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* Foreshadowing: many times.
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* Foreshadowing: {{Foreshadowing}}: many times.
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* FantasticRacism: [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerlash.]]
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* FantasticRacism: [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerlash.Daggerslash.]]
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It consists of three trilogies (each centered around a certain character) and two additional novels (well, one novel and one collection of novellas).
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It consists of three trilogies (each centered around a certain character) and two some additional novels (well, one novel and one collection of novellas).
side-stories.
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The extra novels are ''The Lost Barkscrolls'', a short story collection; and the ''The Immortals'', a standalone novel set about 500 years after ''Freeglader''.
to:
The extra novels are ''The Lost Barkscrolls'', a short story collection; and the ''The Immortals'', a standalone novel set about 500 years after ''Freeglader''.
''Freeglader''; ''The Sky Chart: A Book of Quint'', taking place after the Quint trilogy; and ''Weird New Worlds'', a story in blog form taking place after ''The Immortals''.
A new trilogy is being published, taking place after ''The Immortals'' and starring a lad named Cade. It consists of:
* ''The Nameless One''
* ''Doombringer''
* TBA
A new trilogy is being published, taking place after ''The Immortals'' and starring a lad named Cade. It consists of:
* ''The Nameless One''
* ''Doombringer''
* TBA
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The first trilogy (the Twig sequence) consists of ''Beyond the Deepwoods'', ''Stormchaser'', and ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax''. The second (centered on Rook Barkwater) includes ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'', ''Vox'', and ''Freeglader''. The third trilogy (a prequel starring Quint) is covered in ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'', ''The Winter Knights'', and ''Clash of the Sky Galleons''. The extra novels are ''The Lost Barkscrolls'', a short story collection; and the ''The Immortals'', a standalone novel set about 500 years after ''Freeglader''.
to:
The first trilogy (the Twig sequence) consists of of:
* ''Beyond theDeepwoods'', ''Stormchaser'', and Deepwoods''
* ''Stormchaser''
* ''Midnight overSanctaphrax''. Sanctaphrax''
The second (centered on Rook Barkwater)includes includes:
* ''The Last of the SkyPirates'', ''Vox'', and ''Freeglader''. Pirates''
* ''Vox''
* ''Freeglader''
The third trilogy (a prequel starring Quint) is coveredin in:
* ''The Curse of theGloamglozer'', Gloamglozer''
* ''The WinterKnights'', and Knights''
* ''Clash of the SkyGalleons''. Galleons''
The extra novels are ''The Lost Barkscrolls'', a short story collection; and the ''The Immortals'', a standalone novel set about 500 years after''Freeglader''.''Freeglader''.
* ''Beyond the
* ''Stormchaser''
* ''Midnight over
The second (centered on Rook Barkwater)
* ''The Last of the Sky
* ''Vox''
* ''Freeglader''
The third trilogy (a prequel starring Quint) is covered
* ''The Curse of the
* ''The Winter
* ''Clash of the Sky
The extra novels are ''The Lost Barkscrolls'', a short story collection; and the ''The Immortals'', a standalone novel set about 500 years after
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no spoilers above the example line
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The Edge Chronicles are a young adult fantasy series written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell. Surprisingly dark and cynical for its target audience, the novels take place on the Edge, which is essentially [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the edge of the world]]. [[spoiler: Or, at least, this is what the series leads you to believe, before throwing you a curve ball in the last book of the franchise]]. Filled with sky pirates, bizarre wildlife, and a notable aversion to many stock fantasy tropes, the series is highly recommended.
to:
The Edge Chronicles are a young adult fantasy series written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell. Surprisingly dark and cynical for its target audience, the novels take place on the Edge, which is essentially [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the edge of the world]]. [[spoiler: Or, at least, this is what the series leads you to believe, before throwing you a curve ball in the last book of the franchise]]. Filled with sky pirates, bizarre wildlife, and a notable aversion to many stock fantasy tropes, the series is highly recommended.
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* TheDevilIsALoser: The Gloamglozer is essentially a CaptainErsatz of {{Satan}}, and all he's interested in is playing petty (albeit deadly) tricks on people. Averted later when he's much more dangerous in subsequent protroyals.
to:
* TheDevilIsALoser: The Gloamglozer is essentially a CaptainErsatz of {{Satan}}, and all he's interested in is playing petty (albeit deadly) tricks on people. Averted later when he's much more dangerous in subsequent protroyals.portrayals.
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* DwindlingParty: in ''Stormchaser''. [[spoiler: Twig, the Stone Pilot, and Cloud Wolf are the only crewmembers to survive the book - and Cloud Wolf doesn't last much longer.]]
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* KidHeroAllGrownUp: a very heartbreaking example: The fourth book takes place after a massive timeskip and we find out that [[spoiler: Twig never found his friends and grew old wandering the great forest.]]
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* FloatingContinent: Sanctaphrax.
to:
* FloatingContinent: Sanctaphrax.Sanctaphrax, though technically it's only a city.
* Foreshadowing: many times.
** A decidedly unsubtle example when Twig tries heart charming in ''Beyond the Deepwoods''. The idea is that a stick placed in the middle of a drawn heart falls to point towards his destiny. Instead it stays pointing upwards. This is Lampshaded later when Twig meets the sky pirates.
** The ''Winter knights'' has a scene in the Loftus Observatory that foreshadows both [[spoiler: The Cloudeater]] and Maris and Quint [[spoiler: nearly falling to their death]]
** Throughout ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' are scenes where pieces of the Bringer of Doom are being made. One is even a chekovs gun for it's eventual destruction. Also, almost every appearance of Thaw Daggerslash gives clues that he isn't as charming as he acts at first. TheReveal at the end is really no surprise at all when it comes.
** ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'' has a scene early on that reveals Twig left for parts unknown instead of scuppering his ship.
** The fireball that hits Rook in ''Vox''
* Foreshadowing: many times.
** A decidedly unsubtle example when Twig tries heart charming in ''Beyond the Deepwoods''. The idea is that a stick placed in the middle of a drawn heart falls to point towards his destiny. Instead it stays pointing upwards. This is Lampshaded later when Twig meets the sky pirates.
** The ''Winter knights'' has a scene in the Loftus Observatory that foreshadows both [[spoiler: The Cloudeater]] and Maris and Quint [[spoiler: nearly falling to their death]]
** Throughout ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' are scenes where pieces of the Bringer of Doom are being made. One is even a chekovs gun for it's eventual destruction. Also, almost every appearance of Thaw Daggerslash gives clues that he isn't as charming as he acts at first. TheReveal at the end is really no surprise at all when it comes.
** ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'' has a scene early on that reveals Twig left for parts unknown instead of scuppering his ship.
** The fireball that hits Rook in ''Vox''
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* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Who would have guessed that Screed's twenty years of murder would turn out for the better?
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* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Who would have guessed that Screed's twenty years of murder would turn out for the better? [[spoiler: Screed himself, apparently, which was his original motive]]
** a straighter example occurs much earlier in the same book. Spleethe smuggles Twig onto the Stormchaser to use him as a hostage in the mutiny. A brief line earlier implies that Vilnix was going to use Twig as a hostage himself to steal the Stormphrax when they returned.
** a straighter example occurs much earlier in the same book. Spleethe smuggles Twig onto the Stormchaser to use him as a hostage in the mutiny. A brief line earlier implies that Vilnix was going to use Twig as a hostage himself to steal the Stormphrax when they returned.
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* MagicAIsMagicA: Cold rock rises, hot rock sinks.
** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly [[spoiler: ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome by setting herself on fire]]'']].
** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly [[spoiler: ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome by setting herself on fire]]'']].
to:
* MagicAIsMagicA: Cold rock rises, hot rock sinks.
sinks. Applied constantly throughout the series whenever flight rocks are involved, particularly in the Winter Knights when the freezing cold makes almost every attempt to fly lethal.
**Which leads to one There is also an incredibly badass scene moment where Twig and a freezing storm sends the Stone Pilot have to get a Galerider's rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. unstable, and nearly dooms the ship. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this saves everyone single-handedly [[spoiler: ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome by setting herself on fire]]'']].
**
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* RavensAndCrows: The white ravens of the Mire and the Stone Gardens.
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** There's also the fact that how far each pirate goes depends on the morality of each individual captain and crew, so on one side you do have indiscriminate piracy and even ''worse'' (like slave traffic), while on the other you have piracy of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive people who kinda have it coming]] and the activities mentioned above.
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* WeatherControlMachine: [[spoiler:As a revenge against those who betrayed him, Vox creates an extremely powerful bomb, the detonation of which in the sky would cause a titanic storm to ruin Undertown and everything around it.]]
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* HappilyEverAfter: Violently averted. The heroes of the trilogies tend to go through some nasty shit offscreen once their stories are over, and often die onscreen in another trilogy. In Quint's case that's a ForegoneConclusion, since his story is a prequel.
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Non-drawn examples are being removed as misused as per TRS
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* AnimeHair: Bungus Septrill, some of the Slaughterers.
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** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly [[spoiler: ''[[Badass ''by setting herself on fire]]'']].
to:
** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly [[spoiler: ''[[Badass ''by ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome by setting herself on fire]]'']].
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** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly.
to:
** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly.single-handedly [[spoiler: ''[[Badass ''by setting herself on fire]]'']].
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** So everyone in the series is living on [[FridgeBrilliance the]] [[StealthPun edge]] of disaster.
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** So everyone in the series is living on [[FridgeBrilliance the]] the [[StealthPun edge]] of disaster.
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* LateArrivalSpoiler: Wonderful though the UK cover art for Clash of the Sky Galleons is, it means you're going to know that [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerslash is masquerading as Turbot Smeal]] long before it comes out in the plot.
** [[spoiler: Actually, this goes for all the books' cover art. Long-time fans of the series will start noticing this on a second read-through of the series.]]
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: By this troper's count, there are upwards of 40; about a dozen kinds of waifs, eight kinds of trolls, a few kinds of trogs, around twenty kinds of goblins, and then assorted races like slaughterers, fourthlings, and spindlebugs.
** [[spoiler: Actually, this goes for all the books' cover art. Long-time fans of the series will start noticing this on a second read-through of the series.]]
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: By this troper's count, there are upwards of 40; about a dozen kinds of waifs, eight kinds of trolls, a few kinds of trogs, around twenty kinds of goblins, and then assorted races like slaughterers, fourthlings, and spindlebugs.
to:
* LateArrivalSpoiler: Wonderful though the UK cover art for Clash of the Sky Galleons is, it means you're going to know that [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerslash is masquerading as Turbot Smeal]] long before it comes out in the plot.
** [[spoiler: Actually, this goesplot. This applies in a lesser way for all the books' cover art. Long-time fans most of the series will start noticing this on a second read-through of the series.]]
other covers as wel.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces:By this troper's count, there There are upwards of 40; about a dozen kinds of waifs, eight kinds of trolls, a few kinds of trogs, around twenty kinds of goblins, and then assorted races like slaughterers, fourthlings, and spindlebugs.
** [[spoiler: Actually, this goes
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces:
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* MarySueTopia: The Free Glades, in the Rook trilogy, although from the text it just seems to be a less corrupt and cleaner version of Under-Town, which probably makes it a paradise to them.
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*** FridgeBrilliance : It's the ''curse of the Gloamglozer'', or at least part of it.
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* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: [[spoiler: Maugin for Twig. For about fifty years.]] In fairness, for most of that time there wasn't really anyone else for her to go for.
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* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: [[spoiler: Maugin for Twig. For about fifty years.]] In fairness, for most of that time there wasn't really anyone else for her to go for.]]
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* TheDevilIsALoser: The Gloamglozer is essentially a CaptainErsatz of {{Satan}}, and all he's interested in is playing petty (albeit deadly) tricks on people.
** He becomes vastly more dangerous as of ''The Immortals'', though...
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Minor example between Twig and [[spoiler: Maugin]] in ''Stormchaser''. While trapped in the Mire, Twig and [[spoiler: the Stone Pilot]] work on making a wrecked ship skyworthy again. After several days' hard work, the pair sit down to enjoy dinner for the evening, whereupon she spots a shooting star and tells Twig to make a wish, to which he responds that he already has. It's later revealed that his wish was for them to return to the skies, but the framing of the scene suggests that he may have kissed her, at least...
** While not having much impact on the plot, this would fit in well with ''Stormchaser'''s identity as a coming-of-age story for Twig.
** [[spoiler: the next book sees very little of the stone pilot, but it is very clear that she has feelings for Twig, and in the Immortals it is confirmed outright. That particular moment in the mire one of the earliest signs of this, as before hand Maugin was either defrosi]]
** He becomes vastly more dangerous as of ''The Immortals'', though...
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Minor example between Twig and [[spoiler: Maugin]] in ''Stormchaser''. While trapped in the Mire, Twig and [[spoiler: the Stone Pilot]] work on making a wrecked ship skyworthy again. After several days' hard work, the pair sit down to enjoy dinner for the evening, whereupon she spots a shooting star and tells Twig to make a wish, to which he responds that he already has. It's later revealed that his wish was for them to return to the skies, but the framing of the scene suggests that he may have kissed her, at least...
** While not having much impact on the plot, this would fit in well with ''Stormchaser'''s identity as a coming-of-age story for Twig.
** [[spoiler: the next book sees very little of the stone pilot, but it is very clear that she has feelings for Twig, and in the Immortals it is confirmed outright. That particular moment in the mire one of the earliest signs of this, as before hand Maugin was either defrosi]]
to:
* TheDevilIsALoser: The Gloamglozer is essentially a CaptainErsatz of {{Satan}}, and all he's interested in is playing petty (albeit deadly) tricks on people.
** He becomes vastlypeople. Averted later when he's much more dangerous as of ''The Immortals'', though...
in subsequent protroyals.
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Minor example between Twig and [[spoiler: Maugin]] in ''Stormchaser''. While trapped in the Mire, Twig and [[spoiler: the Stone Pilot]] work on making a wrecked ship skyworthy again. After several days' hard work, the pair sit down to enjoy dinner for the evening, whereupon she spots a shooting star and tells Twig to make a wish, to which he responds that he already has. It's later revealed that his wish was for them to return to the skies, but the framing of the scene suggests that he may have kissed her, atleast...
** While not having much impact on the plot, this would fit in well with ''Stormchaser'''s identity as a coming-of-age story for Twig.
** [[spoiler: the next book sees very little of the stone pilot, but it is very clear that she has feelings for Twig, and in the Immortals it is confirmed outright. That particular moment in the mire one of the earliest signs of this, as before hand Maugin was either defrosi]]least.
** He becomes vastly
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Minor example between Twig and [[spoiler: Maugin]] in ''Stormchaser''. While trapped in the Mire, Twig and [[spoiler: the Stone Pilot]] work on making a wrecked ship skyworthy again. After several days' hard work, the pair sit down to enjoy dinner for the evening, whereupon she spots a shooting star and tells Twig to make a wish, to which he responds that he already has. It's later revealed that his wish was for them to return to the skies, but the framing of the scene suggests that he may have kissed her, at
** While not having much impact on the plot, this would fit in well with ''Stormchaser'''s identity as a coming-of-age story for Twig.
** [[spoiler: the next book sees very little of the stone pilot, but it is very clear that she has feelings for Twig, and in the Immortals it is confirmed outright. That particular moment in the mire one of the earliest signs of this, as before hand Maugin was either defrosi]]
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* AlasPoorVillain: Arguably [[FatBastard Vox Verlix]]. He's hardly the worst villain in ''Vox'' and, whilst he was definately a {{Jerkass}} when he was younger, he only really becomes a villain because he has been betrayed by everyone he has ever worked with. In the end he dies a broken old man with his palace falling to pieces around him, betrayed once again - this time by the one person he thought was actually on his side. It is also interesting to note that the name of this book is ''Vox'' rather than, say, ''Rook''.
to:
* AlasPoorVillain: Arguably [[FatBastard Vox Verlix]]. He's hardly the worst villain in ''Vox'' and, whilst he was definately a {{Jerkass}} when he was younger, he only really becomes a villain because he has been betrayed by everyone he has ever worked with. In the end he dies a broken old man with his palace falling to pieces around him, betrayed once again - this time by the one person he thought was actually on his side. It is also interesting to note that the name of this book is ''Vox'' rather than, say, ''Rook''.
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* EldritchAbomination: The Gloamglozer is arguably one. [[spoiler: Until you learn that it was created, in part, by Maris's father.]]
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* EldritchAbomination: The Gloamglozer is arguably one. [[spoiler: Until you learn that it was created, in part, by Maris's father.]]
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* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: even within the series itself, goblin "subspecies" differ dramatically from one another.
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* LanternJawOfJustice: Felix Lodd is both described and drawn as having one; apart from some [[WellDoneSonGuy daddy issues]], he's probably one of the most traditionally heroic characters in the series, so it's fitting.
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* AssholeVictim: Thunderbolt Vulpoon in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrx'', though you can actually feel a bit sorry for him when he dies.
to:
* AssholeVictim: Thunderbolt Vulpoon in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrx'', Sanctaphrax'', though you can actually feel a bit sorry for him when he dies.
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** The gloamglozer is this for the series as a whole.
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* LotsAndLotsOfRaces: By this troper's count, there are upwards of 40; about a dozen kinds of waifs, eight kinds of trolls, a few kinds of trogs, around twenty kinds of goblins, and then assorted races like slaughterers, fourthlings, and spindlebugs.
** And a lot of them are cross-fertile, leading to some HeinzHybrids (like one of the Hive conscripts in the Immortals, who's part woodtroll/part fourthling/part slaughterer).
** And a lot of them are cross-fertile, leading to some HeinzHybrids (like one of the Hive conscripts in the Immortals, who's part woodtroll/part fourthling/part slaughterer).
to:
* LotsAndLotsOfRaces: LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: By this troper's count, there are upwards of 40; about a dozen kinds of waifs, eight kinds of trolls, a few kinds of trogs, around twenty kinds of goblins, and then assorted races like slaughterers, fourthlings, and spindlebugs.
** And a lot of them are cross-fertile, leading tosome HeinzHybrids a HeinzHybrid (like one of the Hive conscripts in the Immortals, who's part woodtroll/part fourthling/part slaughterer).
** And a lot of them are cross-fertile, leading to
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* LukeIAmYourFather: Done twice, and surprisingly well.
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**And a lot of them are cross-fertile, leading to some HeinzHybrids (like one of the Hive conscripts in the Immortals, who's part woodtroll/part fourthling/part slaughterer).
*LukeIAmYourFather: Done twice, and surprisingly well.
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[[caption-width-right:300:"Far far away, jutting out into the emptiness beyond, like the figurehead of a mighty stone ship, is the Edge."]]
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->''Far far away, jutting out into the emptiness beyond, like the figurehead of a mighty stone ship, is the Edge.
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Avert Word Cruft.
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* DirtyCommunists: Averted very hard with the Freeglades. If this series was written during the Cold War, it might have been called Communist propaganda. Though they're not really affiliated with Soviet Russia per se in any way, the Freeglades' society is basically ''[[{{Utopia}} communism that works]]'' - everybody works honestly, money has been made unnecessary, and everyone is happy. (By contrast, ''many'' of the villains are ruthless capitalists.)
to:
* DirtyCommunists: Averted very hard with the Freeglades. If this series was written during the Cold War, it might have been called Communist propaganda. Though they're not really affiliated with Soviet Russia per se in any way, the Freeglades' society is basically ''[[{{Utopia}} communism that works]]'' - everybody works honestly, money has been made unnecessary, and everyone is happy. (By contrast, ''many'' of the villains are ruthless capitalists.)
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/101842247_7289.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"Far far away, jutting out into the emptiness beyond, like the figurehead of a mighty stone ship, is the Edge."]]
The Edge Chronicles are a young adult fantasy series written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell. Surprisingly dark and cynical for its target audience, the novels take place on the Edge, which is essentially [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the edge of the world]]. [[spoiler: Or, at least, this is what the series leads you to believe, before throwing you a curve ball in the last book of the franchise]]. Filled with sky pirates, bizarre wildlife, and a notable aversion to many stock fantasy tropes, the series is highly recommended.
It should be noted that this series has some of the most detailed and beautiful art you will see in any novel, anywhere. Also some of the ugliest; also some of the scariest.
It consists of three trilogies (each centered around a certain character) and two additional novels (well, one novel and one collection of novellas).
The first trilogy (the Twig sequence) consists of ''Beyond the Deepwoods'', ''Stormchaser'', and ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax''. The second (centered on Rook Barkwater) includes ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'', ''Vox'', and ''Freeglader''. The third trilogy (a prequel starring Quint) is covered in ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'', ''The Winter Knights'', and ''Clash of the Sky Galleons''. The extra novels are ''The Lost Barkscrolls'', a short story collection; and the ''The Immortals'', a standalone novel set about 500 years after ''Freeglader''.
----
!!Tropes Used:
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Vilnix Pompolnius only stayed in power due to his monopoly on phraxdust, and when that runs out...
** [[spoiler: Hemtuft Battleaxe, and later, Kulltuft Warhammer]]
* ActionGirl: Eudoxia in 'The Immortals', Varis and Magda in the Rook Trilogy. Maris could also qualify, but most of her action is off-screen between the Quint and Twig Trilogies.
* AlasPoorVillain: Arguably [[FatBastard Vox Verlix]]. He's hardly the worst villain in ''Vox'' and, whilst he was definately a {{Jerkass}} when he was younger, he only really becomes a villain because he has been betrayed by everyone he has ever worked with. In the end he dies a broken old man with his palace falling to pieces around him, betrayed once again - this time by the one person he thought was actually on his side. It is also interesting to note that the name of this book is ''Vox'' rather than, say, ''Rook''.
** To a lesser extent, Screed Toe-Taker. His final words, and [[GoOutWithASmile his final smile]], are a poignant contrast to his 20-odd years of murder. Then you meet him as a noble young man in The Winter Knights, and his final fate seems [[HarsherInHindsight even more]] [[DoomedByCanon tragic]].
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Mostly averted. Even some of the more aggressive species, such as shrykes, flat-head goblins, and termagant trogs have individuals who side with the heroes, and most races have both good and evil members.
* AmazonBrigade: Shrykes.
* AndroclesLion: Twig gains the friendship of all banderbears after helping one with a rotten tooth.
** Subsequently, Rook [[spoiler:also becomes a friend of banderbears after rescuing one from an evil slave-employing factory.]]
* AngelUnaware: The Caterbird.
* AnimeHair: Bungus Septrill, some of the Slaughterers.
* AnyoneCanDie: As long as they aren't the main character, although the main character of one trilogy can die in the next.
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Vilnix Pompolnius to the Professor of Darkness.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: From ''[[{{Doorstopper}} The Immortals]]:''
--> "Arrest?" said [[JerkAss Felftis Brack]] cooly, backing away. "On what charges?"
--> "Charges of fraud, embezzlement, blackmail, smuggling, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit murder..."
--> ''*Brack tries to flee, but runs into some sports players he hired and never paid, who throw him into a lake*''
--> "...And non-payment of the New Lake thousandsticks team," finished the constable.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: Cloud Wolf. Also Twig and Rook, eventually.]]
* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: The Gloamglozer to Quint.
-->"So long as the strong pick on the weak, so long as fear is valued above tenderness, so long as hatred, envy, and mistrust divide the various creatures of the Edge, then I am indestructible!"
* AssholeVictim: Thunderbolt Vulpoon in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrx'', though you can actually feel a bit sorry for him when he dies.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine]] becomes this during ''Vox'', and stays this until near the end of ''Freeglader''.
* AwesomeMccoolName: Many times;
** Sky pirate captains either choose their own cool name of have one chosen by their father. Particularly impressive names belong to Thunderbolt Vulpoon and his son Deadbolt Vulpoon. Thunderbolt turns out to be a subversion, as he's a cowardly slaver, but Deadbolt turns out awesome enough to match his name.
** [[spoiler: [[StepfordSmiler Thaw Daggerslash]]]] is another subversion, although it does sort of fit; [[spoiler:the dagger is the weapon of backstabbing and treachery.]]
** Most other characters also have really cool names, even if they are just bit-parts. For example, there is the creepy slaver named Ilmus Pentaphraxis. Vox Verlix also has a pretty cool name for a FatBastard.
** Averted with Twig, although he doesn't seem to care. [[spoiler:Besides, he ''does'' get an AwesomeMccoolName at the end of Stormchaser - Arborinus Verginix.]]
-->"What sort of name is Twig for the son of Quintinius Verginix, the finest sky pirate to ever sail the heavens blue?"
-->"It's ''my'' name."
* BadAss: Sky pirates, as a rule.
** Also, banderbears.
* BadassBookworm: Badass Scholars, really, but: ''Librarian Knights'' and ''Knights Academic''. Ambris Hentadile also deserves a mention, as does Bungus Septrill.
* BadassCrew: Sky pirate crews.
* BadassBeard: Tem Barkwater and Fenbrus Lodd
* BadassFamily: The Verginix family.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: The low-bellied goblins are one of the more peaceful species in a brutal world, but drive them too far and they can turn nasty, [[spoiler: as the despotic clan leaders found out the hard way...]]
* BigBad:
** ''Stormchaser'': Vilnix Pompolnius.
** ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'' and ''Vox'': Orbix Xaxis.
** ''Freeglader'': Hemuel Spume.
** ''The Immortals'': Golderayce One-Eye.
* BilingualDialogue: Any and all conversations involving Banderbears.
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: Female Termagant Trogs are hulking, ill-tempered bald amazons, while their male counterparts are small, skinny, and passive.
** And Shrykes play on the reality that females are larger for many predatory bird species by having the females being larger, fiercer and much more aggressive. Males, or "shryke-mates", are invariably referred to as "weedy" or "pitiful", and are usually pictured as scrawny little things being hauled around on collars.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Vilnix, Vox, [[spoiler: Thaw]]. [[spoiler: Xanth]] is a subversion, although [[spoiler: he kept his head shaved before his HeelFaceTurn,]], so it may not count.
* BodyHorror: Hoverworm venom makes you inflate like a ballon, float into the sky, and eventually pop. Also noteworthy is the fate of [[spoiler:Hax Vostillix]] in ''The Winter Knights'': [[spoiler:tricked into eating woodwasp eggs, which hatch inside him and sting their way out.]]
* BrickJoke: Overlapping with ContinuityNod. The League-Master's round table is seen in Stormchaser first, and gets shattered by a falling weight near the start of ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax'', and then in Vox, several books later, Rook finds himself in the palace, and notices an odd round table, that had at one point been snapped in half and then crudely bolted back together.
** Happens again in ''Vox'' and ''The Immortals''. Vox Verlix has the head of his own statue hurled through one of the skylights in the Palace of Shadows in ''Vox'', and it reappears in ''The Immortals'' when Nate goes to meet his mother's brother, the Professor of Flight, who is apparently related to the lesser-known half of the Verlix clan. The Professor states that it was dug out of a pile of broken masonry in Old Undertown (the ruin of the Palace of Statues).
* TheBully: Vox Verlix in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'', Branxford Drew in ''The Immortals''.
* CallARabbitASmeerp: The first few books were chock full of original creatures with a light smattering of MixAndMatchCritters, but as the series progressed the number of normal animals with "wood" tacked onto the beginning of the name increased. Woodbees, woodturkeys, woodwolves...
* TheCavalry: The Freeglade Lancers.
* ChekhovsGun: The Caterbird.
** Quint's portrait, more than once. It plays an important part in [[spoiler: the Quint and Rook trilogies, ''The Slaughterer's Quest'', and ''The Immortals''.]]
** The ''Skyraider''.
** Vox Verlix.
** Honestly, if anything gets mentioned even in passing by a random unnamed creature, it'll be important at the end of the book. Also, any character given a name and doesn't die is ''guaranteed'' to return at some point.
* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler: Cowlquape.]]
* ChildSoldiers: The series ''loves'' this trope. We have the academics-at-arms in the Quint trilogy, the Librarian Knights and some of the Freeglade Lancers in the Rook trilogy, and at one point Nate and Eudoxia (and probably some others) in ''The Immortals''. Results in a case of FridgeHorror when you read about the [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrible fates]] some of them suffer and then remember how old they are.
* CoolShip: Any sky ship of any sort, period.
* ContinuityNod: All over ''The Immortals''. For example, the scene where Nate meets Weelum is very similar to the one in ''Beyond the Deepwoods'' where Twig meets the first banderbear to appear in the series.
** Another example appears in the final story in ''The Lost Barkscrolls'' anthology, when the main characters visit the ruins of the Foundry Glades and find [[spoiler: the skeleton of Amberfuce in the cauldron he was boiled alive in at the end of ''Freeglader''.]]
** A subtle one in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' when Flabsweat, a minor character in the previous book, gets a passing mention.
** Played with in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates''. When Rook is talking to Deadbolt Vulpoon, the latter mentions how his father gave his life to save Twig in the last trilogy. [[spoiler: It didn't quite happen like that.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Leagues of Undertown are full of these.
* DarkerAndEdgier: To the average story of this kind. So very much.
* DarkIsNotEvil: The Slaughters and the Professor of Darkness sound like evil people... but the Slaughters are merely the red-colored, happy-go-lucky professional butchers of the Edgewoods, while the Professor of Darkness studies literal darkness (as in, the absence of light).
* DeadpanSnarker: The Professor.
* DeathWorld: The Deepwoods especially, but the entire Edge can be considered this, from a filthy bog full of predators to a forest that turns you into a zombie. [[WretchedHive Even the towns are almost like this.]]
** So everyone in the series is living on [[FridgeBrilliance the]] [[StealthPun edge]] of disaster.
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Are they ever! If by some miracle a main character's parents are still around when the story begins, you can bet they probably won't make it to the end of the trilogy.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Maris's attitude toward Quint in ''Curse of the Gloamglozer''.
** [[spoiler: Maugin, the stone pilot, is a possible Zig-Zagged example.]] In Beyond the Deepwoods the stone pilot never spoke, just grunted when moving the flight rock, We never even found out if they were male or female, due to the wording of the text. And that was it until they got to the mire in Stormchaser. [[spoiler: Once she started actually talking to Twig, it became apparent she had plenty of reasons to hide her face. Nevertheless she still becomes more open in general;]] And doesn't hesitate to ditch the suit in front of Twig's crew, as opposed to wearing it all the time aboard the Stormchaser.
* TheDevilIsALoser: The Gloamglozer is essentially a CaptainErsatz of {{Satan}}, and all he's interested in is playing petty (albeit deadly) tricks on people.
** He becomes vastly more dangerous as of ''The Immortals'', though...
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Minor example between Twig and [[spoiler: Maugin]] in ''Stormchaser''. While trapped in the Mire, Twig and [[spoiler: the Stone Pilot]] work on making a wrecked ship skyworthy again. After several days' hard work, the pair sit down to enjoy dinner for the evening, whereupon she spots a shooting star and tells Twig to make a wish, to which he responds that he already has. It's later revealed that his wish was for them to return to the skies, but the framing of the scene suggests that he may have kissed her, at least...
** While not having much impact on the plot, this would fit in well with ''Stormchaser'''s identity as a coming-of-age story for Twig.
** [[spoiler: the next book sees very little of the stone pilot, but it is very clear that she has feelings for Twig, and in the Immortals it is confirmed outright. That particular moment in the mire one of the earliest signs of this, as before hand Maugin was either defrosi]]
* DirtyCommunists: Averted very hard with the Freeglades. If this series was written during the Cold War, it might have been called Communist propaganda. Though they're not really affiliated with Soviet Russia per se in any way, the Freeglades' society is basically ''[[{{Utopia}} communism that works]]'' - everybody works honestly, money has been made unnecessary, and everyone is happy. (By contrast, ''many'' of the villains are ruthless capitalists.)
* {{Doorstopper}}: The Immortals is essentially a sequence of four novels (one for each city) all bound together as a single book.
** The special editions of each trilogy in one volume count too.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Vilnix Pompolnius in ''Stormchaser''.
** Also Thunderbolt Vulpoon. Though it wasn't the fall that killed him - he is eaten alive by Wig-Wigs.
* {{Dystopia}}: The Old Undertown.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The fact the slavery is illegal is really the only limit on the Leagues' power in Undertown, although some still keep slaves anyway.
* TheEvilGenius: Vox Verlix.
* EvilPlan: Enacted by both Vox Verlix and [[spoiler:Thaw Daggerslash]].
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Tower of Night.
* EldritchAbomination: The Gloamglozer is arguably one. [[spoiler: Until you learn that it was created, in part, by Maris's father.]]
** The [[spoiler:Rogue Glister.]] No questions.
* EmotionEater: The Gloamglozer and the glisters, especially the [[EldritchAbomination Rogue Glister]].
* EnemyCivilWar: In ''Vox'', the goblins and shrykes hate each other almost as much as they hate the good guys.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: That more or less sums up the plot of the first book.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Guess what Screed Toe-Taker's gimmick is.
* EyeScream: The glister from "Curse of the Gloamglozer" attacks its victims by holding them down and forcing tendrils into their eyes. Apparently, it's quite painful.
* FantasticRacism: [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerlash.]]
* FantasyGunControl: Averted in ''The Immortals''.
* FatBastard: Vox Verlix.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The Twilight Woods make you both immortal and insane.
* FeatheredFiend: Shrykes.
** Vulpoons are also unpleasant.
* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler: Maris, Sinew, Magda, and Eudoxia. Ladies, we're looking at you.]]
* FloatingContinent: Sanctaphrax.
* ForgottenFallenFriend:
** Rudd the cloddertrog in ''The Immortals'', who looked out for Nate in the mining stockade ever since his father died, is killed watching his back in a bar fight gone horribly wrong, and is mentioned maybe twice, if that, in the rest of the book.
** Cloud Wolf's original crew. [[spoiler: They die/get lost in [[FateWorseThanDeath the Twilight Woods]] one by one during Stormchaser except for the Stone Pilot. Only Tem is ever mentioned again.]]
** Averted with Twig's crew. He ''never'' forgets any of them, and it's clear how guilty he feels about their fates.
* ForTheEvulz: The reason the Gloamglozer does anything.
* GentleGiant: Any banderbear.
* GhostTown: Screetown in the Rook Barkwater stories - Felix Lodd's group of freedom fighters even get called "the Ghosts of Screetown".
* GiantFlyer: The caterbird is the DeusExMachina type.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine.]]
* HeroesWantRedheads: Twig with Sinew and [[spoiler: Maugin]].
* HotbloodedSideburns: Chris Riddell seems to be ''very'' fond of these.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: It's a little more complicated, but fourthlings are essentially this.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens to one of the waif guides on the Thorn Trail. It's implied that he's not the only one.
* ImprobableAge: Each trilogy focuses on a character in their early teens saving, if not always the world, then at least their home city.
* JerkAss: Vilnix Pompolnius is probably the best and most obvious example.
** Branxford Drew as well.
** Young Vox in ''Midnight Over Sancthaphrax'' would count.
* KarmicDeath: Frequently used.
** [[spoiler: Vilnix Pompolnius falls to his death in a Sanctaphrax basket whilst trying to escape from [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating a mob of angry academics]] and Twig.]]
** [[spoiler: Mother Muleclaw falls to be devoured (offscreen) by Wig-wigs in the Wig-wig Arena.]]
** [[spoiler: Orbix Xaxis is struck by lightning, the very thing he hoped would give him supreme power.]]
** [[spoiler: Vox Verlix, become a morbidly obese alcholic, is drowned with the stuff by his maid.]]
** [[spoiler: Hemuel Spume is trapped in one of his war machines as it explodes.]]
** [[spoiler: Amberfuce is boiled to death inside his own bath by his old nurse.]]
** [[spoiler: Golderayce One-Eye is killed by his own poison dart due to a [[DeusExMachina sudden intervention.]]]]
* KickTheDog: Orbix Xaxis' 'purification ceremonies'.
* KillerRabbit: Wig-wigs are best described as orange, fluffy, mouths full of sharp teeth. Despite being about 8 inches tall, they are at the very top of the Deepwoods' food chain.
* KillItWithFire: The only real defence against the above orange fluffy death-bringers.
* KnightTemplar: Orbix Xaxis seems to be one. Some might say he just uses this is merely his justification, but the fact that [[spoiler: he willingly sacrifices himself to allow a lightining bolt to strike the Sanctaphrax rock]] proves he really believed in his cause.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: Wonderful though the UK cover art for Clash of the Sky Galleons is, it means you're going to know that [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerslash is masquerading as Turbot Smeal]] long before it comes out in the plot.
** [[spoiler: Actually, this goes for all the books' cover art. Long-time fans of the series will start noticing this on a second read-through of the series.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: Done twice, and surprisingly well.
* LukeNounverber: All sky pirate ships, including the ''Skyraider'', ''Stormchaser'', and ''Edgedancer''. Also, Barkwater, and absolutely anything involving stormphrax.
* MagicAIsMagicA: Cold rock rises, hot rock sinks.
** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly.
* ManEatingPlant: Bloodoak trees, though there are implied to be others.
* ManipulativeBastard: The Gloamgloazer.
** Also Slyvo Spleethe, to a lesser extent.
** Also most quarter-masters. It's sort of their thing; there are occasional exceptions, but it does get to the point where you begin to wonder why captains ever take on the same quartermaster for more than one voyage.
* MarySueTopia: The Free Glades, in the Rook trilogy, although from the text it just seems to be a less corrupt and cleaner version of Under-Town, which probably makes it a paradise to them.
* MasterOfDisguise: Once again, the Gloamglozer.
* MasterPoisoner: Hestera Spikesap.
* MercifulMinion: As a part of [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine's]] HeelFaceTurn, he shoots the rope tethering the protagonist's ship instead of shooting Rook himself, allowing Rook to flee from the {{Mook}}s swiftly closing on his location.
* MindRape: Certain waifs have this ability to go with their mind-reading capacities. Amberfuce tries to erase Rook's personality in ''Vox'', but luckily proves unable to touch the furthest reaches of his soul...
* MinovskyPhysics: Stormphrax and flight rocks/buoyant wood. There's also Chine, the Librarians' version of Stormphrax.
* MrExposition: The Professor, Ambris Hentadile, in ''The Immortals''.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: Most of 'Beyond the Deepwoods' has a Monster of the Chapter format. Each nastier and weirder than the last.
* TheMutiny: Sprinkled ''liberally'' in the Quint and Twig trilogies. Twig finally starts showing a bit of GenreSavvy regarding this by the end of ''Stormchaser''; he nips the possible mutinous nature of new crewmember in the bud and shows hesitance at taking on a quartermaster who has nothing to deter him from mutiny.
** An example of the 'overthrowing tyrannical captain' kind in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' when [[spoiler: Twig successfully carries off a mutiny on the Skyraider, overthrowing Thunderbolt Vulpoon and earning the everlasting loyalty and devotion of the crew.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Linius Palitax's reaction when he realises he has unleashed the Gloamglozer.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Hekkle is a shryke (albeit a male one) who actively works for the good guys in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates''. Another good shryke, an unusually kindly female named Mother Bluegizzard, owns the New Bloodoak Tavern in ''Freeglader''.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** Screed Toe-Taker.
** Orbix Xaxis versus Rook Barkwater. Guess which one's the good guy.
** Kind of subverted when Xanth Filatine, possessor of a champion evil-guy name, completely wastes it by ''[[HeelFaceTurn turning good.]]''
* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown : Twig, and to a lesser extent, Nate [[spoiler: after his father's death and Grint Grayle's takeover of the mine]].
* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Quite a lot, although Magda is an aversion, since we never learn anything about her family. Technically, it applies to men too, especially in the Rook trilogy. Everyone expects Felix to be chosen as a Librarian Knight elect because of who his father is.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Rook accidentally sets off the explosive "[[DoomsdayDevice baby]]" after fighting savagely to ''prevent'' it from going off... by sweating on it.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Who would have guessed that Screed's twenty years of murder would turn out for the better?
* NewEden: There's an element of this in ''The Immortals'' when the characters get to the Mire and find a lush grassland instead of the expanse of bleached mud they were expecting.
* NoOSHACompliance: Deliberate part of the design for the dungeon in the Tower of Night.
* NotGrowingUpSucks: [[spoiler:Maugin, the Stone Pilot in the Twig sequence, is a neotenous Termagant Trog]].
* ObviouslyEvil: Grint Grayle. From the very moment he's introduced, it's pretty obvious what he did and what's about to happen.
* OhCrap: Quint's reaction in ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'' when he realises the man he has followed onto the roof is not actually Linius Palitax...
* ParentalAbandonment: In the Verginix/[[spoiler: Barkwater]] family, try to think of ''one'' example of a child not becoming an orphan or at least separated from his or her parents at a very young age. It was revealed in ''The Immortals'' that Rook managed to break the chain.
* ParentalSubstitute: Maris for all the original Freegladers.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Used and averted: a sky pirate is more of a freelance merchant/smuggler than an actual pirate, but they do raid league ships when they have to.
* PregnantBadass: Maris worked beside her husband on a sky ship while pregnant, gave birth during a storm, ''while the ship was crashing'' and then made a trek directly afterwards to a woodtroll village so her son would live.
* TheProfessor: Read any book with Sanctaphrax in it.
** Also nickname of [[spoiler:Ambris]] in the Immortals.
* ThePurge: Earth scholars, librarian knights.
** Word for word in Clash of the Galleons. The Leagues want to "Purge" the Sky Pirates. According to the Pirates, [[HereWeGoAgain this happens every few years.]]
* TheQuisling: Amberfuce.
* RavensAndCrows: The white ravens of the Mire and the Stone Gardens.
* RedemptionEarnsLife: [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine]].
* ReformedButRejected: [[spoiler: Xanth]], for a while.
* RuleOfCool: The series ''runs'' on this.
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Maugin, aka the Stone Pilot. Extra points because immediately before this was revealed, Twig braced himself to confront another hideous monster, reaching the wrong conclusion about why the stone pilot concealed their appearance.]]
* SceneryPorn: There are some insanely detailed and beautiful pictures of sky ships, not to mention the maps.
* ScienceIsBad: Trying to create life is a very bad idea:
** It may [[GoneHorriblyRight go horribly right]], and [[spoiler: not only will the result will be murderously insane, it will summon a continent-sized space whale that will suck all the heat out of the world unless you feed it a piece of crystallized lightning.]] It gets worse when we learn about [[spoiler: stone sickness, which causes stone everywhere to crumble to dust which eventually spells the end of society as many know it]], in the Rook trilogy
** Or, it may [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]], and you get [[spoiler:The Giant Glister, an EldritchAbomination tentacle monster that will suck out your emotions and strength and leave you an empty shell]] (and get the same [[spoiler: space whale side effect as previously mentioned]].
* ShaggyDogStory: [[PlayedWith The series plays around with this trope.]]
** So at the end of ''Stormchaser'', Twig brings back the first batch of Stormphrax in decades, along with the formula for the safe production of phraxdust, thus both freeing Sanctaphrax from having to build extra chains to keep it from drifting and making clean water available to all. Sounds like the Edge is in for a new era of peace and prosperity, right? Wrong!
** The arrival of the Mother Storm forces Twig to cut Sanctaphrax's Anchor Chain in the very next book, ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'', and by the Rook Trilogy, the world has entered a Dark Age. At first glance, this would seem to make everything Twig did be in vain... but if there hadn't been just one chain remaining, Sanctaphrax could never have been cut loose, while phraxdust later gets used as a fuel supply which puts civilisation back on track.
* ShoutOut: In "Curse of The Gloamglozer", Quint notices a constellation named [[TheWho Borius the Spider]]
* SkyPirates: Lots and lots of them [[spoiler:in the First Age of Flight]].
* SmugSnake: Cagemaster Leddix, the chief executioner of the Tower of Night. Vilnix Pompolnius, too.
* SpaceWhaleAesop: A more literal example. See above.
** Also after reading all the books, the Aesop could be pirates make bad parents. All the characters who have close relationships with their pirate parents end up being horrible parents themselves: [[spoiler:Wind Jackal and Cloud Wolf, namely.]] Twig was initially said [[spoiler: to have waited until Keris grew up before leaving]], but ''The Slaughterer's Quest'' revealed that [[spoiler: he actually left when she was three. Granted, he did have a fairly important quest to finish, and he left her with her uncle, but still]].
*** FridgeBrilliance : It's the ''curse of the Gloamglozer'', or at least part of it.
* SpoiledBrat: Branxford Drew.
* StayOnThePath: The theme of the first book. Twig, naturally, doesn't, and away he goes...
* SteamPunk: ''The Immortals'' strays into this territory, although 'phrax punk' is probably more accurate.
* StormingTheCastle
* TheStarscream: Orbix Xaxis was one of Vox Verlix's right-hand men until it no longer suited his purposes.
** [[spoiler: Amberfuce counts as well.]]
** Not to mention Slyvo Spleethe, in "Stormchaser," and Turbot Smeal in "Clash of the Sky Galleons." Given that sky pirate-quartermasters have to be cunning to be good, it seems that having a Starscream on board is a hazard of the business.
* TheSwarm: Grey goblins and the dreaded Wig-wigs.
* TakeUpMySword: In the literal and figurative sense. In "Stormchaser," Cloud Wolf gives Twig his sword and tells him to complete the Stormphrax quest. This happens throughout the series: The protégé of the older sky pirate must complete the quest, sometimes doing so inadvertently. The older sky-pirates never live to see their quests completed.
* TooDumbToLive: Cloud Wolf keeping [[ManipulativeBastard Slyvo]] [[TheStarscream Spleethe]] on as part of the crew, despite [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder repeated]] attempts at [[TheMutiny mutiny]]. Even though Spleethe is usually incompetent, what kind of idiot captain ''keeps on'' a crewmember who has shown ''time and again'' that, at best, he wants to take over your ship and, at worst, may [[FateWorseThanDeath shoot you into open sky]], a known consequence of mutiny for whichever side loses. [[spoiler:Eventually, Spleethe succeeds, proving that Cloud Wolf really ''is'' TooDumbToLive.]]
* TragicVillain: Vox Verlix, to an extent. He is an extremely intelligent man who has been screwed over by severel different factions. His doomsday device is simply his revenge, yet he manages to be somewhat sympathetic at times, [[spoiler: particularly at the end of ''Vox'' when he is trapped in his crumbling palace]].
** Screed Toe-Taker, to a lesser extent, once you learn that the failure of his quest drove him mad.
* TranslationYes: The banderbear language consists mostly of the word "wuh", which can have a myriad of different meanings depending on body language and inflection. ''The Immortals'' contains several prime examples.
* TheDogBitesBack: In the end of ''Freeglader'', [[spoiler: Amberfuce is trapped in his special bath, abandoned by the gabtroll nurse for which he abandoned his old faithful nurse to abusive treatment as a slave. His old nurse then creeps into the room... and promptly boils him alive in his own bath for mistreating her.]]
* TheTrickster: The Gloamglozer is a particularly malevolent example.
* UltimateEvil: The Gloamglozer, who is also [[spoiler: directly responsible for causing stone-sickness and thus setting civilisation back by centuries.]]
* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: [[spoiler: Maugin for Twig. For about fifty years.]] In fairness, for most of that time there wasn't really anyone else for her to go for.
* {{Utopia}}: The Freeglades.
* VaderBreath: Orbix Xaxis. He even looks similar!
* VillainousBreakdown: It ''sucks'' to be Vox Verlix.
* VindicatedByHistory: An in-universe example with Vox Verlix who is remembered in ''The Immortals'' as a great genius and spectacular architect (which, admittedly, he was, but he was also a FatBastard).
** There's also Thunderbolt Vulpoon, who we'll remember tried to kidnap Twig and Cowlquape so he could sell them to the shrykes as bait for the Wig-Wig arena. Rook, however, heard a tale of his selfless sacrifice to save the pair from Thunderbolt's shryke-imprisoned son Deadbolt on the Great Mire Road.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Gloamglozer's main ability.
* WarIsHell
* WeatherDissonance
* WellDoneSonGuy: In a rare father-daughter variant, Maris just wants her father's love and approval.
** In ''Stormchaser'', Twig wanting his father to be proud of him is a recurring theme. It doesn't really help that Cloud Wolf isn't the best parent.
** In the Rook trilogy, Felix Lodd to his father, Fenbrus.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Evil waif keeps all of the life-giving Riverrise water for himself in ''The Immortals'', only letting some down to the world below... and feels very bitter over his life's emptiness.
* AWorldHalfFull: No matter how much the world tries to cancel out the heroes' efforts with each passing generation, Edge society becomes gradually more progressive, and life is shown to be not without its merits, tough as it may get.
* WrenchWench: [[spoiler: The Stone Pilot]]
* WretchedHive: Hive, appropriately. Also Old Undertown.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: Pick a page, any page, and count the number of X's on it. Seriously. Some of the character names have three or more.
* ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler: The Bringer of Doom. The most impressive skyship ever to exist. Nothing can stand before this behemoth... or so it seems, or so it would be. Instead, it makes an impressive entrance, then [[FlawedPrototype anticlimatically tumbles to the ground]] because the guy charged with harvesting the floating rock used to keep it flying couldn't be bothered to remove the Stormphrax weight inside it. However, it did demonstrate it's invincibility by devastating ships that did get in it's way before hand.]]
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[[caption-width-right:300:"Far far away, jutting out into the emptiness beyond, like the figurehead of a mighty stone ship, is the Edge."]]
The Edge Chronicles are a young adult fantasy series written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell. Surprisingly dark and cynical for its target audience, the novels take place on the Edge, which is essentially [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the edge of the world]]. [[spoiler: Or, at least, this is what the series leads you to believe, before throwing you a curve ball in the last book of the franchise]]. Filled with sky pirates, bizarre wildlife, and a notable aversion to many stock fantasy tropes, the series is highly recommended.
It should be noted that this series has some of the most detailed and beautiful art you will see in any novel, anywhere. Also some of the ugliest; also some of the scariest.
It consists of three trilogies (each centered around a certain character) and two additional novels (well, one novel and one collection of novellas).
The first trilogy (the Twig sequence) consists of ''Beyond the Deepwoods'', ''Stormchaser'', and ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax''. The second (centered on Rook Barkwater) includes ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'', ''Vox'', and ''Freeglader''. The third trilogy (a prequel starring Quint) is covered in ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'', ''The Winter Knights'', and ''Clash of the Sky Galleons''. The extra novels are ''The Lost Barkscrolls'', a short story collection; and the ''The Immortals'', a standalone novel set about 500 years after ''Freeglader''.
----
!!Tropes Used:
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Vilnix Pompolnius only stayed in power due to his monopoly on phraxdust, and when that runs out...
** [[spoiler: Hemtuft Battleaxe, and later, Kulltuft Warhammer]]
* ActionGirl: Eudoxia in 'The Immortals', Varis and Magda in the Rook Trilogy. Maris could also qualify, but most of her action is off-screen between the Quint and Twig Trilogies.
* AlasPoorVillain: Arguably [[FatBastard Vox Verlix]]. He's hardly the worst villain in ''Vox'' and, whilst he was definately a {{Jerkass}} when he was younger, he only really becomes a villain because he has been betrayed by everyone he has ever worked with. In the end he dies a broken old man with his palace falling to pieces around him, betrayed once again - this time by the one person he thought was actually on his side. It is also interesting to note that the name of this book is ''Vox'' rather than, say, ''Rook''.
** To a lesser extent, Screed Toe-Taker. His final words, and [[GoOutWithASmile his final smile]], are a poignant contrast to his 20-odd years of murder. Then you meet him as a noble young man in The Winter Knights, and his final fate seems [[HarsherInHindsight even more]] [[DoomedByCanon tragic]].
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Mostly averted. Even some of the more aggressive species, such as shrykes, flat-head goblins, and termagant trogs have individuals who side with the heroes, and most races have both good and evil members.
* AmazonBrigade: Shrykes.
* AndroclesLion: Twig gains the friendship of all banderbears after helping one with a rotten tooth.
** Subsequently, Rook [[spoiler:also becomes a friend of banderbears after rescuing one from an evil slave-employing factory.]]
* AngelUnaware: The Caterbird.
* AnimeHair: Bungus Septrill, some of the Slaughterers.
* AnyoneCanDie: As long as they aren't the main character, although the main character of one trilogy can die in the next.
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Vilnix Pompolnius to the Professor of Darkness.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: From ''[[{{Doorstopper}} The Immortals]]:''
--> "Arrest?" said [[JerkAss Felftis Brack]] cooly, backing away. "On what charges?"
--> "Charges of fraud, embezzlement, blackmail, smuggling, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit murder..."
--> ''*Brack tries to flee, but runs into some sports players he hired and never paid, who throw him into a lake*''
--> "...And non-payment of the New Lake thousandsticks team," finished the constable.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: Cloud Wolf. Also Twig and Rook, eventually.]]
* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: The Gloamglozer to Quint.
-->"So long as the strong pick on the weak, so long as fear is valued above tenderness, so long as hatred, envy, and mistrust divide the various creatures of the Edge, then I am indestructible!"
* AssholeVictim: Thunderbolt Vulpoon in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrx'', though you can actually feel a bit sorry for him when he dies.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine]] becomes this during ''Vox'', and stays this until near the end of ''Freeglader''.
* AwesomeMccoolName: Many times;
** Sky pirate captains either choose their own cool name of have one chosen by their father. Particularly impressive names belong to Thunderbolt Vulpoon and his son Deadbolt Vulpoon. Thunderbolt turns out to be a subversion, as he's a cowardly slaver, but Deadbolt turns out awesome enough to match his name.
** [[spoiler: [[StepfordSmiler Thaw Daggerslash]]]] is another subversion, although it does sort of fit; [[spoiler:the dagger is the weapon of backstabbing and treachery.]]
** Most other characters also have really cool names, even if they are just bit-parts. For example, there is the creepy slaver named Ilmus Pentaphraxis. Vox Verlix also has a pretty cool name for a FatBastard.
** Averted with Twig, although he doesn't seem to care. [[spoiler:Besides, he ''does'' get an AwesomeMccoolName at the end of Stormchaser - Arborinus Verginix.]]
-->"What sort of name is Twig for the son of Quintinius Verginix, the finest sky pirate to ever sail the heavens blue?"
-->"It's ''my'' name."
* BadAss: Sky pirates, as a rule.
** Also, banderbears.
* BadassBookworm: Badass Scholars, really, but: ''Librarian Knights'' and ''Knights Academic''. Ambris Hentadile also deserves a mention, as does Bungus Septrill.
* BadassCrew: Sky pirate crews.
* BadassBeard: Tem Barkwater and Fenbrus Lodd
* BadassFamily: The Verginix family.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: The low-bellied goblins are one of the more peaceful species in a brutal world, but drive them too far and they can turn nasty, [[spoiler: as the despotic clan leaders found out the hard way...]]
* BigBad:
** ''Stormchaser'': Vilnix Pompolnius.
** ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'' and ''Vox'': Orbix Xaxis.
** ''Freeglader'': Hemuel Spume.
** ''The Immortals'': Golderayce One-Eye.
* BilingualDialogue: Any and all conversations involving Banderbears.
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: Female Termagant Trogs are hulking, ill-tempered bald amazons, while their male counterparts are small, skinny, and passive.
** And Shrykes play on the reality that females are larger for many predatory bird species by having the females being larger, fiercer and much more aggressive. Males, or "shryke-mates", are invariably referred to as "weedy" or "pitiful", and are usually pictured as scrawny little things being hauled around on collars.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Vilnix, Vox, [[spoiler: Thaw]]. [[spoiler: Xanth]] is a subversion, although [[spoiler: he kept his head shaved before his HeelFaceTurn,]], so it may not count.
* BodyHorror: Hoverworm venom makes you inflate like a ballon, float into the sky, and eventually pop. Also noteworthy is the fate of [[spoiler:Hax Vostillix]] in ''The Winter Knights'': [[spoiler:tricked into eating woodwasp eggs, which hatch inside him and sting their way out.]]
* BrickJoke: Overlapping with ContinuityNod. The League-Master's round table is seen in Stormchaser first, and gets shattered by a falling weight near the start of ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax'', and then in Vox, several books later, Rook finds himself in the palace, and notices an odd round table, that had at one point been snapped in half and then crudely bolted back together.
** Happens again in ''Vox'' and ''The Immortals''. Vox Verlix has the head of his own statue hurled through one of the skylights in the Palace of Shadows in ''Vox'', and it reappears in ''The Immortals'' when Nate goes to meet his mother's brother, the Professor of Flight, who is apparently related to the lesser-known half of the Verlix clan. The Professor states that it was dug out of a pile of broken masonry in Old Undertown (the ruin of the Palace of Statues).
* TheBully: Vox Verlix in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'', Branxford Drew in ''The Immortals''.
* CallARabbitASmeerp: The first few books were chock full of original creatures with a light smattering of MixAndMatchCritters, but as the series progressed the number of normal animals with "wood" tacked onto the beginning of the name increased. Woodbees, woodturkeys, woodwolves...
* TheCavalry: The Freeglade Lancers.
* ChekhovsGun: The Caterbird.
** Quint's portrait, more than once. It plays an important part in [[spoiler: the Quint and Rook trilogies, ''The Slaughterer's Quest'', and ''The Immortals''.]]
** The ''Skyraider''.
** Vox Verlix.
** Honestly, if anything gets mentioned even in passing by a random unnamed creature, it'll be important at the end of the book. Also, any character given a name and doesn't die is ''guaranteed'' to return at some point.
* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler: Cowlquape.]]
* ChildSoldiers: The series ''loves'' this trope. We have the academics-at-arms in the Quint trilogy, the Librarian Knights and some of the Freeglade Lancers in the Rook trilogy, and at one point Nate and Eudoxia (and probably some others) in ''The Immortals''. Results in a case of FridgeHorror when you read about the [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrible fates]] some of them suffer and then remember how old they are.
* CoolShip: Any sky ship of any sort, period.
* ContinuityNod: All over ''The Immortals''. For example, the scene where Nate meets Weelum is very similar to the one in ''Beyond the Deepwoods'' where Twig meets the first banderbear to appear in the series.
** Another example appears in the final story in ''The Lost Barkscrolls'' anthology, when the main characters visit the ruins of the Foundry Glades and find [[spoiler: the skeleton of Amberfuce in the cauldron he was boiled alive in at the end of ''Freeglader''.]]
** A subtle one in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' when Flabsweat, a minor character in the previous book, gets a passing mention.
** Played with in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates''. When Rook is talking to Deadbolt Vulpoon, the latter mentions how his father gave his life to save Twig in the last trilogy. [[spoiler: It didn't quite happen like that.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Leagues of Undertown are full of these.
* DarkerAndEdgier: To the average story of this kind. So very much.
* DarkIsNotEvil: The Slaughters and the Professor of Darkness sound like evil people... but the Slaughters are merely the red-colored, happy-go-lucky professional butchers of the Edgewoods, while the Professor of Darkness studies literal darkness (as in, the absence of light).
* DeadpanSnarker: The Professor.
* DeathWorld: The Deepwoods especially, but the entire Edge can be considered this, from a filthy bog full of predators to a forest that turns you into a zombie. [[WretchedHive Even the towns are almost like this.]]
** So everyone in the series is living on [[FridgeBrilliance the]] [[StealthPun edge]] of disaster.
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Are they ever! If by some miracle a main character's parents are still around when the story begins, you can bet they probably won't make it to the end of the trilogy.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Maris's attitude toward Quint in ''Curse of the Gloamglozer''.
** [[spoiler: Maugin, the stone pilot, is a possible Zig-Zagged example.]] In Beyond the Deepwoods the stone pilot never spoke, just grunted when moving the flight rock, We never even found out if they were male or female, due to the wording of the text. And that was it until they got to the mire in Stormchaser. [[spoiler: Once she started actually talking to Twig, it became apparent she had plenty of reasons to hide her face. Nevertheless she still becomes more open in general;]] And doesn't hesitate to ditch the suit in front of Twig's crew, as opposed to wearing it all the time aboard the Stormchaser.
* TheDevilIsALoser: The Gloamglozer is essentially a CaptainErsatz of {{Satan}}, and all he's interested in is playing petty (albeit deadly) tricks on people.
** He becomes vastly more dangerous as of ''The Immortals'', though...
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Minor example between Twig and [[spoiler: Maugin]] in ''Stormchaser''. While trapped in the Mire, Twig and [[spoiler: the Stone Pilot]] work on making a wrecked ship skyworthy again. After several days' hard work, the pair sit down to enjoy dinner for the evening, whereupon she spots a shooting star and tells Twig to make a wish, to which he responds that he already has. It's later revealed that his wish was for them to return to the skies, but the framing of the scene suggests that he may have kissed her, at least...
** While not having much impact on the plot, this would fit in well with ''Stormchaser'''s identity as a coming-of-age story for Twig.
** [[spoiler: the next book sees very little of the stone pilot, but it is very clear that she has feelings for Twig, and in the Immortals it is confirmed outright. That particular moment in the mire one of the earliest signs of this, as before hand Maugin was either defrosi]]
* DirtyCommunists: Averted very hard with the Freeglades. If this series was written during the Cold War, it might have been called Communist propaganda. Though they're not really affiliated with Soviet Russia per se in any way, the Freeglades' society is basically ''[[{{Utopia}} communism that works]]'' - everybody works honestly, money has been made unnecessary, and everyone is happy. (By contrast, ''many'' of the villains are ruthless capitalists.)
* {{Doorstopper}}: The Immortals is essentially a sequence of four novels (one for each city) all bound together as a single book.
** The special editions of each trilogy in one volume count too.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Vilnix Pompolnius in ''Stormchaser''.
** Also Thunderbolt Vulpoon. Though it wasn't the fall that killed him - he is eaten alive by Wig-Wigs.
* {{Dystopia}}: The Old Undertown.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The fact the slavery is illegal is really the only limit on the Leagues' power in Undertown, although some still keep slaves anyway.
* TheEvilGenius: Vox Verlix.
* EvilPlan: Enacted by both Vox Verlix and [[spoiler:Thaw Daggerslash]].
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Tower of Night.
* EldritchAbomination: The Gloamglozer is arguably one. [[spoiler: Until you learn that it was created, in part, by Maris's father.]]
** The [[spoiler:Rogue Glister.]] No questions.
* EmotionEater: The Gloamglozer and the glisters, especially the [[EldritchAbomination Rogue Glister]].
* EnemyCivilWar: In ''Vox'', the goblins and shrykes hate each other almost as much as they hate the good guys.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: That more or less sums up the plot of the first book.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Guess what Screed Toe-Taker's gimmick is.
* EyeScream: The glister from "Curse of the Gloamglozer" attacks its victims by holding them down and forcing tendrils into their eyes. Apparently, it's quite painful.
* FantasticRacism: [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerlash.]]
* FantasyGunControl: Averted in ''The Immortals''.
* FatBastard: Vox Verlix.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The Twilight Woods make you both immortal and insane.
* FeatheredFiend: Shrykes.
** Vulpoons are also unpleasant.
* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler: Maris, Sinew, Magda, and Eudoxia. Ladies, we're looking at you.]]
* FloatingContinent: Sanctaphrax.
* ForgottenFallenFriend:
** Rudd the cloddertrog in ''The Immortals'', who looked out for Nate in the mining stockade ever since his father died, is killed watching his back in a bar fight gone horribly wrong, and is mentioned maybe twice, if that, in the rest of the book.
** Cloud Wolf's original crew. [[spoiler: They die/get lost in [[FateWorseThanDeath the Twilight Woods]] one by one during Stormchaser except for the Stone Pilot. Only Tem is ever mentioned again.]]
** Averted with Twig's crew. He ''never'' forgets any of them, and it's clear how guilty he feels about their fates.
* ForTheEvulz: The reason the Gloamglozer does anything.
* GentleGiant: Any banderbear.
* GhostTown: Screetown in the Rook Barkwater stories - Felix Lodd's group of freedom fighters even get called "the Ghosts of Screetown".
* GiantFlyer: The caterbird is the DeusExMachina type.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine.]]
* HeroesWantRedheads: Twig with Sinew and [[spoiler: Maugin]].
* HotbloodedSideburns: Chris Riddell seems to be ''very'' fond of these.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: It's a little more complicated, but fourthlings are essentially this.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens to one of the waif guides on the Thorn Trail. It's implied that he's not the only one.
* ImprobableAge: Each trilogy focuses on a character in their early teens saving, if not always the world, then at least their home city.
* JerkAss: Vilnix Pompolnius is probably the best and most obvious example.
** Branxford Drew as well.
** Young Vox in ''Midnight Over Sancthaphrax'' would count.
* KarmicDeath: Frequently used.
** [[spoiler: Vilnix Pompolnius falls to his death in a Sanctaphrax basket whilst trying to escape from [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating a mob of angry academics]] and Twig.]]
** [[spoiler: Mother Muleclaw falls to be devoured (offscreen) by Wig-wigs in the Wig-wig Arena.]]
** [[spoiler: Orbix Xaxis is struck by lightning, the very thing he hoped would give him supreme power.]]
** [[spoiler: Vox Verlix, become a morbidly obese alcholic, is drowned with the stuff by his maid.]]
** [[spoiler: Hemuel Spume is trapped in one of his war machines as it explodes.]]
** [[spoiler: Amberfuce is boiled to death inside his own bath by his old nurse.]]
** [[spoiler: Golderayce One-Eye is killed by his own poison dart due to a [[DeusExMachina sudden intervention.]]]]
* KickTheDog: Orbix Xaxis' 'purification ceremonies'.
* KillerRabbit: Wig-wigs are best described as orange, fluffy, mouths full of sharp teeth. Despite being about 8 inches tall, they are at the very top of the Deepwoods' food chain.
* KillItWithFire: The only real defence against the above orange fluffy death-bringers.
* KnightTemplar: Orbix Xaxis seems to be one. Some might say he just uses this is merely his justification, but the fact that [[spoiler: he willingly sacrifices himself to allow a lightining bolt to strike the Sanctaphrax rock]] proves he really believed in his cause.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: Wonderful though the UK cover art for Clash of the Sky Galleons is, it means you're going to know that [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerslash is masquerading as Turbot Smeal]] long before it comes out in the plot.
** [[spoiler: Actually, this goes for all the books' cover art. Long-time fans of the series will start noticing this on a second read-through of the series.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: Done twice, and surprisingly well.
* LukeNounverber: All sky pirate ships, including the ''Skyraider'', ''Stormchaser'', and ''Edgedancer''. Also, Barkwater, and absolutely anything involving stormphrax.
* MagicAIsMagicA: Cold rock rises, hot rock sinks.
** Which leads to one incredibly badass scene where Twig and the Stone Pilot have to get a rock into a ship to get it flying again, but, naturally, they need to heat it up so it won't fly away while they're getting it in. The Stone Pilot ([[spoiler: who is a Termagant Trog who missed the coming-of-age ceremony and thus is an incredibly small, wispy girl, albeit normally in a bulky protective suit that hides this]]) does this single-handedly.
* ManEatingPlant: Bloodoak trees, though there are implied to be others.
* ManipulativeBastard: The Gloamgloazer.
** Also Slyvo Spleethe, to a lesser extent.
** Also most quarter-masters. It's sort of their thing; there are occasional exceptions, but it does get to the point where you begin to wonder why captains ever take on the same quartermaster for more than one voyage.
* MarySueTopia: The Free Glades, in the Rook trilogy, although from the text it just seems to be a less corrupt and cleaner version of Under-Town, which probably makes it a paradise to them.
* MasterOfDisguise: Once again, the Gloamglozer.
* MasterPoisoner: Hestera Spikesap.
* MercifulMinion: As a part of [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine's]] HeelFaceTurn, he shoots the rope tethering the protagonist's ship instead of shooting Rook himself, allowing Rook to flee from the {{Mook}}s swiftly closing on his location.
* MindRape: Certain waifs have this ability to go with their mind-reading capacities. Amberfuce tries to erase Rook's personality in ''Vox'', but luckily proves unable to touch the furthest reaches of his soul...
* MinovskyPhysics: Stormphrax and flight rocks/buoyant wood. There's also Chine, the Librarians' version of Stormphrax.
* MrExposition: The Professor, Ambris Hentadile, in ''The Immortals''.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: Most of 'Beyond the Deepwoods' has a Monster of the Chapter format. Each nastier and weirder than the last.
* TheMutiny: Sprinkled ''liberally'' in the Quint and Twig trilogies. Twig finally starts showing a bit of GenreSavvy regarding this by the end of ''Stormchaser''; he nips the possible mutinous nature of new crewmember in the bud and shows hesitance at taking on a quartermaster who has nothing to deter him from mutiny.
** An example of the 'overthrowing tyrannical captain' kind in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' when [[spoiler: Twig successfully carries off a mutiny on the Skyraider, overthrowing Thunderbolt Vulpoon and earning the everlasting loyalty and devotion of the crew.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Linius Palitax's reaction when he realises he has unleashed the Gloamglozer.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Hekkle is a shryke (albeit a male one) who actively works for the good guys in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates''. Another good shryke, an unusually kindly female named Mother Bluegizzard, owns the New Bloodoak Tavern in ''Freeglader''.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** Screed Toe-Taker.
** Orbix Xaxis versus Rook Barkwater. Guess which one's the good guy.
** Kind of subverted when Xanth Filatine, possessor of a champion evil-guy name, completely wastes it by ''[[HeelFaceTurn turning good.]]''
* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown : Twig, and to a lesser extent, Nate [[spoiler: after his father's death and Grint Grayle's takeover of the mine]].
* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Quite a lot, although Magda is an aversion, since we never learn anything about her family. Technically, it applies to men too, especially in the Rook trilogy. Everyone expects Felix to be chosen as a Librarian Knight elect because of who his father is.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Rook accidentally sets off the explosive "[[DoomsdayDevice baby]]" after fighting savagely to ''prevent'' it from going off... by sweating on it.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Who would have guessed that Screed's twenty years of murder would turn out for the better?
* NewEden: There's an element of this in ''The Immortals'' when the characters get to the Mire and find a lush grassland instead of the expanse of bleached mud they were expecting.
* NoOSHACompliance: Deliberate part of the design for the dungeon in the Tower of Night.
* NotGrowingUpSucks: [[spoiler:Maugin, the Stone Pilot in the Twig sequence, is a neotenous Termagant Trog]].
* ObviouslyEvil: Grint Grayle. From the very moment he's introduced, it's pretty obvious what he did and what's about to happen.
* OhCrap: Quint's reaction in ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'' when he realises the man he has followed onto the roof is not actually Linius Palitax...
* ParentalAbandonment: In the Verginix/[[spoiler: Barkwater]] family, try to think of ''one'' example of a child not becoming an orphan or at least separated from his or her parents at a very young age. It was revealed in ''The Immortals'' that Rook managed to break the chain.
* ParentalSubstitute: Maris for all the original Freegladers.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Used and averted: a sky pirate is more of a freelance merchant/smuggler than an actual pirate, but they do raid league ships when they have to.
* PregnantBadass: Maris worked beside her husband on a sky ship while pregnant, gave birth during a storm, ''while the ship was crashing'' and then made a trek directly afterwards to a woodtroll village so her son would live.
* TheProfessor: Read any book with Sanctaphrax in it.
** Also nickname of [[spoiler:Ambris]] in the Immortals.
* ThePurge: Earth scholars, librarian knights.
** Word for word in Clash of the Galleons. The Leagues want to "Purge" the Sky Pirates. According to the Pirates, [[HereWeGoAgain this happens every few years.]]
* TheQuisling: Amberfuce.
* RavensAndCrows: The white ravens of the Mire and the Stone Gardens.
* RedemptionEarnsLife: [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine]].
* ReformedButRejected: [[spoiler: Xanth]], for a while.
* RuleOfCool: The series ''runs'' on this.
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Maugin, aka the Stone Pilot. Extra points because immediately before this was revealed, Twig braced himself to confront another hideous monster, reaching the wrong conclusion about why the stone pilot concealed their appearance.]]
* SceneryPorn: There are some insanely detailed and beautiful pictures of sky ships, not to mention the maps.
* ScienceIsBad: Trying to create life is a very bad idea:
** It may [[GoneHorriblyRight go horribly right]], and [[spoiler: not only will the result will be murderously insane, it will summon a continent-sized space whale that will suck all the heat out of the world unless you feed it a piece of crystallized lightning.]] It gets worse when we learn about [[spoiler: stone sickness, which causes stone everywhere to crumble to dust which eventually spells the end of society as many know it]], in the Rook trilogy
** Or, it may [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]], and you get [[spoiler:The Giant Glister, an EldritchAbomination tentacle monster that will suck out your emotions and strength and leave you an empty shell]] (and get the same [[spoiler: space whale side effect as previously mentioned]].
* ShaggyDogStory: [[PlayedWith The series plays around with this trope.]]
** So at the end of ''Stormchaser'', Twig brings back the first batch of Stormphrax in decades, along with the formula for the safe production of phraxdust, thus both freeing Sanctaphrax from having to build extra chains to keep it from drifting and making clean water available to all. Sounds like the Edge is in for a new era of peace and prosperity, right? Wrong!
** The arrival of the Mother Storm forces Twig to cut Sanctaphrax's Anchor Chain in the very next book, ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'', and by the Rook Trilogy, the world has entered a Dark Age. At first glance, this would seem to make everything Twig did be in vain... but if there hadn't been just one chain remaining, Sanctaphrax could never have been cut loose, while phraxdust later gets used as a fuel supply which puts civilisation back on track.
* ShoutOut: In "Curse of The Gloamglozer", Quint notices a constellation named [[TheWho Borius the Spider]]
* SkyPirates: Lots and lots of them [[spoiler:in the First Age of Flight]].
* SmugSnake: Cagemaster Leddix, the chief executioner of the Tower of Night. Vilnix Pompolnius, too.
* SpaceWhaleAesop: A more literal example. See above.
** Also after reading all the books, the Aesop could be pirates make bad parents. All the characters who have close relationships with their pirate parents end up being horrible parents themselves: [[spoiler:Wind Jackal and Cloud Wolf, namely.]] Twig was initially said [[spoiler: to have waited until Keris grew up before leaving]], but ''The Slaughterer's Quest'' revealed that [[spoiler: he actually left when she was three. Granted, he did have a fairly important quest to finish, and he left her with her uncle, but still]].
*** FridgeBrilliance : It's the ''curse of the Gloamglozer'', or at least part of it.
* SpoiledBrat: Branxford Drew.
* StayOnThePath: The theme of the first book. Twig, naturally, doesn't, and away he goes...
* SteamPunk: ''The Immortals'' strays into this territory, although 'phrax punk' is probably more accurate.
* StormingTheCastle
* TheStarscream: Orbix Xaxis was one of Vox Verlix's right-hand men until it no longer suited his purposes.
** [[spoiler: Amberfuce counts as well.]]
** Not to mention Slyvo Spleethe, in "Stormchaser," and Turbot Smeal in "Clash of the Sky Galleons." Given that sky pirate-quartermasters have to be cunning to be good, it seems that having a Starscream on board is a hazard of the business.
* TheSwarm: Grey goblins and the dreaded Wig-wigs.
* TakeUpMySword: In the literal and figurative sense. In "Stormchaser," Cloud Wolf gives Twig his sword and tells him to complete the Stormphrax quest. This happens throughout the series: The protégé of the older sky pirate must complete the quest, sometimes doing so inadvertently. The older sky-pirates never live to see their quests completed.
* TooDumbToLive: Cloud Wolf keeping [[ManipulativeBastard Slyvo]] [[TheStarscream Spleethe]] on as part of the crew, despite [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder repeated]] attempts at [[TheMutiny mutiny]]. Even though Spleethe is usually incompetent, what kind of idiot captain ''keeps on'' a crewmember who has shown ''time and again'' that, at best, he wants to take over your ship and, at worst, may [[FateWorseThanDeath shoot you into open sky]], a known consequence of mutiny for whichever side loses. [[spoiler:Eventually, Spleethe succeeds, proving that Cloud Wolf really ''is'' TooDumbToLive.]]
* TragicVillain: Vox Verlix, to an extent. He is an extremely intelligent man who has been screwed over by severel different factions. His doomsday device is simply his revenge, yet he manages to be somewhat sympathetic at times, [[spoiler: particularly at the end of ''Vox'' when he is trapped in his crumbling palace]].
** Screed Toe-Taker, to a lesser extent, once you learn that the failure of his quest drove him mad.
* TranslationYes: The banderbear language consists mostly of the word "wuh", which can have a myriad of different meanings depending on body language and inflection. ''The Immortals'' contains several prime examples.
* TheDogBitesBack: In the end of ''Freeglader'', [[spoiler: Amberfuce is trapped in his special bath, abandoned by the gabtroll nurse for which he abandoned his old faithful nurse to abusive treatment as a slave. His old nurse then creeps into the room... and promptly boils him alive in his own bath for mistreating her.]]
* TheTrickster: The Gloamglozer is a particularly malevolent example.
* UltimateEvil: The Gloamglozer, who is also [[spoiler: directly responsible for causing stone-sickness and thus setting civilisation back by centuries.]]
* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: [[spoiler: Maugin for Twig. For about fifty years.]] In fairness, for most of that time there wasn't really anyone else for her to go for.
* {{Utopia}}: The Freeglades.
* VaderBreath: Orbix Xaxis. He even looks similar!
* VillainousBreakdown: It ''sucks'' to be Vox Verlix.
* VindicatedByHistory: An in-universe example with Vox Verlix who is remembered in ''The Immortals'' as a great genius and spectacular architect (which, admittedly, he was, but he was also a FatBastard).
** There's also Thunderbolt Vulpoon, who we'll remember tried to kidnap Twig and Cowlquape so he could sell them to the shrykes as bait for the Wig-Wig arena. Rook, however, heard a tale of his selfless sacrifice to save the pair from Thunderbolt's shryke-imprisoned son Deadbolt on the Great Mire Road.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Gloamglozer's main ability.
* WarIsHell
* WeatherDissonance
* WellDoneSonGuy: In a rare father-daughter variant, Maris just wants her father's love and approval.
** In ''Stormchaser'', Twig wanting his father to be proud of him is a recurring theme. It doesn't really help that Cloud Wolf isn't the best parent.
** In the Rook trilogy, Felix Lodd to his father, Fenbrus.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Evil waif keeps all of the life-giving Riverrise water for himself in ''The Immortals'', only letting some down to the world below... and feels very bitter over his life's emptiness.
* AWorldHalfFull: No matter how much the world tries to cancel out the heroes' efforts with each passing generation, Edge society becomes gradually more progressive, and life is shown to be not without its merits, tough as it may get.
* WrenchWench: [[spoiler: The Stone Pilot]]
* WretchedHive: Hive, appropriately. Also Old Undertown.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: Pick a page, any page, and count the number of X's on it. Seriously. Some of the character names have three or more.
* ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler: The Bringer of Doom. The most impressive skyship ever to exist. Nothing can stand before this behemoth... or so it seems, or so it would be. Instead, it makes an impressive entrance, then [[FlawedPrototype anticlimatically tumbles to the ground]] because the guy charged with harvesting the floating rock used to keep it flying couldn't be bothered to remove the Stormphrax weight inside it. However, it did demonstrate it's invincibility by devastating ships that did get in it's way before hand.]]
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