The Soldier Son

The Soldier Son is a Fantasy trilogy by Robin Hobb, featuring a more modern setting than usual. The books are:


 * 1) Shaman's Crossing
 * 2) Forest Mage
 * 3) Renegade's Magic

Contains examples of:

 * A Friend in Need - Arguably a major theme throughout the books. For example, one of the major differences between Nevare and 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,
 * Anti-Anti-Christ -
 * 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 - 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 - becomes this after the Speck Plague strikes his family.
 * The Cassandra - Nevare throughout most of the second book.
 * Cosmic Plaything - 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 - crosses it, and it drives him mad.
 * Used as a weapon by the 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/
 * 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 -
 * Man-Eating Plant - Corpse eating plant,
 * 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. 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
 * 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
 * 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.