History Literature / DarkFuture

** Fort Apache, in ''Demon Download''. It's not in the same place as ''that FortApache'', but it's populated by similar characters and it's computers play the theme tune from ''Film/SheWoreAYellowRibbon'' when people log in.

** Fort Apache, in ''Demon Download''. It's not in the same place as ''that FortApache'', but it's populated by similar characters and it's computers play the theme tune from ''SheWoreAYellowRibbon'' when people log in.

** One of several United States Road Cavalry members who put in an appearance is one [[SheWoreAYellowRibbon Sergeant Quincannon. And yes, he's stationed at Fort Apache.]]

* AmericanAccents: This was inevitable, given the setting. The Texan Drawl, Dixie, Cajun and Urban sub-types all pop up at various points; the gas station attendant in ''Demon Download'' with his views on 'yurrup-peens'; Elvis gets a bit of Dixie and Good Ole Boy antagonist Chamberlain has a SouthernGentleman accent in ''Comeback Tour.''

** Bronson Manolo's high-tech and highly secure tank and mobile command centre is a [[Film/BackToTheFuture DeLorean]] Sand Master.

* ForWantOfANail: ''Dark Future'''s alternate timeline seems to coincide closely with the Real World's, up until 1961, when JohnFKennedy is found in bed with MarilynMonroe and the subsequent scandal causes him to lose the election to RichardNixon, who serves as a two-term President instead.

* ''Route 666'' [1990]: An anthology of short fiction by GW regular authors Creator/KimNewman, Brian Craig and [[GotrekAndFelix William King]].

* BayOfPigsInvasion: Under President Nixon, not Kennedy (see AlternateHistory entry above), and succeeded in toppling the Castro goverment.

''Dark Future'' was a tabletop miniature wargame produced by GamesWorkshop and originally published in 1988.
The game was successful enough for GamesWorkshop to commission a series of novels based on the setting. These started out with the short story anthology ''Route 666,'' and was relatively short-lived; the best-known and remembered being the trilogy of novels written by horror novelist and film critic Creator/KimNewman under the pen name Jack Yeovil. These expanded significantly on the background and setting provided in the 1988 rulebook and mixed in elements from horror and played with various well-known {{Dystopia}} tropes while mixing in a healthy dose of pop-culture references, AlternateHistory jokes and cameos from other fictional properties. Although GW have never done anything with the game, Newman's novels (much like his TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} works involving [[Literature/{{Drachenfels}} Genevieve the Vampire]]), remained popular enough to survive beyond the lifespan of the game and have been republished by Black Library, though the final installment of his ''Demon Download'' series, ''United States Calvary'' remains unpublished.

The original novelizations, published by Boxtree under the GW imprint, ran from the publication of the ''Route 666'' anthology in 1990 to the publication of the expanded novel of the eponymous short story from the anthology in 1993. GamesWorkshop republished Yeovil's novels and four new ''Dark Future'' books in 2005/06 under their own Black Flame imprint.

* CanonWelding: Creator/HPLovecraft's [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]], inserted into a GamesWorkshop novel based on a game about cars with guns attached. ''Krokodil Tears'' has a sequence in which Elder Seth witnesses an alternate version of himself as [[Literature/{{Drachenfels}} Constant Drachenfels]], welding Creator/KimNewman's Warhammer novels to the Dark Future canon.

* OrphanedSeries: Despite GamesWorkshop republishing the extant Jack Yeovil novels in the ''Dark Future'' setting, and having four entirely new novels in the same universe written, they've neither republished the ''Route 666'' anthology or Brian Craig's ''Ghost Dancers'' and have no apparent interest in having the final novel in the ''Demon Download'' series published. Given that Black Library haven't put out a new ''Dark Future'' novel since 2006, and the Black Flame imprint closed in 2008, it seems as if the setting is once again consigned to Limbo.

* ShoutOut: Creator/KimNewman at work. Even under a pseudonym, writing for GamesWorkshop, the Dark Future novels were just as shout-out-tastic as ever.

* TheVietnamWar: Averted in that America didn't take part in the Vietnam War. Instead, it was the U.S.S.R that did, and it ended up ruining the Soviet Union. The war was costly, a political disaster and crippled the Soviet Space Program and saw a successful coup led by Yuri Andropov that ushered in a more democratic Soviet State. Boris Yeltsin is still President in 1998, though.

** [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]], [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Kreuger]] and [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]] of are mentioned as inmates at the Secure Institution Dr. Proctor is locked up in in ''Krokodil Tears.''

** IainBanks is the Mayor of Skye.
** NeilGaiman, a long-time friend of Newman's, pops up as the author of ''Tintin in the Land of the Ragheads;'' a controversial graphic novel that sees a fatwa declared on him by the Pan-Islamic Congress.

* CrapsackWorld: And how. Distilled elements from ComicBook/JudgeDredd, Robocop, MadMax combined with a ruined environment, corrupt government and privatized police forces. Throw in resource shortages, evil corporations and a whole subculture devoted to being AxCrazy and leave to simmer gently. Oh, and Racial Equality? Never really happened in America. Slavery? Still legal...sort of. It's been renamed indenture and it's more wage slavery, but it's still heavily slanted against black people. On top of all this, there's a [[ReligionOfEvil Doomsday Cult]] who worship {{Eldritch Abomination}}s looking to bring about the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* StubbornMule: Elvis is watching TV in ''Comeback Tour'' and briefly pauses his channel-surfing to be amused by Pepe The Robo-Mule, a cyberneticly augmented Hispanic burro version of RoboCop who declares himself to be "A stubborn crusader for jos-teece!"

** A slang term for teenage gang members in the [=NoGos=] is a 'panzer girl/boy.' TankGirl did come out in the same year, after all.

** LeonardNimoy and MarkHamill are among the casualties Fonvielle remembers from the American Space Programme.

* CrapsackWorld: And how. Distilled elements from JudgeDredd, Robocop, MadMax combined with a ruined environment, corrupt government and privatized police forces. Throw in resource shortages, evil corporations and a whole subculture devoted to being AxCrazy and leave to simmer gently. Oh, and Racial Equality? Never really happened in America. Slavery? Still legal...sort of. It's been renamed indenture and it's more wage slavery, but it's still heavily slanted against black people. On top of all this, there's a [[ReligionOfEvil Doomsday Cult]] who worship {{Eldritch Abomination}}s looking to bring about the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* ThePowerOfRock: ''Comeback Tour'' features ElvisPresley. No prizes for guessing who has this power.
* TheUnpronounceable: Nguyen Seth's first name is a fairly soft version. Elvis' mechanic in ''Comeback Tour'', Nick Papageorgidias is a little harder.

This page deals with examples from the novels by KimNewman and the wider setting created therein.

The game was successful enough for GamesWorkshop to commission a series of novels based on the setting. These started out with the short story anthology ''Route 666,'' and was relatively short-lived; the best-known and remembered being the trilogy of novels written by horror novelist and film critic KimNewman under the pen name Jack Yeovil. These expanded significantly on the background and setting provided in the 1988 rulebook and mixed in elements from horror and played with various well-known {{Dystopia}} tropes while mixing in a healthy dose of pop-culture references, AlternateHistory jokes and cameos from other fictional properties. Although GW have never done anything with the game, Newman's novels (much like his TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} works involving [[Literature/{{Drachenfels}} Genevieve the Vampire]]), remained popular enough to survive beyond the lifespan of the game and have been republished by Black Library, though the final installment of his ''Demon Download'' series, ''United States Calvary'' remains unpublished.

* ''Route 666'' [1990]: An anthology of short fiction by GW regular authors KimNewman, Brian Craig and [[GotrekAndFelix William King]].

* ''Route 666'' [[KimNewman Jack Yeovil]] novel expanding on the titular short in ''Route 666.''

* AuthorAvatar: KimNewman gets in on the ShoutOut game in ''Krokodil Tears,'' where he's mentioned as director of the biopic of Dr. Ottokar Proctor.

* CanonWelding: Creator/HPLovecraft's [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]], inserted into a GamesWorkshop novel based on a game about cars with guns attached. ''Krokodil Tears'' has a sequence in which Elder Seth witnesses an alternate version of himself as [[Literature/{{Drachenfels}} Constant Drachenfels]], welding KimNewman's Warhammer novels to the Dark Future canon.

--->-- '''KimNewman''', ''Krokodil Tears''

* ShoutOut: KimNewman at work. Even under a pseudonym, writing for GamesWorkshop, the Dark Future novels were just as shout-out-tastic as ever.

* {{Troperiffic}}: A series of KimNewman works in an AlternateHistory.

** Via a [[NightmareSequence drug-induced nightmare]] when he was shot during his army career, Elvis got to experience our world's version of himself at the nadir of his musical career; fat, sweating, crammed into a rhinestone-studded white suit and so addled on drugs he couldn't remember the lyrics to ''Are You Lonesome Tonight?.'' ''DarkFuture'' Elvis swore off drugs from then on.

* ForWantOfANail: ''DarkFuture'''s alternate timeline seems to coincide closely with the Real World's, up until 1961, when JohnFKennedy is found in bed with MarilynMonroe and the subsequent scandal causes him to lose the election to RichardNixon, who serves as a two-term President instead.

* LargeHam: The demon who possesses the computer systems of Fort Apache in ''Demon Download'' is one of these. As soon as it gets into a machine with a voicebox it begins very loudly spouting cliches and acting like a cross between Jack Torrance in TheShining and Jack Nicholson as SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker.

The game was successful enough for GamesWorkshop to commission a series of novels based on the setting. These started out with the short story anthology ''Route 666,'' and was relatively short-lived; the best-known and remembered being the trilogy of novels written by horror novelist and film critic KimNewman under the pen name Jack Yeovil. These expanded significantly on the background and setting provided in the 1988 rulebook and mixed in elements from horror and played with various well-known {{Dystopia}} tropes while mixing in a healthy dose of pop-culture references, AlternateHistory jokes and cameos from other fictional properties. Although GW have never done anything with the game, Newman's novels (much like his {{Warhammer}} works involving [[Literature/{{Drachenfels}} Genevieve the Vampire]]), remained popular enough to survive beyond the lifespan of the game and have been republished by Black Library, though the final installment of his ''Demon Download'' series, ''United States Calvary'' remains unpublished.

* LargeHam: The demon who possesses the computer systems of Fort Apache in ''Demon Download'' is one of these. As soon as it gets into a machine with a voicebox it begins very loudly spouting cliches and acting like a cross between Jack Torrance in TheShining and Jack Nicholson as TheJoker.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Averted. The Suitcase People are actually fairly civilised and polite, so long as you're not mean to them.

[[caption-width-right:300: "A tongue-in-cheek kaleidoscope of CyberPunk, [[HPLovecraft Lovecraftian horror]]...and ninja nuns." - '''Alex Stewart''', ''Vector'']]

* BiggerBad: The Dark Ones. The Dark Ones are combination of various cultures demons and the [[HPLovecraft Great Old Ones]]. Azathoth and Nyarlathotep get direct namechecks in ''Krokodil Tears''.

* CanonWelding: HPLovecraft's [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]], inserted into a GamesWorkshop novel based on a game about cars with guns attached. ''Krokodil Tears'' has a sequence in which Elder Seth witnesses an alternate version of himself as [[Literature/{{Drachenfels}} Constant Drachenfels]], welding KimNewman's Warhammer novels to the Dark Future canon.

[[caption-width-right:300: "A tongue-in-cheek kaleidoscope of [[CyberPunk cyberpunk]], [[HPLovecraft Lovecraftian horror]]...and ninja nuns." - '''Alex Stewart''', ''Vector'']]

This page deals with examples from the novels by KimNewman and the wider setting created therein.

Not to be confused with the trope, BadFuture.

''Dark Future'' was a tabletop miniature wargame produced by GamesWorkshop and originally published in 1988.

* ''Golgotha Run'' by Dave Stone.

The original novelizations, published by Boxtree under the GW imprint, ran from the publication of the ''Route 666'' anthology in 1990 to the publication of the expanded novel of the eponymous short story from the anthology in 1993. GamesWorkshop republished Yeovil's novels and four new ''Dark Future'' books in 2005/06 under their own Black Flame imprint.

* AlternateHistory: JFK didn't get to be President. Or assassinated. He never even got elected after his affair with Marilyn Monroe was exposed.

* ArcWords: In ''Comeback Tour'':

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Krokodil's rap sheet informs us she's been arrested for Assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft auto and taking part in an illegal sporting event.

* BloodSport: Pyramid Fights are the ''Dark Future'' version of the typical [[GladiatorGames pitfight]]. Granite pyramids form the arena, and fights are often to-the-death and there don't appear to be too many rules barring the use of bio-augmentations and cybernetics, even against opponents with none.

** In an early newscast in ''Demon Download'', mention is made of a pet duck cybernetically grafted to a high-powered skateboard. Two books later in ''Comeback Tour,'' Lola tells us that Dino The Skateboarding Duck has passed his medical and will be competing in the Indianopolis 500.

* GangBangers: The various biker gangs, Panzergirl groups and the other ''"57 varieties of psychopathic crazies"'' inhabiting the wastelands and the [=NoGos=]. The books have plenty of WhiteGangBangers as well; most representing far-right politcal beliefs (the Knights of the White Magnolia, Daughters of the American Revolution and the Klu Klux Klan, for example).

* HealingFactor: Jessamyn, after having been worked on by Dr. Threadneedle in ''Krokodil Tears,'' has his patented regeneration system as one of her many cybernetic augmentations, enabling her almost instantly heal minor to moderate injuries and shrug off major wounds. It doesn't make her, or its inventor invincible though.

* ListOfTransgressions: ''Krokodil Tears'' opens with Jessamyn's rap sheet from 1991, when she was still at HighSchool.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: For [[spoiler: Commander Fonvielle it did.]]

* SlidingScaleOfLawEnforcement: For a setting in which LawEnforcementInc is a major plot factor, Yeovil's novels at least sit roughly in the middle of this. Sure, there are outfits like the Good Ole Boys; taking handouts, running protection and indulging in the slave trade. But there are also Logan's Runners and the Hound Dog Agency who go out of their way, often turning down more lucrative and safer jobs, to help the underprivileged and under-financed.

* {{Troperiffic}}: A series of KimNewman works in an AlternateHistory.

* Unobtainium: ''{{Warhammer40000}}'' has Adamantium, ''Dark Future'' had durium. Lots of things get made out of this; cars, armour, doors, and most of Krokodil (and other cyborgs) internal armour and augmented bone-structure.

The game was successful enough for GamesWorkshop to commission a series of novels based on the setting. These started out with the short story anthology ''Route 666,'' and was relatively short-lived; the best-known and remembered being the trilogy of novels written by horror novelist and film critic KimNewman under the pen name Jack Yeovil. These expanded significantly on the background and setting provided in the 1988 rulebook and mixed in elements from horror and played with various well-known {{Dystopia}} tropes while mixing in a healthy dose of pop-culture references, AlternateHistory jokes and cameos from other fictional properties. Although GW have never done anything with the game, Newman's novels (much like his {{Warhammer}} works involving [[AnnoDracula Genevieve the Vampire]]), remained popular enough to survive beyond the lifespan of the game and have been republished by Black Library, though the final installment of his ''Demon Download'' series, ''United States Calvary'' remains unpublished.

* CanonWelding: HPLovecraft's [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]], inserted into a GamesWorkshop novel based on a game about cars with guns attached. ''Krokodil Tears'' has a sequence in which Elder Seth witnesses an alternate version of himself as Constant {{Drachenfels}}; welding KimNewman's Warhammer novels to the Dark Future canon.

* ActionGirl: Jessamyn Bonney and Chantal Juillerat.