The Soldier Son
The Soldier Son is a Fantasy trilogy by Robin Hobb, featuring a more modern setting than usual. The books are:
- Shaman's Crossing
- Forest Mage
- Renegade's Magic
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Tropes used in The Soldier Son include:
- A Friend in Need - Arguably a major theme throughout the books. For example, one of the major differences between Nevare and Soldier's Boy is how they behave in situations like this. Many of the subtropes show up, too.
- Agent Mulder - Epiny.
- A Million Is a Statistic - As it turns out, the authorities of Gettys knew all along about the holy trees of the Specks and the creeping depression/fear; they just didn't care, since changing the road's route would draw trading away from Gettys.
- Anti-Anti-Christ - Nevare doesn't particularly want to wipe out every Gernian in existence just because the Speck magic says so...
- Anti-Magic - Iron.
- Anyone Can Die
- Arranged Marriage - Nevare and Carsina.
- Attempted Rape
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- Balancing Death's Books - Well, Soldier's Boy tries, at least.
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- Big Bad Friend - Hitch. Of course, things are a bit more complicated than usually in this trope, since there's no clearly Evil side. Not to mention he couldn't exactly help it.
- Blessed with Suck - Being a wizard sounds great, but not when you realize what it can and will do to you, should you ever go against the will of your magic.
- The Caligula - Nevare's father becomes this after the Speck Plague strikes his family.
- The Cassandra - Nevare throughout most of the second book.
- Cosmic Plaything - Nevare, Buel Hitch, Nevare's father and others, for the magic.
- Country Mouse - Nevare and most of the battle lords' sons, compared to the old nobles' sons.
- The Chosen One - You get one guess.
- Culture Clash - Between the Gernians and the Specks.
- Cute Kitten - Comes into play near the end.
- Cycle of Revenge
- Daddy's Girl - This time it's Epiny.
- Dating Catwoman - Olikea.
- Defrosting Ice Queen - Amzil.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance - Gernian gender roles, among other things.
- Despair Event Horizon - Nevare's father crosses it, and it drives him mad.
- Used as a weapon by the Speck magic in Forest Mage.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty
- The Dutiful Son - A variation runs between Nevare and his female cousin Epiny.
- Earn Your Happy Ending - Robin Hobb seems fond of these.
- Enemy Within
- Equivalent Exchange - Magic/body fat
- Faking the Dead
- Fantastic Racism - Goes with the Mighty Whitey attitude of the Gernians, mentioned below.
- Fantasy Gun Control - Averted.
- Functional Magic - the "Wild" subtype (Speck); the Plains magic appears to be some kind of Force Magic.
- Gaia's Vengeance - Subverted.
- Going Native - Although "being dragged" might be a better verb choice.
- Gollum Made Me Do It - A curse here, a hand sign there, a steel knife there...
- Grey and Gray Morality
- I Just Want to Be Normal - Nevare, fiercely. Provided "nobility, with lots of privileges" counts as normal.
- In Mysterious Ways
- It's All My Fault
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies
- Laser-Guided Amnesia
- Love Makes You Evil - Lisana at the end, killing two guards in a High Octane Nightmare Fuel-ish way and trying to kill Amzil.
- Man-Eating Plant - Corpse eating plant, although, of course, sometimes they make the corpses themselves...
- Mighty Whitey - Deconstructed in Gernia's colonization of the Plainspeople and the Specks.
- Moral Myopia - On all sides, regarding the others.
- Murder the Hypotenuse - See Love Makes You Evil above.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero - Nevare gets a couple of these from Hitch, among others.
- The Neidermeyer - Colonel Stiet, among others.
- Noble Savage - Dewara. Possibly. Subverted with the Specks.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
- Pater Familicide - Mention is made of a father who strangled his wife and drowned his children before shooting himself.
- The Plague
- Powered by a Forsaken Child - The Dance generates the creeping sense of gloom in Gettys and of terror in the forest outside the town.
- Reality Ensues
- Rebellious Princess - Epiny
- Refusal of the Call - Nevare has practically disconnected the phone, and yet it keeps ringing ...
- Rich Bitch - Carsina, and Epiny's mother.
- Spirit World - Nevare and Dewara's spirit journey, later the location of Tree Woman's afterlife.
- Split Personality
- Villainous BSOD - Although the villain in question is a lesser one.
- Weaponized Weakness - Iron beats magic. And mages.
- We Have Reserves - Kinrove's attitude towards the Dancers.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist - All the Great Ones except Jodoli.
- Wham Chapter - At least one per book.
- What the Hell, Hero? - Despite meaning well, poor Nevare gets way more of these than words of encouragement.