Line #13 Literature/FallOrDodgeInHell


1	''Fall, or Dodge in Hell'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/NealStephenson. It largely follows Richard "Dodge" Forthrast and Zula Forthrast from ''Literature/{{Reamde}}'', making it Neal Stephenson's first direct sequel. It also expands Stephenson's [[TheVerse verse]] by linking to the continuity of ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'' and ''Literature/TheBaroqueCycle''.
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3	After the events of ''Reamde'', Dodge is enjoying his comfortable life as a video game magnate and technology pioneer. When an unexpected health disaster lays him low, however, his oddball will leads to the development of BrainUploading technology, ushering in a new way for humanity to experience life after death. But conflicts, both within and without the virtual afterlife, have serious ramifications for the future of humanity.
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6	!!Tropes:
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8	* ActionGirl: Fern, a hulking ship captain and competent fighter.
9	* AffablyEvil: Autochthons are friendly, charming and beautiful, but they're essentially thugs whose job is to enforce El's domination over Bitworld.
10	* ArtificialAfterlife: Bitworld, a place where the minds of the dead are uploaded.
11	* ArtificialIntelligence: If you don't consider the brains uploaded into Bitworld to be human, then they're basically AI that resembles the people whose brains they're patterned after. Also, native denizens of Bitworld have no human basis. They're pure AI who live alongside uploaded humans. Those created by Spring are called Sprung and appear to be more or less indistinguishable from other late-arrival souls. Autochthons, created by El, look like beautiful, angelic people and do his bidding without question. There are also a races of artificial subhumans, including Beedles, who are ambiguously sentient.
12	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Dodge rules Bitworld because his ability to change it is greater than anyone else's. Other souls simply have to follow his lead. When El usurps him, it's because El is even stronger in Bitworld than Dodge, having conditioned his mind for years prior to entering.
13	* TheBeautifulElite: The Autochthons are beautiful and powerful. As agents of El's will, they hold authority over all in Bitworld.
14	* BenevolentMageRuler: Dodge rules Bitworld through his ability to alter its reality, and all his efforts are to make the world the best it can be from his perspective. Given the fact that he's a video game developer who is named after his wizard character who rules a fantasy MMO world, Dodge is basically invoking the trope.
15	* TheBigGuy:
16	** Of Dodge's team of early souls, Ward is made his designated enforcer and guard.
17	** Fern serves this role during Corvus's quest, being a burly ActionGirl.
18	* BrainUploading: New technology allows brain scanners to create a complete map of a brain's connectome, creating a virtual copy of the brain.
19	* CallBack: Early on, characters make reference to the events of ''Literature/{{Reamde}}''. Enoch Root also repeats the "Initiate Nail Removal Immediately" joke from ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}''.
20	* CleverCrows: Corvallis is a genius and is closely associated with crows. It's the origin of his name, and he uses a crow motif throughout his life. In Bitworld, he lives as a giant crow who can turn into a man, but prefers being a crow.
21	* DeathIsCheap: For humans in the real world, you can get your brain uploaded to Bitworld and live out a whole second existence. Within Bitworld, anyone who dies can simply be rebooted, though this doesn't always happen. Several characters who die in the real world become major characters in Bitworld, and several characters who die in Bitworld come back later.
22	* DemotedToExtra: Csongor, in spite of being a major character in ''Reamde'', appears in only one scene and is only mentioned a few times in total throughout the story, even though his wife Zula and daughter Sophia are major characters.
23	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
24	** Dodge dies from eating an apple pastry after being told not to eat anything. Apples are commonly used to illustrate the forbidden "fruit of knowledge" in the Bible.
25	** Many events within the virtual afterlife closely mirror the Bible and ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', including the Tower of Babel, the Garden of Eden, the corruption of Adam and Eve, and the fall of Satan. Some events are specifically modeled after the Bible.
26	* TheDreaded: Denizens of Bitworld are very fearful of "lightning bears," though some claim that they're just a myth. They're real, and pretty fearsome.
27	* EitherOrTitle: ''Fall, or Dodge in Hell''
28	* {{Expy}}: Dodge's favorite musician, who gets attention as the last thing he listened to before his death, is a an electronic-music composer who set out to make a lot of music that sounds like "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4 O Fortuna]]." This is probably a deliberate Expy of Music/ESPosthumus.
29	* ForWantOfANail: Richard's death is caused by forgetting to fast before surgery and eating a free apple pastry, then assuming that it's trivial and forgetting to mention it before going under. This sets in motion the rest of the plot.
30	* GenderIsNoObject: Given that physics and biology are all virtual in Bitworld, gender doesn't mean very much. Women occupy any number of roles that would traditionally be dominated by men, which includes fighting.
31	* AGodAmI: While Dodge sets himself up as the ruler of Bitworld, it's only El who actually presents himself as a god and demands worship from the residents of Bitworld.
32	* HighPriest: One Autocthon is highest in El's clergy and enacts his will.
33	* MonsterShapedMountain: Some of the first souls uploaded to Bitworld were not copied over very well and have very alien minds. Some of these become huge rock creatures that rarely ever move, get overgrown with plant life, and are easily mistaken for hills. Prim even lives on a hill that turns out to be alive.
34	* OurAngelsAreDifferent: The first souls uploaded into Bitworld are very powerful, and most grow wings to fly around. They are sometimes referred to as angels. The most powerful Autochthons, servants of the godlike El, are also referred to as angels.
35	* OurDemonsAreDifferent: The souls who "fell" after El's arrival are just people who were uploaded early in Bitworld's existence and followed Dodge's example. They are more powerful than later inhabitants and can change their shapes more easily, but never choose to look like classic demons.
36	* PowerGlows:
37	** El typically takes the form of a face that glows like the sun.
38	** The magic sword wielded by an Autochthon glows with a light so bright that it's difficult to look at.
39	* TheQuest: Corvallis initiates a quest to save Bitworld in the last act of the story.
40	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld:
41	** Enoch Root is still alive after hundreds of years. He makes occasional oblique reference to his age and the fact that he'll be around until his job is over.
42	** Within Bitworld, people don't age, and it's been running long enough that even relatively new residents have lived for hundreds of subjective years.
43	* ReluctantRuler: Dodge doesn't really ''want'' to be the ruler of Bitworld, but he's the one who first started to create it, and it quickly gets inhabited by all sorts of new people, so it's up to him to rule them and make sure they don't wreck everything.
44	* SillyWill: Richard's will was written during a brief obsession with the concept of BrainUploading, and a lot of it deals with his desire to have his brain scanned as a means of immortality. The executors have a difficult time establishing what they have to go through to satisfy their legal requirements for this crackpot request.
45	* StealthPun (multi-lingual): An interesting part of watching Bitworld take form is trying to match its occupants to their original selves (as few have clear memories, and some are assigned names relating to how they appear there). It becomes apparent that the one who takes up residence in the spring, and thus becomes known as Spring, is [[spoiler:Verna]].
46	* TakeThat: Early on, while Dodge is contemplating his favorite band, he takes a moment to think about how use of the song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4 O Fortuna]]" in media is stale and cliche. He prefers new music in the ''style'' of that song.
47	* {{Transhumanism}}: Humans become virtual life forms living inside a computer system, Bitworld.
48	* TyrantTakesTheHelm: El casts Dodge and his followers aside after they've become unpopular with the masses and assumes rulership over Bitworld as a divine figure, but it soon becomes clear that he's just a tyrant.
49	* UnexpectedSuccessor: Richard hadn't updated his will in decades, and the peculiarities of it lead to his siblings having to bear a lot more responsibility for his financial empire than they expected or wanted.
50	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: El has a whole army of angels called Autocthons who preach his gospel and enforce his rules. He's revered by many denizens of Bitworld, but others recognize him as a tyrant.

Context Literature / FallOrDodgeInHell