Duumvirate



Duumvirate, the sequel to Billy and Howard, like many other novels, features a few gifted teenagers discovering their place in the world.

The only difference is that here, they own it.

The book gathers a number of strange reactions in people who read it.

Tropes present:

 * Ape Shall Never Kill Ape - Engineered shall never kill engineered.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking - Played dead straight for the main characters. This is because The Operator made them that way. Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate - The title gives a hint.
 * Color-Coded Patrician - Masters wear light colors, and servants wear dark ones. This is the only clothing rule they tend to follow.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy - Almost every named character. Being Dangerously Genre Savvy is considered basic competence.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones - The main characters have a number of people they protect and cherish, including each other.
 * Even Evil Has Standards - Apparently running an Orphanage of Fear is something that can get you killed.
 * Evil Albino - Howard and William are very, very white.
 * Evil Versus Evil - Hedonistic, bioengineered killers who don't see ordinary humans as people, versus insane, sadistic creeps.
 * Elite Mooks - Enforcers.
 * Evil Overlord - Deconstructed entirely. The Evil Overlord's Guide is quoted more than once. The Illuminati is portrayed as a society of six thousand of them, and it's the Duumvirate's job to keep them under control.
 * Gambit Pileup - Where to even begin? Between the two books there is a pileup of Gambit Pileups. It is implied that this state of affairs is more or less constant.
 * Little Miss Badass - At the age of fourteen and a half, Sarah Mortis has a body count in the hundreds and commands a small army of assassins. The previous commander steps aside because he knows what's good for him.
 * Moral Guardians - It really should be no surprise that they've come after this. Reddit has a link
 * More Dakka - A five hundred megawatt laser isn't enough? Try two hundred gigawatts!
 * Power Echoes - The twins have a doubled larynx for exactly this reason.
 * Rule of Cool - It is heavily, repeatedly implied that Illuminati technicians regularly sit down and work for years on projects simply to accomplish this trope.
 * Shown Their Work - There are a number of parts where the author clearly did the math and wants everyone to know it.
 * The Dragon - Sarah.
 * Transhuman - Almost everyone is either born transhuman, becomes transhuman, or desperately wants to be transhuman. When your regeneratively immortal friends can play Bullet Hell games at maximum difficulty without breaking a sweat, and dodge actual bullets for that matter, you tend to get a deep appreciation for genetic superiority.
 * Transhuman Treachery - Averted, with the main characters wishing this would happen.
 * Tyke Bomb - Every last Northberg kid is this and a Child Prodigy.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means - The main characters eventually determine that . No points for guessing their solution.
 * Villain Protagonist - And villain antagonists, villain contagonists, and villains for minor characters. There are nice guys, but no heroes. Paul.
 * Young and In Charge - Howard takes total, world-controlling power at age ten. He is underestimated at first. That does not last long.