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* AerithAndBob: Some characters - primarily the older ones - have relatively normal names, such as [[TimeAbyss Quee Lee]]. Younger characters have odder names, such as Washen. The youngest have especially odd names, such as "Promise" or "Till"
to:
* AerithAndBob: Some characters - primarily the older ones - have relatively normal names, such as [[TimeAbyss Quee Lee]]. Younger characters have odder names, such as Washen. The youngest have especially odd names, such as "Promise" or "Till""Till".
* AlienBlood: Orleans, a Remora, has black blood with the consistency of ketchup.
* AlternateUniverse: Hyperfiber is so strong because it spreads any impact or heat damage across thousands of dimensions. In a more straight example, the Tila from ''Mere'' have quantum structures in their brain that causes an "aura" around objects they see - which they interpret as glimpses of thousands of alternate realities.
* AlienBlood: Orleans, a Remora, has black blood with the consistency of ketchup.
* AlternateUniverse: Hyperfiber is so strong because it spreads any impact or heat damage across thousands of dimensions. In a more straight example, the Tila from ''Mere'' have quantum structures in their brain that causes an "aura" around objects they see - which they interpret as glimpses of thousands of alternate realities.
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* AlienBlood: Orleans, a Remora, has black blood with the consistency of ketchup.
* AlternateUniverse: Hyperfiber is so strong because it spreads any impact or heat damage across thousands of dimensions. In a more straight example, the Tila from ''Mere'' have quantum structures in their brain that causes an "aura" around objects they see - which they interpret as glimpses of thousands of alternate realities.
* AlternateUniverse: Hyperfiber is so strong because it spreads any impact or heat damage across thousands of dimensions. In a more straight example, the Tila from ''Mere'' have quantum structures in their brain that causes an "aura" around objects they see - which they interpret as glimpses of thousands of alternate realities.
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* NiceHat: Captains have reflective, mirror-like peaked caps.
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In the distant future, an [[PlanetSpaceship enormous ship larger than many worlds]] is discovered streaking towards the Milky Way at a third the speed of light. The near-immortal, {{TransHuman}} descendants of humanity are the first set foot on the enormous ship, and the first to claim it. The ancient reactors are warmed up, and life is nurtured inside the millions of enormous caverns inside the ship's hull. A burst from the moon-sized engines catapults the ship around a brown dwarf, setting it into the galactic plane, where humanity sells berths on the Great Ship in exchange for worlds, information, and technology. The nearly indestructible hyperfiber hull makes the Great Ship NighInvulnerable, a very desirable feature to the nearly immortal, fantastically rich sentient entities in the galaxy, who desire something safer than a planet to reside on. Technology, colonization rights, pledges of assistance, and information is sold for the right to reside on the Ship.
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In the distant future, an [[PlanetSpaceship enormous ship larger than many worlds]] is discovered streaking towards the Milky Way at a third the speed of light. The near-immortal, {{TransHuman}} descendants of humanity are the first to set foot on the enormous ship, and the first to claim it. The ancient reactors are warmed up, and life is nurtured inside the millions of enormous caverns inside the ship's hull. A burst from the moon-sized engines catapults the ship around a brown dwarf, setting it into the galactic plane, where humanity sells berths on the Great Ship in exchange for worlds, information, and technology. The nearly indestructible hyperfiber hull makes the Great Ship NighInvulnerable, a very desirable feature to the nearly immortal, fantastically rich sentient entities in the galaxy, who desire something safer than a planet to reside on. Technology, colonization rights, pledges of assistance, and information is sold for the right to reside on the Ship.
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** ''The Memory of Sky'' (2014), seemingly unrelated story [[spoiler: that obscurely hints at a relation to the other stories]]
** ''The Dragons of Marrow'' (2018), [[spoiler: that finally ties Memory of Sky to the end of ''The Well of Stars'']]
** ''The Dragons of Marrow'' (2018), [[spoiler: that finally ties Memory of Sky to the end of ''The Well of Stars'']]
to:
** ''The Memory of Sky'' (2014), seemingly unrelated story [[spoiler: that [[spoiler:that obscurely hints at a relation to the other stories]]
stories]].
** ''The Dragons of Marrow'' (2018),[[spoiler: that finally [[spoiler:that ties ''The Memory of Sky Sky'' to the end of ''The Well of Stars'']]Stars'']].
** ''The Dragons of Marrow'' (2018),
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** ''Eater-Of-Bone''
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** ''Eater-Of-Bone''''Eater-of-Bone''
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The ''Great Ship'' universe is a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera
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The ''Great Ship'' universe is a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], hard, MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera
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* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness:
** The Great Ship series follows almost all known laws of physics - the one exception is hyperfiber, which gains its strength from sharing energy across thousands of alternate realities; though it may not be entirely wrong, as some scientists propose that gravity is so weak because it shares its "impact" across multiple universal planes.
** This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still'' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
** The Great Ship series follows almost all known laws of physics - the one exception is hyperfiber, which gains its strength from sharing energy across thousands of alternate realities; though it may not be entirely wrong, as some scientists propose that gravity is so weak because it shares its "impact" across multiple universal planes.
** This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still'' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
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* Ambiguously Evil: The stories focus on the human characters and their adventures on the Greatship, and it is difficult not to root for them. However, it is inevitable that the humans have NO IDEA what they are doing, NO IDEA how dangerous the Greatship's mission or cargo could be, and really, if the Greatship should be in humanity's hands or not. Indeed, the humans strut around in their chrome(!) uniforms bragging about their accomplishments and how they keep the ship together, but despite having crews manning mile-long control rooms, they have no idea how to truly operate much more than the ship's environmental controls, propulsion [[spoiler: really only the maneuvering thrusters]] and elevators.
to:
* Ambiguously Evil: AmbiguouslyEvil: The stories focus on the human characters and their adventures on the Greatship, and it is difficult not to root for them. However, it is inevitable that the humans have NO IDEA what they are doing, NO IDEA how dangerous the Greatship's mission or cargo could be, and really, if the Greatship should be in humanity's hands or not. Indeed, the humans strut around in their chrome(!) uniforms bragging about their accomplishments and how they keep the ship together, but despite having crews manning mile-long control rooms, they have no idea how to truly operate much more than the ship's environmental controls, propulsion [[spoiler: really only the maneuvering thrusters]] and elevators.
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* AlienBlood: Humanity has very dark, almost black blood. Orleans, a Remora, has black blood with the consistency of ketchup.
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* AlienBlood: Humanity has very dark, almost black blood. Orleans, a Remora, has black blood with the consistency of ketchup.
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* PlanetSpaceship: The Great Ship itself is larger than Jupiter. The interior of the ship has [[StarshipLuxurious hundreds of thousands of enormous caverns which are inhabited by the passengers]]. The ship has fourteen moon-sized adjustable fusion engines on one end. The ship in Kingfisher was launched by Milky Way species to chase the Greatship across the universe, and apparently contains entire oceans of fuel.
to:
* PlanetSpaceship: The Great Ship itself is larger than Jupiter.the size of a gas giant. The interior of the ship has [[StarshipLuxurious hundreds of thousands of enormous caverns which are inhabited by the passengers]]. The ship has fourteen moon-sized adjustable fusion engines on one end. The ship in Kingfisher was launched by Milky Way species to chase the Greatship across the universe, and apparently contains entire oceans of fuel.
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** In ''Precious Mental'' the secret rulers of the galaxy seem to have good intentions at least on a "big picture" scale, however, they are the antagonists of this story as they try to stop an ancient race from returning from the Andromeda Galaxy with a better or independently-designed version of the immortal bioceramic brain. [[spoiler: It is suggested the secret rulers are trying to prevent this because the "common" design of bioceramic brain used by all species in the galaxy may have been intentionally designed to hide an otherwise obvious fact.]]
to:
** In ''Precious Mental'' the secret supposed rulers of the galaxy seem to have good intentions at least on a "big picture" scale, however, they are the antagonists of this story as they try to stop an ancient race from returning from the Andromeda Galaxy with a better or independently-designed version of the immortal bioceramic brain. [[spoiler: It is suggested the secret rulers are trying to prevent this because the "common" design of bioceramic brain used by all species in the galaxy may have been intentionally designed to hide an otherwise obvious fact.]]
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''The Well Of Stars'' takes place several hundred years after the events of ''Marrow'' - the [[spoiler: Wayward mutiny]] has been crushed, but [[PyrrhicVictory at a terrible cost]], crippling the ship as it plunges into an abnormally dense and dark stellar nursery, the home of a species - or [[HiveMind entity]] - that calls itself the Polypond. With no way to avoid the nebula, and with every surrounding civilization either revering the polypond or [[spoiler: no longer existing]], the captains brace for the worst.
''The Memory of Sky'' is seemingly a children's novel focused around an immortal child in a strange world that seems almost like a Dyson sphere, who runs into some immortal characters [[spoiler: a few of which have obvious ties to the Greatship's other alien races]] on his adventures. Eventually he must escape the world [[spoiler: and finds himself face to face with the Greatship's captains.]]
The author seemed to leave the Greatship universe hanging with no hope of resolution, until the Greatship set of stories emerged, the final story of which takes place after the Polypond war is over and the human race is scattered about the Greatship [[spoiler: and the ship has new owners and is on a mission far from the Milky Way at this point.]] Shorly after, out of nowhere, Reed mentioned in an interview that a new novel, ''The Dragons of Marrow'' would begin the conclusion of the Greatship story.
''The Dragons of Marrow'' [[spoiler: per the author, is the first of a trilogy of new books]] takes place on on a war-torn Marrow where Marrow's cycle of expansion and purging of all surface life has coincided with the major captains each leading technically-advanced but tribal factions, with each captain possessing an implanted doomsday device of sorts that kickstart's Marrow's purge cycle in advance of schedule. A major wrench in the cycle comes from the arrival of the characters from ''The Memory of Sky'', one character of which seems to already possess one of these doomsday devices. [[spoiler: Hints to the purpose of the Greatship are provided, in addition to the fact the war for the ship seems to have been lost, millions, perhaps billions, of years ago and the captains have been in a cycle of war ever since.]]
''The Memory of Sky'' is seemingly a children's novel focused around an immortal child in a strange world that seems almost like a Dyson sphere, who runs into some immortal characters [[spoiler: a few of which have obvious ties to the Greatship's other alien races]] on his adventures. Eventually he must escape the world [[spoiler: and finds himself face to face with the Greatship's captains.]]
The author seemed to leave the Greatship universe hanging with no hope of resolution, until the Greatship set of stories emerged, the final story of which takes place after the Polypond war is over and the human race is scattered about the Greatship [[spoiler: and the ship has new owners and is on a mission far from the Milky Way at this point.]] Shorly after, out of nowhere, Reed mentioned in an interview that a new novel, ''The Dragons of Marrow'' would begin the conclusion of the Greatship story.
''The Dragons of Marrow'' [[spoiler: per the author, is the first of a trilogy of new books]] takes place on on a war-torn Marrow where Marrow's cycle of expansion and purging of all surface life has coincided with the major captains each leading technically-advanced but tribal factions, with each captain possessing an implanted doomsday device of sorts that kickstart's Marrow's purge cycle in advance of schedule. A major wrench in the cycle comes from the arrival of the characters from ''The Memory of Sky'', one character of which seems to already possess one of these doomsday devices. [[spoiler: Hints to the purpose of the Greatship are provided, in addition to the fact the war for the ship seems to have been lost, millions, perhaps billions, of years ago and the captains have been in a cycle of war ever since.]]
to:
''The Well Of Stars'' takes place several hundred years after the events of ''Marrow'' - the [[spoiler: Wayward mutiny]] has been crushed, but [[PyrrhicVictory at a terrible cost]], crippling the ship as it plunges into an abnormally dense and dark stellar nursery, the home of a species - or [[HiveMind entity]] - that calls itself the Polypond. With no way to avoid the nebula, and with every surrounding civilization either revering the polypond or [[spoiler: no longer existing]], the captains brace for the worst. A substantial portion of the plot deals with the enemies of the ship's builders, the !eech, possibly being in pursuit of the ship [[spoiler: and that the ship may have been intercepted by this party already, long before the stories began]].
Some short stories were released at random in science fiction periodicals, but it appeared ''The Well of Stars'' was the intended, open-ended conclusion of the series. Reed released ''The Greatship'' collection of short stories in 2013 which included a story set on the post-''Well of Stars'' Greatship, [[spoiler: and the ship has new owners and is on a mission far from the Milky Way at this point]]. The next year, Reed released the seemingly unrelated ''The Memory of Sky''is seemingly which was a children's novel focused around an immortal child child, Diamond, in a strange world that seems almost like a tiny Dyson sphere, who runs into some immortal sphere. Some of the characters [[spoiler: seem to have a few of which have obvious ties to characteristics of the Greatship's other alien races]] on his adventures. races, but this is the only apparent tie to the Greatship storyline that is immediately evident. Eventually he Diamond must escape the his world [[spoiler: and finds himself emerging to be face to face with the Greatship's captains.]]
The author once again seemed to leave the Greatship universe hanging with no hope of resolution, untilthe Greatship set of stories emerged, the final story of which takes place after the Polypond war is over and the human race is scattered about the Greatship [[spoiler: and the ship has new owners and is on a mission far from the Milky Way at this point.]] Shorly after, out of nowhere, Reed mentioned in an interview that with the author cryptically revealed the name of a new novel, novel ''The Dragons of Marrow'' would begin the conclusion of the Greatship story.
which had been released in digital form in mid-2018. ''The Dragons of Marrow'' [[spoiler: per the author, is the first of foreword, will be followed by a trilogy of new books]] takes place on on a war-torn Marrow where Marrow's cycle of expansion and purging of all surface life has coincided with the major captains each leading technically-advanced but tribal factions, with each captain possessing an implanted doomsday device of sorts that kickstart's Marrow's purge cycle in advance of schedule. A major wrench in the this cycle comes from the arrival of the characters from ''The Memory of Sky'', one character of which seems to somehow already possess one of these doomsday devices. [[spoiler: Hints to the purpose of the Greatship are provided, in addition to the fact the !eech war for the ship seems to have been lost, millions, perhaps billions, of years ago and the captains have been in a cycle of war ever since.]]
Some short stories were released at random in science fiction periodicals, but it appeared ''The Well of Stars'' was the intended, open-ended conclusion of the series. Reed released ''The Greatship'' collection of short stories in 2013 which included a story set on the post-''Well of Stars'' Greatship, [[spoiler: and the ship has new owners and is on a mission far from the Milky Way at this point]]. The next year, Reed released the seemingly unrelated ''The Memory of Sky''
The author once again seemed to leave the Greatship universe hanging with no hope of resolution, until
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A lot of ambiguously evil themes in Greatship storyline
Added DiffLines:
* Ambiguously Evil: The stories focus on the human characters and their adventures on the Greatship, and it is difficult not to root for them. However, it is inevitable that the humans have NO IDEA what they are doing, NO IDEA how dangerous the Greatship's mission or cargo could be, and really, if the Greatship should be in humanity's hands or not. Indeed, the humans strut around in their chrome(!) uniforms bragging about their accomplishments and how they keep the ship together, but despite having crews manning mile-long control rooms, they have no idea how to truly operate much more than the ship's environmental controls, propulsion [[spoiler: really only the maneuvering thrusters]] and elevators.
** In ''Marrow'' the !eech seem to be outright antagonists.
** In short story ''Alone'' the ship speaks to the progaonist and talks about how the builders created the ship to be the bleak end of everything, however also notes that a second ship was sent chasing after the first after the builders had second thoughts. The protagonist reasons that the ship couldn't know about the second ship unless the second ship had already caught the first one, or actually WAS the second ship, which [[spoiler: could imply that the !eech (Bleak), which couldn't catch the ship but manipulated humanity into letting them aboard, are trying to prevent the end of everything.]]
** In ''The Well of Stars'' it is clear that the humans have no business taking control of the ship due to the ship's unknown purpose/intentions, so the [[spoiler: !eech taking command at the end, saving the ship from the Polypond, could be beneficial.]]
** [[spoiler: It should be noted, however, that the !eech's first announcement to the ship's crew seems just as propaganda-filled as the human captains would have done.]]
** In short story ''Hatch'' a character named Hawking, [[spoiler: the !eech administrator]], of a human colony atop the rim of the ship's engine nozzles (yes, they're that huge) stationed in his position to stand watch [[spoiler: for human ships approaching or leaving the Greatship]]. Despite his race's intentions, Hawking is very fond of the story's human protagonist and seems to go out of his way to communicate and provide aid.
** In ''The Memory of Sky'' and ''The Dragons of Marrow'' one character is clearly [[spoiler: an !eech]] but is devoted to aiding Diamond and his friends.
** In short story ''Kingfisher'' the Panwere [[spoiler: who are described remarkably the same as the !eech, who have not yet been revealed to the humans left in the Milky Way]] are already aboard the human intergalactic ship sent to [[spoiler: chase down the stolen Greatship]]. They seem benevolent, exchanging aid and favors to individuals in exchange for being told stories (gathering information?).
** In short story ''The Man with the Golden Balloon'' an alien agent acting as part of "the secret rulers of the galaxy" seem to have manipulated a lesser species into becoming a technological civilization simply so they could build a massive machine he required, only to be destroyed upon its completion. However, this ruling body also appears to have steered humanity into finding the Greatship in the first place.
** In ''Precious Mental'' the secret rulers of the galaxy seem to have good intentions at least on a "big picture" scale, however, they are the antagonists of this story as they try to stop an ancient race from returning from the Andromeda Galaxy with a better or independently-designed version of the immortal bioceramic brain. [[spoiler: It is suggested the secret rulers are trying to prevent this because the "common" design of bioceramic brain used by all species in the galaxy may have been intentionally designed to hide an otherwise obvious fact.]]
** In ''Marrow'' the !eech seem to be outright antagonists.
** In short story ''Alone'' the ship speaks to the progaonist and talks about how the builders created the ship to be the bleak end of everything, however also notes that a second ship was sent chasing after the first after the builders had second thoughts. The protagonist reasons that the ship couldn't know about the second ship unless the second ship had already caught the first one, or actually WAS the second ship, which [[spoiler: could imply that the !eech (Bleak), which couldn't catch the ship but manipulated humanity into letting them aboard, are trying to prevent the end of everything.]]
** In ''The Well of Stars'' it is clear that the humans have no business taking control of the ship due to the ship's unknown purpose/intentions, so the [[spoiler: !eech taking command at the end, saving the ship from the Polypond, could be beneficial.]]
** [[spoiler: It should be noted, however, that the !eech's first announcement to the ship's crew seems just as propaganda-filled as the human captains would have done.]]
** In short story ''Hatch'' a character named Hawking, [[spoiler: the !eech administrator]], of a human colony atop the rim of the ship's engine nozzles (yes, they're that huge) stationed in his position to stand watch [[spoiler: for human ships approaching or leaving the Greatship]]. Despite his race's intentions, Hawking is very fond of the story's human protagonist and seems to go out of his way to communicate and provide aid.
** In ''The Memory of Sky'' and ''The Dragons of Marrow'' one character is clearly [[spoiler: an !eech]] but is devoted to aiding Diamond and his friends.
** In short story ''Kingfisher'' the Panwere [[spoiler: who are described remarkably the same as the !eech, who have not yet been revealed to the humans left in the Milky Way]] are already aboard the human intergalactic ship sent to [[spoiler: chase down the stolen Greatship]]. They seem benevolent, exchanging aid and favors to individuals in exchange for being told stories (gathering information?).
** In short story ''The Man with the Golden Balloon'' an alien agent acting as part of "the secret rulers of the galaxy" seem to have manipulated a lesser species into becoming a technological civilization simply so they could build a massive machine he required, only to be destroyed upon its completion. However, this ruling body also appears to have steered humanity into finding the Greatship in the first place.
** In ''Precious Mental'' the secret rulers of the galaxy seem to have good intentions at least on a "big picture" scale, however, they are the antagonists of this story as they try to stop an ancient race from returning from the Andromeda Galaxy with a better or independently-designed version of the immortal bioceramic brain. [[spoiler: It is suggested the secret rulers are trying to prevent this because the "common" design of bioceramic brain used by all species in the galaxy may have been intentionally designed to hide an otherwise obvious fact.]]
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* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: No known species have ventured (far) out of the Milky Way due to the lack of FasterThanLightTravel or communications despite almost every interstellar species having become nigh-immortal {{Trans Human}}s. The [[PlanetSpaceship Great Ship]] was discovered streaking towards the the Milky Way - at a significant fraction of the speed of light - from an almost completely empty section of the sky, and was completely covered in impact craters from a steady stream of collisions from its billion year long flight. However, at the climax of ''The Well of Stars'', it is [[spoiler: revealed that a ship has been chasing the Great Ship across the universe; when they seize control after the Polypond war, they activate the ship's [[ReactionlessDrive true engines]] and begin the flight back into intergalactic space with the ship's passengers still on board]].
to:
* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: No known species have ventured (far) out of the Milky Way due to the lack of FasterThanLightTravel or communications despite almost every interstellar species having become nigh-immortal {{Trans Human}}s. The [[PlanetSpaceship Great Ship]] was discovered streaking towards the the Milky Way - at a significant fraction of the speed of light - from an almost completely empty section of the sky, and was completely covered in impact craters from a steady stream of collisions from its billion year long flight. However, at the climax of ''The Well of Stars'', it is [[spoiler: revealed that a ship has been chasing the Great Ship across the universe; when they seize control after the Polypond war, they activate the ship's [[ReactionlessDrive true engines]] and begin the flight back into intergalactic space with the ship's passengers still on board]]. Short Story ''Kingfisher'' takes place on a massive quasar-powered intergalactic ship built by the Milky Way species [[spoiler: to chase down the stolen Great Ship]]. The ship is essentially a massive ocean of fuel on which the protagonists compare themselves to crustaceans living on the surface.
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* PlanetSpaceship: The Great Ship itself is larger than Jupiter. The interior of the ship has [[StarshipLuxurious hundreds of thousands of enormous caverns which are inhabited by the passengers]]. The ship has fourteen moon-sized adjustable fusion engines on one end.
to:
* PlanetSpaceship: The Great Ship itself is larger than Jupiter. The interior of the ship has [[StarshipLuxurious hundreds of thousands of enormous caverns which are inhabited by the passengers]]. The ship has fourteen moon-sized adjustable fusion engines on one end. The ship in Kingfisher was launched by Milky Way species to chase the Greatship across the universe, and apparently contains entire oceans of fuel.
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* [[SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Distance]]: Averted. The Great Ship will take hundreds of thousands of years to complete one circle around the Milky Way. Travel is extremely slow - a small ship spends 900 years accelerating to near lightspeed in order to reach the Great Ship.
to:
* [[SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Distance]]: Averted. The Great Ship will take hundreds of thousands of years to complete one circle around the Milky Way. Travel is extremely slow - a small ship spends 900 years accelerating to near lightspeed in order to reach the Great Ship. [[spoiler: Chasing the Greatship across the universe after it leaves the Milky Way is expected to be a multi-million-year mission, if not more.]]
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* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The !eech, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and are implied to be the Bleak.]]
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* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The !eech, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and are implied to be the Bleak. Furthermore, in ''Kingfisher'' a new race, which appears to have traits of the !eech as revealed in ''The Dragons of Marrow'', seems to be hanging around the Milky Way's ship sent to chase down the stolen Greatship.]]
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* {{BFS}}: Quite possibly the largest one ever portrayed in fiction. At the climax of ''The Well of Stars,'' [[spoiler: the Polypond attempts to break out what lies at the core of Marrow by boring through the entire Greatship with a hyperfiber blade with black holes around its rim.]] This device was also previously used to break down most of the planets that used to exist in the Well.
* BigDumbObject: The Great Ship. it is a starship the size of Jupiter, made of the highest grade [[MadeOfIron hyperfiber]]. Discovered streaking towards the Milky Way at a third the speed of light by a human built probe, its origin is unknown (the area behind it is the emptiest part of the universe), it carries an ''entire world'' inside it, and it has tens of millions of caverns and fusion reactors all there to make the interior livable for almost any species. It may be as [[RagnarokProofing old as the universe]], and one character suggested that it ''[[GeniusLoci created]]'' the universe, or functions as a control center for it - the visible universe simply being another layer to the ship's hull.
* BigDumbObject: The Great Ship. it is a starship the size of Jupiter, made of the highest grade [[MadeOfIron hyperfiber]]. Discovered streaking towards the Milky Way at a third the speed of light by a human built probe, its origin is unknown (the area behind it is the emptiest part of the universe), it carries an ''entire world'' inside it, and it has tens of millions of caverns and fusion reactors all there to make the interior livable for almost any species. It may be as [[RagnarokProofing old as the universe]], and one character suggested that it ''[[GeniusLoci created]]'' the universe, or functions as a control center for it - the visible universe simply being another layer to the ship's hull.
to:
* {{BFS}}: Quite possibly the largest one ever portrayed in fiction. At the climax of ''The Well of Stars,'' [[spoiler: the Polypond attempts to break out what lies at the core of Marrow by boring through the entire Greatship with a hyperfiber blade with black holes around its rim.]] This device was also previously used to break down most of the planets that used to exist in the Well.
Well. Also, the massive pseuodosphere ship in ''Kingfisher'' launched via supernova and intentionally scooping up all debris and interstellar medium in its path into a massive ocean [[spoiler: which, per the captain, is also the ship's fuel, and can be drained into a miniature quasar at the ship's core for a burst of propulsion]].
* BigDumbObject: The Great Ship. it is a starship the size of Jupiter, made of the highest grade [[MadeOfIron hyperfiber]]. Discovered streaking towards the Milky Way at a third the speed of light by a human built probe, its origin is unknown (the area behind it is the emptiest part of the universe), it carries an ''entire world'' inside it, and it has tens of millions of caverns and fusion reactors all there to make the interior livable for almost any species. It may be as [[RagnarokProofing old as the universe]], and one character suggested that it ''[[GeniusLoci created]]'' the universe, or functions as a control center for it - the visible universe simply being another layer to the ship's hull. [[spoiler: A common theme in the Greatship stories is that multiple realities, each slightly different from the main one, all exist concurrently. It is insinuated in ''The Well of Stars'' and more firmly in ''The Dragons of Marrow'' that the Greatship contains a volume in which all these realities coexist.]]
* BigDumbObject: The Great Ship. it is a starship the size of Jupiter, made of the highest grade [[MadeOfIron hyperfiber]]. Discovered streaking towards the Milky Way at a third the speed of light by a human built probe, its origin is unknown (the area behind it is the emptiest part of the universe), it carries an ''entire world'' inside it, and it has tens of millions of caverns and fusion reactors all there to make the interior livable for almost any species. It may be as [[RagnarokProofing old as the universe]], and one character suggested that it ''[[GeniusLoci created]]'' the universe, or functions as a control center for it - the visible universe simply being another layer to the ship's hull. [[spoiler: A common theme in the Greatship stories is that multiple realities, each slightly different from the main one, all exist concurrently. It is insinuated in ''The Well of Stars'' and more firmly in ''The Dragons of Marrow'' that the Greatship contains a volume in which all these realities coexist.]]
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* BizarreAlienBiology: Harum-sacrums have two mouths: one for breathing and talking, one for eating.
to:
* BizarreAlienBiology: Harum-sacrums have two mouths: one for breathing and talking, one for eating. [[spoiler: The !eech seem to be flat insect-like creatures that can fit into tiny places and move about the ship via cracks where humans cannot follow. In later stories, they are shapeshifters but have insect-like traits.]]
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* CliffHanger: ''The Well of Stars'' ends with [[spoiler: the polypond having bored into the Greatship down to Marrow, only to be foiled at the last second by the !eech, AKA The Bleak. Taking control of the ship, they twist it around and succeed in destroying the hyperfiber blade, which resulted in the Greatship being cut in half into two hemispheres.]] This book was released in 2002 and there's been no announcement of direct sequel yet, so we have no idea how ''anyone'' turned out after that.
to:
* CliffHanger: ''The Well of Stars'' ends with [[spoiler: the polypond having bored into the Greatship down to Marrow, only to be foiled at the last second by the !eech, AKA The Bleak. Taking control of the ship, they twist it around and succeed in destroying the hyperfiber blade, which resulted in the Greatship being cut in half into two hemispheres.]] This book was released in 2002 and there's been no announcement of direct sequel yet, so we have no idea how ''anyone'' turned out after that. ''The Memory of Sky'' has several of the same immortal creatures from the Greatship but the connection to the Greatship storyline is ambiguous [[spoiler: until the characters emerge on Marrow in ''The Dragons of Marrow''.]]
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* EnergyBeings: It's proposed in ''Marrow'' that this might be what the Builders really were. It's theorized that, in a younger universe, they may have emerged and created the Greatship without using physical bodies, which might explain why there wasn't a single shred of DNA, dead cells or any other sign of life on the Greatship until humanity came aboard.
to:
* EnergyBeings: It's proposed in ''Marrow'' that this might be what the Builders really were. It's theorized that, in a younger universe, they may have emerged and created the Greatship without using physical bodies, which might explain why there wasn't a single shred of DNA, dead cells or any other sign of life on the Greatship until humanity came aboard. It is also theorized that the Greatship has such a diversity of environmental controls because the builders were not certain what parameters would be needed to support future life.
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* HumansAreSpecial: While humanity is not particularly special normally, they control the Great Ship, making them the richest and most knowledgeable species in the galaxy.
to:
* HumansAreSpecial: While humanity is not particularly special normally, they control the Great Ship, making them the richest and most knowledgeable species in the galaxy. [[spoiler: At least until the !eech take it from them and redirect it out of the Milky Way with trillions still onboard at the end of ''The Well of Stars''. However, the humans have successfully repelled the !eech from Marrow to the point they may still be the most important species in the universe.]]
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* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: No known species have ventured (far) out of the Milky Way due to the lack of FasterThanLightTravel or communications despite almost every interstellar species having become nigh-immortal {{Trans Human}}s. The [[PlanetSpaceship Great Ship]] was discovered streaking towards the the Milky Way - at a significant fraction of the speed of light - from an almost completely empty section of the sky, and was completely covered in impact craters from a steady stream of collisions from its billion year long flight. However, at the climax of ''The Well of Stars'', it is [[spoiler: revealed that a ship has been chasing the Great Ship across the universe; when they seize control after the Polypond war, they activate the ship's [[ReactionlessDrive true engines]] and begin the flight back into intergalactic space with the ship's passengers still on board]]
to:
* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: No known species have ventured (far) out of the Milky Way due to the lack of FasterThanLightTravel or communications despite almost every interstellar species having become nigh-immortal {{Trans Human}}s. The [[PlanetSpaceship Great Ship]] was discovered streaking towards the the Milky Way - at a significant fraction of the speed of light - from an almost completely empty section of the sky, and was completely covered in impact craters from a steady stream of collisions from its billion year long flight. However, at the climax of ''The Well of Stars'', it is [[spoiler: revealed that a ship has been chasing the Great Ship across the universe; when they seize control after the Polypond war, they activate the ship's [[ReactionlessDrive true engines]] and begin the flight back into intergalactic space with the ship's passengers still on board]]board]].
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Updated, new books and short stories in series
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** ''The Memory of Sky'' (2014)
to:
** ''The Memory of Sky'' (2014)(2014), seemingly unrelated story [[spoiler: that obscurely hints at a relation to the other stories]]
** ''The Dragons of Marrow'' (2018), [[spoiler: that finally ties Memory of Sky to the end of ''The Well of Stars'']]
** ''The Dragons of Marrow'' (2018), [[spoiler: that finally ties Memory of Sky to the end of ''The Well of Stars'']]
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''The Memory of Sky'' is seemingly a children's novel focused around an immortal child in a strange world that seems almost like a Dyson sphere, who runs into some immortal characters [[spoiler: a few of which have obvious ties to the Greatship's other alien races]] on his adventures. Eventually he must escape the world [[spoiler: and finds himself face to face with the Greatship's captains.]]
The author seemed to leave the Greatship universe hanging with no hope of resolution, until the Greatship set of stories emerged, the final story of which takes place after the Polypond war is over and the human race is scattered about the Greatship [[spoiler: and the ship has new owners and is on a mission far from the Milky Way at this point.]] Shorly after, out of nowhere, Reed mentioned in an interview that a new novel, ''The Dragons of Marrow'' would begin the conclusion of the Greatship story.
''The Dragons of Marrow'' [[spoiler: per the author, is the first of a trilogy of new books]] takes place on on a war-torn Marrow where Marrow's cycle of expansion and purging of all surface life has coincided with the major captains each leading technically-advanced but tribal factions, with each captain possessing an implanted doomsday device of sorts that kickstart's Marrow's purge cycle in advance of schedule. A major wrench in the cycle comes from the arrival of the characters from ''The Memory of Sky'', one character of which seems to already possess one of these doomsday devices. [[spoiler: Hints to the purpose of the Greatship are provided, in addition to the fact the war for the ship seems to have been lost, millions, perhaps billions, of years ago and the captains have been in a cycle of war ever since.]]
The author seemed to leave the Greatship universe hanging with no hope of resolution, until the Greatship set of stories emerged, the final story of which takes place after the Polypond war is over and the human race is scattered about the Greatship [[spoiler: and the ship has new owners and is on a mission far from the Milky Way at this point.]] Shorly after, out of nowhere, Reed mentioned in an interview that a new novel, ''The Dragons of Marrow'' would begin the conclusion of the Greatship story.
''The Dragons of Marrow'' [[spoiler: per the author, is the first of a trilogy of new books]] takes place on on a war-torn Marrow where Marrow's cycle of expansion and purging of all surface life has coincided with the major captains each leading technically-advanced but tribal factions, with each captain possessing an implanted doomsday device of sorts that kickstart's Marrow's purge cycle in advance of schedule. A major wrench in the cycle comes from the arrival of the characters from ''The Memory of Sky'', one character of which seems to already possess one of these doomsday devices. [[spoiler: Hints to the purpose of the Greatship are provided, in addition to the fact the war for the ship seems to have been lost, millions, perhaps billions, of years ago and the captains have been in a cycle of war ever since.]]
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The ''Great Ship'' universe is in ''some'' ways a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera.
to:
The ''Great Ship'' universe is in ''some'' ways a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera.
SpaceOpera
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** That must be quite a set of 'genes' - it can not only keep the person alive with no bones for long enough for their metabolism to still function - even immortal humans run on sugar and oxygen - it can resynthesise an entire skeleton after it has been destroyed, using only the remains of said skeleton plus the body's natural reserves, also without any additional caloric or oxygen intake!
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* TechnologyUplift: Humans learned how to make hyperfibers from an alien radio transmission they intercepted. The knowledge to build starships and how to achieve clinical immortality came from the FirstContact.
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* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: The Great Ship series follows almost all known laws of physics - the one exception is hyperfiber, which gains its strength from sharing energy across thousands of alternate realities; though it may not be entirely wrong, as some scientists propose that gravity is so weak because it shares its "impact" across multiple universal planes.
** Claiming to 'follow all known laws of physics' only takes things so far. This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still'' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
** Claiming to 'follow all known laws of physics' only takes things so far. This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still'' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
to:
* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness:
** The Great Ship series follows almost all known laws of physics - the one exception is hyperfiber, which gains its strength from sharing energy across thousands of alternate realities; though it may not be entirely wrong, as some scientists propose that gravity is so weak because it shares its "impact" across multiple universal planes.
**Claiming to 'follow all known laws of physics' only takes things so far. This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still'' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
** The Great Ship series follows almost all known laws of physics - the one exception is hyperfiber, which gains its strength from sharing energy across thousands of alternate realities; though it may not be entirely wrong, as some scientists propose that gravity is so weak because it shares its "impact" across multiple universal planes.
**
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Sounds consistent with "Mundane Dogmatic". No need for spoilers in the intro part
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The ''Great Ship'' universe is in ''some'' ways a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera. However, mileage may vary when ceramic brains[[spoiler:, organisms the size of stellar phenomena and planetary-scale bladed weapons edged with black holes]] are possible and the main setting is a 'ship' the size of Jupiter.
to:
The ''Great Ship'' universe is in ''some'' ways a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera. However, mileage may vary when ceramic brains[[spoiler:, organisms the size of stellar phenomena and planetary-scale bladed weapons edged with black holes]] are possible and the main setting is a 'ship' the size of Jupiter.
SpaceOpera.
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None
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The ''Great Ship'' universe is in ''some'' ways a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera. However, mileage may vary when ceramic brains, organisms the size of stellar phenomena and planetary-scale bladed weapons edged with black holes are commonplace and the main setting is a 'ship' the size of Jupiter.
to:
The ''Great Ship'' universe is in ''some'' ways a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera. However, mileage may vary when ceramic brains, brains[[spoiler:, organisms the size of stellar phenomena and planetary-scale bladed weapons edged with black holes holes]] are commonplace possible and the main setting is a 'ship' the size of Jupiter.
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None
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** Claiming to 'follow all known laws of physics' only takes things so far. This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
to:
** Claiming to 'follow all known laws of physics' only takes things so far. This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still' ''still'' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
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** That must be quite a set of 'genes' - it can not only keep the person alive with no bones for long enough for their metabolism to still function - even immortal humans run on sugar and oxygen - it can resynthesise an entire skeleton after it has been destroyed, using only the remains of said skeleton plus the body's natural reserves, also without any additional caloric or oxygen intake!
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None
Added DiffLines:
** Claiming to 'follow all known laws of physics' only takes things so far. This setting features immortals (apparently ceramic brains just last for ever) and a ship the size of Jupiter that would generate its own gravity. Even if not Jovian, the gravity issue is seemingly never an issue for the people that live inside the ship, which has a ''planet'' at its core, can keep this planet safely in place while manipulating its internal and external geology, and ''still' manages to produce enough power to move the thing around. Hard sci fi this is not.
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None
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The ''Great Ship'' universe is in SOME ways [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera. However, mileage may vary when ceramic brains, organisms the size of stellar phenomena and planetary-scale bladed weapons edged with black holes are commonplace and the main setting is a 'ship' the size of Jupiter.
to:
The ''Great Ship'' universe is in SOME ''some'' ways a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera. However, mileage may vary when ceramic brains, organisms the size of stellar phenomena and planetary-scale bladed weapons edged with black holes are commonplace and the main setting is a 'ship' the size of Jupiter.
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None
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The ''Great Ship'' universe is a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera
to:
The ''Great Ship'' universe is a in SOME ways [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness fairly "hard"]], MundaneDogmatic science fiction setting, as it eschews FTL travel and many other staples of standard SpaceOpera
SpaceOpera. However, mileage may vary when ceramic brains, organisms the size of stellar phenomena and planetary-scale bladed weapons edged with black holes are commonplace and the main setting is a 'ship' the size of Jupiter.
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* UltmateLifeForm: [[spoiler: The polypond is a single biological consisting of liquids spreads across a multitude of engineered planets throughout a nebula. It proves to be ''more than a match'' for the Greatship, which is larger than Jupiter and has all of the finest weapons, equipment and crew in the galaxy at its disposal.]]
to:
* UltmateLifeForm: UltimateLifeForm: [[spoiler: The polypond is a single biological consisting of liquids spreads across a multitude of engineered planets throughout a nebula. It proves to be ''more than a match'' for the Greatship, which is larger than Jupiter and has all of the finest weapons, equipment and crew in the galaxy at its disposal.]]
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* {{BFS}}: Quite possiblu the largest one ever portrayed in fiction. At the climax of ''The Well of Stars,'' [[spoiler: the Polypond attempts to break out what lies at the core of Marrow by boring through the entire Greatship with a hyperfiber blade with black holes around its rim.]] This device was also previously used to break down most of the planets that used to exist in the Well.
to:
* {{BFS}}: Quite possiblu possibly the largest one ever portrayed in fiction. At the climax of ''The Well of Stars,'' [[spoiler: the Polypond attempts to break out what lies at the core of Marrow by boring through the entire Greatship with a hyperfiber blade with black holes around its rim.]] This device was also previously used to break down most of the planets that used to exist in the Well.
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Corrected spelling of !eech
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* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The leeches, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and reveal themselves as the Bleak.]]
to:
* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The leeches, !eech, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and reveal themselves as are implied to be the Bleak.]]
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* CliffHanger: ''The Well of Stars'' ends with [[spoiler: the polypond having bored into the Greatship down to Marrow, only to be foiled at the last second by the leeches, AKA The Bleak. Taking control of the ship, they twist it around and succeed in destroying the hyperfiber blade, which resulted in the Greatship being cut in half into two hemispheres.]] This book was released in 2002 and there's been no announcement of direct sequel yet, so we have no idea how ''anyone'' turned out after that.
to:
* CliffHanger: ''The Well of Stars'' ends with [[spoiler: the polypond having bored into the Greatship down to Marrow, only to be foiled at the last second by the leeches, !eech, AKA The Bleak. Taking control of the ship, they twist it around and succeed in destroying the hyperfiber blade, which resulted in the Greatship being cut in half into two hemispheres.]] This book was released in 2002 and there's been no announcement of direct sequel yet, so we have no idea how ''anyone'' turned out after that.
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* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler: The leeches]]
to:
* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler: The leeches]]!eech]]
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* AlternateUniverse: Hyperfiber is so strong because it spreads any impact or heat damage across thousands of dimensions. In a more straight example, The Tila from ''Mere'' have quantum structures in their brain that causes an "aura" around objects they see - which they interpret as glimpses of thousands of alternate realities.
to:
* AlternateUniverse: Hyperfiber is so strong because it spreads any impact or heat damage across thousands of dimensions. In a more straight example, The the Tila from ''Mere'' have quantum structures in their brain that causes an "aura" around objects they see - which they interpret as glimpses of thousands of alternate realities.
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* ApocalypseHow: ''Mere'' ends with [[spoiler: a binary star collapsing in on itself, wiping out all life in the system]]
* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The leeches, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and reveal themselves as The Bleak.]]
* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The leeches, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and reveal themselves as The Bleak.]]
to:
* ApocalypseHow: ''Mere'' ends with [[spoiler: a binary star collapsing in on itself, wiping out all life in the system]]
system.]]
* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The leeches, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and reveal themselves asThe the Bleak.]]
* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The leeches, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and reveal themselves as
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* BFS: Quite possiblu the largest one ever portrayed in fiction. At the climax of ''The Well of Stars,'' [[spoiler: the Polypond attempts to break out what lies at the core of Marrow by boring through the entire Greatship with a hyperfiber blade with black holes around its rim.]] This device was also previously used to break down most of the planets that used to exist in the Well.
to:
* BFS: {{BFS}}: Quite possiblu the largest one ever portrayed in fiction. At the climax of ''The Well of Stars,'' [[spoiler: the Polypond attempts to break out what lies at the core of Marrow by boring through the entire Greatship with a hyperfiber blade with black holes around its rim.]] This device was also previously used to break down most of the planets that used to exist in the Well.
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* BlobMonster: [[spoiler: The polypond is essentially a macro-scale version of one, being able to cover the entire surface of the Greatship and having different feelers, sensors and appendages throughout its body.]]
to:
* BlobMonster: [[spoiler: The polypond is essentially a macro-scale version of one, being able to cover the entire surface of the Greatship Great Ship and having different feelers, sensors and appendages throughout its body.]]
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* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty
to:
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* LivingForeverIsAwesome
to:
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* [[SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance SciFi Writers Have No Sense of Distance]]: Averted. The Great Ship will take hundreds of thousands of years to complete one circle around the Milky Way. Travel is extremely slow - a small ship spends 900 years accelerating to near lightspeed in order to reach the Great Ship.
to:
* [[SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance SciFi Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Distance]]: Averted. The Great Ship will take hundreds of thousands of years to complete one circle around the Milky Way. Travel is extremely slow - a small ship spends 900 years accelerating to near lightspeed in order to reach the Great Ship.
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* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler: The polypond]]
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* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Defied with [[spoiler: the polypond]]. Another being that was her ''sister'' of sorts in the sense that [[spoiler: they were born of the same species on the same planet before the being that became the polypond was ejected into deep space to eventually reach the dark nebula]] tells her that, rather than pitying her, she would do the same thing to her again and would send her ''into the sun'' instead this time around.
to:
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: ''The Well of Stars'' shows that one of the Greatship's more secluded caverns holds an order of monks that voluntarily refuse immortality treatments so that they can learn the answer the great mystery of what lies beyond death for themselves.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Defied with [[spoiler: the polypond]]. Another being that was her''sister'' "sister" of sorts in the sense that [[spoiler: they were born of the same species on the same planet before the being that became the polypond was ejected into deep space to eventually reach the dark nebula]] tells her that, rather than pitying her, she would do the same thing to her again and would send her ''into the sun'' instead this time around.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Defied with [[spoiler: the polypond]]. Another being that was her
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* UltmateLifeform: [[spoiler: The polypond is a single biological consisting of liquids spreads across a multitude of engineered planets throughout a nebula. It proves to be ''more than a match'' for the Greatship, which is larger than Jupiter and has all of the finest weapons, equipment and crew in the galaxy at its disposal.]]
to:
* UltmateLifeform: UltmateLifeForm: [[spoiler: The polypond is a single biological consisting of liquids spreads across a multitude of engineered planets throughout a nebula. It proves to be ''more than a match'' for the Greatship, which is larger than Jupiter and has all of the finest weapons, equipment and crew in the galaxy at its disposal.]]
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* VillainWoobie: Defied with [[spoiler: the polypond]]. Another being that was her ''sister'' of sorts in the sense that [[spoiler: they were born of the same species on the same planet before the being that became the polypond was ejected into deep space to eventually reach the dark nebula]] tells her that, rather than pitying her, she would do the same thing to her again and would send her ''into the sun'' instead this time around.
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* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Defied with [[spoiler: the polypond]]. Another being that was her ''sister'' of sorts in the sense that [[spoiler: they were born of the same species on the same planet before the being that became the polypond was ejected into deep space to eventually reach the dark nebula]] tells her that, rather than pitying her, she would do the same thing to her again and would send her ''into the sun'' instead this time around.
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None
* AscendedExtra: [[spoiler: The leeches, which supposedly committed mass suicide in ''Marrow,'' return in ''The Well of Stars'' and reveal themselves as The Bleak.]]
* BFS: Quite possiblu the largest one ever portrayed in fiction. At the climax of ''The Well of Stars,'' [[spoiler: the Polypond attempts to break out what lies at the core of Marrow by boring through the entire Greatship with a hyperfiber blade with black holes around its rim.]] This device was also previously used to break down most of the planets that used to exist in the Well.
* BlobMonster: [[spoiler: The polypond is essentially a macro-scale version of one, being able to cover the entire surface of the Greatship and having different feelers, sensors and appendages throughout its body.]]
* CliffHanger: ''The Well of Stars'' ends with [[spoiler: the polypond having bored into the Greatship down to Marrow, only to be foiled at the last second by the leeches, AKA The Bleak. Taking control of the ship, they twist it around and succeed in destroying the hyperfiber blade, which resulted in the Greatship being cut in half into two hemispheres.]] This book was released in 2002 and there's been no announcement of direct sequel yet, so we have no idea how ''anyone'' turned out after that.
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* ElectronicEyes: Mere gets these in ''Mere'', to [[AuraVision see the world in a way similar to the Tila]]
to:
* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler: The leeches]]
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: The polypond]] proves to be one in the end. It's also suspected that whatever is [[spoiler: imprisoned at the heart of Marrow]] might qualify, but no one has learned the exact nature of it yet.
* ElectronicEyes: Mere gets these in ''Mere'', to [[AuraVision see the world in a way similar to theTila]]Tila]].
* EnergyBeings: It's proposed in ''Marrow'' that this might be what the Builders really were. It's theorized that, in a younger universe, they may have emerged and created the Greatship without using physical bodies, which might explain why there wasn't a single shred of DNA, dead cells or any other sign of life on the Greatship until humanity came aboard.
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: The polypond]] proves to be one in the end. It's also suspected that whatever is [[spoiler: imprisoned at the heart of Marrow]] might qualify, but no one has learned the exact nature of it yet.
* ElectronicEyes: Mere gets these in ''Mere'', to [[AuraVision see the world in a way similar to the
* EnergyBeings: It's proposed in ''Marrow'' that this might be what the Builders really were. It's theorized that, in a younger universe, they may have emerged and created the Greatship without using physical bodies, which might explain why there wasn't a single shred of DNA, dead cells or any other sign of life on the Greatship until humanity came aboard.
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* FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler: The Polypond]].
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* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Mere convinces one of the polypond's worlds to relate to her enough to reveal that it plans to crack apart the Greatship with a blade made of hyperfiber and black holes in order to free what's beneath Marrow.]] It tells her that, for what it's worth, it's sorry about everything.
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* UltmateLifeform: [[spoiler: The polypond is a single biological consisting of liquids spreads across a multitude of engineered planets throughout a nebula. It proves to be ''more than a match'' for the Greatship, which is larger than Jupiter and has all of the finest weapons, equipment and crew in the galaxy at its disposal.]]
* TheUnReveal: It's revealed in ''The Well of Stars'' that a single member of the Waywards got to see what was imprisoned beneath Marrow, but it's never revealed what they saw.
* VillainWoobie: Defied with [[spoiler: the polypond]]. Another being that was her ''sister'' of sorts in the sense that [[spoiler: they were born of the same species on the same planet before the being that became the polypond was ejected into deep space to eventually reach the dark nebula]] tells her that, rather than pitying her, she would do the same thing to her again and would send her ''into the sun'' instead this time around.
* TheUnReveal: It's revealed in ''The Well of Stars'' that a single member of the Waywards got to see what was imprisoned beneath Marrow, but it's never revealed what they saw.
* VillainWoobie: Defied with [[spoiler: the polypond]]. Another being that was her ''sister'' of sorts in the sense that [[spoiler: they were born of the same species on the same planet before the being that became the polypond was ejected into deep space to eventually reach the dark nebula]] tells her that, rather than pitying her, she would do the same thing to her again and would send her ''into the sun'' instead this time around.
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* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: The Polypond in ''The Well of Stars'' wants to destroy to open up Marrow and free what's inside, but not out of malice. It genuinely believes that the process of creating the universe was never finished and that freeing Marrow's prisoner or prisoners will complete it.]]
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* CerebusSyndrome: The whimsical first part of ''The Memory of Sky'' when Diamond is a child gives way to the darker second and even darker third part when Diamond is an adult. In an interview, Reed stated that the first part was originally conceived as a sort of [[YoungAdultLiterature young adult novel]] before being reworked.
