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Brute Force

194 statements
37 feature instances
0 referencing feature instances

Brute Force	type	TVTItem
Brute Force	label	Brute Force
Brute Force	page	BruteForce
Brute Force	comment	Brute Force is a 2023 science fiction novel by Scott Meyer, written in his signature humorous style.Next Sunday A.D., the world comes to an end. All we know of the even is that it's called the Bad Week, but, given the theme of the novel, it was likely to have been World War III. The only survivors live in the Habitable Zone, with various towns and gangs fighting each other.Cross Agarwal is the son of a cobra farmer. Each morning, Cross has to milk the cobras for their venom, which the local warlord Kid-Stretcher Kyle uses to coat the arrow tips for his soldiers. One day, a white sphere descends from the sky, and three beings come out of it. They explain that they represent an alliance of peaceful beings (Explorers, Builders, and the Pile) and have decided to extend a hand of friendship to humanity, offering untold technological boons in exchange for some of the humans coming with them. Cross is one of the chosen. It's not long before they find out that the peaceful aliens need humans to fight a hostile species they call "the Killers", as their observations of humanity over many decades have shown that Humans Are Warriors (in fact, their name for humans is "the Worse Killers").Thus begins humanity's rise from the ashes to joining an interstellar alliance, while trying to show the aliens that humans are good for more than killing.
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Brute Force / int_111f375d	type	HeavyWorlder
Brute Force / int_111f375d	comment	Heavy Worlder: Humans compared to the alliance races and the Killers/Enemy.
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Brute Force / int_11445b9e	type	Boulder Bludgeon
Brute Force / int_11445b9e	comment	Boulder Bludgeon: During the first battle with the Killers, rocks are all the humans are able to use as weapons, as they've either left their weapons aboard the ship or are unable to use them because they're inside their spacesuits. Later on, when they ask the Builders to make them weapons, the Builders insist that they will decide themselves on the type of weapons. What they come up with are... better rocks. An Explorer explains that the Builders have only witnessed humans fight that one time, whereas the Explorers have observed humanity for decades and know more about human weapons.
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Brute Force / int_130436b9	type	Annoying Younger Sibling
Brute Force / int_130436b9	comment	Annoying Younger Sibling: Cross's sister Albatross is never happy and is always complaining about something.
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Brute Force / int_13945ede	type	IAmAHumanitarian
Brute Force / int_13945ede	comment	I Am a Humanitarian: Meat Machine and the Famished have a reputation as cannibals. It turns out that they only ever ate one person and didn't like it. But they maintain their reputation in order to scare their enemies.
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Brute Force / int_2462a9ba	type	Multi-Armed and Dangerous
Brute Force / int_2462a9ba	comment	Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Killers have six limbs they can use as arms or legs.
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Brute Force / int_334e48a1	type	After the End
Brute Force / int_334e48a1	comment	After the End: Earth is in a postapolyptic state after the Bad Week. Humans still endure in the Habitable Zone. Various towns and tribes fight one another for resources Mad Max-style.
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Brute Force / int_3d699462	type	Curb-Stomp Battle
Brute Force / int_3d699462	comment	Curb-Stomp Battle: The first battle between humans and the Killers results in the near-total slaughter of the more numerous Killers by the humans, with only a single casualty among the humans. This is because the Killers always try to fight one-on-one and only using fists and blades. Throwing heavy rocks or attacking all at once is something they consider to be dishonorable. They're also smaller and weaker than humans. A single punch from a large human is enough to shatter every bone in a Killer's body.
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Brute Force / int_44fc28e8	type	Honor Before Reason
Brute Force / int_44fc28e8	comment	Honor Before Reason: This is how the Killers/Enemy fight. Their concept of honor requires that all fights be between two champions. It has to be an open fight with no weapons more complicated than a blade. Trickery and strategy are seen as dishonorable attempts at gaining advantage. Naturally, the first battle between some 200 humans and over 500 Killers is a Curb-Stomp Battle with humans slaughtering the Killers with only a single casualty on their side (and only because the man in question tried to talk to the Killers first). It also helps that humans are larger and physically tougher than the Killers (it's implied the Killers are from a lower-gravity world). The only Killer to try to find alternative means of fighting is the Coward, one of the weakest of the Killers. He comes up with new weapons and a plan, only to be ignored by the stronger Killers.
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Brute Force / int_4c4d0ee1	type	Alcubierre Drive
Brute Force / int_4c4d0ee1	comment	Alcubierre Drive: Based on the aliens' explanation of how they move through space, this is likely their method.
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Brute Force / int_5d0c0a0e	type	Little Green Men
Brute Force / int_5d0c0a0e	comment	Little Green Men: This is how the Explorers initially appear to humans. Except Cross quickly figures out that it's a suit. In fact, Explorers look only generally humanoid.
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Brute Force / int_60e49895	type	The Leader
Brute Force / int_60e49895	comment	The Leader: Steven Best is the first to try to make peace with the rival gangs and tribes aboard the ship, recognizing that humans needed to work together to survive. When the aliens select Best, Una, and Cross as the top three they consider to be leadership material, they ask them to choose one as the leader. Best tells everyone to huddle, and they do, which Una immediately recognizes as him having what it takes to lead. She then nominates her as his Number Two, much to Cross's chagrin. She explains that her position is the safest leadership position to have. Number Three is always blamed when things go wrong, and the leader is often plotted against. Meanwhile, those who plot against the leader often come to Number Two, assuming she wants to be on top. After Best is killed by a Killer, Una becomes leader, only to then immediately push Cross to the role of the leader, retaining her Number Two position. Despite some growing pains, Cross manages to show himself as a decent leader, even charging ahead of everyone at the Killers. When he contacts those left behind on Earth, his father chastises him for stepping up instead of shifting the responsibility to someone else. At the end of the novel, it's revealed that the humans have named the alliance's flagship The Best.
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Brute Force / int_63557923	type	Death World
Brute Force / int_63557923	comment	Death World: According to the aliens, Earth is this compared to their own homeworlds. Unlike their planets, where resources are bountiful, and they never had to struggle to survive, Earth is full of dangerous life forms, and resources are fairly scarce, requiring constant competition and fighting among themselves to survive and prosper. When one of the humans points out that Earth used to be a lot nicer before the Bad Week, the aliens explain that they were talking about Earth as it was before humanity came to be. But, yes, humans made it even worse.
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Brute Force / int_6439de78	type	Heroic Sacrifice
Brute Force / int_6439de78	comment	Heroic Sacrifice: During the invasion, Kid-Stretcher Kyle has everyone in the town hide in his mansion. When the Kill Sat starts destroying it, he holds up the doorframe and makes his Number Two Franco get everyone out. Just as he stops supporting the doorframe, the building comes down on top of him. Franco says that Kyle died doing what he loved best: telling everyone what to do.
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Brute Force / int_6454966e	type	World War III
Brute Force / int_6454966e	comment	World War III: It's heavily implied that this is what "the Bad Week" was.
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Brute Force / int_66dfe36a	type	Missing Mom
Brute Force / int_66dfe36a	comment	Missing Mom: Cross's mother died when he was eight. How? Well, she lived in a cave full of cobras, so the cause is obvious.
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Brute Force / int_69cce3dc	type	Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!
Brute Force / int_69cce3dc	comment	Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After the alliance votes to let the Enemy join them, they explain to the humans that all their decisions have to be unanimous to be fair to all member species. Cross realizes too late that the Coward is going to vote against humans joining the alliance, which is exactly what happens moments later.
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Brute Force / int_71038217	type	Wrench Wench
Brute Force / int_71038217	comment	Wrench Wench: Herk is pretty good at maintaining and fixing cars. She also manages to build her own bubble drive out of car parts, which proves to be key to allowing Cross and Una to get into orbit and stop the Coward's Kill Sat.
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Brute Force / int_7f8ec449	type	Bold Explorer
Brute Force / int_7f8ec449	comment	Bold Explorer: The Explorers evolved on a world where their survival depended on them looking around and discovering new things. Thus, not only are they amazing explorers and scientists, but they get something like a dopamine rush any time they learn something new. Una often uses it to play games with the Explorers, enjoying giving them "mental orgasms" by feeding them bits of information.
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Brute Force / int_90965cc7	type	Hive Mind
Brute Force / int_90965cc7	comment	Hive Mind: The Pile looks like, well, a pile of blue rocks. However, each "rock" is connected to every other part of the Pile using quantum entanglement. This means that the Pile is everywhere at once. The aliens use the Pile to communicate across light years and to get real-time information on distant planets. Each encounter suit contains a Pile "rock", which is used for communication. The Killers are the first to realize the benefit of having someone listen to the Pile's unfiltered stream in order to gain intelligence. The humans on Earth do that too. It's not until communicating with them that Cross assigns someone to listen to the Pile 24/7. Since they need to come up with battle plans and not have the Pile relay them to the Killers, Cross has the Builders set a room aside where the Pile has no access. While concealing information goes against everything the alliance stands for, they do recognize the importance of doing this.
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Brute Force / int_95bac90d	type	Subspace Ansible
Brute Force / int_95bac90d	comment	Subspace Ansible: The Pile is used for instantaneous communication across light years.
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Brute Force / int_970c790a	type	Big Bad
Brute Force / int_970c790a	comment	Big Bad: The Coward eventually becomes the leader of the Killers/Enemy after all the warriors are killed by the humans. He then offers peace to the alliance and asks to join them peacefully. In their ignorance, they accept and unanimously vote to allow the Enemy join. The Coward then immediately vetoes the vote to let the humans join (all major alliance decisions have to be unanimous between the member species). Later on, he proposes that a member of his species join the crew of every alliance ship. Shortly after that, all alliance ships are taken over by the Enemy, and the Coward forces the Builders to create remote-controlled robotic suits for the Explorers to act as an army with which to wipe out humanity, using the very weapons designed by the humans.
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Brute Force / int_a05522e3	type	Alien Abduction
Brute Force / int_a05522e3	comment	Alien Abduction: The Explorers have observed humanity for decades and have even conducted up-close and personal studies of humans. They stopped when it turned out that humans aren't big on certain orifices being explored with probes, which is something the Explorers find highly unusual.
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Brute Force / int_b11ac9f5	type	Abusive Parents
Brute Force / int_b11ac9f5	comment	Abusive Parents: Rashid Agarwal is as far from an ideal good father as one can get. He exploits his kids and deliberately gave them all names (Burden, Cross, Albatross, Millstone, Anchor) to indicate that they're all a burden on him. He doesn't seem to care that first his wife and then his oldest son died while handling cobras.
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Brute Force / int_b2c737e8	type	Klingon Promotion
Brute Force / int_b2c737e8	comment	Klingon Promotion: This is how the Killers advance in rank. The First is challenged by another Killer. If the other Killer manages to kill the First, then he becomes the First, and everyone below advances one rank higher. At the end of the novel, Cross reluctantly becomes the leader of the Enemy and keeps trying to get other humans to challenge him for the job. No one is dumb enough to do that because no one wants the job.
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Brute Force / int_bf487e2b	type	Translator Microbes
Brute Force / int_bf487e2b	comment	Translator Microbes: Translators are built into every suit the aliens use. They allow them to communicate among themselves, as well as with the humans. It's explained that none of the three species use sound for communication. The translators appear as holographic "faces" that speak and try to portray facial expressions. Translators can be set to "dumb down" an alien's words or make them "smarter".
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Brute Force / int_c0f87dda	type	Humans Are Warriors
Brute Force / int_c0f87dda	comment	Humans Are Warriors: The aliens note that humanity is the first civilization they encountered that didn't completely wipe itself out after discovering nuclear weapons. Only mostly. Also, the aliens' name for humans is "the Worse Killers" (the name "Killers" is already taken).
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Brute Force / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
Brute Force / int_c75df49a	comment	Shout-Out: Best names an Explorer "Dora" and a Builder "Bob".
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Brute Force / int_c8c968c3	type	The Alliance
Brute Force / int_c8c968c3	comment	The Alliance: The alliance consists of three intelligent species. Since their names can't be rendered into any human language (in large part due to the three species not communicating using sounds), the aliens instead name themselves by their predominant trait: the Explorers, the Builders, and the Pile. It's quite a harmonious relationship between the three: the Explorers decide where to go, the Builders decide on how they will get there, and the Pile coordinates between them. They offer humans an eventual membership in the alliance.
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Brute Force / int_c9981efb	type	The Engineer
Brute Force / int_c9981efb	comment	The Engineer: The Builders evolved on a planet where getting to resources requires creative thinking and building things. Thus, this is what they're good at. Not only that, but building and perfecting machines is at the core of their religious beliefs. They believe that the universe is a giant machine. By building and perfecting machines, they become a part of the universe.
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Brute Force / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
Brute Force / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure: Kid-Stretcher Kyle turns out to be a pretty good leader. Despite all the tyranny, he seems to genuinely care about the town and its people. He ends up sacrificing his life to make sure everyone can make it out of his crumbling mansion during the invasion. Stephen Best is a natural choice for the leader of the humans in space, managing to get everyone to set aside their differences and work together. Until he decides to try to negotiate with the Killers and gets himself stabbed to death.
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Brute Force / int_e18a3c59	type	Hilarious Outtakes
Brute Force / int_e18a3c59	comment	Hilarious Outtakes: These are present at the end of the audiobook.
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Brute Force / int_e3def52f	type	Egopolis
Brute Force / int_e3def52f	comment	Egopolis: Kid-Stretcher Kyle has renamed the town of Cake Creek to Kylestown after taking it over.
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Brute Force / int_e6a901a3	type	Meaningful Rename
Brute Force / int_e6a901a3	comment	Meaningful Rename: After the first battle, Cross insists that they no longer call the Killers by that name. Instead, he suggests "the Enemy." The aliens accept.
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Brute Force / int_f06b07ff	type	Locked Out of the Loop
Brute Force / int_f06b07ff	comment	Locked Out of the Loop: This ends up being the case with the Pile by the end, as various species start deliberately withholding information from it in order for it to remain a secret. The Pile eventually expresses its frustration and mild satisfaction with Cross suffering for it, as he was the one who started this practice.
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Brute Force / int_f56aeb67	type	Alien Invasion
Brute Force / int_f56aeb67	comment	Alien Invasion: Near the end of the novel, the Coward stages a takeover of all alliance ships and forces the Builders to create robotic suits for the Explorers to act as foot soldiers to attack and exterminate humanity. The suits themselves are remote-controlled because the Explorers are not fighters and would just use them to run away. The irony is that they're using weapons developed by humans to fight the Enemy. The only reason the humans aren't caught with their pants down is because one of the humans smuggled some of the Pile with her after the relations between humans and the alliance broke down.
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Brute Force / int_fea42091	type	Badass Preacher
Brute Force / int_fea42091	comment	Badass Preacher: The Madre believes in a warped version of Christianity and uses her personal inscribed bat to club "heretics" to death. She is very keen to learn that there's an intact copy of the Bible in Kylestown's church.
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