History Literature / Deathstalker

* HoYay: Kit and David. Heck, Kit even [[spoiler: kisses David on the lips when David dies, calling him "his love"]].

* MoralEventHorizon: For many citizens and people in the series, it had to take Lionstone [[spoiler: ordering mass murder in Virimonde]] for them to conclude that she had gone batshit insane. Why they didn't realize that she had already passed the MoralEventHorizon long ago might be a mystery.

* {{Narm}}: Pick a story--it's in there somewhere.
** Haceldama, or Shannon's World, in ''War''. Think of a peaceful sanctuary turned into a horrific crypt, and you might start to approach it.

* BodyHorror: Shub does this to some folks. ... well, okay, everyone they find. Also, [[NightmareFuel Half-A-Man]].

* NightmareFuel: Wormboy Hell, Legion, the fate of the people of Virimonde.

** Almost annoyingly present in the later books and backstory when it comes to the Terror. [[spoiler: The terror "ate" an entire galaxy traveling at slower than light speed. Fine . . . Problem is that those being eaten could move faster than light. Solution: Move your freaking population about . . . 1000 light years ahead of the terror, chill for 900 years, repeat. Terror starves to death chasing you. Next issue: Terror arrives in Empire, eats a star system, everyone else freaks out. Problem is that the empire is literally thousands of light years across and has ultra FTL capabilities. It would be literally a thousand years before the Terror could even reach the inner systems which have more than marginal populations. Similar solution to that above in that you could just shift populations from system to system every . . . 40 or so years and the Terror would eventually starve, give up, or . . . well, go FTL out of desperation. Oh, on a more practical note, the Terror goes through three habitable star systems in something like two years or so. I think the travel time for one trip was like six months. At light speed, six months would not even get you out of the Ort cloud of our solar system, much less the 4 light years to the nearest star or the 20 or so to the THEORETICAL closest star that MIGHT have a planet that could support life.]]

* ChurchMilitant: The Church of Christ the Warrior, with its Jesuit commandos. In the later books this is played straight up with the . . . "Church Militant."

*** This is also interesting because it seems that disruptor weapons were systematically nerfed when projectile weapons were banned because [[spoiler:in the past (i.e. in the "fallen" first empire"), energy weapons could fire without pause.]]

* ActionGirl: Simon R. Green seems to love this. Hazel, Ruby, Investigator Frost; Jesamine; Rose; Investigator Topaz; . . . pretty much every woman in the books.

* ChurchMilitant: The Church of Christ the Warrior, with its Jesuit commandos.

* ActionGirl: Hazel, Ruby, Investigator Frost; Jesamine; Rose (MAJORLY).

* ActionGirl: Hazel, Ruby, Investigator Frost.

* BattleCouple: Jack and Ruby; Owen and Hazel.

* ChekhovsGag: Multiple occasions, at least one [[spoiler:appears between the books, Deathstalker: Return and Deathstalker: Coda. In Return, Lewis Deathstalker discusses parties of jaded big game hunters going to Shandra-kor to hunt the monsters there. After ten hunts, the only thing that came back was a note saying, "Send more hunters." In Coda, said monsters agree to aid Lewis in his rebellion and are riding in a cargo bay of Lewis's star cruiser during a "Pure Humanity" loyalist mutiny. The loyalists go to the cargo bay to cleanse the "abominations," the monsters tear the loyalists apart and eat them. One monster sends up a com-request to the bridge to "Send more loyalists." This could be a BrickJoke if you didn't find the set up funny]].

* BrickJoke: Multiple occasions, at least one [[spoiler:appears between Deathstalker: Return and Deathstalker: Coda. In Return, Lewis Deathstalker discusses parties of jaded big game hunters going to Shandra-kor to hunt the monsters there. After ten hunts, the only thing that came back was a note saying, "Send more hunters." In Coda, said monsters agree to aid Lewis in his rebellion and are riding in a cargo bay of Lewis's star cruiser during a "Pure Humanity" loyalist mutiny. The loyalists go to the cargo bay to kill the "abominations," the monsters tear the loyalists apart and eat them. The brick returns when one monster sends up a com-request to the bridge to "Send more loyalists"]].

* Brick Joke: Multiple occasions, at least one [[spoiler:appears between Deathstalker: Return and Deathstalker: Coda. In Return, Lewis Deathstalker discusses parties of jaded big game hunters going to Shandra-kor to hunt the monsters there. After ten hunts, the only thing that came back was a note saying, "Send more hunters." In Coda, said monsters agree to aid Lewis in his rebellion and are riding in a cargo bay of Lewis's star cruiser during a "Pure Humanity" loyalist mutiny. The loyalists go to the cargo bay to kill the "abominations," the monsters kill all the loyalists, and then eat them. The brick returns when one monster sends up a com-request to the bridge to "Send more loyalists"]].

* Brick Joke: Multiple occasions, at least one [[spoiler:appears between Deathstalker: Return and Deathstalker: Coda. In Return, Lewis Deathstalker is discusses parties of jaded big game hunters going to Shandra-kor to hunt the monsters there and the only thing that came back was a note saying "Send more hunters." In Coda, said monsters are riding in a cargo bay of a star cruiser during a "Pure Humanity loyalist" mutiny. The loyalists go to the cargo bay to kill the "abominations," the monsters kill all the loyalists . . . and eat them. One monster sends up a com-request to the bridge to "Send more loyalists"]].

* Brick Joke: Multiple occasions, at least one [[spoiler:appears between Deathstalker: Return and Deathstalker: Coda. In Return, Lewis Deathstalker is discusses parties of jaded big game hunters going to Shandra-kor to hunt the monsters there and the only thing that came back was a note saying "Send more hunters." In Coda, said monsters are riding in a cargo bay of a star cruiser during a "Pure Humanity" mutiny and the mutineers go to the cargo bay to kill he "abominations," the monsters kill all the mutineers and send up a com-request to the bridge to "send more loyalists" (i.e. mutineers)]].

* CompleteMonster: The Blood Runners, who kill people for body parts in their quest to find immortality. Additionally, Lionstone herself. By the end of the fourth book, Valentine Wolfe can claim this title, too.

* CosmicHorror: The Terror

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Shandrakor. To be fair, though, everything is also trying to kill everything else.

* NightmareFuel: Wormboy Hell, Legion, the fate of the people of Virimonde.
* NightmareFuelUnleaded: Haceldama, or Shannon's World, in ''War''. Think of a peaceful sanctuary turned into a horrific crypt, and you might start to approach it.

** In the later books [[spoiler: Thursday for all the six lines of dialog or so he gets]]

One last note: For some, [[DisContinuity the series ends at the fifth book.]] For some it might even end after the third or fourth. YourMileageMayVary. In chronological story order, the books are as follows:

* HoYay: Kit and Daniel. Heck, Kit even [[spoiler: kisses Daniel on the lips when Daniel dies, calling him "his love"]].

** Disruptor weapons get a little better in the last three books. It just takes 30 sec. to recharge. Just long enough to get run though if you miss, or fighting more than one enemy and have only one gun.