History Literature / Echopraxia

* WeakSauceWeakness: The Vampires originally died out because a pair of intersecting lines at right-angles that filled more than 30 degrees of their visual field induced an invariably-fatal grand mal seizure. Upon encountering another vampire they'll go into a territorial rage and attack them immediately, making co-operation impossible. Their eyes are adapted for low light and so daylight is quite uncomfortable for them. It is even suggested that the old trick where you throw a handful of rice on the ground to distract a vampire who feels compelled to count the grains works on them, too. However...

** Sarasti clicks a lot in {{Blindsight}}, and Siri hears a lot of creepy, clicky "music" broadcast from the solar system during his long return flight. It is possibly a standard part of vampire "language".

* BigDamnHero: [[spoiler: Jim Moore saving Dan Brüks from an enraged Rakshi, then Valerie saving Brüks from a crazy Jim Moore]].

* PluckyBaseline: Averted, hard. There's no out-thinking or out-fighting the transhumans if you're a mere human, regardless of how augmented you are. If you think you've beaten them, it is because you don't understand what just happened.

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: The Bicamerals are basically walking brain tumors.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Of all the Bicamerals, zombies, vampires, and in-betweens that crew the ''Crown of Thorns'', only Jim Moore survives to the end. Oh, and the undead alien thing wearing Brüks's body, that has his memories.]]

Daniel Bruks is a living fossil: a field biologist in a world where biology has turned computational, a cat's-paw used by terrorists to kill thousands. Taking refuge in the Oregon desert, he’s turned his back on a humanity that shatters into strange new subspecies with every heartbeat. But he awakens one night to find himself at the center of a storm that will turn all of history inside-out.

Their pilgrimage brings Dan Bruks, the fossil man, face-to-face with the biggest evolutionary breakpoint since the origin of thought itself.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Discussed. Bruks's wife was a "cloudkiller"; it was her job to pull the plug on AI networks that had become too smart for their own good. She eventually came to the conclusion that [[ItCanThink they were genuinely sapient]], and quit soon after. However ... there was another class of AI, one so superhumanly intelligent that it achieved sapience and kept right on going, until its mind was incomprehensible to its creators. Those, Bruks says, [[ParanoiaFuel "worried her."]]

* AudienceSurrogate: Bruks spends much of the first act being as confused as the reader - transhumans have a hard time explaining themselves to baselines.
* BadassNormal: Rakshi calls Bruks "Roach" not as an insult, but rather because baseline humans are damn near indestructible - that is, at least, they're invulnerable to the various hacks and exploited glitches an augmented human might fall victim to.
* BigDamnHero: [[spoiler: Jim Moore saving Dan Bruks from an enraged Rakshi, then Valerie saving Bruks from a crazy Jim Moore]].
** One of the Bicamerals, Chinedum Ofoegbu, walks out of a hyperbaric chamber to break up a "[[CurbStompBattle fight]]" between [[spoiler:Valerie on one side, and Rakshi, Moore, Lianna and Bruks on the other side]] whilst his blood is practically fizzing. Of course, given the number of transhumans involved, it isn't clear what would have happened if he hadn't intervened, or if the whole thing wasn't a part of an elaborate ploy...
** Moore pulls the crippled body of Bruks to safety as they flee [[spoiler: Icarus]]. This is interesting because he uses a [[spoiler: "Zombie Switch" to disengage his higher brain functions for extra efficiency in an emergency]]. When he claims "that wasn't me", he means it.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Bruks kills himself when he realizes he was taken over by Portia. Portia manages to continue firing his brain cells and takes over his broken body and walks towards civilization. [[GainaxEnding Humanity will forever be changed]].]]
* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Bruks. He realizes that the hacked Portia is taking over him and decides to walk off the cliff. Sadly, while he dies, his body still lives on. [[GainaxEnding Maybe that was for the best]].]]

* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler: Bruks stabs Valerie after the two become friendly, well as friendly as a lion can be to a lamb; of course, Bruks had already been taken over by Portia, which Valerie herself infected him with]].

* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler: Portia is a parasite. Valerie hacks Portia and infects Bruks with it. It strengthens him and plans to use him as a vector to create a sort of upgraded humans and to disable the glitches in Vampires. Maybe humanity will survive after all, but at a great cost to itself. Maybe.]]

* NoodleIncident: Averted. [[spoiler: It is revealed halfway through that Dan Bruks was tangentially responsible for an incident that killed Rakshi's wife that involved an encephalitis variant outbreak.]]

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Of all the Bicamerals, zombies, vampires, and in-betweens that crew the ''Crown of Thorns'', only Jim Moore survives to the end. Oh, and the undead alien thing wearing Bruks's body, that has his memories.]]

* MetaphoricallyTrue: Moore pulls this on Bruks early on.
-->'''Bruks:''' "You said we were in orbit."

** Once someone has been "sensitized" to the glitch, it can be triggered by ''anyone'' if they know the trick. [[spoiler:Rakshi]] uses this on [[spoiler:Bruks]] in the end.
** Rakshi realises what is happening to [[spoiler:Bruks]], shortly after she learns who is to blame for the death of her partner and shortly before [[spoiler:she dies of a gunshot wound inflicted by Moore]].

** Bruks gets an awful lot of these. On one notable occasion though, it is when he realizes something at the same time as the super-intelligent hive mind.
--->'''Bruks''': ''This is a sampling transect''.

** [[spoiler:Bruks ends up with a mysteriously recurring cancer, suggested to be a pre-existing condition. Rakshi sees something in his eyes which makes her realise what is happening to him. The eyes of the Bicamerals glow, as a side effect of tracer proteins expressed by their cancers. Join the dots!]].
** [[spoiler:Bruks is given something by Valerie...suggested to be a modified Portia organism in an encephalitis jacket. Either this, or the Bicameral cancer, or ''both'', do a splendid job of turning Bruks into something quite terrifyingly inhuman]].

* SuperSoldier: All modern human soldiers are this to some degree. With a mental off-switch that turns them into a "Zombie" and significantly enhanced biology; amongst other things, Moore has far more mitochondria than Bruks, making him much faster and stronger. They're totally outclassed by the vampires, however, who are even faster, stronger, tougher, smarter and just basically better in every way.
* TeamPet: Dan Bruks is so out of his element, he might as well be this in ''Echopraxia'', at least initially.

** In an aversion, Dan Bruks, is the least augmented person so far, and he gets called Oldschool and Roach.

* TranshumanTreachery: Pretty much everyone stabs everyone else in the back one way or another. And the end result of the work of the Bicamerals and Valerie is an alarmingly upgraded [[spoiler:Bruks]] who promptly murders [[spoiler:Valerie, despite her being a vampire that's normally far faster, more alert, more intelligent and more able to predict human (and hive mind) behavior]] using nothing but a dumb surgical tool.

* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Bruks, the whole damn time. Not even killing himself stops him from being manipulated.]]
* UpliftedAnimal: [[spoiler: Bruks, from a certain point of view]].
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:Bruks gives one to Jim Moore, Siri's dad, over him now being worried about Siri's well-being when it had been his partial zombie-ism, the augmentations and hemispherectomy that he got to counter the effects that made him the best suited Synthesist for Theseus. Not to mention that the reason why Siri got infected was because his dad was the actual target]].

* AudienceSurrogate: Daniel Bruks spends much of the first act being as confused as the reader - transhumans have a hard time explaining themselves to baselines.

** One of the Bicamerals, Chinedum Ofoegbu, walks out of a hyperbaric chamber to break up a "[[CurbStompBattle fight]]" between [[spoiler:Valerie on one side, and Rakshi, Moore, Lianna and Daniel on the other side]] whilst his blood is practically fizzing. Of course, given the number of transhumans involved, it isn't clear what would have happened if he hadn't intervened, or if the whole thing wasn't a part of an elaborate ploy...
** Moore pulls the crippled body of Daniel to safety as they flee [[spoiler: Icarus]]. This is interesting because he uses a [[spoiler: "Zombie Switch" to disengage his higher brain functions for extra efficiency in an emergency]]. When he claims "that wasn't me", he means it.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Of all the Bicamerals, zombies, vampires, and in-betweens that crew the ''Crown of Thorns'', only Jim Moore survives to the end. Oh, and the undead alien thing wearing Daniel's body, that has his memories.]]

** Rakshi realises what is happening to [[spoiler:Daniel]], shortly after she learns who is to blame for the death of her partner and shortly before [[spoiler:she dies of a gunshot wound inflicted by Moore]].

** Daniel gets an awful lot of these. On one notable occasion though, it is when he realizes something at the same time as the super-intelligent hive mind.
--->'''Daniel''': ''This is a sampling transect''.

** [[spoiler:Daniel ends up with a mysteriously recurring cancer, suggested to be a pre-existing condition. Rakshi sees something in his eyes which makes her realise what is happening to him. The eyes of the Bicamerals glow, as a side effect of tracer proteins expressed by their cancers. Join the dots!]].
** [[spoiler:Daniel is given something by Valerie...suggested to be a modified Portia organism in an encephalitis jacket. Either this, or the Bicameral cancer, or ''both'', do a splendid job of turning Daniel into something quite terrifyingly inhuman]].

* SuperSoldier: All modern human soldiers are this to some degree. With a mental off-switch that turns them into a "Zombie" and significantly enhanced biology; amongst other things, Moore has far more mitochondria than Daniel, making him much faster and stronger. They're totally outclassed by the vampires, however, who are even faster, stronger, tougher, smarter and just basically better in every way.

* TranshumanTreachery: Pretty much everyone stabs everyone else in the back one way or another. And the end result of the work of the Bicamerals and Valerie is an alarmingly upgraded [[spoiler:Daniel]] who promptly murders [[spoiler:Valerie, despite her being a vampire that's normally far faster, more alert, more intelligent and more able to predict human (and hive mind) behavior]] using nothing but a dumb surgical tool.

** The fall of [[spoiler:Icarus]] results in a worldwide energy crisis. One chapter starts with a mention of how climate change mitigation requires huge amounts of energy, and the climate is already in a pretty dire state.

* BrownNote: ''I want you to imagine Christ on the cross.''

** Once a human has been "sensitised", anyone could trigger the effect in them, if they knew the trick. One does learn the trick, in the end.
-->'''[[spoiler:Rakshi]]''': "I want you to imagine something, [[spoiler:Roach]]."

** Daniel gets an awful lot of these. On one notable occasion though, it is when he realises something at the same time as the superhumanly intelligent hive mind.

* TheChessmaster: It isn't clear who should take this particular title, Valerie or the Bicamerals, but it is very clear that they planned pretty much everything meticulously, even allowing for the myriad of ways in which things could go wrong.
** It is later observed that [[spoiler:the Bicamerals]] could see the writing on the wall and played to lose, but letting the fruits of [[spoiler:their]] labours survive. Either [[spoiler:Valerie]] was in on the plan, or was totally outclassed and manipulated by the superior transhuman mind. It isn't clear which.
** Valerie is certainly this is her back story. She's held captive in a research lab, has a lethal brain defect for which she is dependent on her captors for protection, and can't meet another of her kind without being driven into a murderous territorial rage. Nonetheless, the humans are totally unable to contain her and she walks out leaving a trail of bodies and obtains a small private army to further her own ends without much effort.
* TheCorruption (or perhaps TheVirus): The Bicamerals modify their brains by deliberately inducing a form of cancer which drastically changes the workings of their wetware. Initiates are infected with the cancer, and it isn't really clear whether they can be said to have survived it or not when the process is complete.

** [[spoiler:Daniel gets given something by Valerie... suggested to be a modified Portia organism in an encephalitis jacket. Either this, or the Bicameral cancer, or both, do a splendid job of turning Daniel into something quite terrifyingly inhuman]].

* SuperSoldier: All modern human soldiers are this, to some degree. With a zombie off-switch and significantly enhanced biology (amongst other things, Moore has far more mitochondria than Daniel, making him much faster and stronger) they are more than a match for more conventional humans.
** However, they're totally outclassed by vampires who are even faster, stronger, tougher, smarter and just basically better in every way.

* TheSoulless: Morals, conscience, regret... these are all inconveniences to the working of a proper soldier. So modern human soldiers get an "off switch" installed, which simply shuts down their conscious mind. The rest of their brain gets on with the job much more effectively.
** HelplessGoodSide: The early models of "off switch" left the conscious mind, er, conscious, due to performance issues when the host was fully switched off. Their body and eyes would operate outside of their control, but they'd get to watch it all happening. Some missions [[NoodleIncident didn't go quite to plan]], and the defect was quickly resolved.
* TranshumanTreachery: Pretty much everyone stabs everyone else in the back, one way or another. But the end result of the work of the Bicamerals and Valerie is an alarmingly upgraded [[spoiler:Daniel]] who promply murders [[spoiler:Valerie, a vampire far faster, more alert, more intelligent and more able to predict human (and hive mind) behaviour than anything else emcountered.]] using nothing but a dumb surgical tool.

** In an aversion, Dan Bruks, is the least augmented person so far, and he gets called Oldschool and Roach.

* OhCrap: It's revealed in the prologue that not only can Valerie ignore the Cruciform Glitch, but she has come up with a way to induce it regular humans, essentially flipping the table between vampires and humanity.
** Once a human has been "sensitized", anyone could trigger the effect in them, if they knew the trick.

** One of the Bicamerals, Chinedum Ofoegbu, walks out of a hyperbaric chamber to break up a "[[CurbStompBattle fight]]" between [[spoiler:Valerie on one side, and Rakshi, Moore, Lianna and Daniel on the other side]]. Of course, given the number of transhumans involved, it isn't clear what would have happened if he hadn't intervened, or if the whole thing wasn't a part of an elaborate ploy...

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Of all the Bicamerals, zombies, vampires, and in-betweens that crew the ''Crown of Thorns'', not one survives to the end, including Bruks.]]

* CharacterTics: Valerie clicks her sharpened teeth together. Revealed later as [[spoiler:the method she used to implant a suggestion into the people around her that enabled to use a variant of the Crucifix Glitch on humans]].

* [[spoiler: KillEmAll: Of all the Bicamerals, zombies, vampires, and in-betweens that crew the ''Crown of Thorns'', not one survives to the end, including Bruks.]]