History Literature / TheInfected

In this world, the mysterious Infection (it's not contagious OR biological, just a name from when they tried to study and contain it like it was) grants people superpowers, and has since the late seventies. However, 90% of powers are not combat-useful, and every Infected has a "first mode" a particular emotion or mindset that is dialed UpToEleven and becomes their default state. Very few things are healthy turned up to that degree-- even kindness and compassion make you a doormat. In effect, each Infected is a superhuman with an untreatable mental illness, which makes it easy to hate and fear them.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: We have eight POV characters, and over sixty secondary ones.

* Deconstruction: of superheroes in general.

In this world, the mysterious Infection (it's not contagious OR biological, just a name from when they tried to study and contain it like it was) grants people superpowers, and has since the late seventies. However, 90% of powers are not combat-useful, and every Infected has a "first mode" a particular emotion or mindset that is dialed UpToEleven and becomes their default state. Very few things are healthy turned up to that degree-- even kindness and compassion make you a doormat. In effect, each Infected is a superhuman with an untreatable mental illness, which makes it easy to [[BewareTheSuperman fear them]].

* The Chessmaster: Braid, and to a lesser extent, Brian.

In this world, the mysterious Infection (it's not contagious OR biological, just a name from when they tried to study and contain it like it was) grants people superpowers, and has since the late seventies. However, 90% of powers are not combat-useful, and every Infected has a "first mode" a particular emotion or mindset that is dialed UpToEleven and becomes their default state. Very few things are healthy turned up to that degree-- even kindness and compassion make you a doormat. In effect, each Infected is a superhuman with an untreatable mental illness, which makes it easy to fear TheMutant.

In this world, the mysterious Infection (it's not contagious OR biological, just a name from when they tried to study and contain it like it was) grants people superpowers, and has since the late seventies. However, 90% of powers are not combat-useful, and every Infected has a "first mode" a particular emotion or mindset that is DialedUpToEleven and becomes their default state, and very few things are healthy turned up to that degree, even kindness and compassion make you a doormat. In effect, each Infected is a superhuman, with an untreatable mental illness, which makes it easy to HateTheMutant.

They apparently had a brief superhero phase, which ended when Congress authorized police and military to shoot anyone wearing a mask on sight. And were {{Super Soldier}}s throughout the Cold War. Today, there are no superheroes, merely field operatives of the IPB. But it could be worse, the Russians and Chinese apparently shoot their Infected out of hand, and welcoming liberal France has apparently became an anarchic wasteland of feuding superhuman warlords. Still, the concept of Infected concentration camps has many strong backers in Congress, and there's a powerful team of ex-Special Forces Infected eager to begin the war....

They apparently had a brief superhero phase, which ended when Congress authorized police and military to shoot anyone wearing a mask on sight. And were {{SuperSoldier}}s throughout the Cold War. Today, there are no superheroes, merely field operatives of the IPB. But it could be worse, the Russians and Chinese apparently shoot their Infected out of hand, and welcoming liberal France has apparently became an anarchic wasteland of feuding superhuman warlords. Still, the concept of Infected concentration camps has many strong backers in Congress, and there's a powerful team of ex-Special Forces Infected eager to begin the war....

Brian Yi is a fat MIT dropout who stacks toilet paper in a plant job to keep in rent, groceries and video game money, but he has a secret. He is one of the Infected, a superhuman, with the power to take the place of people who are about to die. This gets out after he loses a fight to a superpowered serial killer called the Jackal, leading to Brian's brutal arrest, torture and near-murder by a police department not ''remotely equipped'' to handle superpowers.

They apparently had a brief superhero phase, which ended when Congress authorized police and military to shoot anyone wearing a mask on sight. And supersoldiers throughout the Cold War. Today, there are no superheroes, merely field operatives of the IPB. But it could be worse, the Russians and Chinese apparently shoot their Infected out of hand, and welcoming liberal France has apparently became an anarchic wasteland of feuding superhuman warlords. Still, the concept of Infected concentration camps has many strong backers in Congress, and there's a powerful team of ex-Special Forces Infected eager to begin the war....

* TookALevelInBadass: Brian again. Beginning as a seriously overweight nerd, by the end of the first book Navy SEALs are nervous about throwing down with him. Made especially clear in his rematch with the Jackal.

* FlyingBrick: Surprising rare. Really just Prime and [[spoiler: Bridget]]. Bricks are really common, but the flying part not so much.

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Brian apparently had a couple of powered incidents before the first book that were no big deal, just scaring off muggers and bullies hwo would have gone too far. However, he has no control and no choice, his power will take him to where people are in danger. And of course, after coming home covered in blood the cops kick in his door and he needs to be rescued by the IPB.

"!!The Infected contains examples of"

** And he's still far better off than [[spoiler: Melanie Miller, who has the power to turn the people around her into superhuman cannibalistic monsters with an all-consuming hunger for her flesh specifically, which makes them even stronger and tougher.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: The Infected are legitimately dangerous, but not generally as powerful or out-of-control as people think. Fear does inspire people to take extreme action- one incident involves police shooting a little boy who had the power to glow in the dark. But not everyone, or most people, want to kill the Infected.

* [[spoiler: I'm causing this. Just let me die.]]
* "The Hooper Act[[note]] outlawing Infection and ordering people to concentration camps[[/note]], ''they've passed it''."

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: [[spoiler Denis, he just needed a little characterization.]]

The Infected is a nine-book series (plus trilogy spinoff the Infected: Ripped to Shreds) of superhero books by author P. S. Powers.

In this world, the mysterious Infection (it's not contagious OR biological, just a name from when they tried to study and contain it like it was) grants people superpowers, and has since the late seventies. However, 90% of powers are not combat-useful, and every Infected has a "first mode" a particular emotion or mindset that is DialledUpToEleven and becomes their default state, and very few things are healthy turned up to that degree, even kindness and compassion make you a doormat. In effect, each Infected is a superhuman, with an untreatable mental illness, which makes it easy to HateTheMutant.

* BadAss: Too many to count, even the nonpowered agents of the IPB have harsher standards than the Special Forces.

** And he's still far better off than [[spoiler: Melanie Miller, who has the power to turn the peple around her into superhuman cannibalistic monsters with an all-consuming hunger for her flesh specifically, which makes them even stronger and tougher.]]

In this world, the mysterious Infection (it's not contagious OR biological, just a name from when they tried to study and contain it like it was) grants people superpowers, and has since the late seventies. However, 90% of powers are not combat-useful, and every Infected has a "first mode" a particular emotion or mindset that is DialedUpToEleven and becomes their default state, and very few things are healthy turned up to that degree, even kindness and compassion make you a doormat. In effect, each Infected is a superhuman, with an untreatable mental illness, which makes it easy to HateTheMutant.