History Literature / Coyote

''Coyote'' is a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness hard science fiction]] series created by Creator/AllenSteele. The series begins with [[TheCon the hijacking]] of Earth's first starship, the ''URSS Alabama'', from the corrupt [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica United Republic of America]]. From there the story follows the lives of the colonists as they try to set up a working civilization on Coyote, a moon around a gas giant in the 47 Ursae Majoris system.

* BrainUploading: Savants have artifical minds scanned from human brains. Manuel Castro was a paraplegic and suffered numerous other chronic illnesses before become a Savant.

* FeatheredFiend: The native "boids" are type C--large and flightless, hunt solitarily, can move swiftly on the ground and ambush prey (such as human colonists) from the brush.

* Cyborg: The Savants. The human brain is scanned and duplicated into a small quantum brain, and inserted into a robotic body.

* TheEmpire: The United Republic of America, a corrupt version of the USA which was created when facists gained power and started killing off the competition. Later replaced by the [[spoiler:Western Hemisphere Union, a socialistic but very advanced nation which took control over both of the Americas, then launched 5 sleeper ships towards Coyote]].

* LibertariansInSpace: The ''Alabama'' crew was infiltrated by dissenters to the regime of the United Republic of America, and the Coyote colony largely adhered to democratic principles and the general freedom of the frontier. [[spoiler: The colonists would fight to defend these freedoms against subsequent attempts from repressive Earth governments to take over the colonies.]]

** Human colonists very quickly start harvesting and selling pseudowasp venom as an illicit drug. Later, a cult is started in a remote woodland where the members keep a huge ball plant and purposely allow themselves to be stung by hundreds of pseudowasps at a time--and the cumulative effect of the venom in their systems actually unlocks in them [[spoiler: telepathic abilities]].

** Human colonists very quickly start harvesting and selling pseudowasp venom as an illicit drug. Later, a cult is started in a remote woodland where the members keep a huge ball plant and purposely allow themselves to be stung by hundreds of pseudowasps at a time--and the cumulative effect of the venom in their system actually unlocks in them [[spoiler: telepathic abilities]].

* BizarreAlienBiology: Largely averted, as many creatures are fairly analogous to creatures on Earth. However, there is a strange symbiosis between the swamp rat (a small rodent-like creature), ball plants (which sprout huge hollow spheres), and pseudowasps. During the long Coyote winter, swamp rats hybernate inside the ball plants' spheres--where usually one or two die and are digested by the plant, while the rest survive inside. Pseudowasps also take residence inside the plants, polinate them, and defend them with a sting that causes paralysis in smaller herbivores and disorienting hallucinations in larger creatures such as humans.

** Human colonists very quickly start harvesting and selling pseudowasp venom as an illicit drug. Later, a cult is started in a remote woodland where the members keep a huge ball plant and purposely allow themselves to be stung by hundreds of pseudowasps at a time--and the cumulative effect of the venom in their system actually unlocks in them [[spoiler: telepathic powers]].

* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: Somewhat, with the five [[spoiler: Western Hemisphere Union ships sent to establish firm control of Coyote under the WHU flag and "social collectivist" system--particularly the last one which had a particularly large military complement, as the Savants had come to predict that the earlier colonists would likely resist rule by the subsequent ones. Even after the ouster of Union forces and the subsequent European Alliance brokerage of UN recognition and trade deals with the Coyote Federation, the WHU continued to refuse to recognize their independence and claim that Coyote was still their territory. After the Union forces were ousted,]] Citizens of Coyote would come to jealously guard their hard-won independence from Earth.

* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: Somewhat, with the five [[spoiler: Western Hemisphere Union ships sent to establish firm control of Coyote under the WHU flag and "social collectivist" system--particularly the last one which had a particularly large military complement, as the Savants had come to predict that the earlier colonists would likely resist rule by the subsequent ones. Even after their ouster and the subsequent European Alliance brokerage of UN recognition and trade deals with the Coyote Federation, the WHU continued to refuse to recognize their independence and claim that Coyote was still their territory. After the Union forces were ousted,]] Citizens of Coyote would come to jealously guard their hard-won independence from Earth.

* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: Somewhat, with the five [[spoiler: Western Hemisphere Union ships sent to establish firm control of Coyote under the WHU flag and "social collectivist" system--particularly the last one which had a particularly large military complement, as the Savants had come to predict that the earlier colonists would likely resist rule by the subsequent ones. After the Union forces were ousted,]] Citizens of Coyote would come to jealously guard their hard-won independence from Earth.

* OverlyLongName: [[spoiler: the Western Hemisphere Union ships, extolling the supposed greatness of their revolutionary state ideology]]--such as the ''WHSS Seeking Glorious Destiny Among The Stars For The Greater Good Of Social Collectivism''.

* OverlyLongName: [[spoiler: the Western Hemisphere Union ships, extolling the supposed greatness of their revolutionary state philosophy]]--such as the ''WHSS Seeking Glorious Destiny Among The Stars For The Greater Good Of Social Collectivism''.