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The '''''Apprentice Adept''''' series is a seven-book fantasy and science fiction series by [[Piers Anthony]]. The series takes place on two worlds occupying the same space in two different dimensional planes: Phaze - a [[Magical Land]] in [[Medieval Stasis]] and [[The Magocracy|more or less ruled by the Adepts]], the strongest magic users, each specializing in a separate aspect, and Proton, a barren mining planet of high technology, ruled by the Plutocratic Citizens (who control the immense wealth of the Protonite mines). The worlds are divided by The Curtain, an energy field only visible to those capable of crossing it (someone without a doppelganger on the other side).
The first trilogy (''Split Infinity'', ''Blue Adept'', and ''Juxtaposition'') starred Stile, a Proton serf who, after a mysterious assassination attempt destroyed his career as a race jockey, becomes the central figure in an ancient prophecy to [[Save Both Worlds]] from destruction, or ensure said destruction.
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{{franchisetropes}}
* [[
▲* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: In this case, {{spoiler|it's an [[Anti-Villain]] for the first two-and-a-half books, and indirectly responsible for most of the crap Stile goes through.}}
* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: the unicorn Neysa is an outcast because of her small size and horse-normal coloration.
* [[All Your Powers Combined]]: Anyone with the Book Of Magic gains the ability to use every school of Phaze magic.
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* [[God Mode Item]]: The Book of Magic and the Platinum Flute.
* [[Great Big Book of Everything]]: The Book Of Magic
* [[Green Rocks]]: Phazite, used to power the various spells.
** Which, when taken to Photon, becomes the energy bearing Protonite.
* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: Thought to be impossible. [[Idiot Ball|But no one thought to check The Book Of Magic on the subject.]] Once they do along come Flach and Al.
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** Clef's ability with the Platinum Flute allows him to do something that none of the other Adepts can: manipulate the Curtain that separates Proton and Phase.
* [[Magic Versus Science]]: Only magic works in Phaze; only technology in Proton.
* [[Meaningful Rename]]: Several characters choose their names from events and objects of personal importance (Stile, Rifleman, Clef).
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Hulk, which was a [[Shout-Out]]. Also, [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Sheen and Mach]]. The third-generation characters, meanwhile, have names composed of a [[Portmanteau Couple Name]] from their parents--Nepe (Bane, Agape) and Flach (Fleta, Mach).
* [[Merged Reality]]: The two worlds are eventually merged into one; as the characters are explicitly paired across both worlds (mirror-universe twin kinda thing), each pair merges into one being, and each pair has to time-share their body. Substantially easier for the heroes than for the villains, since heroes are used to putting the needs of others on par with or ahead of their own.
* [[Mind Control]]: See [[Hypnotic Eyes]], above.
* [[Mix-and-Match Critters]]: Some native Phazites have animal heads on human bodies.
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* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: Stile and Blue tend to slip into their native dialects when speaking seriously or stressed.
* [[Precocious Crush]]: Brown, towards Stile.
* [[Prophecies Are Always Right]] / [[Prophetic Fallacy]]: In ''Juxtaposition'', Stile was told he would be betrayed by "a young-seeming woman" and concludes it already happened, when Merle turned him in to the Citizen coalition. It turns out, however, that the true traitor was {{spoiler|Brown}}...except in a [[Double Subversion]], not only did she not ''know'' she was a traitor ({{spoiler|she accidentally cast the spell wrong to switch the cardinal directions, thereby reversing ''everything''--though considering her crush, this may not have been accidental after all}}), but the betrayal actually ended up helping Stile in the end--{{spoiler|since it allowed Stile to stay in Phaze by reversing where his spirit lay, putting it in the golem's body and Blue's in Stile's}}. This last was ''another'' [[Prophetic Fallacy]]--everyone assumed {{spoiler|"Blue must leave Phaze forever" meant Stile since he had taken up the mantle of the Adept after his death. But once Blue's spirit was taken out of its [[Soul Jar]] and put in a golem body, he was the one who had to leave Phaze, and did}}.
* [[Psychic Link]]: Mach and Bane, Flach and Nepe (Stile and Blue presumably can do the same but choose not to find out)
* [[Retcon]]: The third generation protagonists get their nature and power level changed radically between when they were background and major characters.
* [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]]: intentionally so.
* [[Rhymes on a Dime]]: How Stile's magic works
* [[Sacrificial Lion]]: {{spoiler|Hulk}}. This, and the death of the equally innocent Bluette, led Stile into a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].
* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: {{spoiler|The Red Adept only tried to kill Stile because the Oracle said that Stile would destroy her, but Stile only fought her because she struck first.}}
** In a more series-wide sense, the Oracle does its best to make sure all its prophecies come true, aided by the fact that {{spoiler|it is a magical computer which can therefore work across both frames, and that it has contacts with the self-willed machines, including the [[Dungeon Master|Game Computer]].}}
* [[Serious Business]]: In a world where losing a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors can mean getting booted off the planet, ''everything'' possibly included in the Great Game is treated as Serious Business. Also, oaths on Phaze (which are magically enforced).
* [[Sex as Rite-
* [[Smug Snake]]: the Purple Adept
* [[Soul Jar]]: {{spoiler|Stile's harmonica, which contains the soul of the original Blue Adept.}}
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* [[The Vamp]]: Merle, Yellow (after a youth potion)
* [[There Can Be Only One]]: Established Adepts (read: Any adept who isn't Stile or one of his allies) tend to protect their positions by wiping out anyone who shows any real power within their specialty.
* [[Took a Level
* [[Tournament Arc]]: Most of ''Blue Adept'' and part of ''Juxtaposition'' involves Stile's journey through the Great Game.
* [[Trilogy Creep]]: There are seven books.
* [[Truth Serum]]: when someone swears something's true in Phaze, and they ''really mean'' it, a wave of rainbow light radiates from them.
* [[Tyke Bomb]]: Flach and Nepe
* [[Unobtainium]]: Phazite/Photonite
* [[Unknown Assailant]]: {{spoiler|The Red Adept}}
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* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: Tan's Evil Eye grants absolute mind control; nifty, but other Adepts with more versatile powers can create spells to duplicate the effect<ref>although they need a new spell each time; see [[It Only Works Once]]</ref> in addition to the many, many other things they're capable of doing.
* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: The unicorns, werewolves, and other shifters on Phaze, the self-aware machines on Photon
* [[Why Am I Ticking?]]: In "Blue Adept", the hero is forewarned that the villain will try to force a magic bomb that will destroy him if he returns to Phaze with it. {{spoiler|The bomb turns out to be a bullet, which the villain shoots into the hero}}, who realizes Just In Time what it really is.
* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Flach and Nepe
* [[Word of God]]: That Red wasn't a [[Psycho Lesbian]], but an asexual Psycho [[Does Not Like Men|Misandrist]].
** Also, admitting that he [[Suddenly Sexuality|turned Brown gay]] because he needed to balance the cast a bit.
*** To be fair, it wasn't even a retcon seeing as adult Brown had only had a handful of scenes, none of them really involving her sex life.
*** Of course, being Piers Anthony, he also revealed that Brown was likely [[Unfortunate Implications|turned]] gay by being gang-raped by men as a child. Oh, also, she falls in love with any other gay woman she spends five minutes with.
* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]: Stile uses ''other people's'' Oracle prophecies to ensure his own survival.
** This is made worse by the fact each person ''only gets one''.
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[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:Apprentice Adept]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Literature]]
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