History Literature / TheGodsThemselves

* BaitAndSwitch: At the beginning of Part III, it initially seems as if the protagonist, a scientist who was disgraced after trying to raise awareness about the risks of the electron pump, is Lamont, the protagonist of Part I, before it turns out he is actually ChekhovsGunman Denison.
* BerserkButton: Never, ever suggest to Hallam that he is not really the inventor of the Pump. One guy got blackballed and driven to revenge for [[DisproportionateRetribution merely bringing it up]], in the course of writing a book about what a genius Hallam is.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: The aliens helped humanity build the source of clean unlimited power. Unfortunately, it will [[spoiler: blow up the sun and hasten the heat death of the aliens' universe]].

* IKEAErotica: The descriptions of "melting" and other Soft Ones practices tend to read like this. To someone from the para-universe, though, these accounts would probably be [[FridgeBrilliance pretty racy]].

* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: A three-way version for the relationships between Rationals, Emotionals and Parentals, both in general and within the triads. Ironically so for the protagonist triad, since they are less trimorphic than "normal".

* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: Tritt is frustrated about Dua avoiding meltings and not bringing in enought energy to conceive an Emotional baby. As a Parental, to him NotWantingKidsIsWeird, while Dua fears that having the little Emotional would bring her and her triad one step closer to passing on, which she doesn't want to do. Unfortunately for Dua, when Tritt is frustrated, he tends to do something about it. [[spoiler: Like manipulating her into eating so she gets into the melting mood]].

* OlderThanTheyLook: A minor example with the Moon people. The low gravity causes the visible signs of aging to appear later

* StarfishAliens: Neither of the alien species is physically described in much detail, but the soft ones are apparently amorphous or gas-like, have three genders, and feed by photosynthesis.

* BaitAndSwitch: At the beginning of Part III, it initially seems as if the protagonist, a scientist who was disgraced after trying to raise awareness about the risks of the electron pump, is Latham, the protagonist of Part I, before it turns out he is actually ChekhovsGunman Denison.

* SpaceIsMagic: Written largely in response to this trope. Asimov once heard Robert Silverberg make up an isotope off the top of his head, plutonium-186. When Asimov pointed out that said isotope does not and cannot exist, Silverberg responded "So what?" Asimov, who was never one to back down from a challenge (even a self-imposed one) decided to work out under what conditions plutonium-186 could be possible. He concluded that it would have to be in an parallel universe where the laws of physics behaved differently than they do here (such as the strong force being a lot stronger than it is in our universe). He went on to figure out how such a universe would operate, and eventually developed his ideas into what he considered his most ambitious novel.

* FutureFoodIsArtificial: At least on the Moon. The para-universe is currently developing "artificial food", which is actually artificial lighting, since they are photosynthetic lifeforms. Dua says it tastes awful.

* ApocalypseHow: Potentially a galactic-scale one or worse.

* CommonTongue: Planetary Standard, whatever it is. %%?

* DyingRace: Due to their sun running out, the parallel universe civilization numbers only about ten thousand as of the beginning of the story.
* DysfunctionJunction: Explored with Earth's politics and academia as the example.
* ExpositionIntuition: This is a recognized talent on Earth and Moon, called "intuitionism". Selene has it, and it proves really helpful.

* HannibalLecture: Senator Burt to Lamont. %%context?

* {{Intangibility}}: The Soft Ones are capable of that, to an extent.
* {{Lightworlder}}: Everyone born and raised on the Moon, which is why Denniston and Selene ''aren't'' having sex - he'd break her.

* OutWithABang: The Soft Ones reproduce by "melting", an extended period of time in which they physically merge with their other two partners. Afterwards, one of them gives birth. The children's sexes always occur in a specified order, and all the members of the triad die some time after the birth of the third child (long ago, some triples had six, thus providing the answer to the obvious problem with mathematics. Today, the energy shortage doesn't allow that anymore). Subverted because we eventually discover (along with the viewpoint Soft Ones themselves) [[spoiler: that they don't actually die, they permanently merge and become a "Hard One", which up until now the Soft Ones and the reader have been led to believe is a different race. This also occurs temporarily during the other meltings, though the Soft Ones retain no memories of this.]]
* {{Permafusion}}: The "Soft Ones" and the "Hard Ones" are the names of two species of aliens that live in a Parallel Universe. The Soft Ones are gaseous beings with three sexes. They have sex by "melding", i.e. by having one Soft One of each sex inhabit the same space at the same time. The Hard Ones have a fixed shape and rule over the Soft Ones. Unbeknownst to the Soft Ones, [[spoiler:the Hard Ones are the result of three Soft ones permanently melding into one being, which has the memories of the three Soft ones that became it but can have a completely different personality.]]

* BigEater: Bronowski's constant snacking. Inverted for Dua, whose dislike of eating drives quite a bit of the plot.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The Soft Ones have [[BizarreAlienSexes three sexes]]: Rational/left, Emotional/mid and Parental/right, which [[BizarreAlienReproduction reproduce]] by fusing their bodies together at the intermolecular level ("melting"). [[spoiler: This creates a mature solid form with the fused mind of the three soft ones, which forget this little fact after the act.]]
** Just to clarify this a bit, when a triad of Soft Ones "melt" (that is, mate), they [[spoiler: temporarily form a Hard One, but don't remember that after they separate (the Hard One does, however, remember its previous periods of consciousness when it is formed again).]] Nonetheless, this fusion is related to reproduction, being the means by which new Soft Ones are conceived (one at a time) to grow to term inside the Parental of the triad. There is an order to the pregnancies so that each triad will produce at least one full triad of offspring before they grow out of the breeding stage and finally [[spoiler: merge permanently as a Hard One]]. The Hard Ones are genderless and act in a parental/mentor advisory role to the Soft Ones (though the Parental Soft Ones act as parents to the babies when the latter are very young).

* AccidentalInnuendo: [[spoiler: The "Soft Ones" become "Hard Ones" when they have sex.]] While it's not clear if this even ''was'' accidental on Asimov's part, if it ''wasn't'' then it would mean that the entire novel was [[OverlyPrePreparedGag just the setup for a dick joke that flew under the radar]], which to be honest sounds more like something Creator/TerryPratchett would do.

** This work also has aliens mastering English through [[spoiler: empathy]]

* {{Lightworlder}}: The Moon people. Goes into a lot of detail.