History Literature / SpaceCaptainSmith

* WeaponOfChoice: Victorian-esque hero Smith has his .308 Morgan Plainsman (the book quickly just refers to it as a rifle to keep it short) and his Civiliser, combat amateur Carveth used to lug a Maxim cannon but this gets dropped for a shotgun as her mainstay - she returns to using the Maxim in the last book, the old-school warrior, Suruk has his spear and Susan, TheLancer, of the Special Operations team is never without her beam-gun, a support weapon.

* WithThisHerring: For such an important mission, Captain Smith was given an unarmed rustbucket of a ship and a couple of guns in a locker (a Maxim machine gun which acts like the smartgun from Movie/{{Aliens}}, a shotgun and a service revolver).

* MoreDakka: Smith fends off three marauding void sharks with a somewhat futuristic Maxim machine gun that has 999 rounds in a single magazine. The Maxim was also used to beat back a Ghast boarding party. Once Smith gets his Morgan Plainsman rifle, Carveth takes up the Maxim and goes wild with it (later on the Maxim mysteriously disappears from the series and Carveth gets stuck with a shotgun). For the bad guys side, the Edenites that wear powered armour also carry gatling guns as a standard weapon.

* SpotOfTea: In The God Emperor of Didcot, the Ghasts [[spoiler: plan to destroy the tea fields, thus striking a mortal blow to the British Space Empire]].

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: The British 'civilized' aliens, making them learn English.

* ArchEnemy: Number 462 and Smith are each others, though 462 understandably hates Smith more than Smith dislikes 462. For 462, every time he encounters Smith, he ends up getting more and more maimed. While for Smith, any time there's a threat to the British Empire, it's inevitable that 462 has a hand in it.

* CopycatCover: It's very similar to the British covers of the {{Literature/Flashman}} novels.

* EgomaniacHunter: Suruk the slayer, who's extremely proud of his headhunting and is obsessed with getting more skulls to polish, even if the skulls belong to British agents.

* SteamPunk: The British Space Empire took a huge conscious reversion, as a nod to their industrial empire in the 1800s they've gone back to smokestacks and boilers. When London is introduced, chimneys and chimney sweeps have made a come-back. Even their gigantic war robots get chimneys! The Empire has also reverted back to the morality of Victoria, including its low-key to blatant discrimination towards non-British and attitudes towards sexuality.

* WeaponOfChoice: Victorian-style hero Smith has his .308 Morgan Plainsman (the book quickly just refers to it as a rifle to keep it short) and his Civiliser, combat amateur Carveth used to lug a Maxim cannon but this gets dropped for a shotgun as her mainstay - she returns to using the Maxim in the last book, the old-school warrior, Suruk has his spear and Susan, TheLancer, of the Special Operations team is never without her beam-gun, a support weapon.
* WeWillUseLasersInTheFuture: The British Space Empire has a fondness for big firearms, but in the books as the war intensifies even their usual HandCannon aren't enough firepower so the British issue plasma and laser weapons in increasingly large numbers.

* WideEyedIdealist: Smith. Admittedly his idealism is based around how great it is that the British Space Empire stomps on and colonises everyone, but it's idealism.

* SupernaturalMartialArts: Suruk is already an amazing warrior, but he later learns techniques from an OldMaster, that allowed him to put his hand through a lemming-man's armour and tear out his still beating heart. He also killed another lemming-man by channeling his energies into the lemming-man's body and inducing a heart attack.

* ItWasAGift: After Smith and crew liberate Paradis from Corveau, Francois tells Smith to keep the .308 Morgan Plainsman rifle that he lent Smith. With Corveau gone, Francois no longer needs a gun like that and feels Smith will make better use of it.

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: The Morlocks practically scream out that they're Orcs. They are large, strong and green (but skinny), they have big tusks and like collecting skulls, and in a shoutout to TabletopGame/Warhammer40000, they believe that painting a ship red makes it goes faster.

Space Captain Smith (The chronicles of Isambard Smith Vol. 1) is the debut novel of English author Toby Frost, and is a science-fiction comedy. It has been followed by four sequels- ''God Emperor of Didcot'', ''Wrath of the Lemming Men'', ''A Game of Battleships'' and ''End of Empires''.

* CoolStarship: Subverted - the ''John Pym'' is very old and very battered, held together with duct tape and string, but she is also one of the fastest starships in the known galaxy - ''in a straight line'' - thanks to a massive non standard engine. Not so good at cornering though.

* ItWasAGift: After Smith and crew liberate Paradis from Corveau, Francois tells Smith to keep the .308 Morgan Plainsman that he lent Smith. With Corveau gone, Francois no longer needs a gun like that and feels Smith will make better use of it.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: In fitting with the Victorian atmosphere, the British Space Empire initially sticks to large-bore firearms that wouldn't be out of place in the 20th-21st century. These are initially more than enough for most threats, with energy weapons being mostly for heavy support.

* WeaponOfChoice: Victorian-style hero Smith has his .308 Morgan Plainsman (the book quickly just refers to it as a rifle to keep it short) and his Civiliser, combat amateur Carveth used to lug a Maxim cannon but this gets dropped for a shotgun as her mainstay, the old-school warrior, Suruk has his spear and Susan, TheLancer, of the Special Operations team is never without her beam-gun, a support weapon.

* MsFanService: Averted with Carveth. When Smith found out that Carveth was made as a custom-built sexbot, he was surprised given that she looks like a small, thin woman of 30 who's only pretty in a plain way. Carveth then explains the reason why she's not a busty goddess is that her owner is an extremely nasty pervert with very specific fetishes, and her design specs came from a questionaire he filled out.

* CompleteMonster: The entire lemming-men race are deceitful fanatics devoted to torture and murdering any non-rodent species and the occasional underling.

* WeaponOfChoice: Smith has his .308 Morgan Plainsman (the book quickly just refers to it as a rifle to keep it short) and his Civiliser, Carveth used to lug a Maxim cannon but this gets dropped for a shotgun as her mainstay, Suruk has his spear and Susan of the Special Operations team is never without her beam-gun.

* ShoutOut - liberally sprinkled through all three novels, calling everything from Enid Blyton to War of the Worlds, the Chipmunks to Japanese whaling practices ([[spoiler:the space whales "ate the Japanese fleet and passed it off as research")]], and even the Teddy Bears' Picnic.

* WeWillUseLasersInTheFuture: The British Space Empire has a fondness for big firearms, but in the books as the war intensifies even the HandCannons aren't enough firepower so the British adopt plasma and laser weapons in increasingly large numbers.

* CruelMercy: After finding cyborg John Gilead, diabled by an emp blast, Suruk takes Gilead's still-living head but leaves him alive to bring to trial. This isn't such a mercy as Suruk keeps Gilead in his litter box and spits out fecal pellets on him.

* ReligionOfEvil: The Edenites took the worst bits of various religions and deliberately rolled them up with fascism to become a fun-hating, misogynistic cult that worships the Great Annihilator (though they are oddly not too racist, given their allying with the Ghast and Lemming men).

* BerserkButton: The normally cowardly Carveth will lose it, if anyone calls her fat.