Line #25 Literature/Transition


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11	''Transition'' is a novel by Creator/IainBanks, first published in 2009.
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13	It is based on the premise that a virtually infinite [[TheMultiverse number of parallel dimensions]] do indeed exist. Set between the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the destruction of the Twin Towers, Transition centres on a shadowy organisation called [[AncientConspiracy 'The Concern']] whose members can transport their consciousness [[BodySnatcher into the bodies of unsuspecting people]] in other dimensions by ingesting a drug called [[AppliedPhlebotinum Septus]] and thus meddle with the socio-political development of other Earths.
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15	----
16	!!This book provides examples of:
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18	%%* AncientConspiracy
19	%%* BodySnatcher
20	%%* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Bisquitine, of course.
21	* ColdBloodedTorture: The novel has a torturer's POV, in which he describes, among other things, his favorite methods, the importance of simply scaring people into talking, and the need to inflict a minimum amount of pain so that the agency he works for will remain feared.
22	* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Philosopher WouldntHurtAChild. While some of his colleagues are happy to oblige when a child must be tortured to force a parent to talk, he thinks doing so is "both morally objectionable and suspect in principle."
23	%%* FirstContact: [[spoiler: Madame d'O's goal is to avoid this]]
24	%%* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique
25	%%* KarmicDeath
26	%%* KnightTemplar: several, e.g. Madame d'O
27	* TheMenInBlack: The novel utilises the trope in the form of a faction of L'Expédience, a parallel-world hopping secret service, suborned by Madame d'Ortolan to suppress the search for extraterrestrials across the many Earths. Subverted somewhat in that L'Expédience are given an internal politics and diverging aims.
28	%% Just says there is a maquerade, but doesn't explain it. * TheMasquerade: Depending on whenever you're living in an open or in a closed world a Marsquerade will or will not be in place
29	%%* TheMultiverse
30	* NecessarilyEvil: The Philosopher does not enjoy torturing people, but is "not ashamed of it", and would even say he was proud of it. Put simply, he believes "it is something that has to be done, and somebody has to do it"
31	%% * PsychicPowers: [[ScarilyCompetentTracker Trackers]], [[AntiMagic Blockers]], [[BodySnatcher Transitioners]], [[{{Seers}} Forseers]], etcpp.
32	* SelectiveSlaughter: The Philosopher, a torturer, refuses to hurt women or children. He notes that some would claim that it was because he once heard his father raping his mother, but he believes that it's because he's a gentleman.
33	* TortureIsIneffective: A torturer/narrator explains that the worst torture of all is just describing what will happen. Later in the same book, torture fails to work, but only because the character being tortured [[ItMakesSenseInContext teleports out of his body]] first.
34	%%* TheVamp: Madame d'O, or at least she tries...
35	%% Just says they call him an unreliable narrator, but doesn't explain how he is one. * UnreliableNarrator:
36	%% --> "Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator, though of course if you believe everything you're told you deserve whatever you get."
37	%%* WellIntentionedExtremist: several (e.g. the Christian Terrorists)
38	%% Doesn't explain what the right thing is. * YouDidTheRightThing: Creepy when a torturer tells you this
39	%% ** Edges into YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame.
40	* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: Invoked. A man who frequently travels between universes at one point looks up at the sky when arriving in a new one, searching for zeppelins. As he says, he 'likes it when there's zeppelins'.

Context Literature / Transition