History Literature / Deathlands

After an attack on their convoy the Trader's war captain, Ryan Cawdor, saves (and is saved by) a stunningly beautiful female captive called Krysty Wroth. She is convinced that a [[ThePromisedLand gateway to a better world]] lies in the Darks (formerly the Glacier National Park in Montana). This is an old UrbanLegend and Ryan is naturally skeptical, but events force him and several companions (most notably 'Doc' Tanner, a traumatised former captive who appears to have unusual knowledge of pre-war America) to seek it out. [[spoiler:It turns out the gateway is actually a Redoubt; a hidden underground complex containing teleportation technology called MAT-TRANS. The series follows their adventures as the group use the MAT-TRANS PortalNetwork to travel at random from one part of Deathlands to another.]] In doing so they battle an endless array of [[EvilOverlord power-hungry warlords]], kill-crazy marauders, mutant monsters, {{Mad Scientist}}s and various other villains. Expect loads of {{Gorn}} and GunPorn, over-the-top characters, cool events and some crazy landscape. To date the series has reached 100 books with multiple authors, making for some interesting adventures for the characters.

** The group find some [[CrateExpectations sealed crates]] and J.D. starts going into [[GunPorn excessive detail]] over what exotic weapons might be in them. Everyone (except J.D.) bursts out laughing when the crates turn out to be full of thousands of plastic zippers.

* SapientTank: The "Ranger" robot tank of the book ''Pandora's Redoubt''.

-->"He took up with a band of mutie marauders who had a rather more liberal attitude to norms than most -- that is, they accepted him, instead of slow-roasting him over a slow fire and eating him..."

* WeaponizedCar: The War Wagons (War Wags for short) and the assault buggies.

* GunPorn: Oh so many weapons.

* HumanSacrifice: A popular practice with various cults.

** [[spoiler:Kelber (Strasser's chief torturer) dies in this manner when he accidentally swallows a carnivorous insect he'd been planning to force feed to his prisoners.]]

* ImAHumanitarian: This wonderful line on the history of Jordan Teague, Baron of Mocsin.

* InstantDeathBullet: Described in the various gun battles.

** The Scientists in ''Genesis Echo'' are this.[[spoiler: They have a cloning project that they have going with some of the Guards and at the end of the novel, Krystey.]]
* MilitaryMashupMachine: The Trader's assorted caravan vehicles (war wagons). A personal transport, shelter, trading vehicle and weapons platform.

* PlotDrivenBreakDown: Expect this to happen to modes of transportation, the redoubts themselves, and other potentially useful items a lot. Vehicles will work just long enough in most cases before giving out. This is often justified by a lack of maintenance after a nuclear, over use, and long periods of neglect.

** Poisoned weapons are as serious worry and any melee weapon or non-fire arm projectile wounds are frequently checked for a possible trace of poison.

* PsychicPowers: Some mutes have these -- [[SpiderSense Sensors]], [[{{seer}} precogs]]; Krysty has powerful [[MindOverMatter telekinetic abilities]].
* RapePillageAndBurn: Standard practice for raiders and bandits. The Trader however believes that RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil and forbids his men to do so on penalty of death; this earns him the trust of many otherwise hostile towns.
* RareGuns: They usually fall under a form of AKA47 trope as weapons like the H&K G-12 (The Real Life G-11) and Calico series weapons are also mentioned.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: In the FilmOfTheBook it's the only outward sign of mutation (presumably to save on special effects).

* SelfDestructMechanism:[[spoiler: All of the Traders' vehicles have these placed into them to keep the wagons and their contents from falling into the wrong hands. When the switch is not activated after a certain period of time (because everyone's been nerve-gassed) the convoy blows up in front of the BigBad who'd hoped to seize it.]]

* TeleportersAndTransporters:[[spoiler:What they find in the hidden redoubt beyond the cerebus fog defense. It's later revealed they provide the ability to TimeTravel as well.]]

** '''The Trader:''' EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep, IntrepidMerchant, AFatherToHisMen, IncurableCoughOfDeath. Started off trading for purely mercenary reasons, but now realises he let too many {{Big Bad}}s have too much pre-Apocalypse weaponry and goes to some trouble not to make the situation worse.

*** The description of what happened to Ryan and how he lost his eye, as well as his ocasional nightmares about it when his remaining eyes is threatened.

* Badass Longcoat: Ryan is known to wear a longcoat that he scavenged, on occasion he takes it off when the heat is too much, such as the beginnings of book three when he leaves the coat at the redoubt due to the humidity and temperature of the swamps.

** [[spoiler: Outside the very first redoubt one of the party fleeing into the darks is critically wounded by arrows.]]

*** [[spoiler:Dr. Tanner is a victim of the Cerberus scientists time travel experiments that violently ripped him from his time.]] His recollections of the scientists of Cerberus and their related projects paints a picture of a veritable army of MadScientists.

** The Cerberus Scientists as described through out in the stories, are very much MadScientists.
*** [[spoiler:Dr. Tanner is a victim of the Cerberus scientists time travel experiments that violently ripped him from his time.]] His recollections of the scientists of Cerberus and their related projects paints a picture of a veritable army of MadScientists.
**** The Scientists in Genesis Echo are this, what with the [[spoiler:Cloning Project that they have going with some of the Guards and at the end of the novel, Krystey.]]

** In the ''Crater Lake'' VolcanoLair there's a whole ElaborateUndergroundBase full of them. Their madness is applified thanks to inbreeding and isolation.

**** The Scientists in Genesis Echo are this, what with the [ [Spoiler: Cloning Project that they have going with some of the Guards and at the end of the novel, Krystey.] ]

** [[spoiler:Baron Zeal, who previously burned one of Trader's men alive with his special torture chamber of doom, eventually tries escaping imminent explosion and being the victim of [[{{Gorn}} a violent and goretastic explosion]], jumps in same torture pit; however, the torture pit eventually winds up in a crater, burning alive as the door was wedged shut, giving Zeal the irony treatment of burning alive for weeks.

* FrickinLaserBeams: [[spoiler:Finnigan is killed by an aversion in ''Crater Lake'',]] and the effects are depicted with graphic details.

* FrickinLaserBeams: [[spoiler:Finnigan is killed by one in ''Crater Lake'',]] and the effects are depicted with graphic details.

LongRunningBookSeries of action-adventure novels set in an AfterTheEnd North America, now called [[MeaningfulName Deathlands]]. A detailed prologue in the first novel explains how a [[RenegadeRussian hardline communist faction]] tried to decapitate the entire US political and military command structure by detonating three briefcase nukes during the Presidential inauguration, as a preliminary to a surprise nuclear attack. Things GoHorriblyWrong and the resulting nuclear, chemical and biological conflagation turns Earth into the equivalent of a DeathWorld.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: The nanture of the Deathlands makes this a fact of life. People are flawed but there are some really bad people out there who just need killing. Expect to see a shoot first and ask later attitude due to the often justified belief that others will do the same to you.

* ChekhovsVolcano: [[spoiler:The Wizard Island Research Base. It is stated that when they blow the dooms day weapons intended to finish off the world that it would very likely set off the dormant volacano. Sure enough when they blow the facility the vocalno erupts.]]

** When the Trader finds a stache of nerve gas, he buries it and destroys the evidence that lead him there in the hope no-one will ever use such weapons again. [[spoiler:Unfortunately it doesn't work; half his convoy gets gassed with nerve agents]]

** One of the nicer things that can possibly happen to your eyes is getting them put out.

** [[spoiler:Kelber (Strasser's chief torturer) dies in this manner when he accidentally swallows a carnivorous insect he'd been planning to forcefeed to his prisoners.]]

** [[spoiler: Outside the very first redoubt one of the party fleeing into the darks is killed by arrows.]]

** '''Dr. Theophilus Algernon Tanner (a.k.a. Doc):''' MadScientist, HeroicBSOD, UglyGuyHotGirlfriend (with [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Lori Quint]]) [[spoiler:FishOutOfTemporalWater]].

** In ''Crater Lake'' VolcanoLair there's a whole ElaborateUndergroundBase full of them, thanks to inbreeding.
** Doc Tanner also qualifies (though he's a lot more moral) given that he's still traumatised from his imprisonment by the baron of Mocsin, who forced Doc to have sex with pigs whenever Doc displeased him. In ''Perdition Valley'', Doc Tanner finally goes off the deep end for at least the entirety of that specific book.

** Doc Tanner also qualifies (though he's a lot more moral) given that he's still traumatised from his imprisonment by the baron of Mocsin, who forced Doc to have sex with pigs whenever Doc displeased him.
*** Actually, in ''Perdition Valley'', Doc Tanner finally goes off the deep end for at least the entirety of that specific book.

* EyeScream: One of the nicer things that can possibly happen to your eyes is getting them put out.