The Duel of Sorcery Trilogy
This fantasy trilogy (Moongather, Moonscatter, and Changer's Moon) by Jo Clayton, far removed from the standard model, was published in the early to mid 1980s.
It was followed by the Dancer trilogy, in which Serroi also featured.
Tropes used in The Duel of Sorcery Trilogy include:
- Action Girl: Serroi, and meien in general.
- Adipose Rex: Subverted with Domnor Hern Heslin; while he's often dismissed as a tubby, ineffectually good-natured doofus, he's less outright fat than stocky and well-padded, and is surprisingly strong and agile. He's also neither ineffectual nor a doofus.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Subverted; Serroi's green skin (she's a mutant) is a dead give-away unless she takes pains to hide it. (There are other green-skinned people; however, Serroi couldn't possibly be mistaken for one, as they're scaly.)
- Amazon Brigade: The Biserica, although meien usually just travel in pairs.
- Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: If it wasn't obvious enough that chinin are dogs (or such a close analogue that someone from our world would automatically consider them "dogs") in Moongather, they're explicitly identified as such in Changer's Moon.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Averted. The Biserica equivalent of a morning-after pill is nasty stuff.
- Death by Origin Story: Tayyan's suicide in Moongather.
- Equivalent Exchange: At the end of Changer's Moon, Serroi turns Ser Noris into a tree. But because of his power, she turns into one herself (and isn't restored until several generations later).
- Evil Sorcerer: The Nearga-Nor, especially Ser Noris.
- Feminist Fantasy, to at least some degree.
- God Save Us From the Queen: Floarin, although she's pretty much a puppet.
- Half-Identical Twins: Tuli and Teras; subverted when Teras hits a growth spurt.
- High Fantasy: Kind of.
- Horse of a Different Color: Macain are monotremes resembling ornithopod dinosaurs. Rambuts are somewhere between a zebra and an antelope. And a vinat is a moose with porcupine quills.
- Kick the Dog: Ser Noris pulls an almost literal example in Moongather. If by "kick" you mean "drain out the life force—using a little girl as a conduit—then transform what's left into demons," that is. And if by "dog" you mean "entire litter of puppies, followed by the rest of the menagerie," that is.
- Love Hurts: And how.
- Low Fantasy: Kind of.
- Little Miss Badass: Serroi, at the beginning of Moongather, is twenty-seven years old and can pass for a preteen without much effort. You do not want to mess with her.
- Magic Knight: Serroi is quite the fighter, but also has quite impressive healing and nature-magic powers.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They vary incredibly widely in size, seem to be lighter than air, and communicate by changing the colors of their transparent bodies.
- Rape as Drama: Happens to Tuli in Moonscatter and Julia in Changer's Moon.
- Rebellious Princess: Tuli, although it's more accurate to call her the daughter of a minor noble.
- Shout-Out: To the Dragonriders of Pern series, in Changer's Moon.
- Standard Fantasy Setting: Averted hard.
- Stout Strength: Short, pudgy Hern is surprisingly effective in a fight.
- Taken for Granite: Changer's Moon ends with Serroi and Ser Noris both transformed into trees.
- Tyke Bomb: In Changer's Moon, the Followers of the Flame are doing their best to turn Dris Gradin into one.
- Waif Fu: Serroi is well under five feet tall and lightly built, but can kick some serious ass. Justified by her extensive combat training and by a tendency to outmaneuver her opponents rather than overpowering them.