History Literature / TheColSecTrilogy

* {{Tsundere}}: Heleth is a four-plus Harsh type. She's always bickering with Jeko (and, to a lesser degree, ''almost everyone else''), but there's the occasional implication that she doesn't outright hate him.

* NotGoodWithPeople: Samella calls Cord out for being socially naïve in ''Exiles''.

* {{Determinator}}: Cord, full-stop. Apparently also the source of Lamprey's name. [[spoiler:At the end of ''Caves'', the government killer Warreck [[NotQuiteDead turns out to be one as well]].]]

* StoutStrength: Cord plays with the trope. He's ''very'' strong (bordering on CharlesAtlasSuperpower territory) and looks pudgy when fully clothed (partly on account of being built like a fireplug, partly on account of being baby-faced). However, when he [[ClothingDamage loses his shirt]] during a fight in the first book, he's revealed to actually be quite trim.

* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Samella is a downplayed example; she has dirty-blonde hair and still looks tanned after three years in an environment not conducive to suntanning.

* HumansAreWhite: Averted. Cord, a redheaded, freckle-faced Scot, is the only central character who seems to be explicitly white. Samella is a gray-eyed blonde with an Irish surname, but apparently [[DarkSkinnedBlonde still looks tanned after three years indentured to an electronics firm]]; Heleth, although pale from living underground for the first seventeen years of her life, is ambiguous. Jeko and Rontal are explicitly ''not'' white; Rontal is black, Jeko is Japanese-American.

* ReluctantWarrior[=/=]TechnicalPacifist: Samella is the least physical of the central cast, and seems to have a moral opposition to killing. That said, [[CombatPragmatist in a pinch]], she's not afraid to [[spoiler:threaten to [[KneeCapping put holes in someone's kneecaps]], [[AHandfulForAnEye throw dust in faces]], [[GroinAttack kick crotches]], or [[SelfDestructMechanism rig an asteroid mining operation to self-destruct]] and [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled kill everyone present]] [[TakingYouWithMe at her next keystroke]]. (She admits, however, that she wouldn't have had the nerve to go through with actually pushing the button)]].

* BearHug: In ''Rebellion'', [[spoiler:right after the final battle,]] Cord runs into the [[spoiler:control room]] and all but {{glomp}}s Samella.

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Heleth—a StealthExpert with SuperSenses who's lived underground most of her life—has black hair and a complexion that's compared in ''Exiles'' to "mushrooms grown in darkness." (By the beginning of ''Caves'', she's [[RealityEnsues rather badly]] [[ProneToSunburn sunburnt]].) ''And'' she's got [[FacialMarkings facial tattoos]].

* GigglingVillain: Lamprey has the disturbing habit of [[TheHyena randomly]] [[EvilLaugh cackling]] like [[Film/HouseOf1000Corpses Baby Firefly]] at inappropriate moments. This is an early hint that he [[AxCrazy is not stable, trustworthy, or predictable]].