History Literature / TheWarAgainstTheChtorr

* DisposingOfABody: A rarely-seen result of RealityEnsues. See the DepopulationBomb entry? Well, when that many people die, there aren't enough people to bury them. Especially as lots of the corpses -- and there are ''still hundreds of thousands of mummified bodies waiting to be discovered'' -- are plague hazards. Solution? ''Ovens.'' Just stumbling upon one such "mass crematorium" unaware has been known to send people off the deep end.

* LikesOlderWomen: [=McCarthy=]'s [[HeroesWantRedHeads relationship with Lizard]] leads to quite a few "Mommy's boy" snipes from her military colleagues.

* AfterTheEnd: And it just keeps happening!
* AlienInvasion: This time, it's not just invading alien armies so much as a whole alien ''ecosystem'' invading!

* BatmanGambit: Standard Operating Procedure for both the Uncle Ira Group and the President of the United States.
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: Bunnydogs/bunnymen and libbits are the males and females, respectively, of the same species. There are also clues that [[spoiler:there are no individual species per se in the Chtorran ecosystem -- just the ecosystem itself -- with a vast web of what we would consider "different species" that are genetically compatible for breeding]].
* BodyHorror: Where to start. It's easier to catalog the stuff that ''won't'' eat you from the inside out -- those ones [[ToServeMan just plain eat you]].

* BugWar: And not just ''bugs'', either.
* TheCasanova: Ted, except that he's kinda likeable. Sometimes.

* ChildSoldiers: With over six million 'most urgent' jobs waiting to be filled, anyone old enough to work does so.

* ColonelBadass: Colonel 'Lizard' Tirelli, who flies jet-assisted helicopter gunships on lone combat missions in her spare time.

* DefrostingIceQueen: Lizard. "I remember her. She bumped into the Titanic once and sank it!"

* DysfunctionJunction: Justified. Since the population crash of humanity, a common catch phrase is "everybody's crazy".

* EmbarrassingFirstName: Theodore Andrew Nathaniel Jackson grew up in a nudist camp.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Implicit. If the war is won, it won't be in the lifetime of any of the characters. Best case scenario? If [[{{Utopia}} everybody got a clue all at once]] ''during the first book'', the Chtorr would be beaten in fifty years. "Every day that passes without a program of unified resistance to the Chtorran invasion pushes the window of possible victory two weeks farther away." Worst case scenario? "We could all be dead within ten years."

* ExpoSpeak: INFODUMP OVERLOAD! Lectures, newspaper articles, interviews, psychoanalytic sessions, even jokes and limericks ([[JustifiedTrope justified]] because every single '''''freaking''''' one is [[RuleOfFunny funny as all hell]]).

* FireBreathingWeapon: [=McCarthy's=] WeaponOfChoice despite having to burn alive the man who first taught him how to use one.

* FormerlySapientSpecies: This appears to be the place that humans will eventually fill once the Earth is transformed to a completely Chtorran ecology. There are herds of humans in some of the ruined cities that are no longer sapient, and being around them too much can somehow draw other humans into joining them. Its uncertain whether an infectious agent is involved or something else. There are hints that some of the Chtorran lifeforms were also once more sapient than they are now.

* GeniusLoci: The Chtorran cities, possibly the entire invading ecology.

* GovernmentConspiracy: Every move by the United States government to fight the Chtorrans is viewed by the rest of the world as an attempt to reassert American supremacy. Ironically these suspicions would be all-too-accurate under different circumstances. The best example would be [[spoiler: that ''every single freaking computer chip'' the US has built since their [[PrideBeforeAFall deposition as a global superpower]] is in fact a TrojanHorse; each one has a TrackingDevice and a SelfDestructMechanism -- they know where ''all the weapons on earth'' are, and can ''destroy them at any time''.]] As one character put it: "There's enough history between us to fuel a major war, and if it weren't for the convenient intervention of the worms, that's probably what we'd be doing right now."
** Okay, the Uncle Ira conspiracy must be stated in full to be believed. It begins when a [[spoiler:periodic UsefulNotes/GulfWar escalates into a reverse UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis. The Third World then gets its act together for five seconds and demands that the US stand down or get [[NukeEm nuked]]. [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent The President]] at the time submits rather than start WorldWarThree, and the US is forced to disband its military and make multibillion-dollar reparations. This is when the conspiracy is hatched; accede to their demands in ways that benefit the US secretly. The military was disbanded, but reformed as a Peace Corps-like "Teamwork Army" which specializes in public works; the physical labor conditions them every bit as well as boot camp, and people who build stuff for a living tend to be ''very'' territorial -- once the invasions start, it only takes one month of combat training to transform into a quality army. Weapons platforms like [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks tanks]] and [[GunshipRescue gunships]] were sank in the sea -- but secretly preserved with acrylic beforehand. Instead of sending money, they send food and machines, forcing US industries to be redesigned to meet those demands. The US suffers a short depression, but loads of super-technology is developed in the process, causing an economic boom despite the treaties, and making the world even more dependent on US technology (complete with the aforementioned TrojanHorse chips). Space technology is developed, to supply the Third World with energy from solar-power satellites -- requiring US expertise to maintain, and enabling them to develop space; thanks to a lunar colony, they have [[ColonyDrop mass drivers]]. And half a million teachers are sent into the Third World to bring them up to speed; and teach them American values.]] If Tvtropes had been created by an older generation of nerds, the XanatosGambit may well have been called the Uncle Ira Gambit; "What if we only ''pretended'' to lose?"
* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: Narrowly averted. (Early printings of the books contained references to the Soviet Union still existing in the future. Later ones, not so much.)

* HeroesWantRedHeads: "Lizard" Tirelli is certainly the apple of [=McCarthy's=] eye.
** Probably a {{homage}} to Creator/RobertAHeinlein, whose heroines were all redheads.
* HideYourLesbians: Hide Your Gays. Very much averted. Gerrold is one of the first openly gay sci-fi authors, and has [[WriteWhoYouKnow integrated his experiences into the series]]. [=McCarthy=] and Ted are bisexual, there are numerous gay characters, and in all cases their sexuality is considered no more important than their race. The author even subverts his own work through [[CampGay Randy Dannenfelser]] who is the personification of every negative gay stereotype in existence. Homophobia is present, but it's roughly as accepted as chauvinism was in UsefulNotes/TheEighties -- not a career-ender like casual racism, but considered an annoying character flaw. Notably, ''[=McCarthy=] himself'' is mildly homophobic, as most of the homosexuals he's met have been about as well-adjusted as, well... everyone else in his [[CrapsackWorld war-torn world]]. Notably, he lost his virginity to narcissistic jerk Ted -- who [[NotStayingForBreakfast brushed him off the following morning]], and Dannenfelser is an obnoxious ObstructiveBureaucrat who enjoys calling [=McCarthy=] "sister" simply to [[ItAmusedMe piss him off]].

* HiveMind: The Telepathy Corps, and probably the Chtorran ecology itself.
* HollywoodScience. Averted as the Chtorran ecology was designed in large part by British reproductive biologist Jack Cohen.
* HopelessWar: Things are not going well, everybody knows it and acts accordingly.
* HordeOfAlienLocusts: ''Everything!''
* HostileTerraforming: The series features this prominently.

* HumansAreSpecial: Then again, the books make it clear that Earth's native ecosystem is all but helpless against the Chtorran invaders, leaving human sentience as the only thing that could possibly overcome them.

* InThatOrder: One particular quote- "Life is short. Then you die. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order."

* KarmicDeath: The first novel begins with a newspaper article on how a sheriff had fired two volunteers searching for a missing girl, because they [[ArbitrarySkepticism claimed to have seen 'Chtorrans']]. The novel ends with an article stating the same sheriff had gone missing during the evacuation of her town due to the Chtorran threat.
* KillerRabbit: Bunnydogs and meeps.
** Technically everything. No matter how harmless, or relatively harmless, it looks, it can probably kill you. Early in the first book, [[{{Jerkass}} one]] [[{{Redshirt}} of]] [[{{Mook}} the soldiers]] gets his finger bitten off by a Chtorran millipede. Losing the finger didn't kill him, it was the multiple infections caused by the alien microorganisms that were transferred by the bite that did.
*** Most notably is the "Cotton Candy" plant, which ''looks'' like ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and is the one of the few things in the invading ecosystem that seems non-threatening. It's not until they go through a massive "bloom" and throw clouds of pink dust all over everything that it proves the only thing deadlier than the worms themselves: First, the dust is as fine and flammable as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion grain dust]] -- it floats clear up to the cloud layer, and ''knocks aircraft right out of the sky''. Then it falls to the ground, acting as the terrestrial equivalent of an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upwelling upwelling]], particularly for Chtorran life -- most notably, it's full of Chtorran micro-organisms, so anyone who inhales it get '''multiple strains''' of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires%27_disease Legionnaires' disease]], coughing their lungs out in bloody chunks. After it rains, it becomes a sea of sticky goo that dries into a solid shell, killing all Terrestrial life beneath it. Then everything else in the ecology sweeps in to eat the candy-coated refuse, then the critters that eat those, and the worms to eat them. Areas the size of New England states transformed from pastoral green to screaming red jungle in a manner of '''''days.'''''

* {{Mentors}}:
** Whitlaw, the Global Ethics teacher
** [[ZenSurvivor Doctor Foreman]]
** [[SergeantRock Duke Anderson]]
** [[EvilMentor Jason Delandro]].
* MoreDakka: The aforementioned AM-280 rifle.

* 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.

* SocietyMarchesOn: The author sets out to avert this by having social mores changed as well.
* SpiderTank: Great for jungles and mountains.
* TheSquad: Siegal's team in "A Season for Slaughter".

* StockShticks: What does a Chtorran call a liberal? Politically Correct lunch. What does a Chtorran call a conservative? Gunpowder-seasoned lunch. Create your own Chtorran Joke: What does a Chtorran call _______? Lunch!
* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: Cyberbeasts.
* TheSwarm: Again, where. To. Start. They all rush you!
* TheSymbiote: Just about every Chtorran critter is actually a composite of several Chtorran critters. Many can [[BodyHorror infest humans]].
** [[spoiler: There are hints throughout the books that the entire Chtorran ecosystem may be nothing but one huge symbiote of all the different Chtorran life forms.]]

* ToServeMan: What does a Chtorran call Earth? Lunch!
* TrilogyCreep: Gerrold specifically calls it "The longest trilogy I've ever written."

* VichyEarth: Opinions differ (in the case of renegades, often violently) over whether humanity should follow a policy of resistance or co-existence with the Chtorr.
** The official GURPS campaign setting suggests that the bunnymen and libbits may be what's left of a previously invaded race that opted for the latter. Given that they're essentially at the bottom of the "natural" Chtorran food chain and absolutely ''thrilled'' about it, it isn't considered to bode well for the fate of humanity if it also takes this route.

* WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture: Caseys e.g. "kilo-calories”. Also a case of PracticalCurrency; they're backed by ''food'' -- one casey can be exchanged anywhere in the civilized world for a one-thousand-calorie block of "[[FutureFoodIsArtificial soya]]". RealityEnsues in that the laws of supply and demand are still in effect -- it takes a ''lot'' of caseys to purchase, say, a pound of caviar. Add in that the book ''begins'' at the [[ApocalypseHow/Class1 Class One]] stage of an anticipated ''[[ApocalypseHow/Class3A Class Three]]'' [[ApocalypseHow apocalypse]], nine-tenths of the world's [[DepopulationBomb population died]] ''before the first page'' and those same laws mean the casey is depreciating at an ''exponential'' rate because there's a surplus of food compared to the amount of manpower left in the world AKA ''humans left alive.''

** Notably, the casey has inspired similar currencies based on gold, oil, ''coffee'', and '''chocolate''' since OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap.
* WhenTreesAttack: ...the only way to survive is somehow walk out of range at five meters an hour.

* ExtremeOmnivore: The ''entire'' Chtorran ecosystem, but especially the worms, which consume roughly a tenth of their weight in protein every day -- a third if they're forced to subsist on vegetation -- and they can grow to weigh '''over a ton.''' Thus, the worms hate any kind of food that isn't alive and screaming. It's an uphill battle to get worms to eat ''fresh hamburger'' instead of the feeder's hand. Captured worms are thus [[EatTheDog fed stray dogs]] -- ''lots'' of them.

* BizarreSexualDimorphism: bunnydogs/bunnymen and libbits are the male and female (respectively) of the same species.
** [[spoiler: There are clues that there are no individual species per se in the Chtorran ecosystem - just the ecosystem itself - with a vast web of what we would consider "different species" that are genetically compatible for breeding.]]
* BodyHorror: Where to start. It's easier to catalog the stuff that ''won't'' eat you from the inside out - those ones [[ToServeMan just plain eat you]].

## Everyone who can't survive without medical care - even from something as easily controllable as ''diabetes'' - is going to die due to lack of medical personnel and supplies.

* DisposingOfABody: A rarely-seen result of RealityEnsues. See the DepopulationBomb entry? Well, when that many people die, there aren't enough people to bury them. Especially as lots of the corpses - and there are ''still hundreds of thousands of mummified bodies waiting to be discovered'' - are plague hazards. Solution? ''Ovens.'' Just stumbling upon one such "mass crematorium" unaware has been known to send people off the deep end.
* DysfunctionJunction: Justified. Since the population crash of humanity, a common catch phrase is "Everybody's crazy."

* ExtremeOmnivore: The ''entire'' Chtorran ecosystem, but especially the worms, which consume roughly a tenth of their weight in protein every day - a third if they're forced to subsist on vegetation - and they can grow to weigh '''over a ton.''' Thus, the worms hate any kind of food that isn't alive and screaming. It's an uphill battle to get worms to eat ''fresh hamburger'' instead of the feeder's hand. Captured worms are thus [[EatTheDog fed stray dogs]] - ''lots'' of them.

* GotVolunteered: ZigZagged with the UriahGambit -- it's made clear that there are legal precedents involving the use of soldiers on dangerous missions, and in the first novel Duke Anderson tells [=McCarthy=] he ''does'' have the option of refusing to go on a dangerous mission, but then he'll be on the first chopper out of here because a soldier who won't take risks is useless to him. In the second, one of his superiors notes he has an asterisk (''Jim: Yeah, I'm sitting on it.'') - meaning those legal precedents have been ''waived.'' This means he's either part of the [[HiveMind Telepathy Corps]], pissed someone off enough that [[TheUriahGambit they want him KIA'd]], or he's gained a reputation for ''[[WhyWontYouDie surviving]]'' dangerous missions. Specifically, [[spoiler:he was once set to guard a worm with a weapon experts had concluded wouldn't work on worms and killed it ''anyway''. By book four his superiors just say "screw it" and abandon him in a pink storm - along with several other soldiers. He only gets out that time by finding intel too valuable to sacrifice ''and'' spending his last remaining political favor. There are also indications that he's been given a telepathic implant without his knowledge when he was last in surgery.]]

* GovernmentConspiracy: Every move by the United States government to fight the Chtorrans is viewed by the rest of the world as an attempt to reassert American supremacy. Ironically these suspicions would be all-too-accurate under different circumstances. The best example would be [[spoiler: that ''every single freaking computer chip'' the US has built since their [[PrideBeforeAFall deposition as a global superpower]] is in fact a TrojanHorse; each one has a TrackingDevice and a SelfDestructMechanism - they know where ''all the weapons on earth'' are, and can ''destroy them at any time''.]] As one character put it: "There's enough history between us to fuel a major war, and if it weren't for the convenient intervention of the worms, that's probably what we'd be doing right now."
** Okay, the Uncle Ira conspiracy must be stated in full to be believed. It begins when a [[spoiler:periodic UsefulNotes/GulfWar escalates into a reverse UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis. The Third World then gets its act together for five seconds and demands that the US stand down or get [[NukeEm nuked]]. [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent The President]] at the time submits rather than start WorldWarThree, and the US is forced to disband its military and make multibillion-dollar reparations. This is when the conspiracy is hatched; accede to their demands in ways that benefit the US secretly. The military was disbanded, but reformed as a Peace Corps-like "Teamwork Army" which specializes in public works; the physical labor conditions them every bit as well as boot camp, and people who build stuff for a living tend to be ''very'' territorial - once the invasions start, it only takes one month of combat training to transform into a quality army. Weapons platforms like [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks tanks]] and [[GunshipRescue gunships]] were sank in the sea - but secretly preserved with acrylic beforehand. Instead of sending money, they send food and machines, forcing US industries to be redesigned to meet those demands. The US suffers a short depression, but loads of super-technology is developed in the process, causing an economic boom despite the treaties, and making the world even more dependent on US technology (complete with the aforementioned TrojanHorse chips). Space technology is developed, to supply the Third World with energy from solar-power satellites - requiring US expertise to maintain, and enabling them to develop space; thanks to a lunar colony, they have [[ColonyDrop mass drivers]]. And half a million teachers are sent into the Third World to bring them up to speed; and teach them American values.]] If Tvtropes had been created by an older generation of nerds, the XanatosGambit may well have been called the Uncle Ira Gambit; "What if we only ''pretended'' to lose?"

* HideYourLesbians: Hide Your Gays. Very much averted. Gerrold is one of the first openly gay sci-fi authors, and has [[WriteWhoYouKnow integrated his experiences into the series]]. [=McCarthy=] and Ted are bisexual, there are numerous gay characters, and in all cases their sexuality is considered no more important than their race. The author even subverts his own work through [[CampGay Randy Dannenfelser]] who is the personification of every negative gay stereotype in existence. Homophobia is present, but it's roughly as accepted as chauvinism was in UsefulNotes/TheEighties - not a career-ender like casual racism, but considered an annoying character flaw. Notably, ''[=McCarthy=] himself'' is mildly homophobic, as most of the homosexuals he's met have been about as well-adjusted as, well... everyone else in his [[CrapsackWorld war-torn world]]. Notably, he lost his virginity to narcissistic jerk Ted - who [[NotStayingForBreakfast brushed him off the following morning]], and Dannenfelser is an obnoxious ObstructiveBureaucrat who enjoys calling [=McCarthy=] "sister" simply to [[ItAmusedMe piss him off]].

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each novel has a name of the form "A [X] for [Y]" where the words X and Y are {{alliterative|Title}}. "A Matter for Men", "A Day for Damnation", "A Season for Slaughter" and "A Rage for Revenge.", "A Nest for Nightmares", "A Method for Madness", According to WordOfGod [[{{Vaporware}} Forthcoming books]] were thought to be named "A Time for Treason" (sixth) and "A Case for Courage" (seventh), but "A Method for Madness" was thought to be the fifth book but became the title for the sixth, and now no title has surety.

*** Most notably is the "Cotton Candy" plant, which ''looks'' like ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and is the one of the few things in the invading ecosystem that seems non-threatening. It's not until they go through a massive "bloom" and throw clouds of pink dust all over everything that it proves the only thing deadlier than the worms themselves: First, the dust is as fine and flammable as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion grain dust]] - it floats clear up to the cloud layer, and ''knocks aircraft right out of the sky''. Then it falls to the ground, acting as the terrestrial equivalent of an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upwelling upwelling]], particularly for Chtorran life - most notably, it's full of Chtorran micro-organisms, so anyone who inhales it get '''multiple strains''' of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires%27_disease Legionnaires' disease]], coughing their lungs out in bloody chunks. After it rains, it becomes a sea of sticky goo that dries into a solid shell, killing all Terrestrial life beneath it. Then everything else in the ecology sweeps in to eat the candy-coated refuse, then the critters that eat those, and the worms to eat them. Areas the size of New England states transformed from pastoral green to screaming red jungle in a manner of '''''days.'''''

* PunnyName: '''T'''heodore '''A'''ndrew '''N'''athaniel '''J'''ackson. A shout out to Larry Niven's commonly-used phrase "There Ain't No Justice," often abbreviated "[=TANJ=]" used as a curse word.

* RightHandVersusLeftHand: A major gripe of [=McCarthy=]'s, especially in "A Season for Slaughter", vis-a-vis his covert employers the Uncle Ira Group. The Uncle Ira Group on the other hand are constantly annoyed by his habit of going off half-cocked at {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s instead of trusting them to handle things behind the scenes. ''He'' is constantly annoyed because for the past three-and-a-half books, they never bothered to correct his assumption that he was TheOnlyOne focused on the enemy instead of gaming the system. ''Very'' justifiably, too, as the ''literal'' previous time he met the actual leader of the group - the ''first'' time they ''met'' - [[spoiler:'''[[UriahGambit the UIG tried to feed him to a giant alien worm]].''' And the only reason he survived was because he, on his own initiative, actually learned how to use the weapon they gave him beforehand - which was chosen specifically because it was nearly useless against giant alien worms. The only reason he survived was because he is a CrazyPrepared '''''badass''''' who practiced on the weapon the night before. He nearly dies fighting it, would have been killed on the operating table if a strongheaded nurse hadn't ''assaulted'' the officer that ordered it, and afterwards they infer that they'll kill him if he takes it personally instead of heading back to work. "Don't drink your orange juice."]]

** The first time, he had stumbled on an ongoing high-clearance intelligence operation, and they didn't know what to do with him save [[spoiler:assign him to guard a worm with a weapon ''repeatedly demonstrated'' to be useless against them - without ''any'' training in using it. '''He takes it down anyway.''' He went out, ReadTheFreakingManual, and carved up a few haystacks with it until he was ''vaguely'' competent in its use. He's badly wounded in the process and they try to kill him on the table, but luckily a dedicated nurse ''attacked'' the officer sent to pull the plug and sat with him until he was conscious again]].
** The second time, after humiliating an idiot officer assigned to him, Captain goes 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 in the process of bringing it back - but loses several members of his team in the process]].
* UltimateJobSecurity: The Uncle Ira Group protects [=McCarthy=] despite him committing several [[WhatTheHellHero acts liable for court martial]]; partly because he's good at his job, but also because [=McCarthy=]'s habit of causing disruption can be turned to their political advantage. He still has to deal with the occasional ObstructiveBureaucrat attempting to kill him - to the point that they really don't care if they kill other soldiers in the process.

* WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture: Caseys e.g. "kilo-calories”. Also a case of PracticalCurrency; they're backed by ''food'' - one casey can be exchanged anywhere in the civilized world for a one-thousand-calorie block of "[[FutureFoodIsArtificial soya]]". RealityEnsues in that the laws of supply and demand are still in effect - it takes a ''lot'' of caseys to purchase, say, a pound of caviar. Add in that the book ''begins'' at the [[ApocalypseHow/Class1 Class One]] stage of an anticipated ''[[ApocalypseHow/Class3A Class Three]]'' [[ApocalypseHow apocalypse]], nine-tenths of the world's [[DepopulationBomb population died]] ''before the first page'' and those same laws mean the casey is depreciating at an ''exponential'' rate because there's a surplus of food compared to the amount of manpower left in the world AKA ''humans left alive.''

->''"Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. [[EatenAlive Be grateful it happens in that order]]."''

** Okay, the Uncle Ira conspiracy must be stated in full to be believed. It begins when a [[spoiler:periodic UsefulNotes/GulfWar escalates into a reverse UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis. The Third World then gets its act together for five seconds and demands that the US stand down or get [[NukeEm nuked]]. [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent The President]] at the time submits rather than start WorldWarThree, and the US is forced to disband its military and make multibillion-dollar reparations. This is when the conspiracy is hatched; accede to their demands in ways that benefit the US secretly. The military was disbanded, but reformed as a Peace Corps-like "Teamwork Army" which specializes in public works; the physical labor conditions them every bit as well as boot camp, and people who build stuff for a living tend to be ''very'' territorial - once the invasions start, it only takes one month of combat training to transform into a quality army. Weapons platforms like [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks tanks]] and [[GunshipRescue gunships]] were sank in the sea - but secretly preserved with acrylic beforehand. Instead of sending money, they send food and machines, forcing US industries to be redesigned to meet those demands. The US suffers a short depression, but loads of super-technology is developed in the process, causing an economic boom despite the treaties, and making the world even more dependent on US technology (complete with the aforementioned TrojanHorse chips). Space technology is developed, to supply the Third World with energy from solar-power satellites - requiring US expertise to maintain, and enabling them to develop space; thanks to a lunar colony, they have [[ColonyDrop mass drivers]]. And half a million teachers are sent into the Third World to bring them up to speed; and teach them American values.]] As WATC predates ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' by [[OlderThanTheyThink more than a decade]], the XanatosGambit should technically be called the Uncle Ira Gambit; "What if we only ''pretended'' to lose?"

# A Matter for Men (1983)
# A Day for Damnation (1985)
# A Rage for Revenge (1989)
# A Season for Slaughter (1993)
# A Nest for Nightmares
# A Method for Madness

** In the first book, he seduces the poor boy while he's still smarting from the whole "man-eating alien caterpillars are real" thing, then treated it as a mindless fling the next. Worst part is that Ted's highly libertine upbringing means he never really understands what [=McCarthy=]'s so pissed about.

* NotStayingForBreakfast: A sci-fi version when Ted body-surfs into the body of a beautiful woman so he can have sex with [=McCarthy=]. The morning after [=McCarthy=] gets abruptly thrown out of bed by the woman concerned, as Ted has moved on to another body and left her to deal with the morning-after hangover.
* OneWorldOrder. Inverted, as efforts to [[RightHandVersusLeftHand co-ordinate a worldwide struggle]] against the Chtorrans are hampered by politics.

# A Case for Courage

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each novel has a name of the form "A [X] for [Y]" where the words X and Y are {{alliterative|Title}}. "A Matter for Men", "A Day for Damnation", "A Season for Slaughter" and "A Rage for Revenge.", "A Method for Madness", According to WordOfGod [[{{Vaporware}} Forthcoming books]] were thought to be named "A Time for Treason" (fifth) and "A Case for Courage" (seventh), but "A Method for Madness" was thought to be the sixth book but became the title for the fifth, and now no title has surety.

%% Please don't add zero-context examples; they prevent uninitiated readers from understanding what's going on, and are against policy.

So far there are four books out, with the fifth [[{{SavedFromDevelopmentHell}} completed, after over 20 years]], but awaiting publication; there are supposed to be seven altogether.

* [[HideYourLesbians Hide Your Gays]]. Very much averted. Gerrold is one of the first openly gay sci-fi authors, and has [[WriteWhoYouKnow integrated his experiences into the series]]. [=McCarthy=] and Ted are bisexual, there are numerous gay characters, and in all cases their sexuality is considered no more important than their race. The author even subverts his own work through [[CampGay Randy Dannenfelser]] who is the personification of every negative gay stereotype in existence. Homophobia is present, but it's roughly as accepted as chauvinism was in UsefulNotes/TheEighties - not a career-ender like casual racism, but considered an annoying character flaw. Notably, ''[=McCarthy=] himself'' is mildly homophobic, as most of the homosexuals he's met have been about as well-adjusted as, well... everyone else in his [[CrapsackWorld war-torn world]]. Notably, he lost his virginity to narcissistic jerk Ted - who [[NotStayingForBreakfast brushed him off the following morning]], and Dannenfelser is an obnoxious ObstructiveBureaucrat who enjoys calling [=McCarthy=] "sister" simply to [[ItAmusedMe piss him off]].

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each novel has a name of the form "A [X] for [Y]" where the words X and Y are alliterative. "A Matter for Men", "A Day for Damnation", "A Season for Slaughter" and "A Rage for Revenge." [[{{Vaporware}} Forthcoming books]] will be named "A Method for Madness", "A Time for Treason" and "A Case for Courage", according to WordOfGod.

* {{Mentors}}: Whitlaw, the Global Ethics teacher. [[ZenSurvivor Doctor Foreman]]. [[SergeantRock Duke Anderson]]. [[EvilMentor Jason Delandro]].

** In the short story ''Enterprise Fish'', someone accuses [=McCarthy=] of being NotHimself, but changes his mind when he delivers a BondOneLiner after watching another JerkAss get swallowed whole.

* [[HideYourLesbians Hide Your Gays]]. Very much averted. Gerrold is one of the first openly gay sci-fi authors, and has [[WriteWhoYouKnow integrated his experiences into the series]]. [=McCarthy=] and Ted are bisexual, there are numerous gay characters, and in all cases their sexuality is considered no more important than their race. The author even subverts his own work through [[CampGay Randy Dannenfelser]] who is the personification of every negative gay stereotype in existence. Homophobia is present, but it's roughly as accepted as chauvinism was in UsefulNotes/TheEighties - not a career-ender like casual racism, but considered an annoying character flaw. Notably, ''[=McCarthy=] himself'' is mildly homophobic, as most of the homosexuals he's met have been... about as well-adjusted as everyone else in his [[CrapsackWorld war-torn world]]. Notably, he lost his virginity to narcissistic jerk Ted - who [[NotStayingForBreakfast brushed him off the following morning]], and Dannenfelser is an obnoxious ObstructiveBureaucrat who enjoys calling [=McCarthy=] "sister" simply to [[ItAmusedMe piss him off]].

* DeathWorld. The original planet of the invaders is assumed to be like this, and they're eager to make Earth just like it.

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Or is that He Is Not My Boyfriend? Yes, Ted's a jerk.

* GotVolunteered: ZigZagged with the UriahGambit -- it's made clear that there are legal precedents involving the use of soldiers on dangerous missions, and in the first novel Duke Anderson tells [=McCarthy=] he ''does'' have the option of refusing to go on a dangerous mission, but then he'll be on the first chopper out of here because a soldier who won't take risks is useless to him. In the second, one of his superiors notes he has an asterisk(''Jim: Yeah, I'm sitting on it.'') - meaning those legal precedents have been ''waived.'' This means he's either part of the [[HiveMind Telepathy Corps]], pissed someone off enough that [[TheUriahGambit they want him KIA'd]], or he's gained a reputation for ''[[WhyWontYouDie surviving]]'' dangerous missions. Specifically, [[spoiler:he was once set to guard a worm with a weapon experts had concluded wouldn't work on worms and killed it ''anyway''. By book four his superiors just say "screw it" and abandon him in a pink storm - along with several other soldiers. He only gets out that time by finding intel too valuable to sacrifice ''and'' spending his last remaining political favor.]]

** Finally, ''[[DysfunctionJunction everyone is mentally damaged by all that death]].'' People may be unable to maintain technological civilization, which is the only thing that could potentially keep the '''big''' monsters from destroying what's left. All in all, the human race may '''''[[YouAreAlreadyDead already be extinct]].'''''

-->The physical universe uses heat to keep score. Actually, it's motion, but on the molecular level we experience it as heat. Just know that it's the only way one object ever affects another, so it's the only way to measure how big a difference an object really makes. We measure heat in BTUs. British Thermal Units. Calories. We want our money to be an accurate measure, so we use the same system as the physical universe: ergo, we have the KC standard, the kilo-calorie.

** Okay, the Uncle Ira conspiracy must be stated in full to be believed. It begins when a [[spoiler:periodic UsefulNotes/GulfWar escalates into a reverse CubanMissileCrisis. The Third World then gets its act together for five seconds and demands that the US stand down or get [[NukeEm nuked]]. [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent The President]] at the time submits rather than start WorldWarThree, and the US is forced to disband its military and make multibillion-dollar reparations. This is when the conspiracy is hatched; accede to their demands in ways that benefit the US secretly. The military was disbanded, but reformed as a Peace Corps-like "Teamwork Army" which specializes in public works; the physical labor conditions them every bit as well as boot camp, and people who build stuff for a living tend to be ''very'' territorial - once the invasions start, it only takes one month of combat training to transform into a quality army. Weapons platforms like [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks tanks]] and [[GunshipRescue gunships]] were sank in the sea - but secretly preserved with acrylic beforehand. Instead of sending money, they send food and machines, forcing US industries to be redesigned to meet those demands. The US suffers a short depression, but loads of super-technology is developed in the process, causing an economic boom despite the treaties, and making the world even more dependent on US technology (complete with the aforementioned TrojanHorse chips). Space technology is developed, to supply the Third World with energy from solar-power satellites - requiring US expertise to maintain, and enabling them to develop space; thanks to a lunar colony, they have [[ColonyDrop mass drivers]]. And half a million teachers are sent into the Third World to bring them up to speed; and teach them American values.]] As WATC predates ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' by [[OlderThanTheyThink more than a decade]], the XanatosGambit should technically be called the Uncle Ira Gambit; "What if we only ''pretended'' to lose?"

* YanksWithTanks: Subverted in that the United States was made to decommission much of its military after losing a war in Pakistan. Ironically this now makes the USA the most powerful nation on Earth, as its armed forces were not mobilized to deal with the plagues and so survived mostly intact.

* NotStayingForBreakfast: A sci-fi version when Ted body-surfs into the body of a beautiful woman so he can have sex with [=McCarthy=]. The morning after [=McCarthy=] gets abruptly thrown out of bed by the woman concerned, as Ted has moved on to another body and left her to deal with the morning-after mess.

* LesCollaborateurs: 'Renegades' worship and help the Chtorran invaders. Their numbers increase as the infestation grows in strength -- it's not known whether this is the result of an unknown form of [[BrainWashed brainwashing]] or simply a [[VichyEarth psychological/practical response]] to the [[HopelessWar overwhelming]] AlienInvasion.