Fitzpatrick's War

Fitzpatrick's War is a 2004 post-apocalyptic Steampunk Science Fiction book by Theodore Judson (author of The Martian General's Daughter), as well as the author's first novel.

Set in the 25th Century, the story is frame through the annotated autobiography of Brigadier General Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce of the Yukon Confederacy, which also chronicles the life of Lord Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, a consul of the Confederacy whose life closely parallels that of Alexander the Great and is glorified as a hero after his death. But as deadly intrigue lurks behind the scenes and more of the world's backstory is revealed, all is not what it seems. Something that extends into the very notion of history itself.

See also Julian Comstock for a similar premise involving a post-apocalyptic America.

Tropes used in Fitzpatrick's War include:

• Aerith and Bob: This was apparently a trend in 21st Century America according to the backstory, with some groups and cliques changing their own names to something more "exotic." Subverted however with the Yukons, who tend to have more archaic and vintage names.
• After the End: The Storm Times in the late 21st Century trashed all electrical and electronic technology as well as devastated the developed world. The Yukon Confederacy in particular emerged from the ashes of the United States.
• Airstrip One: Great Britain is part of the Yukon Confederacy, though it's mentioned that save for farmland, some ruins and towns, it's little more than a massive military garrison to deter the Muslim "Turks" in continental Europe.
• Author Filibuster:
  • Some of the exposition and in-verse annotations from Professor Van Buren can come across as this.
  • Whenever the Timermen show up, it also tends to be seen as this, albeit justified given their role.
• As You Know/Lecture as Exposition: The general history of how the world turned into a post-apocalyptic steampunk Neo-British Empire-dominated dystopia is recited in a verbal exam by the novel's protagonist, Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce. Coincidentally Bruce was shocked to have gotten such an easy topic.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If one considers the Yukons and Timermen as "bad guys" at any rate.
• Brutal Honesty: While Bruce remained a close, loyal friend to Fitzpatrick in life, he didn't mince words with his criticisms about the man's less than noble tendencies and actions.
• The Conspiracy: The Timermen. Though their existence and general activities are relatively well-known among the Yukons, the extent of their machinations go much deeper.
• Crap Saccharine World: For what it's worth, like in the Yukon Confederacy is generally pleasant, if you're actually a Yukon.
• Deadly Decadent Court: Fitzpatrick is shown having to contend with various nobles and political rivals. And that's not getting to the Timermen's machinations.
• Depopulation Bomb: The Storm Times also coincided with an epidemic that would leave regions like Japan and the British Isles sparsely inhabited.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Yukon society comes across as a twisted melange of Victorian and Edwardian cultural norms.
• Enforced Cold War: The Timermen have been maintaining this as part of the status quo. Once Fitzpatrick begins unraveling said status quo, they start putting their cards into play.
• Expy:
  • Fitzpatrick is this to Alexander the Great. It's also deconstructed however, in how his deliberate efforts to emulate his hero wind up causing much death and destruction.
  • Fitzpatrick's friends and allies, including Bruce, are this to Alexander's Companions, something that Fitzpatrick is intentionally invoking. The Timermen however step in to make sure that the breakup of Alexander's conquests doesn't get recreated among the Yukon, leaving the rest of the dirty work to the reasserting status quo.
• The Everyman: Deconstructed with Bruce, who started off as an Impoverished Patrician and regular soldier-in-training. In particular, the Timerman's backhanded The Reason You Suck Speech to him at the end of the novel goes at length on how someone like Bruce could thrive in 25th Century society, but not in ours.
• Fallen States of America: It's strongly implied that the 21st Century United States was very much this, with the authorities so weak and civil unrest widespread that groups like the Yukon could take root. And this was before the Storm Times.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture/Days of Future Past: The Yukon Confederacy is very much a warped, deliberate recreation of The British Empire and memories of 19th Century America by way of Columbia. This is in addition to being based on the Yukons' own origins as a collective of rural survivalists.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Played with. While Fitzpatrick is shown to be a great, ambitious man on par with Alexander the Great, his life and exploits have been utterly whitewashed by the time the book's Framing Device is actually set. The "real" Fitzpatrick meanwhile, as painted by Bruce, is another story though he does live up to the reputation.
• The Federation: The Yukon Confederacy tends to view itself as this (in part stemming from its survivalist origins), complete with a nominal democracy. In practice, the Yukons come across more like The Empire.
• Feudal Future: Deliberately invoked by the Yukons and their Timermen colleagues after the fall of 21st Century America. It helped as well that the chaos of those times made such arrangements more appealing.
• Foil: In a meta sense, the book is this to Julian Comstock despite roughly similar premises. Whereas Comstock's actions ultimately lay the seeds of progress, Fitzpatrick's ultimately serves to uphold the status quo.
• Forever War: The Yukons have been in an on-off war with a "Turkish" Muslim empire that's since expanded to include much of continental Europe. They've also been fighting the Chinese, who are implied to still be Communist.
• Foregone Conclusion: The Framing Device establishes very early on that Fitzpatrick is celebrated as a hero by the Yukons and that Bruce died an old, distinguished if ill-remembered officer. The story itself however shows that not everything is as it seems.
• Framing Device: The story is told through Bruce's autobiography, as annotated by the ludicrously biased Professor Roland Modesty Van Buren in the 26th Century, long after all the characters involved are dead.
• Future Imperfect: While the Yukons aren't ignorant about the past, much of the surviving relics and records from the 20th-21st Centuries are censored or heavily edited. Completely averted with the Timermen, who know perfectly what happened in those times and see to it they never repeat. In part because they were involved in some of those events.
• Government Conspiracy: Played with. The Timermen's existence is generally known among the Yukons as is their status as a "secret society." On the other hand, they make a point not to let the full extent of their machinations or their role in instigating the Storm Times known.
• Impoverished Patrician: Bruce starts out as one. His title is initially shown to be barely worth much such that early on, he's seen as not much better than a commoner.
• In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves: This is apparently what the Timermen believe, which explains why they support the status quo. Not to mention why they intend to keep it that way for the foreseeable future and centuries to come, as they don't believe humanity to be wise enough to avoid the state of affairs that prompted the Timermen to trigger the Storm Times in the first place.
• Insult Backfire: How the first Yukons got their name back in 21st Century America, being seen as a collective of Crazy Survivalists and country bumpkins. Not only did they wear the intended insult with pride but in time it would serve as their country's name.
• Ludd Was Right: Downplayed, but it's mentioned that much of the "First World" suffered terribly as a result of the Storm Times, its' citizenry's complacency and reliance on technology their own undoing. The developing world meanwhile fared comparatively better, while some like the Yukon rebuilt civilized society and a new technological base from the countryside.
• Man Behind the Man: The Timermen, the Yukon Confederacy's "secret society" of their best and brightest. Their origins are traced to the earliest Yukons in 21st Century America and are responsible for the Storm Times and the ensuing turmoil, all to guarantee the Yukons' survival and what they deemed the best for all mankind.
• Modern Stasis: Or what passes for "modern" in-verse at any rate, as it's implied that the Yukon Confederacy has largely been the way it's been for centuries. And for centuries to come, if the Timermen have any say about it.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: The Timermen, for all their secrecy and machinations remain loyal to the Yukons going so far as to ensure that the Yukon Confederacy is kept the way it is, more or less, even if it means ultimately bombing the rest of the world back to the stone age.
• Please Select New City Name: Over the centuries, the Yukons had renamed many Spanish and native places in the former US alone with Anglo-Saxon and Latin ones, with San Francisco becoming "Grand Harbor" and Kansas City rebuilt as "Centralia."
• Pragmatic Villainy: If one considers the Timermen villains, then their decision to retain the network of airfields set up by Fitzpatrick and allow a handful of his reforms to run their course can be seen as this, even if only for how convenient they are.
• Rising Empire: The Yukon Confederacy has been generally on the up and up since the Storm Times. And the Timermen intend to keep it that way.
• The Reason You Suck Speech: Bruce gets a backhanded one in the end from the Timermen representative, explaining how he should be thankful for their actions. Pointing out in particular how someone like him would never have had the chance to shine through the way he did throughout the book in a "modern" world as we would know it.
• Recycled in Space: Similarly to Julian Comstock, the story transplants Alexander the Great's life into what amounts to a 25th Century Columbia.
• Schizo-Tech: This is a world where sailing ships and steam-powered fleets have carbon-polymer holds, and where satellite communications are made possible with special paper and industrial equipment. And that isn't even counting the facilities maintained by the Timermen, which are the last places on Earth using actual advanced tech.
• Space-Filling Empire: At the start of Bruce's tale, the Yukons' territory covers much of North America, Britain and Australasia. This is addition to their network of allies like India and Pan-Slavia, which are considered by some of the more bigoted Yukons as backward if not little better than savages. Following Fitzpatrick's death in the end, the Yukons largely fall back to their old borders, with the noted exception of the various airbases and other conquered holdings the Timermen were content with letting the Yukons keep.
• Standard Sci Fi History: Averted. In addition to the Storm Times throwing much of the world into a new dark age and the Yukons creating their retro-futuristic order the Timermen, viewing history as cyclical, have been deliberately making sure that the Yukon Confederacy stays perpetually at the early stages of "The Cycle of Empire." This is also why they turn against Fitzpatrick, as his actions would set this trope back up and ultimately be the Yukons' undoing.
• Status Quo Is God: The Yukons and their Timermen allies have tried keeping this for centuries. The Timermen however intervene once Fitzpatrick threatens to avert this trope altogether. True enough, the old status quo begins reasserting itself after Fitzpatrick's death, though with a few tolerated differences. It's flexible enough however that the Timermen don't mind the Yukons trashing the rest of the world back to being cavemen so long as the status quo is upheld.
• Steampunk: With a little bit of Dieselpunk for good measure, which has been going on for centuries. And in the centuries to come, as enforced by the Timermen.
• Unreliable Narrator: It's left to the reader to figure out whether it's Bruce or Professor Van Buren who's the unreliable narrator.
• Vestigial Empire: Pan-Slavia, the remains of Russia and the various Slavic countries is also the last true "European" country after the "Turks" took over everything else.
• Was It Really Worth It?: Bruce ultimately arrives at this question, given what he learns about Fitzpatrick and the truth about the Timermen.
• Well Intentioned Extremists
  • Fitzpatrick, who has grand plans on moving all humanity forward under Yukon rule.
  • The Timermen, who not only maintain an enclave of advanced technology to ensure "perpetual" Yukon survival. But are also responsible for the Storm Times and the buildup to them, as well as making sure through their proxies and direct intervention that no one breaks their status quo too much, including Fitzpatrick himself. All these in the name of loyalty, saving civilization and controlling history, although it's mixed in with It Amused Me given how much they like their enforced order. And they have no regrets whatsoever.
• The World Is Not Ready: The Timerman who meets with Bruce at the end points out how neither the Yukons or humanity at large deserve having the systems responsible for the Storm Times switched off for good and letting 21st Century progress return. He also mentions that they might be turned off eventually and allow some progress back should the Yukons be deemed ready, or if the Timermen of the distant future are bored.
• Written by the Winners: The novel goes quite a bit into satirizing and deconstructing the premise.
• Zeppelins from Another World: The Yukons make plentiful use of them in their air force.