History Literature / RiddleyWalker

* TheHerosBirthday: Opens on Riddley's twelfth birthday.

* AndManGrewProud: The exact nature of the 1 Big 1 described in the "Eusa Story" myth is ambiguous; it certainly involved atomic energy, either as a weapon or a power source.

** The 'Eusa Show', which tells the [[AndManGrewProud myth of how modern society was destroyed]], heavily borrows upon Theatre/PunchAndJudy in its execution, for example the call and response between performer and audience; the book's plot is kicked into motion when Riddley finds an ancient Punch puppet; and the book ends with Riddley and company taking their new/old Punch and "Pooty" (Judy) show on the road.

* AndManGrewProud: The exact nature of the 1 Big 1 is ambiguous; it certainly involved atomic energy, either as a weapon or a power source.

* PostApocalypticDog: Dogs have become humanity's enemies since the Bad Time. Sometimes a dog or dog pack will taking a liking to someone, but this state of being "dog frendy" is not considered an endorsement. Riddley is therefore understandably unsettled when it happens to him.

* AfterTheEnd: It's a bit unclear exactly what happened, since Riddley's society doesn't understand the technology and different myths give slightly conflicting stories, but nuclear energy was certainly involved.

* ApocalypseAnarchy: Downplayed--some remnants of government do exists as the Mincery; the Pry Mincer considers himself the head of state; and the Mincery is shown to be aggressively supporting farmers at the expense of hunter-gatherers.

** Central to the book. The 'Eusa Show', which tells the [[AndManGrewProud myth of how modern society was destroyed]], heavily borrows upon Theatre/PunchAndJudy in its execution, for example the call and response between performer and audience; the book's plot is kicked into motion when Riddley finds an ancient Punch puppet; and the book ends with Riddley and company taking their new/old Punch and "Pooty" (Judy) show on the road.

* PunchAndJudy: Central to the book. The 'Eusa Show', which tells the [[AndManGrewProud myth of how modern society was destroyed]], heavily borrows upon Punch and Judy in its execution, for example the call and response between performer and audience; the book's plot is kicked into motion when Riddley finds an ancient Punch puppet; and the book ends with Riddley and company taking their new/old Punch and "Pooty" (Judy) show on the road.

* ShoutOut: The Literature/BookOfJob is hugely important to this novel, but isn't mentioned by name.

It was nominated for a NebulaAward in 1981.

A novel by [[TheMouseAndHisChild Russell Hoban]], set two (or perhaps three) millennia AfterTheEnd.

* AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists: Mostly, though unusually for this trope nearly no effort is made to acquaint the reader with things Riddley takes for granted. Readers can see, for instance, that Riddley never writes out numbers even when they're part of a word ("once" is always rendered "1ce"); we can infer, given that numbers and their power figure heavily in the story of humanity's downfall, that this is probably some kind of taboo; but, since Riddley has no reason to question or explain it, we never find out why.

* EyelessFace: Lissener

* NuSpelling: The entire book.

Three odd things happen to Riddley Walker around his twelfth name-day (birthday): he kills a boar, increasingly rare in Inland (England); the leader of the local dog pack purposefully runs onto his spear; and his father dies. Riddley therefore takes on his father's position as the community "connexion man", a sort of priest/government liason.

* AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists: Mostly, though unusually for this trope nearly no effort is made to acquaint the reader with things Riddley takes for granted. Readers can see, for instance, that Riddley never writes out numbers even when they're part of a word ("once" is always rendered "1ce"); we can infer that this is probably some kind of taboo; but, since Riddley has no reason to question or explain it, we never find out why.

* PleaseSelectNewCityName: All of future Kent, as recorded in the children's rhyme "Fools Circel 9wise". "Canterbury" has become "Cambry"; "Faversham", "Father's Ham"; "Dover", "Do It Over"; and so forth. Interestingly, the roads seem to have kept their names.

* AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists: Mostly, though unusually for this trope nearly no effort is made to acquaint the reader with things Riddley takes for granted. Readers can see, for instance, that Riddley never writes out numbers even when they're part of a word ("once" is always rendered as "1ce"); we can infer that this is probably some kind of taboo; but since Riddley has no reason to question or explain it we never find out why.

* EternalEnglish: Averted, and oddly, played straight. English at the time of the novel is phonetic and twisted compared with 21st century English, but it is ''more'' like 21st century English than the "old language" in which "The Story of Eusa" is written. This implies that, after a millennium or so of linguistic drift made English almost unrecognizable, another millennium of linguistic drift ''undid'' some of the previous changes.

* RagnarokProofing: Plenty of old tech is able to be scavenged and re-forged, and at one point in the novel Riddley encounters a great machine that is apparently untouched.
* ScavengerWorld: "Inland" (England) is at about an Iron Age level of civilisation, but scavenges their iron rather than smelting it. They do have the key Iron Age technology of charcoal, though.

* AllFirstPersonNarratorsWriteLikeNovelists: Mostly, though unusually for this trope nearly no effort is made to acquaint the reader with things Riddley takes for granted. Readers can see, for instance, that Riddley's society has some kind of taboo about writing out numbers, but we never find out why.

* TheBeforetimes: Played with. Since they were well over two thousand years ago and civilisation is roughly at an Iron Age level, Riddley's people don't really understand pre-Bad Time technology and treat it as half-allegory, half-alchemy.

* AfterTheEnd: It's a bit unclear exactly what happened, since Riddley's society doesn't understand the technology and different myths give slightly conflicting stories, but it certainly was nuclear energy.

* ScavengerWorld: "Inland" (England) is at about an Iron Age level of civilisation, but scavenges their iron rather than smelting it.

* HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: Dates are reckoned in years O.C., which means "Our Count."

* PunchAndJudy: The 'Eusa Show', which tells the [[AndManGrewProud myth of how modern society was destroyed]], heavily borrows upon Punch and Judy in its execution, for example the call and response between performer and audience.
* ScavengerWorld

Like ''ACanticleForLeibowitz'', it deals with quasi-religious themes and ancient nuclear weapons. Unlike ''Canticle'', it's about as pellucid as a brick, being written in what the author thinks English may evolve into 2000+ years down the road; understanding some of the passages can give even die-hard ''Literature/FinnegansWake'' fans a run for their money. It's drenched with symbolism and double (or even triple) meaning, and is a favorite of those literature professors who have to teach a course in ScienceFiction literature.

* PunchAndJudy: The biggest part of contemporary culture that survived to the time of the story. They are treated almost as religious figures.