Hey, does every author have to do a trope trash post? 😀
- Team as Family. Think Leverage, Six of Crows, Sense8, etc. Often seen in heist movies where the team bonds and becomes closer than family. Whatever your personal family history, the team is your family now and they have your back.
- Competence Porn. Think Leverage, Six of Crows, Mouse in Lyda Morehouse’s AngeLINK books, anything where we’ve recruited the best and we all get to sit back and marvel at how good they are at a thing. Often seen in heist movies as well.
- Learning to Human. Think Data on Star Trek: the Next Generation, Martha Wells’ Murderbot, Page in Lyda Morehouse’s Fallen Host and other AngeLINK books. Anything where a character has to learn how to be a sentient being in human society.
- Wizard School. Growing up is magic, and the rules of adulting are like magic and difficult to learn.
- The Loveable Geek. Often paired with competence porn. The person who is super competent in some areas of their life is less competent at others. Think Parker from Leverage, Mouse from Lyda Morehouse’s Messiah Node, Murderbot, Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books, the titular character in G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen, Wade in Ready Player One.
- Judging by my bookshelves, I also really enjoy witches and wizards, vampires, and werewolves.
I used to read a lot of utopia/dystopia novels, but I think I’m dystopianed out at the moment. However, I think the best example of this trope might be Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. <3 Maybe I’m wanting more utopias.
What are your favorite tropes?
