The Starlore Legacy is an ongoing twelve-book sci-fi novel series by Christian author Chuck Black. It's a space opera in the Standard Sci Fi Setting (in-universe, the Aurora Galaxy). The twist is that Starlore is an allegory of the Bible (and, presumably, human history in the A.D. period), so most of the characters, places, and events represent characters, places, and events in the Bible. Unlike Chuck Black's more famous Kingdom Series, Starlore isn't a very strict allegory (for the most part), with more focus being given to the eponymous Starlore family and their adventures than the exact replication of Biblical events. There are six Starlore books in print as of May 2024 (NOVA, FLIGHT, LORE, OATH, MERCHANT, and RECLAMATION). The remaining unwritten titles in the series are CREED, JOURNEY, CRUCIBLE, COVENANT, REVOLUTION, and MAELSTROM. Audiobook versions of each finished book are also available.
These books contain examples of:
- Ace Pilot: Daeson, Tig, Linden Lockridge, and Rhett Stryker are all very skilled, highly-trained pilots.
- The Ageless: The Immortals do not age but can be killed (something that happens a lot, given their constant war).
- All Planets Are Earth-Like: Jypton, Rayl, Mesos, Llyon...even the moon Galeo is somewhat Earth-like, with plants and seas and a breathable atmosphere. Practically the only non-gas-giant planet that doesn't qualify is Haleo (which fact is a plot point).
- Always Chaotic Evil and Always Lawful Good: Torians and Malakians (respectively), the two races of Immortals. Malakians exist only to serve the Sovereign Ell Yon, while Torians do nothing but cause trouble and propagate Deitum Prime.
- A Planet Named Zok: There is a planet called Syroc (the allegorical version of Syria).
- Applied Phlebotinum/Green Rocks: the mineral omeganite and the omegeon particle that it releases. The all-powerful Protector runs on and gains its powers from a single omeganite crystal. Omegeon particles also have the ability to destroy particles of Deitum Prime.
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: The Talon. Already ancient when the story begins, yet still a viable weapon, the Talon is a collapsible sword with a blade made from a liquid-metal composite and surrounded by a Deadly Force Field called a stasis field. For a bit of extra usefulness, it can also transform into a low-power blaster pistol.
- The Armies of Heaven and The Legions of Hell: allegorized with Malakians and Torians, respectively.
- Asteroid Miners: before the Torians fell, the Immortals spent most of their time doing interstellar research and mining asteroids.
- Attack Drone: the Jyptonian Elite caste uses sentry drones to patrol the cities of their planet and keep an eye on the civilians and slaves. Oh yeah, and to euthanize them with the deadly Mist if they're causing trouble.
- Awesome Personnel Carrier: the Ground Screamer, a WIG plane designed and deployed by the Rayleans in LORE. While technically an airplane, this vehicle is closer to an Awesome Personnel Carrier than a Drop Ship because it is only capable of flying very low to the ground and functions much more like a standard APC than an aerial troop transport.
- The Battlestar: most large space warships (destroyer-class on up) can and do carry both fighters and weapon turrets.
- Beam-O-War: Happens during the allegory of Moses' rod turning into a serpent. When Daeson first uses the Protector in FLIGHT, Linden counterattacks with a beam from his Triad, with this trope being the result.
- Benevolent A.I.: Rivet. After his "possession" by the Malakian Lieutenant Ki turned him from a murderous human-hating kill-bot into a kind protector, he remains Daeson's and Raviel's loyal servant throughout the rest of the series.
- Big Bad: Lord C'Fir Apollus Dracus, the Starlore allegory for Satan, is the Greater-Scope Villain of the series but also influences most of the other bad guys directly. Each book (except NOVA) also has its own direct antagonists:
- FLIGHT: Linden Lockridge and Zari Treville.
- LORE: Prefect Verdok of Reekojah.
- MERCHANT and RECLAMATION: Prefect Terrok and Fasa Kylos.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Linden Lockridge and Zari Treville in FLIGHT; Prefect Terrok and Fasa Kylos in MERCHANT and RECLAMATION.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: the pike scorpions at the end of MERCHANT. Each of them is larger than a man with a shell that is naturally reinforced with quartz crystals. And did I mention that they can shoot their stingers?
- Big Good: The Sovereign Ell Yon, the allegory version of God.
- Brain Uploading: The mysterious system of "transference," a technology whereby the alien Malakians capture the souls of dying humans and apparently reanimate said humans in the alternate dimension of the Ruah.
- Casual Interstellar Travel: Slipstream conduits. In theory, these tunnels through spacetime aren't necessary, since faster-than-light spacecraft are ubiquitous. The purpose of the conduits is to shield FTL ships from the effects of Time Dilation—which makes them absolutely vital. Travellers constantly use the galactic network of conduits to travel between and within star systems (the first time they're used in the series is to travel between the planet Jypton and one of its moons).
- Cloning Body Parts: Downplayed, but medtechs are equipped with "healing guns" that quick-heal wounds by cloning cells to replace lost tissue.
- Counterpart Artifacts: The Protector and the Triad are essentially yin and yang to each other. The same appears to be true for the Protector and the Destroyer, Dracus' weapon in the last fight in MERCHANT, although so little information is given about it that it's hard to tell for sure.
- Deadly Force Field: the stasis field evaporates anything it touches. Little wonder that it's used to make Absurdly Sharp Blades...
- Designated Girl Fight: In FLIGHT, Linden challenges Daeson to a duel with Talons being the only weapon. Raviel takes Daeson's Protector, while Linden hands his Triad over to Xandra, with the understanding that neither Immortal weapon is to be used. But then Xandra plays dirty and uses the Triad anyway, prompting Raviel to step in and fight her with the Protector while the men continue their swordfight.
- During the Fireball competition in LORE, Raviel again takes on the only female combatant, Kamla.
- Dismemberment Is Cheap: Tig loses his leg during the escape from Reekojah in LORE. Within just a few chapters, Avidan has replaced it with a near-perfect prosthetic.
- Domed Hometown: As shown on the front cover of LORE, the city of Reekojah is covered by a giant Beehive Barrier force field which is actually a deadly stasis field. As you may have guessed by now, this is all an allegory of Jericho and its giant walls.
- Double Weapon: The Talon-X is a variation of the standard Talon energy sword with two blades coming out either side of a central handle, as well as a miniature energy shield on the front.
- Dragon Rider: Daeson rides a Terridon to get on top of the dome of Reekojah in LORE.
- Emergent Human: Rivet. After his "possession" by Lieutenant Ki, he begins to act—and even think—more and more like a human, which he finds unusual and fascinating.
- The Empire/Galactic Superpower:
- Played straight with Llyon in OATH and Moria from MERCHANT onward. These are two planets whose governments controlled vast swaths of the galaxy at various points throughout the series.
- Downplayed in NOVA and FLIGHT. The government of Jypton is just The Empire—an authoritarian superstate that controls only one planet. The Galactic Alliance is a Galactic Superpower, but more closely resembles a secretly evil Hegemonic Empire since it is a coalition of planets under a single leader.
- Fantastic Firearms: The plasma rifle. Yes, it's a Ray Gun, but if you look at the schematic for it in LORE, you'll see a weapon that is basically a boxy, sci-fi-styled version of a modern-day assault rifle. It has an easily-recognizable optic (albeit a holographic one) and even loads from a magazine (which is actually a giant battery).
- Floating Continent: Wherever anti-gravitons occur naturally, sky islands are inevitable. An especially notable case of this is the whole region laden with anti-gravitons that Daeson explores at the beginning of FLIGHT. The trope itself is downplayed, however, because few of the islands are large enough to be worthy of the name "continent."
- Future Food Is Artificial: Raviel and Tig eat "protein sticks" while on a covert mission in LORE (and have to rip pieces off with their teeth...). Other than that, however, most of the food is real enough.
- Futuristic Jet Injector: medtechs have medi-guns that quick-heal wounds by cloning the victim's cells to replace damaged tissue in seconds.
- Generican Empire: the Galactic Alliance.
- Ghost Planet: Mesos. It used to be the home of the first humans, but after the disastrous A.I. Wars, it was left a wasteland with only the few remaining A.I. androids to inhabit it.
- Giant Flyer: the Terridons from LORE—flying dragons and the apex predators on Rayl.
- Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Piercer, the evil android in OATH, is described as having glowing eyes.
- Good Old Robot: Rivet, by the time OATH rolls around. Early on, Brae asks her father why he still keeps their three ancient household droids around. Turns out one of them is actually Rivet, and he's just as loyal a defender and as awesome a rescuer as he was millennia ago.
- Gravity Screw: Anti-gravitons are naturally-occurring subatomic particles that create a field of negative gravity above and around them. They are often harvested and used in floating and flying vehicles. More importantly for the storytelling, naturally occurring fields of anti-gravitons can produce some interesting (and frankly awesome) flight sequences and stunts, a fact which is leveraged to great effect in the first chapters of NOVA and FLIGHT.
- Hand Blast: The most common way people use the Protector.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: A subversion with Rivet—he turns out to have been loyal to Daeson and Raviel all along. The Revolving Door is their perception of him, which constantly changes—is he a loyal protector or a secret assassin passing himself off as a good guy?
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Daeson is almost never seen without his Talon.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In FLIGHT, Sabella and Thenoras deliberately fly their escape ship into enemy view to draw attention away from Daeson. Of course it gets them killed immediately.
- High-Tech Hexagons: The dome over Reekojah is made of these.
- Hologram: In FLIGHT, Daeson uses a miniature drone that projects a hologram to present a visual representation of himself so he can communicate with Linden without being there phyiscally.
- Holy Is Not Safe: the Protector incinerates people who put it on without proper respect (including a hapless Reekojan marine in LORE). By the time of the Kaynian invasion in OATH, no one even dares to wear it any more.
- Humanity Is Young: at least compared to the Immortals.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Slipstream conduits were constructed by the Immortals but are used liberally by humanity. Similarly, in LORE, the Immortals send the Rayleans blueprints for a Matter Replicator, which technology they continue to use even millennia later.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: The Talon. It's a sword with a blade made of liquid metal held together by a Deadly Force Field that is Sharpened to a Single Atom and incinerates anything it touches. Plus, it can shorten to the length of a dagger for easy close-combat use. Plus, it can collapse its blade completely and turn into a blaster.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: the Malakians translate themselves from the Ruah to the physical realm and back using little phase-shifter devices on their belts.
- Killer Robot/Kill All Humans: the lone remaining unit of androids from the A.I. wars is dedicated to destroying any humans that visit their planet, just as they and their predecessors were in the long-past A.I. Wars. And they're very good at it.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: In OATH, the Llyonian Shriek fighters that Daeson and his friends get to fly feature plasma cannons and missiles but also low-power cobalt machine guns. These smaller guns end up becoming the weapon of choice for the heroes, who use them to shoot down other planes without killing the pilots outright.
- Laser Blade/Laser Cutter: In FLIGHT, after the Torian rebellion, the Malakians convert their laser mining picks into "laser lances"—essentially laser blades on sticks.
- Layered World: There is a fifth non-physical dimension, the Ruah, above the physical dimensions inhabited by humanity.
- Like Cannot Cut Like: A stasis field can cut anything except another stasis field. Thus, the only weapon that can fight a Talon effectively is another Talon.
- Living Weapon: the Protector is basically alive, since it is an extension of Ell Yon himself.
- Machine Monotone: All A.I. bots, including Rivet, speak in monotones.
- Magic Must Defeat Magic: The few times a Triad makes an appearance, it always overpowers standard human weapons easily. Only a Protector is powerful enough to defeat it.
- Matter Replicator: In LORE, the Malakians send the Rayleans the blueprints to build these devices. They prove so useful that the Rayleans continue to use them even centuries later.
- Meaningful Name: In true Chuck-Black-allegory fashion, many of the names in Starlore are thinly-veiled modifications of the Biblical and historical names which they represent. If you're Biblically literate, try guessing some of them now: Jypton, Rayl, Mesos, Kayn, Ianis, Reekojah, Luas, Zedeka, Rimiah, Llyon, Zar, Ashpen, Azzar, Moria, Fasa Kylos, Pylok, Jeshu, Codemus, Kalem Archeus, Galec, and C'fir Apollus Dracus.note
- Several names are also borrowed from Hebrew, including:
- Ell Yon, the allegory for God. 'Elyon is Hebrew for "most High" (one of God's titles).
- Malakians, the allegory for angels. Malak is Hebrew for "angel."
- The Ruah, the allegory for the spirit realm as described in the Bible. Ruach is Hebrew for spirit.
- In LORE, Admiral Bostra submits Daeson to what he calls "the test of Yashar" (a fancy name for a Deitum-Prime scan). Jashar or jasher is Hebrew for "truth."
- Several names are also borrowed from Hebrew, including:
- Mechanical Monster: Demon, the mecha-beast in the Fireball arena in LORE.
- Mentor's New Hope: Brae to Daeson in MERCHANT. Her insistence upon him training her to be a Navi is part of what spurs him to take up the Protector one last time.
- Mind Probe: In OATH, the android Piercer is an expert at attacking other androids in this way (hence his name), and he demonstrates his skill by coming frighteningly close to wiping Rivet's memory before Daeson saves the day.
- Multistage Teleport: Most slipstream jumps work like this, since slipstream conduits usually extend only from one star system to its closest neighbor. To reach systems further away, you have to jump from system to system.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Most A.I. androids are murderous, bloodthirsty human-haters. Rivet, however, becomes a loyal companion and protector to Daeson and Raviel the moment he meets them. Of course, in his case, there is a special reason for this change of heart...
- Not Quite Flight: The Ground Screamer is a WIG or ground-effect aircraft, so it can only fly very close to the ground.
- Now Do It Again, Backwards: At the end of FLIGHT, Raviel's Starcraft is hit by an enemy missile and sent flying out the side of a slipstream conduit at light speed. In the next book, she is recovered by Daeson and Tig, but is suffering from an illness brought on by the time paradox which her FTL accident created. Teen Genius Avidan calculates that the only way to stabilize her is to take her back through the same conduit where her accident happened, except in the opposite direction.
- Old-School Dogfight: These happen quite a bit, albeit usually in space instead of a planet's atmosphere. Not surprising, since both the author and several of the main characters are skilled fighter pilots. Highlights include the giant battle at the end of FLIGHT, the aerial trials during OATH, and the air-combat sequences in the Ruah in RECLAMATION.
- One World Order: There are almost no nations or countries in Starlore. Just about every planet is ruled by a single government. The only exception in the entire series thus far is Kayn-4, which first makes its appearance as a lawless world populated by various warring tribes—and even Kayn-4 doesn't stay this way for long, being conquered eventually by the Rayleans, who become its sole rulers.
- Only Flesh Is Safe: In LORE, the city of Reekojah is protected by automated plasma turrets keyed to detect any metal object and obliterate it. However, they are not set to detect organic matter...so to avoid being shot out of the sky, Daeson becomes a Dragon Rider.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The Protector. In LORE, it vaporizes a Reekojan marine who puts it on without Ell Yon's permission. This same kind of thing apparently continues to happen in the centuries that Daeson and friends skip over in OATH, to the point where the Rayleans don't even dare to try and don the Protector any more.
- Our Doors Are Different: In FLIGHT, Brae's room has a door of the "converging-from-all-sides" variety.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Terridons are basically just very large winged carnivorous lizards. There is nothing occult or magical about them; they're just deadly apex predators.
- Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in the Future: Plasma rifles fit this trope very nicely.
- Portal Network: The galactic network of slipstream conduits, space-time tunnels constructed by the alien Immortals to shield FTL craft from the effects of Time Dilation.
- Precursor Worship: The Immortals are often venerated to the point of deity, but only their king, the Sovereign Ell Yon, is truly worshipped, and then only by the Rayleans.
- Religious Robot: Rivet actually becomes this as he grows to appreciate the reality of Sovereign Ell Yon and venerate him just as much as the humans do.
- Resurrective Immortality: Hinted at. When Raviel suffers the time-dilation accident, Lieutenant Ki goes with her, and Rivet states later that she (Ki) died trying to save Raviel. And yet later Lieutenant Ki appears once again to take Raviel's soul upon her death. Jeshu refers to this process as "transference" in RECLAMATION, and it appears again later when Daeson and Raviel are seen alive in the Ruah after their deaths.
- Retractable Weapon: The Talon is a sword with a liquid-metal blade that can collapse into the handle.
- Robots Are Just Better: The murderous A.I. androids are all far better fighters than humans, being much stronger, faster, more precise, and more survivable due to their very construction. The Benevolent A.I. Rivet is similarly skilled (being a former kill-bot himself), and he uses his abilities to save Daeson's and Raviel's lives on multiple occasions.
- Scrap Heap Hero: Daeson in MERCHANT. The death of Raviel has pushed him into quiet despair, and he has stopped wearing the Protector and trying to do anything for Ell Yon except train his daughter in his ways.
- Sharpened to a Single Atom: The Talon is explicitly stated to be an example of this trope, with its stasis field rendering the liquid-metal blade underneath exactly this sharp.
- Ship Sinking: In FLIGHT, Tig begins expressing romantic interest in a Raylean medtech named Zee'la. But in the next book, he decides that it's not a strong enough love to keep him from travelling into the future with Daeson—and, by the end of the book, he's found someone else.
- Shout-Out: a lot. So many that we even have a separate page dedicated to listing them.
- Single-Biome Planet: Mostly averted—the majority of planets (and even the occasional moon) are fairly Earth-like. The one exception is the desert planet Haleo, which was specially cursed by Ell Yon to be the way it is.
- Skeptic No Longer: Both Daeson Starlore and Rhett Stryker initially approach the idea of Ell Yon and the Immortals skeptically, but both of them come around to believing in the Sovereign at some point. Of the two, this trope fits Daeson, who sees Ell Yon and the Ruah in person, better than Rhett.
- Slave Race/Sons of Slaves: the Rayleans are first seen in NOVA as the slaves of the Jyptonian people (in an obvious allegory of the Israelites in Egypt). They even have a special slave name: "Drudge." After Daeson leads them to freedom in FLIGHT, they take on the Sons of Slaves identity to a degree, becoming a very cohesive and patriotic society.
- Society of Immortals: the Immortals, who never age but can be killed.
- Space Battle: It's a space opera, so of course it has several Space Battles, including:
- The Malakian-Torian battle at Far Point (FLIGHT).
- The Galactic Alliance's attack on the escaping Raylean refugee convoy (again, FLIGHT).
- The retaking of the Raylean orbital colony (LORE).
- The assault on Rayl by the Llyonians (OATH).
- There is also the attack of the Raylean Guard gunships on the spectators of the Omega Nebula in MERCHANT, but this is a massacre rather than a battle.
- Space Fighter: These are ubiquitous throughout the series, and they come in quite a few different models:
- The A-32 Starcraft is the most recognizable by far. The signature craft of the Jyptonian air and space forces, it is a two-seater fighter VTOL-capable equipped with missiles, plasma cannons, short-range energy guns, and an energy shield. It is capable of atmospheric as well as space flight and can use slipstream conduits.
- Space Is Air and an Ocean: The many space fighters seen throughout Starlore obey the former trope, while the latter applies to the larger ships (which are classed as destroyers, cruisers, battleships, etc.).
- Space Marines: The Raylean and Reekojan forcetech orders in LORE are space marines. Sergeant Kyrah Antos is a specific example.
- Space Nomads: The Rayleans spent a couple of centuries after their escape from Jypton just floating around the Ianis System.
- Space Sector
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet
- Standard Starship Scuffle
- Streaming Stars
- Subspace Ansible: quantum-entanglement communicators
- Sufficiently Advanced Aliens
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids
- Surveillance Drone
- Sword and Gun: any Talon user
- Technology Uplift: what the Immortals did for humans
- Techno Wizard and Teen Genius: Avidan. He's only about sixteen when he first appears, yet he manages to undo a time paradox AND create a device that can track a person's travel through time. With what is apparently hard science.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork
- Teleporter Accident: Raviel getting hit by a missile in the slipstream conduit
- Thank the Maker: "Thank the stars," "Thank Ell Yon"
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: the fiery furnace allegory
- The Thunderdome: the Fireball arena
- Time Dilation
- Title Drop: Surprisingly averted in every book except MERCHANT, where Brae and Rhett find Jeshu on an abandoned merchant spaceship (since he is Ell Yon’s promised Merchant, after all).
- MERCHANT and RECLAMATION do have their names referenced a fair bit in the previous books, however.
- Toxic Phlebotinum: omeganite
- Tractor Beam: Starcraft have them
- Transplanted Humans
- Unrobotic Reveal: Rivet
- Urban Segregation: There's a clear line dividing between the cities on Jypton and their attached Drudgetowns in NOVA and FLIGHT, as well as between the Raylean cities and their Rims (outer slum areas) in RECLAMATION. Justified in the Jyptonian case because the Drudgetowns are the designated homes for all of the slaves and ne'er-do-wells.
- Weapon Wields You: the Protector
- We Will Wear Armor in the Future
- Wing Man: Tig
- Wizard Duel: Protector vs Triad
- World-Healing Wave
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: The Drudgetowns in NOVA and FLIGHT and the Rims in RECLAMATION—slums and ghettos for the poverty-stricken, the slave class, and/or the dregs of society.
