History Literature / DarkFuture

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Raimundo Rex, a twelve-foot tall anthro-saurian with a minigun and a grenade launcher.

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile

* UnitedEurope: The United European Community. They use Sicily as a giant prison camp. In keeping with the British creator, the U.K isn't in the the U.E.C, though it does use the [=ECU=] for currency. Slightly averted as Switzerland maintains it's neutrality.

* DeepSouth: The main Op Agency in the the Southern States is called 'The Good Ole Boys,' and the most prevalent gangcults are the Klu Klux Klan and The Knights of The White Magnolia. The G.O.B are portrayed as being pretty much an entire organization of [[Film/LiveAndLetDie J.W Peppers]] and [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard Boss Hoggs]], chewing tobacco, lording it over "the coloured folks" and generally being a bunch of bigoted rednecks.

** America didn't take part in the UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. 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.

* ExpoSpeakGag: The series has a few of these, mainly encountered in ''Krokodil Tears'' during the Californian Op Bronson Manolo's appearances. Manolo always talks like a bizarre cross between a stereotypical surfer and someone in a middle-management position. Best illustrated in this exchange betwen Roger Duroc and Manolo:

* JailBait: Jessamyn's rap sheet indicates that, aged 13, she was already involved in prostitution.

* MagicalNativeAmerican: Hawk-That-Settles, he's the one who instructs cyberpunk ganger Jessamyne on how to attain higher levels of spirituality, to prepare for her role as Thr Chosen One. He can also perceive the spirit within a person. This allows him to recognize Dr. Ottokar for the human monster he is.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Averted. ''Demon Download'' specifically mentions that lasers are instantaneous weapons, where the ''"The beam didn't travel through space. It simply appeared in the air."''

* 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 Franchise/RoboCop who declares himself to be "A stubborn crusader for jos-teece!"

* BiTheWay: Jessamyn; at least during her time as Jazzbeaux with the Psychopomps. It gets casually mentioned in ''Krokodil Tears.''

* CanonWelding: Creator/HPLovecraft's [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]], inserted into a Creator/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.

** ''Demon Download'' also mentions in the same piece of exposition that KenDodd, Creator/WaltDisney and HowardHughes have all gone to Gentech to undergo the 'Donovan Treatment' and have their brains stored in bio-fluid filled jars until new bodies can be grown for them.

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

* MiddleEasternCoalition: The Pan-Islamic Congress. Due to the books primary setting being North America, they only get a passing mention in one of the ContinuityGag-laden news bulletins in ''Krokodil Tears,'' but the capital is Tehran, the Congress is currently occupying Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro.

* Unobtainium: ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' 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.

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

** 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?.'' ''Dark Future'' Elvis swore off drugs from then on.
* UsefulNotes/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.''

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

* UsefulNotes/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.

** Across both ''Krokodil Tears'' and ''Comeback Tour'' ''"tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock;"'' invoking the sound made by the crocodile pursuing [[PeterPan Captain Hook]] makes as a mark of antagonism between Jessamyn and Seth and as a symbol of the impending end of the world Seth seeks to bring about.

* CrapsackWorld: And how. Distilled elements from ComicBook/JudgeDredd, Franchise/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.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Oliver North is the current U.S President, Boris Yeltsin rules Russia, and of course, [[ElvisPresley The King of Rock and Roll]] as a futuristic BountyHunter.

* ThePowerOfRock: ''Comeback Tour'' features ElvisPresley. No prizes for guessing who has this power.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Thanks to the 1990-1991 publication dates of most of the original novels, there's no real indication of the Internet and people are still being asked to send hardcopy faxes in to ZBC to enter competitions, rather e-mailing, texting or pressing buttons on their TV remotes. A Cavalry Trooper mentions having a CD in his Walkman. Then again, most of these technological advances hadn't really taken off even in 1995 - '95 was the year the Internet was commercialized, MP3 players didn't appear until 1996 and first-gen iPods didn't until 2001.

* DeepSouth: The main Op Agency in the the Southern States is called 'The Good Ole Boys,' and the most prevalent gangcults are the Klu Klux Klan and The Knights of The White Magnolia. The G.O.B are portrayed as being pretty much an entire organization of [[Film/LiveAndLetDie J.W Peppers]] and [[TheDukesOfHazzard Boss Hoggs]], chewing tobacco, lording it over "the coloured folks" and generally being a bunch of bigoted rednecks.

* 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 Film/TheShining and Jack Nicholson as SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker.

** ''Demon Download'' also mentions in the same piece of exposition that KenDodd, WaltDisney and HowardHughes have all gone to Gentech to undergo the 'Donovan Treatment' and have their brains stored in bio-fluid filled jars until new bodies can be grown for them.

** ''Kid Zero and Snake Eyes'' mentions at its conclusion that [=GenTech=] also gives people animal genes for temporary/semi-permanent skin/eye changes for fashion purposes, much like temping in {{Transmetropolitan}}.

* {{Badass}}: Mainly exemplified by Krokodil. She's a cyborg killing machine who, even when injured after Spanish Fork, took on thirty Daughters of The American Revolution and escaped successfully after killing their leader in hand-to-hand combat in addition to winning a fight with an EldritchAbomination.

* TimeAbyss: Elder Seth. A scene in ''Route 666'' has him remembering blood sacrifices from the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenyan_Rift_Valley Mutia Escarpment]], [[Literature/TheBible Judea under King Herod]] and TheRomanEmpire.

** One the people who receive a copy of Jessamyn Bonney's Arrest Report at the beginning of ''Krokodil Tears'' is ''Interzone'' editor David Pringle, who also worked as series editor for ''Dark Future'', TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} and TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}.

** Colonel Elvis Aron Presley, toughest independent Sanctioned Op in the South. Yes, that ElvisPresley.
** JohnLennon is the leader of the Labour Party. Elvis once did a bodyguarding job for Lennon during a U.N conference, and Lennon commented that he might've stayed in music if Presley had.

* TemptingFate: Susie Terhune of the Holderness-Manolo team sent into Dead Rat to eliminate Jessamyn demonstrates a total lack of GenreSavvy by announcing: ''"She doesn't stand a chance."''

** [[OzzyOsbourne Sir Oswald Osbourne]], greatest operatic voice of the 1990s. Noted for his performance in ''Pagliacci'' and of ''Nessun Dorma.''
** BruceSpringsteen appears to be Elvis' building's security guard in ''Comeback Tour.''