Line #48 Literature/ThisShatteredWorld


1	! WARNING: {{Late Arrival Spoiler}}s abound for ''Literature/TheseBrokenStars''.
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3	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shattered_world.jpg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:333:Trust what you feel.]]
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6	-->''"There's never just two sides to anything."''
7	--->'''Captain Jubilee "Lee" Chase'''
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9	Jubilee Chase is a soldier. Flynn Cormac is an insurgent.
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11	Their sides are at war for the planet of Avon, a desolate planet where the terraforming didn't take, and no one knows why. A planet where soldiers occasionally lose their minds and commit chilling acts of unprovoked violence... except for Lee. A planet where strange experiments are performed at a mysterious building in the fens... that only Flynn has seen.
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13	When Flynn's infiltration of the base base is discovered by Lee, he's forced to take her hostage to escape. More than that, he has questions about what's happening on his planet that he hopes she can answer. When she can't, he takes her to the rebels' base as his prisoner.
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15	She escapes, but that's only the beginning. Because Lee ''does'' have a connection to the strange things happening on Avon, and to find out what that is, she'll have to dig deep into the horrors of her past.
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17	But she won't have to do it alone...
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19	''This Shattered World'' is the second novel in ''The Starbound Trilogy'' by Meagan Spooner and Aimee Kaufmann, that began with ''Literature/TheseBrokenStars'' and ends with ''Literature/TheirFracturedLight''.
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21	----
22	!!Tropes:
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24	* ActionGirl: Captain Jubilee Chase is a highly-trained soldier with a lethal reputation. When she's forced to assault three other soldiers to protect Flynn, they're basically on the floor in seconds.
25	* BadLiar: Played with. Tarver has got much better at lying since the first book, but Jubilee knows him well enough to realise that it's ''Lilac'' who was changed by the whispers and is in danger of being [[TheyWouldCutYouUp taken away]], rather than Tarver.
26	* BaitAndSwitch: When Jubilee calls her old captain, Tarver Merendson, for information on [=LaRoux=] Industries.
27	-->'''Tarver:''' Are you asking me to spy on my future father-in-law?\
28	'''Jubilee:''' Uhhh...\
29	'''Tarver:''' Because Lilac and I have gotten ''very'' good at that.
30	* CrapsackWorld: Avon is war-torn, permanently overcast, and practically all swamp. The terraforming is behind schedule by decades, and no one knows why.
31	* DatingCatwoman: He's a rebel, she's a soldier charged with fighting rebels.
32	* TheDreaded: Stone-faced Chase has quite the reputation among the Fianna. After seeing her in action, Flynn admits her reputation is unfair: she's ''much'' more lethal than they say.
33	* DyeOrDie: Flynn sneaks back on the base after bleaching his hair and applying fake tan.
34	* FalseFlagOperation: [=McBride=] commits a mass murder of his own fellow rebels with his stolen Gleidel, to provide the excuse to attack the military.
35	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
36	** Readers who were paying attention to the first book will recognise Jubilee's symptoms when Flynn tries to show her the "secret base" that suddenly isn't there: dizziness, nausea, hearing funny noises? Yep, that's the whispers all right.
37	** "Learn fast, or don't." Jubilee's quoting of her former captain is an early hint that it's Tarver.
38	* GenderBlenderName: Nickname, anyway. It seems that Lilac was unaware that the "Lee Chase" her fiancé travelled across the galaxy to help out was, in fact, a woman. MistakenForCheating is averted, though, as she trusts Tarver.
39	* HiveMind: The whispers are a hive mind. During [=LaRoux=] Industries' experiments, subjects were punished for noncompliance by being separated from the rest, the worst agony they can experience. For this, they plan to KillAllHumans and leave Roderick [=LaRoux=] as the sole survivor.
40	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters:
41	** The whispers are adamant in the belief that ''all'' humans are as evil as Roderick [=LaRoux=], and not without reason: his company has lured them from the dimensional rift where they live, trapped them, experimented on them and tortured them when they don't comply.
42	** [=McBride=] murdered his own people, including at least one child, to incite more conflict.
43	* InnocentlyInsensitive: Flynn points out how unfairly the people of Avon are treated: the schools were closed, and they can't use the equivalent of the internet or TV. Jubilee points out that on a planet called Verona, a rebellion was organised using characters on a children's cartoon to communicate. Flynn complains that he's never heard of Verona: why are his people being made to suffer because of things that happened on some planet they've never heard of? Jubilee is from Verona, and her parents were killed in that rebellion.
44	* KillAllHumans: The whispers explicitly plan to kill every human on every planet, ''except'' for their tormentor Roderick [=LaRoux=]. Him, they plan to leave as the only remaining human so he can endure the agony he inflicted on them, knowing it's his fault.
45	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: A frequent reaction from people recovering from the Fury. When Jubilee finds herself surrounded by rebel bodies, obviously killed by a Gleidel, with her own Gleidel in her hands, she begs Flynn to let [=McBride=] kill her.
46	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Jubilee admits that Lilac is a ''master'' of this trope: if she hadn't met the real Lilac, she realises she'd never have seen past the SpoiledBrat facade. When Tarver passes on an encoded message from Lilac, it appears to be about fashion and parties.
47	* OhCrap:
48	** When Flynn realises that a fellow rebel has told [=McBride=] that Flynn is keeping Captain Lee Chase prisoner. He just barely gets there in time to keep [=McBride=] from beating her to death.
49	** When Jubilee realises that footage of Flynn from the bar is being transmitted around the base... as Flynn is lying in a bed in the med bay.
50	** When Flynn returns to the rebel hideout to find Jubilee surrounded by murdered rebels, Gleidel in hand, and with no idea of what happened.
51	** An ExplainExplainOhCrap when Flynn tries to convince Sean that Jubilee did not commit the above mass murder, Sean retorts that the murders were committed with a Gleidel; who has those except the military? A nasty pause follows as everyone present realises the answer: [=McBride=].
52	* PillowPistol: When Flynn sneaks back onto the base to speak to Jubilee, he finds her room and notes that she sleeps with her hand under her pillow. When she wakes up, he realises why.
53	* TheSoulless: Jubilee's reputation, meant to explain why she never dreams and doesn't succumb to the Fury.
54	* ThemeNaming:
55	** Shakespeare-related names occur frequently. The novel takes place on the planet Avon, Jubilee's home planet is called Verona, and she initially calls Flynn Romeo.
56	** City names on Verona apparently hailed from the Nato alphabet; Jubilee was from November, and she mentions a city called Sierra.
57	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Once again, all evidence implicating Roderick [=LaRoux=] conveniently disappears from the installation that can no longer even be proven to belong to him.
58	* WorfHadTheFlu: Jubilee suffers a grazing bullet wound, quickly followed by broken ribs. They're soon treated, but continue to slow her down until the end of the book.
59	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Flynn initially sneaked onto the base to probe for information about an installation to the east that's not supposed to be there. Jubilee insists that there is no such base, and when Flynn takes her to the site there's nothing to be seen, to his amazement.
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61	----
62	-->''"I'm not your enemy, Chase. And I don't think you're mine."''

Context Literature / ThisShatteredWorld