History Literature / BlackTideRising

* HatePlague: [=H7D3=] ultimately turns the infected into feral, vicious non-sapient cannibalistic animals who are human only in a biological sense.

* HumanResources: The fastest way of collecting large amounts of antibodies for use in a vaccine against [=H7D3=] -- the ''only'' way to make it in large quantities throughout the series -- is to collect the fluids from the head and spine of its victims, as it only infects higher level primates. The task is done under secret conditions by Thomas Smith and some associates due to the illegality of the act.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: The survivors that Wolf Squadron picks up favor women by a fairly high percentage. (And many of those women are pregnant.)

* NoZombieCannibals: The {{Technically Living Zombie}}s of the series have no problems with eating other victims of the SyntheticPlague if other meat isn't available.

# ''The Valley of Shadows'' (November 2018)

# ''River of Night'' (2019)

* BuryYourGays: A gay cop is introduced, given some backstory and then killed. His husband later seemed to have been paired with his husband's straight partner sent to protect him [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse but neither has been heard of since]]. %%Move to OutOfTheClosetAndIntoTheLineOfFire when that launches.

** As well as an expy of Harrison Ford, who later joins Wolf Squadron as a helo & fixed wing pilot.

* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Efforts by the remnants of NASA to rescue the people in the International Space Station are shown in the background of two of the novels and given more focus in a short story.

* DeathOfAChild: There are quite a few children eaten by zombies, or who die of thirst and such on the ships and life rafts that Wolf Squadron finds.

* GunNut: The main character of the short story "How Do you Solve a Problem Like Grandpa" is a gun hoarder whose family tries to pressure him to change his ways until the zombies show up.

* FakeStatic: In ''Islands of Rage and Hope'', when the civilian head of a Dutch-controlled Caribbean island is mentioned by Captain Smith to be screaming about Dutch Marines taken on a mission [[spoiler:to save Prince Harry from London]] by US Marine Corps Colonel Hamilton, Hamilton starts faking transmission problems to not have to deal with it. Smith knows the static is fake, but it serves as sufficient excuse to not further bother Hamilton with the issue.

* CoolOldGuy: Even well into his seventies, Mr. Walker is able to keep up his end of the deal in ''Islands of Rage and Hope'' when the climactic mission is threatened by zombie swarms, [[spoiler:ensuring that every last Marine that went on the mission survives and returns.]]

* PomPomGirl: The short story "Not in Vain" follows a cheerleading squad during the initial outbreak who are initially shown as decent ActionSurvivor's whose struggles to survive are given proper sympathy.

* PomPomGirl: The short story "Not in Vain" follows a cheerleading squad during the initial outbreak who are initially shown as decent ActionSurvivors whose struggles to survive are given proper sympathy.

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] with ''Film/DarkTide''.

* ''Under a Graveyard Sky'' (2013)
* ''To Sail a Darkling Sea'' (2014)
* ''Islands of Rage and Hope'' (2014)
* ''Strands of Sorrow'' (2015)
* ''Black Tide Rising'' (anthology, June 2016)
* ''The Valley of Shadows'' (November 2018)
Not to be confused with ''Film/DarkTide''.

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* FourStarBadass: One of the survivors retrieved from the Caribbean is retired military, but when it all drops into the crapper on the London mission at the climactic battle of ''Islands of Rage and Hope'', he reveals himself as a Special Forces Lt. General who was operating incognito for the sake of not winding up outranking Captain Smith, whose command of Wolf Squadron is more based on personal loyalties than formal chains of command. [[spoiler:His actions when being swarmed by zombies ensure that every last Marine on the mission return safely and bring back enough material to make vaccines for all of the submarine crews]].

** On the state and city level, it quickly becomes public knowledge that the only source of vaccine is the spinal fluid of zombies, so anyone caught with effective vaccine(with identifiable human protein in it) is arrested for first-degree premeditated murder, while someone selling sugar water gets off with a fine. Also note that the arresting officers ''use the seized vaccine themselves.'' As a result, less than one in ten thousand people are vaccinated, and over 99% of the human race is infected by the virus and turned into zombies.

* HumanResources: The fastest way of collecting large amounts of antibodies for use in a vaccine against [=H7D3=] is to collect the fluids from the head and spine of its victims, as it only infects higher level primates. The task is done under secret conditions by Thomas Smith and some associates due to the illegality of the act.

* ServantRace: "Betas" -- humans who turned but later overcame the zombie virus -- start to appear after a few years. Numbering about the same as uninfected survivors, they lack normal zombie aggression or any ability to spread the virus themselves, but their IQ has been reduced to the 60 to 80 range... thus making them quite satisfactory for many unskilled jobs. Smith [[DevilsAdvocate points out]] that the uninfected human survival rate is around ''one percent'', and there are a ''lot'' of important if unskilled jobs that need to be done. Most disturbingly, the initial baby boom was pretty much a flash in the pan; though ''every'' fertile woman rescued by Wolf Squadron was pregnant if a man was present -- resulting in ''two thousand'' pregnancies coming to term pretty much ''simultaneously'' -- but once part of the fleet conception essentially dropped to pre-plague levels and ''stayed'' that way. However, female betas are still fertile... and their test subject "just happened" to be pregnant when they found her.

* ServantRace: "Betas" -- humans who turned but later overcame the zombie virus -- start to appear after a few years. Numbering about the same as uninfected survivors, they lack normal zombie aggression or any ability to spread the virus themselves, but their IQ has been reduced to the 60 to 80 range... thus making them quite satisfactory for many unskilled jobs. Smith [[DevilsAdvocate points out]] that the uninfected human survival rate is around ''one percent'', and there are a ''lot'' of important if unskilled jobs that need to be done. Most disturbingly, the initial baby boom was pretty much a flash in the pan; women aren't having children in large numbers post-plague... ''but female betas are still fertile.''

* ServantRace: "Betas" -- humans who turned but later overcame the zombie virus -- start to appear after a few years. Numbering about the same as uninfected survivors, they lack normal zombie aggression or any ability to spread the virus themselves, but their IQ has been reduced to the 60 to 80 range... thus making them quite satisfactory for many unskilled jobs. Smith [[DevilsAdvocate points out]] that the uninfected human survival rate is around ''one percent'', and there are a ''lot'' of important if unskilled jobs that need to be done. Most disturbingly, the initial baby boom was pretty much a flash in the pan; women aren't having children in large numbers post-plague.

So is leaving fragile, helpless human beings to die lost and alone in a howling wilderness. So is famine from lack of agricultural workers. So is the rights you are fighting for dying out for lack of an educated supporting population, being replaced by a tide of barbarism, Madame Secretary. Which, since women will have no rights, will at least eventually solve the population problem.\\
Last but not least, whether we like it or not slavery will occur. History matters. Slavery has always been, back to prehistory, a reaction to labor limitations. See also: human trafficking in the pre-Fall world.\\
We need labor. Once it gets out that betas can be trained they will be rounded up and used for labor. Once that happens, abuses will occur and young ladies like Miss Katherine are going to end up barefoot and pregnant. Probably in brothels. And if one of them has AIDS or retains the H7 virus in its blood form despite the lack of symptoms? Wow, do we get problems.\\
We can make laws against it. It will still occur, as will the abuses, and being already illegal that much harder to police.\\

->'''[[PapaWolf Steve Smith]]''': Adventure is [[DidntWantAnAdventure something that happened to someone else, preferably a long way away and a long time ago]]. ''When'' it happens it’s [[ResignedToTheCall horror, terror or tragedy]].\\
'''[[ActionGirl Faith Smith]]''': ''Someday'' [[JumpedAtTheCall this will be an adventure]].

* BadassGrandpa: Even well into his seventies, Mr. Walker is able to keep up his end of the deal in ''Islands of Rage and Hope'' when the climactic mission is threatened by zombie swarms, [[spoiler:ensuring that every last Marine that went on the mission survives and returns.]]

* BuryYourGays: A gay cop is introduced, given some backstory and then killed. His husband later seemed to have been paired with his husband's straight partner sent to protect him [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse but neither has been heard of since]].

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Near the end of ''Strands of Sorrow'', the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Secretary of Education]] is recognized as the highest-ranking member of the pre-Apocalypse US government... and she turns out to be a ZombieAdvocate. She ''immediately'' orders;

* ServantRace: "Betas" -- humans who turned but later overcame the zombie virus -- start to appear after a few years. Numbering about the same as uninfected survivors, they lack normal zombie aggression or any ability to spread the virus themselves, but their IQ has been reduced to the 60 to 80 range... thus making them quite satisfactory for many unskilled jobs. Smith [[DevilsAdvocate points out]] that the human survival rate is around ''one percent'', and there are a ''lot'' of important if unskilled jobs that need to be done. Most disturbingly, the initial baby boom was pretty much a flash in the pan; women aren't having children in large numbers post-plague.

* ServantRace: "Betas" -- humans who turned but later overcame the zombie virus -- start to appear after a few years. Though they lack normal zombie aggression or any trace of the virus themselves, their IQ has been reduced to the 60 to 80 range... thus making them quite satisfactory for many unskilled jobs. Smith [[DevilsAdvocate points out]] that the human survival rate is around ''one percent'', and there are a ''lot'' of important if unskilled jobs that need to be done. Most disturbingly, the initial baby boom was pretty much a flash in the pan; women aren't having children in large numbers post-plague.

* ServantRace: "Betas" -- humans who turned but later overcame the zombie -- start to appear after a few years. Though they lack normal zombie aggression or any trace of the virus themselves, their IQ has been reduced to the 60 to 80 range... thus making them quite satisfactory for many unskilled jobs. Smith [[DevilsAdvocate points out]] that the human survival rate is around ''one percent'', and there are a ''lot'' of important if unskilled jobs that need to be done. Most disturbingly, the initial baby boom was pretty much a flash in the pan; women aren't having children in large numbers post-plague.

-->-''John Ringo''

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