History Literature / TheGenesisFleet

* MultiethnicName: Lochan (Indian) Nakamura (Japanese). The audiobook narrator makes him sound more Indian than Japanese. In book 3, he meets another person named Nakamura, although that one seems to be fully Japanese. It's suggested they may be distantly related.

* StunGuns: Shockers are used by the Glenlyon police to subdue unruly colonists. They fire non-lethal ammo (although it's stated that a shocker fired at point-blank can be lethal) that uses electrical shocks to knock out the target. This becomes a problem, when Scatha lands a hundred well-armed troops on Glenlyon, as all Mele has to work with are a few dozen shockers and a handful of hunting rifles.

** After getting married, Dominic Desjani and Carmen Ochoa discuss their future children. Carmen wryly wonders why Dominic thinks that their kids will have his last name. He chuckles and tells her that the boys can be Ochoas, but the girls have to be Desjanis. This is likely a minor reference to his future grand-grand-grand-...-daughter Tanya Desjani from the main series.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: After Geary saves Glenlyon, the government realizes that they need a full-time navy to protect it, so they buy some ships, hire some officers from other systems, and then offer Geary, the hero who saved the planet, the position...[[spoiler:of being their office gofer. Geary refuses, and three years later, their new navy is screwed up and they come crawling back to beg Geary to save them again.]] Averted in the sequel, where, despite the Glenlyon Council voting to strip Geary of his command, the Council President overrules them. Also averted in ''Triumphant'', where the President makes it clear that both Geary and Darcy have her utmost confidence and trust. She promotes Darcy to major and gives Geary free reign on how to defend the system... before being played straight again when [[spoiler:Geary avoids directly engaging the enemy forces because all he has is one outgunned ship, and losing it would leave the enemy free to harass the colony. He tells the Glenlyon council that they can order him to engage the enemy, but they refuse while screaming loudly that he should do it on his own. He understands that they simply don't want to take the responsibility for this foolish action. When the newly-hammered out alliance saves Glenlyon, Geary receives the full blame for refusing to engage the enemy, and his name is relegated into obscurity]].

* FalseFlagOperation: In ''Ascendant'', the rebels on Kosatka are much better equipped than the ground forces. Not one on Kosatka is fooled for a second and knows that the "rebels" are, in fact, mercenaries hired by Scatha in order to destabilize Kosatka.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: After Geary saves Glenlyon, the government realizes that they need a full-time navy to protect it, so they buy some ships, hire some officers from other systems, and then offer Geary, the hero who saved the planet, the position...[[spoiler:of being their office gofer. Geary refuses, and three years later, their new navy is screwed up and they come crawling back to beg Geary to save them again.]] Averted in the sequel, where, despite the Glenlyon Council voting to strip Geary of his command, the Council President overrules them. Also averted in ''Triumphant'', where the President makes it clear that both Geary and Darcy have her utmost confidence and trust. She promotes Darcy to major and gives Geary free reign on how to defend the system.

** In ''Ascendant'', Dominic Desjani to Carmen Ochoa. It appears they have started dating sometime between ''Vanguard'' and ''Ascendant''. In fact, it appears that Dominic has proposed to Carmen, only for her to stall on answering. Eventually, with the Scatha/Apulu/Turan invasion imminent, Lochan convinces Carmen to say yes to Dominic, and they have a quick ceremony. This implies that they are the ancestors to Captain Tanya Desjani of the main series.

* FightingIrish: Eire is a predominantly Irish colony. While not warlike, they do end up committing both of their warships to [[spoiler:the combined fleet sent to aid Glenlyon, whereas Benten and Kosatka can only contribute their sole warships. However, the government of Eire does agree to give the overall fleet command to the captain of Benten's destroyer ''Asahi'']]. Their destroyers are also named after weapons from Myth/CelticMythology.

* MeaningfulRename: Sort of. It's common for colonies to rename ships purchased from Old Earth or one of the Old Colonies, although one colony does decide to keep its ship's original name ''Simon Bolivar'', as the politicians can't agree on a new name. The Glenlyon government chooses the name ''Squall'' for the Scathan corvette captured by Geary in ''Vanguard''. However, the two destroyers purchased from Old Earth are named after bladed weapons: ''Claymore'' (originally ''Garibaldi'') and ''Saber'' (originally ''[[UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} Kamehameha]]''). The government of Kosatka, meanwhile, renames it purchased ships after fish, which is fitting, since "kosatka" is Russian for "orca" (not a fish, I know, but still a sea creature). Eire's warships are likewise named after swords, only from Myth/CelticMythology: ''Caladbolg'' and ''Gae Bulg''.

* EarthThatUsedToBeBetter: Old Earth is no longer what it used to be. Prior to the invention of the jump drive, all colonies compared themselves to Earth. Geary mentions that the Alfar SpaceNavy saw Earth's SpaceNavy as the ideal. Then he's told that Earth's fleet has been so thoroughly bureaucratized that its officers couldn't do anything without going through a checklist. Initiative was frowned upon. Any situation that's not in the checklist should be first added to the checklist. By the time ''Vanguard'' is starting, Earth's fleet is being decommissioned, as the planet's many nations no longer wish to maintain it. In fact, Earth is making a deal with some of the old colonies, asking ''them'' for protection. It doesn't help that Earth also went through a number of devastating wars, as mentioned in the first spin-off series.

* FlightALightIntoTheFuture: The DistantFinale reveals that ''General'' Mele Darcy wrote a letter detailing the events of the trilogy in order to make sure that the true heroes of this time are remembered, including Robert Geary and Carmen Ochoa. The Desjani family ends up keeping the letter for generations, before it finally reaches their descendants John Geary and Tanya Desjani, respectively, who are now married.

* SpaceMarine: Mele Darcy is an ex-Marine. However, most of what she does in the book has more to do with ground forces rather than boarding enemy ships. That does get done, but without her. In ''Ascendant'', she's tasked with forming Glenlyon's first Marine detachment, much to the chagrin of the ground forces' commander. Her actions in the novel end up firmly cementing the need for a Marine Corps in the eyes of the Glenlyon Council. Mele is kept in command this time. In ''Triumphant'', she is tasked with defending Glenlyn's orbital facility from enemy boarders and is promoted to major (permanently this time).

* [[HonoraryUncle Honorary Aunt]]: Geary and Ninja's daughter loves her "Auntie Mele", even though they're not related. Mele reciprocates and starts calling the girl "Little Ninja", causing the latter to refuse to answer to her given name. The parents worry if their little girl might be so in awe of Mele that she will join the Marines when she grows up.

** Several colony ships sent out by corporations into unknown space are mentioned, and Lochan muses on how might those worlds end up, and what they would be like if they joined together.

''The Genesis Fleet'' is a hard science fiction series by [[Creator/JohnHemry Jack Campbell]] (actual name John G. Hemry). This is a prequel to his ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series and focuses on the formation of TheAlliance.

Currently, three novels (''Vanguard'', ''Ascendant'', ''Triumphant'') have been released. The author appears to break his ThemeNaming trend, as there are no ships called ''Vanguard'', ''Ascendant'', or ''Triumphant'' in any of the novels.

The series is set during the second wave of human expansion into the galaxy, triggered by the invention of the [[FasterThanLightTravel jump drive]] several decades prior. Before that, all interstellar travel was done using sublight ships. As humanity is rapidly expanding outward, the influence of [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter Old Earth]] and the old colonies is rapidly waning. The once-mighty Earth fleet is being decommissioned, as the various Earth governments are no longer interested in protecting the outlying colonies, and the old colonies' fleets are hardly up to the challenge. In fact, many of them are also cutting back on their militaries. The new colonies are forced to fend for themselves, as pirates, slavers, and hostile colonies are taking advantage of this.

* FamousAncestor: Averted. John Geary's ancestor might be brave and heroic, but thanks to politicians, he's relegated into obscurity. Additionally, Tanya Desjani's ancestor is just a sergeant in Kosatka's ground forces, who only appears in a single chapter. He does, however, play a greater role in the second book. Rob Geary is also exonerated and treated fairly in the second and third books.
* FightingIrish: Eire is a predominantly Irish colony. While not warlike, they do end up committing both of their warships to [[spoiler:the combined fleet sent to aid Glenlyon, whereas Benten and Kosatka can only contribute their sole warships. However, the government of Eire does agree to give the overall fleet command to the captain of Benten's destroyer ''Asahi'']]. Their destroyers are also named after swords from Myth/CelticMythology.

* By ''Triumphant'', most colonies have one, usually purchased from Old Earth or one of the old colonies and towed into place. These serve to support their defense ships and to serve as a waypoint between arriving freighters and the surface. It's common for enemies to try to capture orbital facilities rather than destroy them, as they plan to make use of them.

* SequelEscalation: In ''Vanguard'', Geary has to deal with, at most, one enemy ship at a time. In ''Ascandant'', this goes up to two ships, and not just him. Both Glenlyon and Kosatka find themselves facing off against two enemy ships each, while being able to field only one each. Each planet also sends representatives to seek out assistance and also, possibly, purchase one of the light cruisers Earth is selling off. Presumably, the third novel will feature cruiser combat.

* RankUp: In ''Ascendant'', Geary and Dacy are once again asked to save Glenlyon from a near-hopeless situation. Unlike the last time, when they were a Lieutenant and a Sergeant, respectively, they are given more proper ranks: Commander and Captain, respectively, with Geary also being named Commodore of the surviving Glenlyon space forces (which includes a total of one warship).

* KasmaHoudini: In ''Triumphant'', two of the invasion forces' commanders contact the government of Kosatka and offer to surrender the forces under their command in exchange for free passage out of the system just for the two of them. Everyone on the Kosatka side is disgusted at commanding officers abandoning their soldiers, but they have no choice but to accept and honor the agreement. Averted when Carmen is told that the agreement said nothing about not sending word about the betrayal to possible Scathan agents in nearby systems, meaning the two commanders will get what's coming to them.

* OrbitalBombardment: As Lochan and Carmen arrive to Kosatka, they're shocked to discover that a city on the planet has just been attacked by an unknown destroyer. Luckily, when the destroyer returns for round two, Geary is there to chase it off (apparently, the destroyer is far older than the ''Squall''), earning him the gratitude of the government of Kosatka.