History Literature / TheBoyOnTheBridge

* BigDamnHeroes: "....they've probably got a couple of seconds before they have to deal with vertical incoming. But Rosie comes first and she comes like thunder, the sweetest sound McQueen has ever heard."
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: a lot of the increasingly bitter and ugly conflicts between mcqueen and Carlisle come down to this, although the narrative generally sides with Carlisle.
* ColdSniper: mcqueen and Foss are frighteningly efficient and distant, especially on the job. This is lampshaded by mcqueens internal monologue, where he notes that it's easy to feel guilt-free about killing zombies in the purpose of some greater cause.

* KilroyWasHere: when McQueen and Phillips get the atsmosphere samples from the last cache, on the Cairngorm Plateau, Phillips pauses to leave his dogtags behind.

* NeverMyFault: Averted, after some quiet reflection, mcqueen accepts that he was wrong to use the flamethrower in when they were in the middle of town, and that he deserved some punishment for that, but when he says as much to Carlisle and Carlisle still refuses to give him access to the turret guns, which he feels no one else can go as good of a job protecting the group with, Mcqueen takes it poorly.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: mcqueen opening fire on the intelligent hungries as they're in the middle of negotiating with Carlisle, Khan, Stephen and Dr. Penny, as all he sees when he comes over the hill is the four of them surrounded by hungries.

* ScientistVsSoldier: The novel has the military leaders caring only about dominance and merely using the scientists efforts to distract people. The common soldiers have more integrity but view the scientists as naive, judgmental, and unlikely to accomplish something, while the scientists see them as too callous towards killing [[NotUsingTheZWord Hungries]], and likely to exploit their discoveries by [[spoiler: [[WhatMeasureIsNonHuman breeding the hungries children like cattle and slaughtering them to make a vaccine which will only provide short-term relief]]]].

* NeverMyFault: Averted, after some quiet reflection, mcqueen accepts that he was wrong to use the flamethrower in when they were in the middle of town, and that he deserved some punishment for that, but when he says as much to Carlisle and Carlisle still refuses to give him access to the turret guns, which he feels no one else can go as good of a job protecting the group with, he takes it poorly.

* {{Retcon}}: A rather glaring one. The original book claimed that Dr. Caldwell ranked twenty-seventh out of the candidates for the mission, but this book claims that it was neck and neck between her and Fournier (although that may have been Brigadier Fry lying to manipulate Fournier) and that it wasn't the highest-rated scientists being sent out, but the competent yet expendable ones.
* ScientistVsSoldier: The novel has the military leaders caring only about dominance and merely using the scientists efforts to distract people. The common soldiers have more integrity but view the scientists as naive, judgmental, and unlikely to accomplish something, while the scientists seem that as too callous towards killing [[NotUsingTheZWord Hungries]], and likely to exploit their discoveries by [[spoiler: [[WhatMeasureIsNonHuman breeding the hungries children like cattle and slaughtering them to make a vaccine which will only provide short-term relief]]]].

''The Boy on the Bridge'' is the prequel/sequel to ''Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts'', by [[Creator/MikeCarey M. R. Carey]]. In T.G.W.A.T.G., the main characters stumble upon an abandoned mobile research facility/zombie-proof tank. This land [[ComicBook/TheUnwritten leviathan]] is named Rosalind Franklin; the last act of the story takes place in and around Rosie. It is never explained how the vehicle came to be where they discovered it, or what happened to the crew who ventured out past the gates of Beacon in search of a cure.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Stephen. Poor, poor Stephen.

* GeneralRipper: Brigadier Fry.

* TheSmartGuy. All of the scientists (except maybe Fournier) to some extent, and Sixsmith and Lites, the soldiers in charge of running and maintaining Rosie.

* KilroyWasHere: when McQueen and Phillips get the atsmosphere samples from the last cache, on the Cairngorm Plateau, Phillips pauses to leave his doglegs behind.

* ColdSniper: McQueen and Foss are frighteningly efficient and distant, especially on the job. This is lampshaded by mcqueens internal monologue, where he notes that it's easy to feel guilt-free about killing zombies in the purpose of some greater cause.

* ItIsDehumanizing: most of the crew refer to Greaves as 'the Robot', for his odd affect and social anxiety.

* NeverMyFault: Averted, after some quiet reflection, Mcqueen accepts that he was wrong to use the flamethrower in when they were in the middle of town, and that he deserved some punishment for that, but when he says as much to Carlisle and Carlisle still refuses to give him access to the turret guns, which he feels no one else can go as good of a job protecting the group with, he takes it poorly.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: mcqueen opening fire on the intelligent hungries as they're in the middle of negotiating with Carlisle, Khan, Stephen and Dr. Sixsmith, as all he sees when he comes over the hill is the four of them surrounded by hungries.

* ReassignedToAntartica: The reason that Colonel Carlisle was sent on the mission (with shades of a UriahGambit also being present in the second half).

* ReassignedToAntartica/UriahGambit: The reason that Colonel Carlisle was sent on the mission.

''The Boy on the Bridge'' is the prequel/sequel to [[Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts The Girl With All The Gifts]] (2014), by [[Creator/MikeCarey M. R. Carey]]. In T.G.W.A.T.G., the main characters stumble upon an abandoned mobile research facility/zombie-proof tank. This land [[ComicBook/TheUnwritten leviathan]] is named Rosalind Franklin; the last act of the story takes place in and around Rosie. It is never explained how the vehicle came to be where they discovered it, or what happened to the crew who ventured out past the gates of Beacon in search of a cure.

THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE (2017) is the prequel/sequel to [[Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts The Girl With All The Gifts]] (2014), by [[Creator/MikeCarey M. R. Carey]]. In T.G.W.A.T.G., the main characters stumble upon an abandoned mobile research facility/zombie-proof tank. This land [[ComicBook/TheUnwritten leviathan]] is named Rosalind Franklin; the last act of the story takes place in and around Rosie. It is never explained how the vehicle came to be where they discovered it, or what happened to the crew who ventured out past the gates of Beacon in search of a cure.

* TechnicallyLivingZombie: The hungries are ''technically'' alive, because the fungus operates their nervous system. [[spoiler:Moreso for the hungry children, where the fungus acts as more symbiotic.]] And also because they develop other qualities befitting higher lifeforms, such as rituals and abstract thought.

* [[TechnicallyLivingZombie Technically(?)Living Hungries]]: The hungries are ''technically'' alive, because the fungus operates their nervous system. [[spoiler:Moreso for the hungry children, where the fungus acts as more symbiotic.]] And also because they develop other qualities befitting higher lifeforms, such as rituals and abstract thought.

* TechnicallyLivingZombie: The hungries are ''technically'' alive, because the fungus operates their nervous system. [[spoiler:Moreso for the hungry children, where the fungus acts as more symbiotic.]]

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Like ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', the zombies are caused not by a virus but by the fungus [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis Ophiocordyceps]]. They are still alive, they require food and don't suffer from ZombieGait, but also lack any reactions above most basic instincts and the only way to kill them reliably is [[RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain solid head trauma]].

* NotUsingTheZWord: They are called "hungries."

* BigDamnHeroes: "....they've probably got a couple of seconds before they have to deal with vertical incoming. But Rosie comes first and she comes like thunder, the sweetest sound McQueen has ever heard."

THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE (2017) is the prequel/sequel to [[Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts The Girl With All The Gifts]] (2014), by [[Creator/MikeCarey M. R. Carey]]. In T.G.W.A.T.G., the main characters stumble upon an abandoned mobile research facility/zombie-proof tank. This land [[TheUnwritten leviathan]] is named Rosalind Franklin; the last act of the story takes place in and around Rosie. It is never explained how the vehicle came to be where they discovered it, or what happened to the crew who ventured out past the gates of Beacon in search of a cure.

THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE (2017) is the prequel/sequel to [[Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts The Girl With All The Gifts]] (2014), by [[Creator/MikeCarey M. R. Carey]]. In T.G.W.A.T.G., the main characters stumble upon an abandoned mobile research facility/zombie-proof tank. This land leviathan is named Rosalind Franklin; the last act of the story takes place in and around Rosie. It is never explained how the vehicle came to be where they discovered it, or what happened to the crew who ventured out past the gates of Beacon in search of a cure.

* ApocalypseHow: The story begins without much detail on the world (being very focused on the lives of its crew and immediate surroundings), but is probably in a Class 1-2 world. Which is teetering on the edge of 3.

What follows, from this premise, is--very simply--epic.

To anyone interested in scientific discovery, it is about the desperate search for a cure to the Hungry Pathogen.

THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE (2017) is the prequel/sequel to [[Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts The Girl With All The Gifts]] (2014), by [[Creator/MikeCarey M. R. Carey]]. In T.G.W.A.T.G., the main characters stumble upon an abandoned mobile research facility/zombie-proof tank. This land leviathan is named Rosalind Franklin, and the last act of the story takes place in and around Rosie. It is never explained how the vehicle came to be where they discovered it, or what happened to the crew who ventured out past the gates of Beacon in search of a cure.