History Literature / BlackMan

** The main UN colony on Mars is called [[RayBradbury Bradbury]], another one is called [[{{Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds}} Wells]].

* MarketBasedTitle: ''Thirteen'' is the title for the USA, due to possibility of interpreting UnfortunateImplications from the original title.

** Like many laws, it can be subverted. [[spoiler: Ethan Conrad]] spent several years in the progressive Rim States (on the West Coast), gaining citizenship in the Angeline Freeport before grandfathering into a clause in Jacobsen Accords which gave him privacy regarding his genetic stock.

* TakeAThirdOption: a thirteen has two options post-Jacobsen Accords: stay imprisoned on Earth for the rest and know when and where you're going to die, or go to Mars and become a part of the workforce (as well as something of a minor celebrity). Or you can run, in which case you'll have a UN-backed thirteen-hunter (who is probably a thirteen) come after you. And you'll have a Haag bullet with your name on it.

* SuperSoldier: Thirteens, which are genetic throwbacks to early hunter-gatherers who were forced out of the breeding pool by the rise of agriculture. Several nations had programs that birthed and trained them, particularly the U.S.'s Project Lawman and the U.K.'s Project Osprey.

* {{AI}}: the n-djinns of the Thirteen universe are not [[defective AIIsACrapshoot]] in any way. They are used as spaceship pilots, powerful search engines (so powerful they can link people through many degrees of separation), and can even [[spoiler: map out the spread of a immune system-killing virus]]. Despite their usefulness, they are fundamentally alien and impossible for any human (or variant) to fully understand, despite being created by humanity.

* {{Jerkass}}: thirteens are Jerkass the Species. Navant, Marsalis, Keegan (the thirteen who extorts Ethan Conrad), implied with Ethan Conrad. Merrin [[spoiler: and his twin Onbekend]] are outright evil. Everyone thirteen but Isaac Sutherland is an ass, who is never in an actual scene. A [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]] may accompany the jerkass part, but it's rare among them.

* FutureMusic: several references to ''bloodbeat''.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The Varian Thirteens were created as super soldiers. [[GoneHorriblyRight What they got]] were a bunch of highly trained, [[{{Determinator}} utterly driven]] killing machines who fall a long way outside [[TheUnfettered normal moral and social contraints]] a human mind has. They made exceptionally capable insurgents, counter insurgents, commandoes and terrorists and caused substantial amounts of destruction and political destabilisation across the whole world before the [[SuperRegistrationAct Jacobsen Accords]] were signed and the world's governments had them all rounded up and imprisoned or sent to Mars.

** The nature of the Haag Gun, which even leads Marsalis to MercyKill people he doesn't kill in one shot. [[spoiler: it's basically an AIDS gun.]] The sheer nastiness of it is justified, since it's used to [[spoiler: guarantee the death of any renegade thirteen if they escape before thirteen-hunters like Marsalis can truly finish them off.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: thirteens are Jerkass the Species. Navant, Marsalis, Keegan (the thirteen who extorts Ethan Conrad), implied with Ethan Conrad. Merrin [[spoiler: and his twin Onbekend]] are outright evil. Everyone but Isaac Sutherland, who is never in an actual seen. A [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]] may accompany the jerkass part, but it's rare among them.

* SuperRegistrationAct: the Jacobsen Accords, which laid down international laws pertaining to variants. Bonobos, gleeches, and hibernoids were allowed to stay on Earth so long as they were registered. Thirteen, seen as too dangerous, were either imprisoned, captured, killed, or shipped off to Mars where they join the terraforming effort.
** Like many laws, it can be subverted. [[spoiler: Ethan Conrad]] spent several years in the progressive Rim States (on the West Coast), gaining citizenship in the Angeline Freeport before grandfathering into a clause in Jacobsen Accords which gave him

* TheConspiracy: [[spoiler: Scorpio Response]] and [[spoiler: Ortiz's desire to kill everyone involved in it (but him) by using Onbekend]]

* LastOfHisKind: the remaining thirteens are a group-sized version of this. They are small in number on Earth, mostly isolated to hiding, being imprisoned by the UN, or being hired by the UN as thirteen-hunters. They have to deal with the reality that they can never reproduce without their unborn child being taken away by the local government, like in [[spoiler: Sevgi's case]].

** Hibernoids get testy when they start getting tired.

* TakeAThirdOption: a thirteen has two options post-Jacobsen Accords: stay imprisoned on Earth for the rest and know when and where you're going to die, or go to Mars and become something of a minor celebrity. Or you can run, in which case you'll have a thirteen-hunter (probably a thirteen) and a Haag bullet with your name on it.

* TakeAThirdOption: a thirteen has two options post Jacobsen Accords: stay imprisoned on Earth for the rest and know when and where you're going to die, or go to Mars and become something of a minor celebrity. Or you can run, in which case you'll have a thirteen-hunter (probably a thirteen) and a Haag bullet with your name on it.

* HunterOfHisOwnKind: Carl, most notably. It's also implied that the EU has other thirteens hunting down renegade thirteens.

** [[spoiler: the Haag Gun, though it takes a while.

* DistaffCounterpart: [[spoiler: Carmen Ren]] for Carl. They're both [[spoiler: thirteens (regardless of gender)]], after all.

* ArmorIsUseless: weblar averts this, mostly.