History CrazyPrepared / Literature

* Etjole Ehomba, central character of ''Journeys of the Catechist'' by Creator/AlanDeanFoster, carries any number of magical and alchemical gifts in his backpack. Most of these are intended for use in other applications, but prove effective in whatever crazy-ass situation he's currently facing as well. In addition, his "sky-metal sword" usually has a hidden ability perfect for whatever foe he's fighting.

* Jarlaxle, from R. A. Salvatore's ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' books, has a hat containing a portable hole, a feather on the hat that summons a giant bird, an infinite supply of knives, a belt that can turn into a snake or extend into a rope, an eyepatch that can see through walls and also protects him from mental intrusion, boots that can silence his footsteps, a ring that can hurl fireballs, a cloak that makes him immune to projectile attacks, several magic wands, a maul hidden in his hat, a ring that detects lies, and a ring that protects from fire or ice. And those are only the items we know about. Do not underestimate Jarlaxle.

* ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'': Steris is a meticulous planner, to the point that she insists on trying to plan a disruption for her own wedding, under the logic that her fiance, being a rough-and-tumble gunslinger cop, will attract ''some'' sort of trouble, and it's best to make her own before that can happen. In ''Literature/BandsOfMourning'', Steris had ''six'' copies of their wedding pendants made. Considering that four of them never made it to the church, this falls into ProperlyParanoid.

* Justified in ''Literature/ButlerParker'': Parker has numerous ball-point pens that he has retooled to work as a blowtorch, blowgun, flashbang etc., has a 'universal umbrella' with leaded handle that can shoot blowgun darts, has a completely reworked taxi with lost of tricks...

** After a nasty incident involving a DangerouslyGenreSavvy villain who figured out that since his shield spell only blocked kinetic force, [[spoiler:throwing enough fire at him would still cook him, shield or no]], he made a new one that would block everything he could think of that it would be even remotely possible for someone to throw at him.

** Vetinari, the DangerouslyGenreSavvy Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, knows that when a ruler is overthrown the overthrowers tend to lock the ruler away in the deepest, dankest cell of his palace's dungeons. Hence, Vetinari ensured that while the deepest, dankest cell's door has a heavy-duty lock on the outside, all of the deadbolts and bars are on the ''inside''. He also has the key hidden behind a brick in the cell wall so escape can be performed at leisure. Training the local sentient rats to run errands didn't hurt either. Yes, the Patrician arranged for his jail cell to have ''room service''.

* ''Franchise/{{Dune}} series has quite a few of these, including [[Literature/GodEmperorOfDune Leto II]] and [[Literature/ChapterhouseDune Darwi Odrade]].

** Fairtheora has, at least, 42 emergency procedures programed into his sentinel armor.

* Jerin Whistler of ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' goes nowhere without his lockpicks. He usually has two weapons on his person, too, but he does give those away when asked to disarm. It is family tradition - his grandmothers were spies, and they apparently saw no reason to stop doing something that worked ... as, teaching their kids thieves' cant and lockpicking, and probably lots of other things, too.

** Rod averts the trope on his sister's advice, taking only a knife, pack vest, and rations on his off-world survival test. Deacon Matson even asks why he didn't arrive with camping equipment and popular outdoor gadgets like the other students.

** Averted also in that almost literally the first thing Rod stumbles over on his arrival into the test zone is the corpse of a student who had prepared himself with a lot of camping gear and a highly advanced ultra-expensive man-portable energy weapon. He'd been followed, ambushed, and murdered specifically so somebody else could steal his fancy gun. This is ''why'' Rod's older sister had advised him to carry only some simple necessities, because in her experience the more and more expensive gear you carried the more you just made yourself a target.

** The BigBad of the first book, [[spoiler: Duke Selen Esrah]] made sure that nothing went wrong with his EvilPlan [[spoiler: He hired an enforcer to possess the possess the king years before hand to make sure that the king would properly abidicate after the plan was launched, instead of escaping or suicide. He was also prepared for his son to betray him, despite his son being the greatest benefactor of ThePlan]].

** Sathel hides her intelligent field medic spiders on Nolien, without telling him, because a situation where Tiza is injuried and needs their help is likely to be an occasion that incapicates the spiders she hide on her as well. She also makes sure that Tiza has everything she could possibly need when going on a mission to Ceiha and then checks to make sure she has everything four times on the way to the guild lobby.

* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos''"

* Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents''. Due to Malicia's [[GenreSavvy awareness]] of the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality, she carries an adventuring bag with such items as a grapnel, a rope ladder, laxative for surviving on a coconut diet on a deserted island, and cotton-wool for blocking the vents of a giant underwater mechanical squid. She lives several hundred miles inland. These come in handy repeatedly, though not for their intended purposes.
** That's because Malicia is WrongGenreSavvy.

* Hermione, from ''Literature/HarryPotter'', but she's only CrazyPrepared in comparison to Ron and Harry, who barely pay attention even in self-defense classes (imagine how they would be if math were actually required of them) and the pureblood wizarding world in general, which she says doesn't have "an ounce of logic".

* Some of the acolytes and Travelers in ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'', which certainly comes in handy down the road.

* Imp Sec in Literature/VorkosiganSaga embodies this trope, notably in the headquarters whose security is obsessively detailed and redundant including compartmentalization and internal life support that reminds Miles of a spaceship plus refusing to allow building across the street to ensure a clear field of fire.
* Few people are better prepared than [[Literature/JeevesAndWooster Jeeves]], who in addition to knowing the exact social standing of every relationship in the British aristocracy, has a working knowledge of foreign language, psychology, fashion, economic theory (he can completely explain communist theory, despite being completely opposed to it), taxonomy (he refers to animals by their scientific names), and so on, and does it all with such cool implacability he practically qualifies more as a DoAnythingRobot.

* Jerin Whistler of ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' goes nowhere without his lockpicks. He usually has two weapons on his person, two, but he does give those away when asked to disarm. It is family tradition - his grandmothers were spies, and they apparently saw no reason to stop doing something that worked ... as, teaching their kids thieves' cant and lockpicking, and probably lots of other things, too.

* Valentinian in the Literature/BelisariusSeries. When he has to teach a prince how to fight, he even teaches him how to fight with a spade; even a prince might [[ChekhovsGun need to.]]

* Few people are better prepared than Jeeves, who in addition to knowing the exact social standing of every relationship in the British aristocracy, has a working knowledge of foreign language, psychology, fashion, economic theory (he can completely explain communist theory, despite being completely opposed to it), taxonomy (he refers to animals by their scientific names), and so on, and does it all with such cool implacability he practically qualifies more as a DoAnythingRobot.

* The Survivalist, hero of the 1980's action novel series by Jerry Ahern. [=Ex-CIA=] agent John Rouke has a well-stocked underground retreat enabling him to survive not only WorldWarThree, the collapse of society and Soviet occupation, but later the extinction of all life on Earth!

* The level of CrazyPrepared going on in ''TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' is hard to imagine for anyone who hasn't read the book. It can probably be safely said that Max Brooks thought of everything when compiling that book. He has strategies and tips for fighting zombies in every conceivable type of terrain (including watching out for zombies who had been frozen under snow or ice during the winter and are now starting to thaw). And, in the chapter on the pros and cons of various vehicles, he even includes tips regarding the use of Lighter-Than-Air vehicles, like ''blimps and hot air balloons''.

* ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. White South African Paul Redeker had been hired by the government to come up with contingency plans in case of a large-scale revolt of the native African population (called Plan Orange). When the ZombieApocalypse occurred, Redeker went to his mountain retreat and, on his own initiative, adapted Plan Orange into a national zombie survival plan. Most governments in the world implemented his plan and eventually survived the war. Not forgetting the first book, ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'', which taught the average Joe how to survive a zombie attack, with advice about forming groups of people, securing secluded land and, naturally, hoarding food, materials and weapons. It's noted in WWZ that it's useful mostly for Americans. Since the "interviewer" is Brooks himself, this is SelfDepreciation.