John Raymond Brosnan (October 7th, 1947-11 April, 2005) was a British (though born in Australia) writer of science-fiction and horror novels, especially from the 1970s to the 1990s. He is best known as the author of Carnosaur, The Fungus, Slimer and Bedlam, all of which he wrote under the pseudonym of Harry Adam Knight. In addition to these, he wrote a number of other novels, including the Sky Lords trilogy, which were published under his own name.
Brosnan also published nonfiction books about the film industry, many of which have become highly regarded by enthusiasts of 1970s and 80s cinema, as well as a few comics for 2000 AD. He died in 2005, shortly before the publication of his final novel, Mothership Awakening
Works by John Brosnan with their own pages:
Tropes present in his works:
- Apocalypse How: Varies in intensity, but widespread disaster is a recurring feature of his stories.
- Artistic License – Biology: While he did try to stay accurate some of the time (Carnosaur, for example), most of the creatures in his stories are nothing but this.
- Asshole Victim: Many, many of the people who get offed by the monsters in his stories aren't very likable to begin with.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Giant tapeworms, giant walking mushrooms, giant shapeshifting shark mutants.
- Author Appeal: Lots of people getting killed in ridiculously over-the-top ways, bizarre monster designs, and awkwardly shoehorned-in sex.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: His book Worms was about giant tapeworms draining a city of all its blood.
- Black Comedy: All of his books, even his scariest ones, have a slight humorous air about them.
- Cool Airship: The titular vessels of the Sky Lords, and the setting of his standalone novel Skyship. The former double as an example of Dread Zeppelin, since they're used by the villains of the series.
- Creator Provincialism: Most of his stories feature a British setting
- The Film of the Book: Three times— Carnosaur, directed by Roger Corman, is probably the best known. However, there was also Proteus (based on Slimer) and Beyond Bedlam (based on his novel of the same name).
- Fun with Acronyms: His two most frequently used pseudonyms, which he reserved for his schlockiest work, were Harry Adam Knight and Simon Ian Childer. Say the initials out loud, and you get "Hack" and "Sick".
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Genetic engineering is never shown in a positive light in his stories. Never. Carnosaur, The Fungus, Slimer, and the Sky Lords trilogy all feature genetically-engineered menaces.
- Hellish Copter: Helicopters frequently come to bad ends in his books. A Tarbosaurus destroys one in Carnosaur, the Sikorsky S-76 the protagonists escape in at the end of Slimer ends up crashing (though they survive), and a helicopter gets shot down by the military while trying to escape the quarantine in The Fungus.
- Lighter and Softer: The Damned And Fancy books are this compared to his other stories, being a Medieval European Fantasy parody.
- Scenery Gorn: The Fungus and the Sky Lords series both take place in devastated wastelands covered in hideous mutant vegetation.
- Science Is Bad: The results of scientific experiments are usually deadly in his stories.
- Self-Deprecation: See under Fun with Acronyms.
