History Literature / ChildrenOfTheLastDays

** Played straight with Count Smokrev, [[spoiler: until his HeelFaithTurn]]. Upon discovering that Pawel is hiding a Jewish teenager from the Nazis, attempts to blackmail him into trafficking David for sex. When Pawel refuses, Smokrev makes good on his threats and reports them to the Nazis.

%%* HeelRealization: This seems to begin for Maurice in ''Plague Journal''.

%%* DepravedHomosexual: Averted with Pawel Tarnowski. Played straight with Count Smokrev, [[spoiler: until his HeelFaithTurn]].

%%* {{Flashback}}: ''Eclipse of the Sun'' and ''Sophia House''.

* AdultFear:
** The government turning into a police state and trying to take away your kids, framing you for molesting them.
** Sending your kids off to school where they are raped by a SadistTeacher.
** Being reduced to poverty through a series of DiabolusExMachina events, and contracting a terminal disease.
** Your child being forced to wander the countryside alone, because you have been killed.
** Your spouse turning into a different person, leading to an unhappy marriage, which ends when she takes the kids and leaves in the middle of the night.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint.
** Maya's reaction to Arrow's prophetic dream. The commune is destroyed, and he is saved by a man from the convent (whom he met in the woods in real life, previously). Maya blames the man from the convent for causing the nightmare.
** This is how Nathaniel characterizes his readers' reactions to his satiric essay "Curtains for Claus".

* DepravedHomosexual: Averted with Pawel Tarnowski. Played straight with Count Smokrev, [[spoiler: until his HeelFaithTurn]].

* {{Flashback}}: ''Eclipse of the Sun'' and ''Sophia House''.

* HeelRealization: This seems to begin for Maurice in ''Plague Journal''.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: In ''Plague Journal'', Nathaniel has a vision of a singular cherubim. Only in the works of Creator/MadeleineLEngle is "cherubim" the singular.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: ''Plague Journal''. It's supposed to be an actual journal of a fugitive, found in the attic of one of the arresting officers.

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Played horrifically straight. In ''Plague Journal'', they are involved in falsely accusing Nathaniel of molesting his kids to take them away. In ''A Cry of Stone'', prompted by Fr. Andrei, they remove Binemin from the BoardingSchoolOfHorrors, but hand him over to devil worshipers, eschewing other alternatives.

%%* BadassPreacher: Fr. Andrei.

%%* BlackComedy: Nathaniel's prank call.

%%* CloudCuckoolander: Jan Tarnowski.

%%* DeusAngstMachina: Rose's life.

%%* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Maurice.]]

%%* TheMole: Cardinal Vettore.

%%* RaisedByGrandparents: Rose, by Oldmary.

%%* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Maurice and Count Smokrev.]]
%%* ReallyGetsAround: Maya.

''Sophia House'' and ''Father Elijah'' are about the life of David Schafer, later Father Elijah, during the Holocaust, and during the End Times, respectively, with the former focusing on Pawel Tarnowski, who saves David from the Holocaust.

%%* SonOfAWhore: [=McKenna=].

* {{Brainwashed}}: What the teacher attempted to do to Jack Tobac's mother. Also, what Fr. Andrei and Fr. Potempko fear will happen to Arrow.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint. Maya's reaction to Arrow's prophetic dream. The commune is destroyed, and he is saved by a man from the convent (whom he met in the woods in real life, previously). Maya blames the man from the convent for causing the nightmare.

* {{Cult}}: Colin was lured into one of these when he was young.

* DiabolusExMachina: Arrow becomes dangerously ill, and needs to be hospitalized. Beth takes him, pretending he is her son, Noah. Just as he is being released, and it looks like the ruse has worked, a doctor comes out of nowhere, and reveals that Arrow is not Noah Potter.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Arrow's dream of the attack on the commune, before it happens.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Antichrist is simply known as the Antichrist or the President of the Europarliament.

* ForegoneConclusion: ''Father Elijah'' reveals the ending of ''Sophia House'', nine years before the latter was published.

* GodwinsLaw: Somewhat. The main characters, especially Nathaniel, Fr. Andrei, and Fr. Potempko, do compare the villains to Hitler (and Stalin), but this is justified in that (a) the villains ''are'' planning to kill off a quarter of the total human population, and (b) their leader is literally TheAntichrist, who, by definition, has to be worse than Hitler [[note]]see [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/01/25/nra-you-know-who-else-was-an-evil-homicidal-tyrant/ this]] Slacktivist entry on ''Literature/LeftBehind'' for a more thorough explanation[[/note]]. Where this trope comes into play is when Hugo compares Rose's critics to Nazis in ''A Cry of Stone''.

* HarmfulToMinors: What Arrow goes through. He is raised in a drug commune where his mother ReallyGetsAround and the medicine man is a pedophile. He escapes, and witnesses, the destruction of his home at the hands of the GovernmentConspiracy. He has to go on the run with Fr. Andrei, and escapes when the priest is captured. After hiding out with Alice, he is captured and sent to a concentration camp, where Maurice threatens to have him raped into insanity.

* HeroicBSOD: Arrow has one of these when he finds out his parents have been murdered.

* HollywoodAtheist: Somewhat subverted. Fr. Andrei ''thinks'' Maurice is an atheist, but he is actually a member of the ReligionOfEvil.

* HollywoodHistory: In ''Eclipse of the Sun'', the truck driver who gives Fr. Andrei a ride comments that the Poles were just as bad as the Germans when it came to the Holocaust. Not according to most serious academic discussions of the matter.

* KickTheDog: When Maurice coerces Fr. Andrei into looking at pornography -- by threatening to drag a real woman in and rape her if he refuses.

* LuddWasRight: The series is partly a diatribe at how modernity and progress leads ''to the Antichrist.'' The trope is also crossed with some heavy NostalgiaFilter and AuthorFilibuster.
** Sort of. Fr. Ron, one of the characters the author intends us to sympathize with points out that he is not opposed to modern technology ''per se'', such as the polio vaccine, but we have to watch how it affects us as a society. O'Brien seems more interested in modern media and culture than modern technology.

* MeaningfulRename: Zig-zagged in ''Eclipse of the Sun''. When Fr. Andrei baptizes Arrow, he gives the boy the new name Aaron. Upon discovering the destruction of his childhood home, the drug commune, the boy resumes the name Arrow. [[spoiler: However, in the end, when he reaches the sanctuary, he is once again called Aaron.]]

* NewMediaAreEvil: Interestingly enough, in 1998, O'Brien focused on television, when even then, the Internet (from a conservative Catholic point of view) was proving to be more problematic in providing impressionable minds with access to offensive material.
** It turned out that he eventually did include the Internet on his moral hitlist...''in 2004.'' Needless to say, his response was ''very'' predictable.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: To cover up their planned intrigue, Fr. Elijah and Anna write fake love letters to each other. [[spoiler: When Anna is killed, these love letters are used as a motive in framing Fr. Elijah.]]
** In ''Plague Journal'', as a prank, Nathaniel leaves a deranged message on Doc's answering machine, firing a starter pistol to make it seem like he killed himself. ItMakesSenseInContext [[spoiler: however, Nathaniel's phone is being tapped, and the GovernmentConspiracy uses this prank (which they pretend to take seriously) as evidence that he really is crazy.]]

* NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe: Subverted. Considering the author's conservative views, one would expect him to portray TheFifties, and anytime before, as some sort of golden age. Instead, he criticizes, among other things, the racism and ethnic bigotry, the internment camps for the Japanese, the materialism and lack of concern for the environment, the rumormongering and gossip, the lack of awareness of child abuse prevalent in previous times; he maintains that the problems our society faces now are really OlderThanTheyThink, and lurked beneath the surface in days gone by.
** Not ''quite.'' He seems to hearken back to an age far before the 20th Century and modernity in general, in the "glory days" of "Roman Christendom."

* PeaceAndLoveIncorporated: The global conspiracy seeks to present this as the public image of their front groups/governments, particularly UNITAS.
** In a reverse-prank call, Nathaniel answers his phone pretending to be an answering machine for one of these.
* PedophilePriest: It turns out Pawel's Great-Uncle Nicholas was one of these in his back-story.

* SadisticChoice: Maurice offers Fr. Andrei a choice between denouncing the Catholic Church or watching three depraved men rape Arrow into insanity. This prompts Fr. Andrei's ThanatosGambit.

* {{Satan}}: Of course, given the nature of these novels.

* SonOfAWhore: [=McKenna=].

* StrawmanPolitical: Judging from what O'Brien pits his characters against, it's pretty clear his stance on many issues. Then again, there's a reason why some people call this a Catholic ''Literature/LeftBehind''.

* TakeThat: Against liberal Catholicism (or any form that doesn't follow his brand, really), the New Age Movement, the media, and modern society in general.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The global conspiracy's rationalization for concentration camps, liquidation of undesirables, endorsement of genocide, and employing people to rape children into insanity.
* UnitedEurope: Apparently the Antichrist's headquarters.
** Which is in part, an AuthorTract.
* VillainBall: Perhaps the reason the GovernmentConspiracy so determined to stamp out an increasingly marginalized group of people?
** In addition, if, as Maurice implies, the drug commune and the GovernmentConspiracy are both on the same side, why does the Government Conspiracy wipe them out?

* WeCanRuleTogether: Maurice offers Nathaniel a position with the government in ''Strangers and Sojourners''. Later, in ''Eclipse of the Son''. Maurice states that, had Nathaniel accepted, he would have shared in the global conspiracy's power [[spoiler: instead of being liquidated by Maurice]].
** The Antichrist gives a makes a straight version of this offer to Fr. Elijah. He refuses, of course.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Played straight. Maurice was listed as an octogenarian in ''Eclipse of the Sun'', which takes place at the turn of the millennium. However, he was a teenager, or pre-teen in the 1920s.

* {{Zeerust}}: ''Father Elijah'', ''Plague Journal'' and ''Eclipse of the Sun'' were set at the turn of the millennium, believed to be when the end of the world would take place. It's already 2011, and we're still here.

* AdultFear: The government turning into a police state and trying to take away your kids, framing you for molesting them.

* ''Sophia House'' (2005)
* ''Father Elijah: An Apocalypse'' (1996)
* ''Strangers and Sojourners'' (1997)
* ''Plague Journal'' (1999)
* ''Eclipse of the Sun'' (1998)
* ''A Cry of Stone'' (2003)

----

* BadassPreacher: Fr. Andrei.

* BlackComedy: Nathaniel's prank call.

* CloudCuckoolander: Jan Tarnowski.

* DeadpanSnarker: Maya and Alice.

* DeusAngstMachina: Rose's life.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Maurice.]]

* KnightInSourArmor: Pawel, Alice, Nathaniel.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Rose and Binemin.

* TheMole: Cardinal Vettore.

* RaisedByGrandparents: Rose, by Oldmary.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Maurice and Count Smokrev.]]
* ReallyGetsAround: Maya.

* TroubledChild: Arrow, Binemin, and (young) Pawel.

* WickedCultured: The Antichrist and Maurice.

* ShoutOut: The title of ''Plague Journal'' is one to Daniel Defoe. The books also feature a ShoutOut to ''Literature/SwallowsAndAmazons'', ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', and G.K. Chesterton.

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<<|{{Literature}}|>>

* ConspiracyTheories: An entire chapter of ''Eclipse of the Sun'' is devoted to these. The Antichrist, along with the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, and the Masons, are implicated in the plane crash deaths of Senators John Tower and John Heinz, and the Soviets' shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007.

* ApocalypseOfTheWeek: The premise of these books is the then-current idea that the world would end with the turn of the millennium.

* GodwinsLaw: Somewhat. The main characters, especially Nathaniel, Fr. Andrei, and Fr. Potempko, do compare the villains to Hitler (and Stalin), but this is justified in that (a) the villains ''are'' planning to kill off a quarter of the total human population, and (b) their leader is literally TheAntichrist, who, by definition, has to be worse than Hitler [[note]]see [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/01/25/nra-you-know-who-else-was-an-evil-homicidal-tyrant/ this]] Slacktivist entry on Literature/LeftBehind for a more thorough explanation[[/note]]. Where this trope comes into play is when Hugo compares Rose's critics to Nazis in ''A Cry of Stone''.

* StrawmanPolitical: Judging from what O'Brien pits his characters against, it's pretty clear his stance on many issues. Then again, there's a reason why some people call this a Catholic ''LeftBehind.''

* MommyIssues: The FreudianExcuse of Mr. [=McKenna=].

A series of religious novels by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._O%27Brien Michael D. O'Brien]]. Termed the Catholic version of LeftBehind, these stories discuss the lives of an interconnected group of people in Canada and Europe, over the span of a hundred years.

* InnocentInaccurate: Arrow's view of life at the drug commune.

* JesusSaves: Of course.

* GodwinsLaw: Somewhat. The main characters do compare the villains to Hitler (and Stalin), but this is justified in that (a) the villains ''are'' planning to kill off a quarter of the total human population, and (b) their leader is literally TheAntichrist, who, by definition, has to be worse than Hitler [[note]]see [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/01/25/nra-you-know-who-else-was-an-evil-homicidal-tyrant/ this]] Slacktivist entry on Literature/LeftBehind for a more thorough explanation[[/note]]. Where this trope comes into play is when Hugo compares Rose's critics to Nazis.

* GodwinsLaw: Somewhat. The main characters do compare the villains to Hitler (and Stalin), but this is justified in that (a) the villains ''are'' planning to kill off a quarter of the total human population, and (b) their leader is literally the Antichrist, who, by definition, has to be worse than Hitler [[note]]see [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/01/25/nra-you-know-who-else-was-an-evil-homicidal-tyrant/ this]] Slacktivist entry on Literature/LeftBehind for a more thorough explanation[[/note]]. Where this trope comes into play is when Hugo compares Rose's critics to Nazis.

* ShoutOut: The title of ''Plague Journal'' is one to Daniel Defoe. The books also feature a ShoutOut to SwallowsAndAmazons, LordOfTheRings, and G.K. Chesterton.

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Where Binemin goes. A teacher there, Mr. Mc Kenna, is a sadistic pedophile.

* FreudianExcuse: Mr. Mc Kenna at Binemin's boarding school.

* MommyIssues: The FreudianExcuse of Mr. Mc Kenna.

* PaedoHunt: Played both ways. In ''Plague Journal'', the GovernmentConspiracy falsely accuses Nathaniel of molesting his own kids, and in ''Eclipse of the Sun'', Fr. Andrei and Fr. Ron are briefly accused of being pedophiles (because they are priests). However, there are real pedophiles, to wit, Great-Uncle Nicholas in ''Sophia House'', Mr. Mc Kenna in ''A Cry of Stone'', and the medicine man (and the three depraved men) in ''Eclipse of the Sun''.

* SadistTeacher: Mr. Mc Kenna, at Binemin's school.

* SonOfAWhore: Mc Kenna.