedom of movement, smuggle literature and weapons, and perform other acts of resistance.
- Vijay’s costume is styled after classical Indian armor and archery gear, though does not actually use bow and arrows in most cases.
- Cat Girl: Bast the Neogaians
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Vijay decided that mods had a higher duty and sought to become a Troubleshooter. However, he tends to see that duty on a fairly abstract level, and hasn’t really experienced hardship firsthand.
- Clothes Make the Superman: There are performance-enhancing light-armor costumes, that include sense-enhancing helmet with retractable visor and face shield. They can also be used for increased durability.
- Hijab wears a smart-matter suit that provides camouflage, masks IR signature, filters scent, neutralizes body sounds. The suit is powered by ambient radiation and body heat.
- Designer Babies: Emerald Blair’s grandmother is one of the Vanguard’s main “workhorses,” both as a geneticist designing enhancements and as a mother churning out superbabies.
- Despair Event Horizon: Richard Shannon wife was killed right in front of him causing him to go into Heroic BSoD. Which he was only broken out of when Arkady reminded him that his daughter still needed him. Her blaming him for her mother’s death sent him over this.
- Dumb Muscle: Taurean
- Eco-Terrorist: Neogaians are fanatics willing to employ unethical experimentation and terrorist acts.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: Emerald “Emry” Blair blamed her father for being unable to save her mother.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Peter and Shengli Wen. Shengli is the older brother, and is the more reckless and irresponsible one.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Koyama did this to Corrupt Politician Michael Hoenecker by invoking Mistaken for Pedophile so that the Yohannes mob wouldn’t overrun New Macedon.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: When Lunar and near-Earth asteroid mining began in the 2020s genetic and bionic modification became prominent to survive the radiation and microgravity of space. The Molecular Revolution, encompassing profound advances in nanotech and genetic medicine, is well underway by the 60s.
- Gentle Giant: Although large and dangerous-looking, Ranulf is actually kind and thoughtful, preferring to resolve problems through diplomacy and talk—although not above using his intimidating appearance to get people to listen.
- Good Is Not Nice: Aaron is a self-styled but unofficial Troubleshooter, a former gangbanger drawn to the accolades and power of Troubleshooter status. Rejected from TSC due to attitude problems; in it for the power trip and not above scoring illicit personal gains. Weapons are nominally nonlethal, but occasionally fatal, which does not deter him from using them frequently.
- Marut was born to a life of privilege and gene-modded for athletic achievement but persuaded by his brother to become a Troubleshooter. Has an unruly temper and isn’t deeply committed to TS ideals but is kept in check by loyalty to his brother.
- Cowboy was originally a lone vigilante using lethal force. One of the more hardline Troubleshooters, quicker to use force than most and difficult to rein in. Cultivates a rowdy, macho persona inspired by Bollywood Western craze of 2070s-80s.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Neogaians are environmental extremists who believe Earth must be returned to a natural state. So rather than alter their environments with technology, they alter humans to fit their environments, through gene-modification.
- Hard Light: Soligram (solid + hologram). Often used in place of virtual reality due to the eyestrain and nearsightedness that extended use of VR visors or contacts can cause.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Sanjay has bionically enhanced vision and motor functions, giving him this.
- Insane Troll Logic: The lengths Emerald and her grandmother Rachel go in their refusal to except responsibility.
- Rachel Kincaid-Shannon comforted her granddaughter over her guilt by essentially telling her she never forgave her father so she should forgive herself.
- Emerald in return took one more pot shot at her father by claiming he was no different from his mother. Comparing her failing to reach out to him with him sending Bimala Sarkar as a go between conveniently forgetting that he had reached out on multiple occasions all of which had been met with violence
- It's All About Me: Bast has an uncomplicated view of the world driven by self-interest.
- Justified Criminal: Javon Moremba was modified for athletic achievement by wealth-seeking parents, but fled to seek independence. Fell into petty crime to get by, but basically good-natured.
- Living Aphrodisiac: Vanguardians are skilled at pheromonal control.
- Psyche Thorne Vanguard’s chief diplomat Exudes oxytocin and pheromones to increase personal allure, persuasiveness.
- Man Bites Man: Caiman has diamond-coated teeth.
- Photographic Memory: Lydia has this thanks to special neuroplastic educational techniques.
- Plasma Cannon: Variable-lethality weapon using a high- powered laser to create a small globe of atmospheric plasma at the target site and induce a supersonic shock wave within it, resulting in a forceful, lightninglike discharge of light, heat, and pressure. Can be calibrated to disorient, stun, or kill depending on power, or to create a protective “wall” of plasma discharges.
- Power Armor: Symbots are performance-enhancing robotic exoskeletons. Available in various models for construction, combat, sports, medical support, etc. Lightweight models are compact and close-fitting, but heavy-duty models are armored and provide full life support.
- Rape as Backstory: Ruki Shimoda was abducted and forcibly modded at age 14, enslaved in “specialty” brothel on San Berardo habitat. Never losing will to resist, she was eventually freed by Emerald Blair and Javon Moremba, co-founding the Freakshow with them. Hardened, embittered by ordeal.
- Ray Gun: Reduced-lethality weapon using an ultraviolet laser to ionize the air, creating a path for an electric discharge calibrated to induce loss of muscle control and neural disorientation. Can also short out electrical systems.
- Reformed Criminal: A number of Troubleshooter are this.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Lydia Muchangi is a great detective, famed for her ability to track down anyone or anything.
- Sensory Overload: As a result of a botched experiment in cognitive enhancement Daniel Weiss has hyperacute senses and perception causing great difficulty in coping with the stimuli of everyday life.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Bast like most Neogaians, prefers to go nude
- Shock and Awe: Aaron Donner (Blitz) is genetically enhanced to generate and use electric charges.
- Space Western: Sanjay Bhattacharyya’s costume is high-tech armor with a Western theme.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Koyama was not only genetically modified with enhanced strength and flexibility, heightened oxygen flow, but Hyper-Awareness and Combat Clairvoyance as well as given a cerebellar implant programmed with every known martial art.
- Tyke-Bomb: Kari is the estranged daughter of a yakuza crime lord who engineered his children to be enforcers. Designed and trained to be shy, demure, and girlish on the surface, but to become a cold, lethal assassin on demand.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Bast is a fierce fighter, but undisciplined.
