REALITY ENSURES: Letting events take their natural course.

[Samuel , Director]

Recently I read and reviewed a good spy novel. The author is very good and willing to subvert and avert quite a few conventions. One of them being the 'element of wish fulfillment' inherent in say, Scott Harvath or (FILM) James Bond

A primary convention/trope he utilized to avoid the wish fulfillment trap is what I shall call
"Reality Ensures". The definition is as follows:

Somebody thought they were protected by the power of narrative convention. Then reality ensued.
By definition, fiction is unrealistic. But most readers don't ask those stories be completely like reality.

As long as things are kept internally consistent, the audience is willing to go along with just about anything an author can create... no matter how irresponsible, immoral, or unhinged their more likeable and sympathetic characters might be acting by the standards of Real Life. For that reason, a creator can sometimes ignore or Hand Wave consequences of the real world in their stories.

This trope, though, is about what happens when a creator chooses not to ignore said consequences, and even factors them in as part of the plot or events.

This can sometimes be seen on the hard end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism, though it isn't necessarily so since realism, despite what many claim, is not the same as cynicism.

There are many realistic stories that run on optimism.
Generally, this trope is not used in order to make fiction completely and entirely mirror mundane everyday life. However, the danger of doing so does exist and should be avoided.

[Samuel , Director]

The way reality ensured in this book is during the last act. The story is a novel about revenge, a rogue spy hunting the man who killed the woman he loved, you know the drill.

Now, most authors see a revenge tale as a time to have fun. Violence, terror and a satisfying ending where the target has been butchered and the anti - heroes bosses pat him on the back and welcome him home.

In "Embrace The Fire", reality ensures and this does not happen at all. When the CIA find a former employee of their is hunting an Islamic terrorist and killing people on British soil without the "presidential findings" and what not, they're horrified and order the CIA station and the S.A.D officer there to apprehend the rogue main character at all costs, like any intelligence service who has a off the reservation former employee would do in real life.

Because what is morally right, namely the death of a Islamic terrorist, isn't legally right with the lack of proper sanctions and other authorizations.

[Samuel , Director]

Now, the great thing about this trope/convention is that it can lead to hundreds of awesome plot twists and complications that a fictional spy/soldier/assassin has to work hard to survive.

Resisting the urge to let a fictional character have it easy when the first battle seems to be won and then dropping the curtain which shows the war is not over yet, is something more writers have gotten into.


Basically, to execute the trope, the writer must take an action (revenge, assassination, getting caught), and ask themselves what is the most likely consequence to happen rather than what they want to happen.

It's about knowing when to step around the wish fulfillment aspect and being brave enough to let the hero feel most alive by bringing him treacherously close to death.

[Samuel , Director]

Peter Nealen

Another great example of "reality ensures", is used as a subtle, yet awesome running gag of sorts in this wonderfully complex military thriller by group member Peter Nealen which I read and reviewed this year.

During the story, some secondary villains decide to get into the open without any ballistic protection or meat shields and try to taunt Mr Jeff Stone and his team.

In a badly written story, the main characters would be chivalrous and wait until the boastful dead man walking finishes his speech and is in a safer spot before opening fire.

In "The Devil You Don't" however, reality ensures. Those bombastic moving targets do not finish their speeches and are the first hostiles to end up with more holes than a kitchen colander courtesy of the hail of 7.62MM NATO rounds the protagonists send their way.

[Samuel , Director]

A more subtle example can be found in this book.
It's about a small group of rogue CIA employees trying to assassinate the deputy directory of the Company.

They come up with a pretty good plan. But inevitably, things go horrifically wrong for many reasons, among which are their target rigging the game so the house wins.

But the primary reason the bad guy wins is that his would be killers are going up against the full might of the Special Activities Division.

Being the deputy director, the target deploys multiple teams in order to create a massive kill box, thus sabotaging the protagonist's extraction attempt. With all roads in and out of the kill zone covered and an overwhelming firepower advantage, the outcome is inevitable.

[Samuel , Director]

An example of reality ensures in a spy film.
Now, Die Another Day ranks near the very bottom of my favorite actions films, but I do give credit to the script writers for the repercussions from the cold openers. James Bond kills the son of one of the most powerful men in the DPRK military and kidnaps one of the DPRK's top spies. He isn't able to be extracted in time. Thus, unlike in any other Bond/spy film where the hero would stage a exciting jail break, he's tortured horribly and only released when the SIS offer to do a prisoner exchange, like any other spy caught red handed would be subjected to.

[Samuel , Director]

Another example from this book.

During the end of the story, the main characters who are being hunted by British law enforcement save the lives of the Royal Family. Does the British government call off the dogs? Not in the slightest. Having shot a number of (admittedly treasonous) British citizens, the Crown wishes to bring Harry Nichols to justice and continues their man hunt regardless of the big good thing they did.

[Samuel , Director]

Group member Joshua Hood once discussed this in a interview he did. He noted the idea of a rogue soldier who saved the day was very popular, but pointed out in reality, the chain of command would go out of its way to punish someone who behaved in such a way.

This is reflected in the first two books of the series he wrote.
While Mason Kane and Renee Hart are heroic and well meaning, the times they go off the reservation are not praised in the slightest. The commander who is above Renee even uses this to try get her discharged from the Army. The man is unpleasant and a scumbag of the highest caliber, but he's within his right to do so due to Hart covering for her friend who has gone rogue.

[Samuel , Director]

bookcover:Private Wars|110142]

A great example of reality ensuring is in the Queen and Country trilogy by Greg Rucka.

We have an American diplomat based in Ubekistan. He has idealistic notions of overthrowing the anointed successor of the nation's dictator and replacing her with the dictator's seemingly more benign son.

In a more idealistic time, his ploy would be successful and filled with lollipops and rainbows. Sadly he's in a spy novel series where repolitik is a vile, murderous monster that crushes hopes and dreams.

What happens is that his scheme fails. Washington, furious that he's sabotaged relations with a key ally in the war on terror, burns his plan, demotes him and gives full backing to the woman the diplomat completely failed to destroy.

The reality is that nation's don't like deviations in policy made by those who are supposed to execute it. Even it it's well meaning and morally right. And even if the policy is vile/foolish/short sighted in the long run.

And that's what ends up biting the poor bloke here.

[Samuel , Director]

Interesting example of reality ensures occurring in this book.
You know how in most fiction, the fugitive from justice normally outwits his pursuers and stays hidden constantly?

Well in this book about a government assassin on the run, Mr England takes a sledgehammer to that idealized version and hammers it back to reality.

In this book, even knowing all the tricks the hunters would use and being a trained badass, Harry Nicholas, the protagonist knows that he can't outrun the law enforcement trying to track him forever. He neither has the money nor enough iron clad false identities which can stand up to good solid legwork done by his colleagues in the S.A.D, not to mention it being impossible for him to outlast the surveillance net.

[Samuel , Director]

Samuel wrote: "


Interesting example of reality ensures occurring in this book.
You know how in most fiction, the fugitive from justic..."

In effect, he shows the reality of the "fugitive archetype". In real life, you can't remain hidden forever and on the run from a determined manhunt. You'll make a mistake, people get curious and sometimes technology is simply superior to man. And even if you prepare and have a good strategy, the sheer resources that can be brought to bear against you would leave it in tatters.

[Samuel , Director]

Samuel wrote: "Samuel wrote: "


Interesting example of reality ensures occurring in this book.
You know how in most fiction, the fugit..."




Mark Greaney also did this in Dead Eye. He had a well equipped PMC use UAVs to corner Courtland Gentry and reduce The Gray Man into a moving target.

[Samuel , Director]

Samuel wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Samuel wrote: "


Interesting example of reality ensures occurring in this book.
You know how in most fic..."

He was only able to get away by targeting the drone operators.

[Samuel , Director]

Example in a book I'm about the review.
Near the end of the story, the main characters have managed to stop a terrorist incident but have been taken into custody.
Both the protagonists are fugitives from the law and have the misfortune of being saddled with two unpleasant CIA officer who are willing to make the mess that has been barely prevented an excuse to jail the main characters. They don't have the full record of the events that occured but seeing two potential criminals in front of them, attempt to make their own story out of the chaos in order to bring to justice people that they do not see as heroes. In any other book all would be forgiven and the truth would be known but not here. It's only through the intervention of the new employer's contacts on the hill that the protagonists get free.