History Literature / TheWarAgainstTheChtorr

* ArmiesAreEvil: Averted in that the protagonist is both soldier and scientist and can therefore see both arguments (the scientists want to study the alien invaders, but that means allowing their ecology to gain enough of a foothold to understand how it works. The military want to burn the Chtorr ''before'' they can get a foothold, but this approach is inherently flawed, as without better knowledge of the Chtorr the war is hopeless anyway). He's not alone in this viewpoint, but it just tends to make the shouting matches even more confusing.

* FailedFutureForecast: Early printings of the books contained references to the Soviet Union still existing in the future. Later ones avoid this.

** Jason Delandro is probably on the verge of becoming this before [[spoiler:he is executed by [=McCarthy=].]]

* HostileTerraforming: The Chtorran ecology operates by completely replacing those of the planets it invades, utilizing a variety of invasive weed species and plagues tailored to prey on, infect, parasitize and/or poison everything outside of itself. In fully infested areas, Earth life is entirely gone outside of a few species that have been assimilated into the Chtorran ecology.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Major Bellus is unqualified and unprepared for the mission to which he gets assigned, but a lot of what he says about [=McCarthy=] is true.

* HeroesWantRedHeads: The redheaded "Lizard" Tirelli is certainly the apple of [=McCarthy's=] eye.

* ShoutOut: Solomon Short's name is a reference to Robert A. Heinlein's Lazarus Long. As mentioned above, Jack Cohen helped design the Chtorran aliens, and "Cohen models" are mentioned off-handedly in one passage.

So far there are four books out, with the fifth [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell completed, after 30 years]], but awaiting publication; there are supposed to be seven altogether.

* ColonelBadass: Lizard, who flies jet-assisted helicopter gunships on lone combat missions in her spare time. Though as the series progresses, she gets promoted, and it's hinted nearly from the start that she's a lot more important in the military and government power-structure than her nominal rank would indicate.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The very first scene in the series includes a young girl taken alive by the worms instead of being instantly devoured as is the norm; much later we learn what horrible fate was destined for her [[spoiler: instead of being [[MercyKill shot dead]] by Duke.]]

* InsufferableGenius: [=McCarthy=] is an interesting example, in that he has major self-loathing issues, but also knows he's the best there is when it comes to understanding the Chtorrans. It isn't until the fourth novel that he's finally explicitly told how respected and wide-read his reports actually are, because as Uncle Ira says, he's already, yes, insufferable to deal with.

* MrsRobinson: Lizard is old enough to have married and lost her own family, and her relationship with the younger protagonist leads to quite a few "mommy's boy" snipes from her military colleagues.

** The second time, after publicly humiliating an idiot officer assigned to him, he charges off on a mission to investigate some {{Man Eating Plant}}s, only to find [[spoiler:he's being denied technical support, his security team has been ordered to withdraw without telling him, and there's a massive duststorm coming up that no-one's warned them about. He manages to find some critical intel during the mission and uses his last connection to beg for help, whereupon he's rescued by unknown persons -- but loses several members of his team in the process]].

* {{Zeerust}}: Averted mainly because the author shows not only technological changes but social changes as well. There is a noticable emphasis on internet/cyber-related technology in "A Season for Slaughter" (1993), but as similar devices were used in previous books it doesn't seem unusual.

''The War Against the Chtorr'' is an incomplete sci-fi series by Creator/DavidGerrold about an invasion of Earth by an [[HordeOfAlienLocusts entire alien ecosystem]], set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. Just about everyone in TheGovernment has become an ObstructiveBureaucrat, save the odd MagnificentBastard. The rest of the world has forced the United States to accept [[HoistByHisOwnPetard crippling economic treaties]] to keep it from engaging in WarForFunAndProfit. Then TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt begins. First a series of [[AlienInvasion alien]] plagues [[DepopulationBomb wipes out most of humanity]], and then aliens (much) bigger than microbes begin popping up. The invaders consist mainly of giant worms, insects, plants and other, ''extremely'' unpleasant stuff. They eat everything, resulting in massive environmental damage, but they ''really'' like to [[ToServeMan eat people]]. Then [[FromBadToWorse it gets worse]].

* FreezeRay: There's a gun that shoots [[KillItWithIce liquid nitrogen]].

* ForWantOfANail: [=McCarthy=] only ended up in the ultra-secret Special Forces fighting and studying the worms because the plagues caused problems with the assignment paperwork.

* AcePilot: Lizard is an expert chopper pilot.

* ColonelBadass: Colonel "Lizard" Tirelli, who flies jet-assisted helicopter gunships on lone combat missions in her spare time. Though as the series progresses, she gets promoted, and it's hinted nearly from the start that she's a lot more important in the military and government power-structure than her nominal rank would indicate.

** The second time, after publicly humiliating an idiot officer assigned to him, he charges off on a mission to investigate some {{Man Eating Plant}}s, only to find [[spoiler:he's being denied technical support, his security team has been ordered to withdraw without telling him, and there's a massive duststorm coming up that no-one's warned them about. He manages to find some critical intel during the mission, and by spending his last political favor he's able to get rescued by unknown persons in the process of bringing it back -- but loses several members of his team in the process]].