With each battle, Krokodil becomes stronger - ironically making her better prepared for the promised, but never delivered, cosmic showdown in what would have been the fourth book. Her final opponent is the Jibbenainosay - a Lovecraftian beast named after a ghost in a racist fantasy novel that demonised the Native Americans - who goes up against the cyborg ex-ganger and the metaphysical beast within her. Next is Doctor Ottokar Proctor, AKA the Tasmanian Devil, who is an obvious parody of Hannibal Lecter via Taz, the Looney Tunes antihero. The first assailant Seth sends is a Californian bounty hunter armed with the best technology money and a decaying future can offer.
Seth, leading a parody Mormon church, is reminiscent of Kane from the Poltergeist series - a man in a wide-brimmed hat leading a demonic cult - and is a villain you actually like reading about. But her enemies, led by Elder Nguyen Seth, try to kill her before she can become the killing machine the prophecies predict. Krokodil Tears follows Jessamyn, the host for an extra-dimensional entity gearing up for the inevitable Apocalypse. Sadly, the fourth book was begun but never made it to publication (perhaps one day?). Other titles in the series see Elvis as a bodyguard and a ninja exorcist nun. The book is bursting at the seams with references: Psycho, Poltergeist, Cthulhu, Looney Tunes. When Jack Yeovil (actually NME film reviewer Kim Newman) was given the task of writing a quadrilogy of books about the world for Games Workshop (creators of Warhammer), he turned it into an ode to near-future science fiction, horror and pulp. The whole Dark Futures series was conceived as a miniatures car game in the vein of Mad Max, but with a splash of cyberpunk and Great Old Ones thrown in. It's pulpy, full of Easter eggs, and gloriously good fun.
This novel presents an alternate history version of Earth (originally on the cusp of the 21st Century, although newer printings move the date forward 20 years without adjusting the pop culture references.).
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