Line #14 Creator/JohnChristopher


1	[[quoteright:286:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnchristopher.jpg]]
2	->''" In writing I think I’ve been more attracted by the thought of what happens after the catastrophe."''
3
4	Christopher Samuel Youd (born Sam Youd, 16 April 1922 – 3 February 2012) was an English author best known for his science fiction published under the name of John Christopher. His works include ''The Death of Grass'', ''Literature/TheTripods'' series, the ''Sword of the Spirits'' trilogy (''The Prince In Waiting'', ''Beyond the Burning Lands'', ''The Sword of the Spirits''), ''Dom and Va'', and ''A Dusk of Demons''.
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6	Several of his novels have been filmed. ''The Tripods'' was adapted for television, although the series was cancelled before getting to the last book.
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8	!!His works with their own trope pages include:
9	* ''Literature/TheTripods'' series
10	* ''Film/NoBladeOfGrass''
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12	!!His other works provide examples of:
13	* AfterTheEnd:
14	** ''The Year of the Comet'' is technically an example, set after World War III, but civilization has already fully recovered by the time of the events of the novel.
15	** The ''Sword of the Spirits'' is a straight example, with society having turned into a medieval-like state in Britain due to a past disaster.
16	* AndManGrewProud: This attitude is rigidly on display in the ''Sword of the Spirits'' trilogy, but [[spoiler:{{subverted}} when it is eventually revealed the disaster that shattered the world was a purely natural one and not caused in any way by man's technology or hubris.]]
17	* AntiHero: His protagonists are often flawed; Luke in the ''Sword of the Spirits'' is a particular example.
18	* AttackItsWeakPoint: In ''Beyond the Burning Land'', Luke fights and kills the Bayemot (a giant ameoba-like creature) by striking at the nucleus deep inside its body with a sword.
19	* AuthorAppeal: He evidently had a fondness for [[UsefulNotes/TheChannelIslands The Channel Islands]], they often appear as settings in his stories.
20	* ChickMagnet: The protagonist of ''The Year of the Comet'' is an understated version of this; he has at least three women fall for him in the course of the novel; with two of them it's a case of BecomingTheMask. He loves and marries the third.
21	* CoversAlwaysLie: One cover of ''A Wrinkle in the Skin'' shows some wrecked jumbo jets, which never appear in the novel.
22	* CosyCatastrophe: He wrote numerous post-apocalyptic novels: ''The Death of Grass'' (disease wipes out all grasses, including those that are staple foods for humans), ''The World in Winter'' (an ice age), ''Empty World'' (pandemic) and ''A Wrinkle in the Skin'' (earthquakes)... but Youd's reputation for dipping into this trope is somewhat unfair, in many of these novels things get pretty gritty for the protagonists. ''The Death of Grass'' in particular is one long grim ruthless scrabble to reach a safe haven in the English countryside.
23	* CometOfDoom: ''The Year of the Comet'' has, yes, a comet pass near post-World War III Earth. It becomes the symbol of a new apocalyptic world-wide religion which is [[spoiler:deliberately fostered by Israel as part of its world take-over plan.]]
24	* EarthquakesCauseFissures: ''A Wrinkle in the Skin'' has minor examples of this with its world-wide civilization-destroying earthquakes, but along with turning most buildings to rubble, the real damage is that vast chunks of the Earth's crust shift around, causing the oceans to slosh into all-new configurations. (The protagonist walks across a drained English Channel.)
25	* EvilLuddite: In the ''Sword of the Spirits'' trilogy, most of civilization was destroyed by a worldwide ecological disaster. In what's left of England, all post-medieval technology is forbidden and anyone trying to use science is put to death. It turns out that [[spoiler: people in Wales don't share this attitude, and by the end of the trilogy, 20th century level technology is rapidly returning to at least that part of the world.]]
26	* FeudalFuture: The ''Sword of the Spirits'' series is set mostly in England [[spoiler: and Wales]], centuries after a nuclear-war-like natural disaster. England is a bunch of warring city states ruled by princes, but with a dominant anti-technology religion in which people worship Spirits. Christians are an oppressed minority, and mutants are a lower caste.
27	* GaiasLament: The omnipresent BigBad of ''The Death of Grass'' is the Chung-Li virus, which wipes out all the grasses and crops on Earth.
28	* GhostCity: London in ''Empty World''.
29	* GrowsOnTrees: In ''The Lotus Caves'', the protagonists find a cave filled with plant life that responds to their desires. This includes a tree that reshapes itself to be a diving board over their swimming hole.
30	* IBelieveThatYouBelieveIt: In ''The Death of Grass'', Roger tells Pirrie about a defensible farm in a valley.
31	-->"And now?" John pressed him. "Do you believe us?"\
32	Pirrie sighed. "I believe that you believe it."
33	* IHaveAFamily: A rapist in ''The Death of Grass'' tries to pull this defense when his victim gets him at gun-point. Unsurprisingly, she shoots him.
34	* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: In ''The Death of Grass'' the British government decides to nuke cities to minimize the number of starving refugees that would otherwise roam across the countryside. [[spoiler: Though everything falls apart before the plan can actually be carried out.]]
35	* KnockoutGas: The two protagonists of ''Year of the Comet'' get hit with this twice, and then are [[TapOnTheHead bludgeoned unconscious]] as well.
36	* LightningCanDoAnything: In ''Fireball'' two cousins are transported to ancient Rome ([[spoiler:later revealed to be an alternate timeline]]) by what they assume to be some form of ball lightning.
37	* LostTechnology: In the ''Sword of the Spirits'', it turns out that [[spoiler: the heads of "the Spirits" religion have preserved what they could of pre-disaster technology.]]
38	* MarketBasedTitle: Several of his novels were given different titles in the United States. ''No Blade of Grass'', the US title of ''The Death of Grass'', went on to be used as the title of the film adaptation.
39	* MayorOfAGhostTown: The protagonist of the post-pandemic London of ''Empty World''.
40	* NastyParty: In ''The Prince in Waiting'', the protagonist's father (ruler of the city where the action is set) is invited to a gathering and murdered.
41	* OneNationUnderCopyright: ''The Year of the Comet'' has a post-World War III world being ruled by competing mega-corporations, each of which controls a particular field: mining, chemical production, atomic energy and so forth. The only country that still exists is Israel.
42	* PinballProtagonist: Charles Grayner in ''The Year of the Comet'' is a scientist who gets rather passively bounced around between various competing corporate factions, along with the cheerful pot-stirring of his malcontent friend Hiram Dinkhuhl.
43	* PossessiveParadise: ''The Lotus Caves'', which shares a number of thematic similarities with the ''Literature/TheTripods'' books.
44	* SaharanShipwreck: In ''A Wrinkle in the Skin'', massive earthquakes redistribute the balance of ocean and land, and the protagonist comes across a large tanker sitting in the desert which used to be the English Channel.
45	* TakeOverTheWorld: [[spoiler: This is what Israel does at the end of ''The Year of the Comet.'']]

Context Creator / JohnChristopher