Leven Thumps
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"An UnFOOgettable Series"
—Tagline
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A series of novels by Obert Skye.
It begins with fourteen-year-old Leven Thumps living a sucking life with his step aunt Addy and her husband Terry Graph in a trailer home at Burnt Culvert, Oklahoma. One day,Clover, a Sycophant, reveals himself. Clover tells Leven that he's been watching over him all his life, usually invisible. He and Leven have got to find the gateway into the world called "Foo" and then destroy that gateway. Foo is Clover's world, the place that makes dreams possible. Humans who get trapped in Foo are called Nits, and one Nit named Sabine has taken over, leading his armies in search of the gateway. If they find the gateway, they'll lead everyone into reality, Foo will empty out and the lack of dreams will destroy humanity. Although Clover's former "burn" (or master) knew all about the gateway and took him through it about fourteen years ago, Clover never got to see it and doesn't know where it is. A Lithen named Geth who knows where the gateway is had been captured and transformed into a seed by Sabine, but Clover knows that his burn got the seed and planted in in reality. Thus Leven and Clover set out to find Geth so that they can enter Foo and destroy the only way out.
There are five books:
- Leven Thumps And The Gateway To Foo (2005)
- Leven Thumps And The Whispered Secret (2006)
- Leven Thumps And The Eyes Of The Want (2007)
- Leven Thumps And The Wrath Of Ezra (2008)
- Leven Thumps And The Ruins Of Alder (2009)
Professor Winsnicker's Book of Proper Etiquette for Well-Mannered Sycophants is a side-book that takes place prior to the series.
Beyond Foo is the sequel series, beginning with Geth and the Return of the Lithens.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.
- Abusive Parents: Justified with Janet Frore as she was chosen to be Winter's adoptive mom because she was such a Jerkass. Played straight with Elton, who wants to kill Leven, because Maria Thumps died in childbirth.
- Anti-Hero: Azure after his Heel Face Turn.
- Anti-Villain: Ezra even though his ultimate goal is to kill Geth and take over the world.
- Badass: Sabine froze the entire world!
- Badass Normal: Elton who, despite having no gift is strong enough to beat up Leven even though Leven was in his fully powered state.
- Because Destiny Says So: Geth's personality.
- Big Bad: Sabine, Jamoon, Azure, and The Dearth source of all hatred and evil.
- Big Good: The Want aka Hector Thumps, then Leven Thumps and The Tree.
- Blessed with Suck: Rants. Half of them is always what someone is dreaming of and they cannot manipulate dreams. Cue Two-Face jokes.
- Brick Joke: In book four we find out Leven's favourite number is 11. In book five it's the number of whacks to destroy the tree and also his name.
- Brought Down to Normal: Winter's gift is stolen because Jamoon sucks it out with a machine that Winter actually created.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Inverted. Leven is happy to see Elton but Elton calls Leven out for killing Maria Thumps in childbirth.
- The Chosen One: Leven. which is partially why EltonThumps hates him so much.
- Dangerously Genre Savvy: The Dearth.
- Deadpan Snarker: The narrator and Clover.
- Demonic Possession: Dennis by Sabine for the first half of book three.
- Dinky Drivers: In the first book, Clover commandeers a motor vehicle to catch up to Leven and Winter. He eventually sets up a system to keep the pedals pushed while he hurtles along the street at breakneck pace.
- Disney Death: Hector Thumps, Amelia Thumps, Elton Thumps, Dennis O. Wood and Clover.
- The Dragon: Jamoon to Sabine, Sabine and Azure to The Dearth.
- Dragon Ascendant: Jamoon becomes the Big Bad after Sabine's death.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Dearth, a soil monster.
- Eleventh-Hour Superpower: When Leven gets the force.
- Evil Uncle: Terry.
- Exposition Fairy: The purpose of sycophants.
- Face Heel Turn: The Tree.
- The Film of the Book: Currently with no script or actors.
- Flight: One of the gifts.
- Hammerspace: Clover has a pouch called a void that can hold an unlimited amount of stuff.
- Heel Face Turn: Ezra, Azure, Jamoon, Terry and Ady, and Phoebe.
- Heel Face Revolving Door: Azure was Geth's friend, but pulled a Face Heel Turn and joined the Dearth until Book Four. Then he pulled a Heel Face Turn and teamed up with Leven.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Averted. Azure almost died at the end of book four, but was okay in book five. Leven was supposed to pull one, but didn't.
- Hypocritical Humour: The author insults bathroom scenes as the intro to a bathroom scene.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: One of the gifts.
- Jerkass: Sometimes Leven, Terry and Ady, Hector Thumps/The Want, Elton Thumps. Let's just say all Thumps are like this. Also Janet Frore.
- Killed Off for Real: Terry and Ady.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: From Star Wars. Darth Vader shows up, and at the end of book five Leven gets the force.
- Let's Meet the Meat: Some of Clover's food can talk!
- Literal Split Personality: Ezra, manifestation of all the hatred and evil in Geth. Also, Janet's whisp.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Longings cause everyone to go mad with love.
- Luke, You Are My Father: Leven to Elton in book five.
- The Masquerade: It's revealed at the end of book four that the government knows about Foo.
- Meaningful Name: Winter, The Dearth (the words death and earth), and E. Leven Thumps, the number of thumps to knock down the tree and defeat The Dearth.
- "Dearth" goes beyond being a portmanteau off "death" and "earth"--"dirt"'s implied in there too, and "dearth" means scarcity, famine, lack--which is exactly what the Dearth intends to cause for both worlds
- Mind Screw: As Janet puts it in book five "I came back to tell myself I was sorry?"
- Never Trust a Title: In Wrath of Ezra, the titular wrath is when Ezra says he hates Elton on the last page.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Leven unleashing The Dearth and the secret of how to kill sycophants.
- Obviously Evil: Farrow
- Older Than They Look: Winter is 38, but looks 13.
- One-Winged Angel: The Dearth after getting to reality.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Leven is actually his middle name.
- Reset Button: The ending of book five.
- Sequel Series: Beyond Foo.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Albert Welch, who Leven saves in the forest in book two.
- Superpower Lottery: Upon entering Foo, you are given one of twelve gifts:
- Theme Naming: Winter's original family, seeing as she had a sister named Spring.
- Those Two Bad Guys: Dennis and Ezra.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Vacuums for whisps. Clapping for shadows.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Leven's reflection in book three.
- Azure explained in book four that it was an agent of the Dearth sent to spy in Leven so they could copy the key
- Younger Than They Look: Leven is 14, but after book two, he looks 21.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle: At the end of book two it turns out the secret is how to kill sycophants.