History Literature / OnTheEdgeOfEureka

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On the Edge of Eureka is a science fiction novel posted by Wattpad user strange-quark, also known as Wren (which is probably short for Karen.) ''On the Edge of Eureka'' is mostly SpeculativeFiction, with bits and pieces of modern-day technology taken up to eleven. Set in a grim, dark, CyberPunk MegaCity called Eleutheria, one of its chief themes is the ethics of DNA modification as the planet plunges itself into a civil war over eugenics. In the background, DNA data storage, supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and nuclear bombs all come into play, while the backstory seems to hint at a smallpox pandemic that happened far into the past. ''Enlightenment,'' a prequel presumably discussing this more, is in the works.

* FiveManBand: The main characters:
** TheLeader is Acidalia, the most experienced and the oldest hero of the group.
** TheLancer is Andromeda, the less girly but more physically strong and violent.
** TheSmartGuy is Carina, who is brilliant but not very strong.
** TheBigGuy is Athena, who has very little common sense.
** TheChick is Lyra, the most inexperienced and idealistic.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The genetic modification and DNA storage actually have a strong basis in reality, but most readers see them as sci-fi pseudoscience.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Most Eleutherian women are named after celestial objects (Acidalia, Estella, Carina, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, et cetera) or mythical figures (Artemis, Athena, Cassandra, et cetera.) This also extends to the names chosen by defected male soldiers (Atlas, Kronos, etc.) Because of preexisting naming conventions, most of these people have {{Overly Long Name}}s consisting entirely of mythical figures, heavenly bodies, and ancient goddesses.
** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with the Miran child soldiers who were later adopted out and given the chance to choose their own names. They were quite young at the time, so the majority have names like Wolfgang Deathridge or Septimius Justinian in order to invoke this trope.
** Averted with the old Eleutherian soldiers; all their names are taken from serial numbers, so are usually short or just nicknames like Ace and Tee.
** Averted with Lyra, which is kind of a TearJerker when you remember her name is so short because she has no rank, status or family to speak of.

On the Edge of Eureka is a science fiction novel posted by Wattpad user strange-quark, also known as Wren (which is probably short for Karen.) ''On the Edge of Eureka'' is mostly SpeculativeFiction, with bits and pieces of modern-day technology taken UpToEleven. Set in a grim, dark, CyberPunk MegaCity called Eleutheria, one of its chief themes is the ethics of DNA modification as the planet plunges itself into a civil war over eugenics. In the background, DNA data storage, supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and nuclear bombs all come into play, while the backstory seems to hint at a smallpox pandemic that happened far into the past. ''Enlightenment,'' a prequel presumably discussing this more, is in the works.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: So far, we have Acidalia, Aleskynn, Alestra, Athena, Carina, Cressida, Cassiopeia, Tee, Ace, David, TB, Estella, Thea, Atlas, Andromeda, Artemis, Cadé, Raeilya, Alpha-24, Rune, Seven, Kalyn, Wolfgang, Leo, Ajax, and Lyra, and all of their respective families.
** Counting the characters from other works in the universe, we also have Kate, Taylor, Anna, Scout, Scarlett, Tim, Rebecca, Lillie Anne, Natalie, Kallie, Eva, Jace, Trinity, Remembrance, Emmanuel, Patience, the Faiths, Hope, and Cosette.

* LongHairIsFeminine: Upper-class women usually have full-on RapunzelHair.

* MulticoloredHair: Prominent, since genetic modification makes it easy to make your hair bright colors without having to dye it constantly. It's also a symbol of the upper class to have unnatural hair and skin tones. Dalia sports blue and purple, Athena black and red, Carina varying shades of gray and Aleskynn bright red-oranges (though this is the result of a botched mod. She originally wanted black with red tips.)

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The modern Eleutherian caste system. Loyalists hate it because they feel that the "genetically superior" people are stagnant and not allowed to move up to take the control they deem rightfully theirs, while Revolutionaries hate it because of its inequality, abuse and genocidal tendencies.

[[folder: A-F]]

* ActionFashionista: Acidalia.

* AerithAndBob: Acidalia, Aleskynn, Carina Nebula, Andromeda, Cressida... and David.
* AllDeathsFinal: Cybernetics and genetic mods only work on living people. Once you die, you're gone for good.
* AlliterativeName: Aleskynn e Alestra, Andromeda e Amalura.
* AllThatGlitters: Most of the diamonds and gemstones Acidalia wears have zero actual value because of how easily fake gems can be created. They exist only to be pretty.

* AmazonBrigate: Every Eleutherian man is forced to serve in the military, which leaves all other careers as a woman-only field, indicating the police force are this.

* AnArmAndALeg: Acidalia started out with metal bones after she was crippled from being forced to do some type of messed up future ballet as a child. After she's captured by the Nova and badly injured, she just has her feet replaced with cybernetics.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Aleskynn to Acidalia, Cressida to Estella, and Rune and Rae's unnamed younger brothers.
** Averted with Tee; even though he's Dalia's little brother, he loves her and they would do anything for each other.

* ApatheticCitizens: Lyra's first appearance has her being brutally beaten for absolutely no reason, and almost nobody even bats an eyelash.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Most Eleutherian women are named after celestial objects (Acidalia, Estella, Carina, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, et cetera) or mythical figures (Artemis, Athena, Cassandra, et cetera.) This also extends to the names chosen by defected male soldiers (Atlas, Kronos, etc.) Because of preexisting naming conventions, most of these people have OverlyLongNames consisting entirely of mythical figures, heavenly bodies, and ancient goddesses.
** Taken UpToEleven with the Miran child soldiers who were later adopted out and given the chance to choose their own names. They were quite young at the time, so the majority have names like Wolfgang Deathridge or Septimius Justinian in order to invoke this trope.

** Averted with Lyra, which is kind of a {{Tear Jerker}} when you remember her name is so short because she has no rank, status or family to speak of.

* BetaBitch: Aleskynn's friend Amelyx, Cressida's friend Tetra.

* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]]: Dalia to Tee and Aleskynn.

* BrainlessBeauty: Aleskynn's girl posse: Raveri, Amelyx, Velia and Hera. The only thing they ever do is tell Leski how pretty and smart she is in the hopes of winning her favor to boost their own statuses.

* TheCasino: Hirani, for some reason.

* CityNoir: Everything about the red light district.
* CityPlanet: Eleutheria.

* ChocolateBaby: Alestra and her partner were white. Acidalia is vaguely South Asian and is rumoured to be the daughter of a Martian farmer. Apparently nobody thought to do a DNA test.

* CoolOldGuy: Atlas.
* {{Conscription}}: Men are literally drafted at birth.

* CulturedBadass: The majority of the cast.

* DawsonCasting: While not in the book itself, a fan cast list is filled with this. Athena and Carina are 16 and 15, respectively, and are listed as Laura Harrier (27) and Miranda Cosgrove (24.) Even the adults get this treatment: the actor for David looks to be in his fifties or older. In the book, he's 32.
** Funnily enough, this would make Willa Holland, the actress listed for Dalia, younger than half the cast.
* DefectorFromDecadence: Acidalia and Artemis, an empress and a vicereine, respectively.
* DesignerBabies: Implied that pretty much everyone in Eleutheria is this (or at least, everyone who can afford it.)
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Acidalia's capture]] is pretty much this for everyone, though it turns out [[spoiler: Acidalia was alive the entire time and Andromeda was deliberately trying to make the situation sound worse than it was so she could seize Acidalia's power.]]

* DramaQueen: Cressida was this on Mars.

* EmperorScientist: Acidalia.
* EyeColourChange: In the first draft, Acidalia swaps out her pink eyes for her natural brown ones via genetic mods. Unlike most examples, it's not because of any significant event; she just think pink eyes make her look "demonic."

* FalseUtopia: Read the above.

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Acidalia is the responsible one to Aleskynn's fool.
** Even though they aren't biological sisters, Carina and Athena were raised together, making Carina the responsible one and Athena the foolish one.
* FourStarBadass: Praetors Atlas and Andromeda.
* FreedomFromChoice: How Alestra views the world.
* FreeRangeChildren: Acidalia apparently joined the Revolution at 14; Alestra didn't seem to notice or care. Athena somehow got anthrax three times as a kid because she was allowed to wander around BSL-3 laboratories completely unsupervised. Rune and his crew were put on a ship and sent out to space when the oldest among them was 12, resulting in a crash that killed the majority of them. And the less that can be said about Lyra's childhood, the better.
* TheFuture: Sometime in the early 4000s, according to Alestra's diary. At this point, an apocalypse, a Second Enlightenment (that basically contradicted everything that happened during the ''actual'' Enlightenment), the recreation of the feudal system in midwestern-postapocalyptic America, the rise of several other nations, the subsequent destruction of said nations via nuclear bombs, many art movements, and several civil wars have happened.
* FutureFoodIsArtificial: Only some of it. The rich get real food.
* FirstContact: First ''peaceful'' contact, at least. The Mira and the Eleutherians have been at war for decades, but so much time has elapsed between peaceful meetings that neither of the generations that began the war is still around. Dalia, Andromeda and Atlas meeting Rae and Cadé is the first civil discussion in decades, and it's been so long since the last one that both species have never seen the other before and are bemused by each other.

* GenderIsNoObject: Rae mentions that South Cirya is like this.

* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Acidalia singlehandedly recaptures Appalachia City by creating a sort of SyntheticPlague that destroys the DNA of her enemy soldiers, killing them all rather nastily.

* GirlPosse: Amelyx, Raveri, Velia, and Hera to Aleskynn. They basically only serve as BrainlessBeauty idiots who only hang out with Aleskynn to boost their own social statuses. Even Aleskynn gets sick of them after a while, calling their interactions "hollow" when she realizes they've been mindlessly complimenting her the entire conversation instead of actually ''talking'' to her,

* InSeriesNickname: Many, since the names are so long. Acidalia Planitia, Carina-Nebula, Raeilya Aeshiel, Rune Archer-Sagan, and Aleskynn are Dalia, Rina, Rae, Ru, and Leski, respectively.

* LaRésistance: The Revolution likes to portray itself this way, but they're not really an underdog so much as they are one faction of a civil war.

* LawOfAlienNames: The Northern Mira, generally being more violent, have harsher names and a more guttural language. The Southern Mira generally have sweeter, more vowel-heavy names. Northern Mira include Cadé Maru and Jahin Svare, while Southern Mira include Raeilya, Chiramel, and Ararien Æshiel. The Southerners are closer allies to Eleutheria.
** Averted with Faradayers, who mostly have a blend of several different names.

* {{Microts:}} Cycle, sol, et cetera are used when talking about non-Earth planets.

* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: Most of the clothing is just historical clothing with shiny holographic material instead of normal fabric. Martian kids wear a variation of ClassicLolita, Eleutherians wear normal but monotonous clothes that match the color of their caste, and aristocrats usually wear modern-ish ball gowns and evening gowns.

* OnlyOneName: Lyra.

-->'''Lyra''': You're a Ciencia, do something!
-->'''Rina''': I'm an ''astrophysicist,'' I have no idea how anatomy works!
-->'''Athena''': Isn't Acidalia a doctor?
-->'''Acidalia''': I'm a geneticist, not a trauma surgeon!
-->'''Rune''': I think they're already dead.

-->Athena: Like if you work in viruses, it'd be Ciencia Biologica Virii. And then you have people with double names, like Acidalia Planitia, I guess. So it gets long fast. I knew someone named Ametista Margarita e Seraphina Minora, Ciencia Quantistica Theorica Astrophysica. We called her Amé.
* OverrankedSolider: Acidalia's status as a princess and the fact that she's basically a living biological weapon made her a RebelLeader at ''fourteen,'' before most people could even sign up.

* PersonOfMassDestruction: All of the Ciphers are basically living biological weapons because of the skill they have in using DNA modification tools to create dangerous SyntheticPlagues that can destroy entire armies.

* PimpedOutDress: Acidalia's clothing is almost always like this.

* RoyalBrat: Aleskynn. Oh, God, Aleskynn.

* [[SceneryPorn]]: Eleutheria's massive buildings, neon signs, gritty slums and utopian penthouses are described in immense detail. This becomes [[FridgeHorror unnerving]] when it's described by Tee, Ace, Atlas or David, because they are implied to have undergone genetic modification during their training as a soldier that resulted in increased nationalism and patriotism.

* ShoutOut: Cressida and David are farmers in Acidalia Planitia, much like [[TheMartian Mark Watney]]. There's also a mine on Mars named Lewis Crater, in reference to the same book. Dalia's name also comes directly from the plain on Mars, justified in that she was born there and Acidalia is a rare but real given name.

** The cities of Eleutheria and Faraday are based on [[StarWars Coruscant.]]

* SkyscraperCity: Eleutheria, Faraday, The Iron City, and urban parts of Hirani.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Or at least some bizzare VariantChess version.

* SpeculativeScience: Nearly every piece of technology used in the book has a real-life counterpart.

** CRISPR-CAS9 technology is quickly opening the door for new research and easier genetic modifications right now. The ability to program DNA is not that crazy, especially so far into the future.

** To a lesser extent, Cressida.
* StarScraper: Every building in Eleutheria.

* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Aleskynn, being only 13.
** Lyra to an extent, because despite being older than Aleskynn, she has almost none of the experiences that the rest of the cast has had. She's uneducated and can't do basic math and reading, speaks vulgar Latin, and generally knows a lot less than the others.
* TheBeautifulElite: Via genetic mods. People can live to be 200-300 years old (in the case of women with cushy jobs; military men and women in any sort of political job or research job often die under 50 from assassination, lab accidents, gang wars, or murder.) Alestra was In her mid-40s and looked the same age as her 20-year-old daughter. Atlas is pushing eighty, but is physically more like the average modern 40-year-old.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: Dalia notes that her position as a Cipher means it's her responsibility to save Eleutheria from destroying itself. Also shown on a smaller scale: she's the oldest and most powerful in the main cast (save for David) and feels responsible for the younger girls, especially her siblings. She notes that all power comes with a price.
** With Rae, too.

* TheRichHaveWhiteStuff: ''Everything'' the Ciphers own.

* TheUnfavorite: Played with. Dalia, the older girl, is the one put on a pedestal and given immense amounts of money and power by society, but she is loathed by her mother. Aleskynn, the younger girl in a world where this is stigmatized, is treated with a sort of indifference by everyone- except her mother, who would do anything to help her littlest daughter succeed. Even if it involves trying to murder her eldest and [[spoiler: ''actually'' murdering her son.]]
* TheUnpronounceable: Raeilya and Cadé. Dalia notes that the vowels in Raeilya are too fast and fluid for her- or any other human- to reproduce, and the C in Cadé has a "guttural" sound. Raeilya is happy with the nickname Rae, but Cadé has yet to offer an alternative. Likewise, the Mira can say Acidalia and Andromeda... but not the letter T, resulting in them calling Atlas "add-lass."
** Most Mira names are like this. All of Rune's siblings' names are completely unpronounceable to Acidalia.

* WineIsClassy: Sort of. Alestra is fond of the stuff.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The modern Eleutherian caste system. Loyalists hate it because they feel that the "genetically superior" people are stagnant and not allowed to move up to take the control they deem rightfully theirs, while Revolutionaries hate it because of its inequality, abuse and genocidal tendencies.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: All the swear words people would normally say are just translated into Latin. "Meretrix," "lupa," and all the other things Lyra is called basically just mean whore, prostitute or slut. When she says she was abandoned in a ''lustris,'' she means a brothel. ''Mori in igni'' means "die in a fire."

* FlowerInHerHair: Acidalia wears dahlias.

* WomanInWhite: Dalia and Alestra, naturally.

* AffablyEvil: TB. He's not evil just to be evil- he genuinely wants a utopian world, his vision of a utopia just happens to involve a lot of morally ambiguous things.

"Freedom is a beautiful, and wonderful, and dangerous thing."
->'''-Acidalia Planitia, Cipher.'''

** Also, there are shipyards in [[StarTrek Utopia Planitia.]]

* AmazonArmy: Every Eleutherian man is forced to serve in the military, which leaves all other careers as a woman-only field, indicating the police force are this.

* AdultsAreUseless: Averted in On the Edge of Eureka: Dalia's the eldest in the main cast, and the most competent. However, they are all in their teens or 20s. This is justified by the low life expectancy of life in Eleutheria and the lack of family relationships in general.

* PennyAmongDiamonds: Athena and Carina are middle-class and Lyra is an impoverished street urchin, while Acidalia and the rest of the people around them are incredibly wealthy (to the tune of owning entire planets.)

On the Edge of Eureka is a science fiction novel posted by Wattpad user strange-quark, also known as Wren (which is probably short for Karen.) ''On the Edge of Eureka'' is mostly SpeculativeFiction, with bits and pieces of modern-day technology taken UpToEleven. Set in a grim, dark, CyberPunk MegaCity called Eleutheria, one of its chief themes is the ethics of CRISPR-Cas9 DNA modification as the planet plunges itself into a civil war over eugenics. In the background, DNA data storage, supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and nuclear bombs all come into play, while the backstory seems to hint at a smallpox pandemic that happened far into the past. ''Enlightenment,'' a prequel presumably discussing this more, is in the works.

It's slated for several sequels and prequels. The books featuring Acidalia and the rest of the crew are ''On the Edge of Eureka, Quantum Entanglement, Theories of Space-Time, The Nemesis Star,'' and ''The Transcension Hypothesis.'' Prequels include ''Enlightenment, Illuminatarion, Atomic Bonds, Beyond Arcadia,'' and several others. Work on ''Enlightenment'' has already begun, and the first draft is reportedly halfway done. ''On the Edge of Eureka'' has since been removed from Wattpad for editing, but the first draft has been completed, and the edited version is nearly done. Thus far, the changes have been minimal.

[[folder: A-M]]

[[folder:N-Z]]

* AndroidsArePeopleToo: It never even occurs to anyone to treat Alpha-24 as something other than sentient. Though it is mentioned that sentient androids have been outlawed because the ethical qualms outweighed the few benefits of human-like intelligence.

* DefectorFromDecadance: Acidalia.

* EyeColourChange: Acidalia swaps out her pink eyes for her natural brown ones via genetic mods. Unlike most examples, it's not because of any significant event; she just think pink eyes make her look "demonic."

* Aleskynn and Cressida are this in a more childish, immature way.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Lyra's past occupations have never been described in detail, but it's clear that they were . something she isn't proud of, and when you take into account her former home and her desperation for money, she was probably this.

* OddCouple: Platonically, Acidalia and Andromeda. Dalia's a classy, eloquent royal with a deep understanding of politics but clueless about military strategy, while Andromeda is a cyborg bruiser Labora who couldn't give less of a damn about nuance and respect in favor of punching stuff. They're best friends. Obviously.

* WhiteIsGood: Played with but ultimately not played straight. White represents power; it is both Acidalia's ability to change the world for better or worse and the power of the Revolution to rebuild the system, and the power of Alestra and the Movement to do the opposite.

** Tee explicitly refers to the red-light district, and Lyra basically all but says that plenty of Cantatores turn to sex work because "dancing" doesn't make enough money.

* BlackAndGrayMortality: Acidalia is the good guy, but she also has a violent cult of personality (and a few actual cults!), regularly produces propaganda that she knows has zero truth to it, uses her beauty and satus to manipulate people in order to get what she wants, and commits war crimes on the regular to ensure a win. The Revolution itself makes frequent use of biological and chemical weapons and breaks the Geneva conventions constantly. But the Nova does all of the above, plus genocide of the lower castes and torturing their prisoners. Their crimes are usually less "war crimes" and more "crimes against humanity."