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* AntiVillain: Calvin becomes one in later books. He seems mainly intended as a lazy, amoral {{Foil}} to Alvin, showing what a Maker without Alvin's scruples would be like. However, we spend a lot of time following Calvin as he blunders through the world in pursuit one one half-baked goal or another, getting himself into trouble and getting out of it through ham-fisted (but still somewhat effective) methods.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Daniel Webster is thoroughly disgusted by the Slave Finders.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first book has Whites being able to cast spoken spells with varying effects, in addition to their having individual knacks and knowing how to draw protective hexes. From the second book onward, that kind of magic is never seen or mentioned again.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Daniel Webster is thoroughly disgusted by the SlaveFinders.Finders.
** When we first meet him, Mike Fink figures that if he kills someone in a fight [[TheSocialDarwinist that's just what his victim gets for losing.]] However, he finds that he has no stomach for killing people who aren't even trying to fight back, and abandons Harrison's service because of it. The narration notes that ''everyone'' ultimately draw the line somewhere.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Daniel Webster is thoroughly disgusted by the Slave
** When we first meet him, Mike Fink figures that if he kills someone in a fight [[TheSocialDarwinist that's just what his victim gets for losing.]] However, he finds that he has no stomach for killing people who aren't even trying to fight back, and abandons Harrison's service because of it. The narration notes that ''everyone'' ultimately draw the line somewhere.
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* FirstInjuryReaction: Mike Fink was tattooed shortly after his birth with a hex that made him invincible. After the hex is broken, he is completely incapacitated by the pain from a single blow, as he has never felt pain before.
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commented out zero-context examples
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* CainAndAbel: Alvin and Calvin.
* TheCasanova: Honore Balzac. He even tries to hit on Peggy, despite knowing she's married.
* ChildByRape: Arthur Stuart.
* ClingyMacGuffin: The golden plow.
* TheCasanova: Honore Balzac. He even tries to hit on Peggy, despite knowing she's married.
* ChildByRape: Arthur Stuart.
* ClingyMacGuffin: The golden plow.
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* TheCasanova: Honore
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* HexSign: They're drawn as a form of RunicMagic here.
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* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Alvin is explicitly intended as Card's alternate reimagining of Joseph Smith, the founder of UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}}. A few other supporting characters were also clearly inspired by important figures in the history of the Mormon faith: Alvin's wife Margaret Larner loosely corresponds to Smith's wife Emma Hale Smith, and Alvin's older brother Measure Miller and his adoptive brother-in-law Arthur Stuart have parallels with Smith's brother Hyrum Smith.
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* SacrificialLamb: Vigor Miller, the eldest of the Miller sons, drowns in the Hatrack River at the end of the first chapter of the first book in the series, making it clear that no character is truly safe from this point forward. Despite his early death, however, he still plays an important role in Alvin's story: since he manages to cling to life until ''after'' his younger brother is born, he ensures that Alvin really ''is'' the seventh son of a seventh son (the prophecy only works if all six of his older brothers are alive at the time of his birth), and properly inherits his powers.
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What Could Have Been goes on the Trivia page.
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* AlternateHistory
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* ComicBookAdaptation: ''Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker'' was a twelve-issue limited series by Creator/MarvelComics.
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* WhatMightHaveBeen: At one point, a TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} adaptation of this setting, written (or possibly co-written) by Card himself, was announced. In the two decades since then, it has showed no sign of appearing.
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* AstralProjection: Maker's can do this by projecting part of their soul called a doodlebug.
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* EvilIsSterile: The Un-Maker is incapable of making or creating anything, even something non-physical, like a plan for undoing the works of Alvin Maker. It instead has to rely on its willing human tools to do that sort of thing for it.
* EveryoneIsASuper: It's sometimes implied that every white person has a knack, even if it's somet near useless like being able to draw straight lines.
* EvilIsSterile: The Un-Maker is incapable of making or creating anything, even something non-physical, like a plan for undoing the works of Alvin Maker. It instead has to rely on its willing human tools to do that sort of thing for it.
* EvilIsSterile: The Un-Maker is incapable of making or creating anything, even something non-physical, like a plan for undoing the works of Alvin Maker. It instead has to rely on its willing human tools to do that sort of thing for it.
* TheNudifier: Calvin tries to use his doodlebug to clean his soiled clothes after a night of drinking but ends up making them disappear entirely.
* PlayingWithFire: There's a type of knack-user called a spark who can start fires with their mind. It's said they tend to keep this power a secret to stop them getting blamed for local fires.
* PlayingWithFire: There's a type of knack-user called a spark who can start fires with their mind. It's said they tend to keep this power a secret to stop them getting blamed for local fires.
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* SympatheticMagic
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* ThemeTwinNaming: Alvin has older twin brothers called Wastenot and Wantnot, named after the expression "Waste not, want not".
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* MeaningfulName: Enforced: people in the Alvin Maker universe traditionally use surnames based on whatever their occupation is at the time (a historical practice common in the middle ages), changing their names whenever they take up a new trade. Some of them have obvious meanings: Alvin is initially called "Alvin Miller" because his father is a miller, Makepeace Smith is a blacksmith, and Verily Cooper is a cooper (i.e. he makes barrels). Others are more subtle: Peggy's last name is initially "Guester" because her parents are innkeepers (i.e. they take in travelers as guests), she becomes "Margaret Larner" after becoming a teacher ("larn" being an antiquated pronunciation of "learn", an archaic synonym for "teach"), and Ulysses "Hooch" Palmer is a dishonest peddler ("palm" being an archaic word for "defraud").
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* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: One of the first big moral questions that Alvin must confront in the first book. Early in ''Seventh Son'', he gets into a prank war with his older sisters (which started with him randomly poking one of them in the butt) and decides to get back at them by using his knack to send a bunch of roaches to swarm their room late at night by convincing the roaches that the room is full of food. Soon after, Lolla-Wossiky forces him to relive the entire experience from the' perspective of the roaches (most of which were stomped to death), and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Alvin realizes that he lied to a whole swarm of sentient creatures and knowingly sent them to their deaths]] over a childish feud. This is a big step in Alvin learning the importance of using his knack responsibly.
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* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: One of the first big moral questions that Alvin must confront in the first book. Early in ''Seventh Son'', he gets into a prank war with his older sisters (which started with him randomly poking one of them in the butt) and decides to get back at them by using his knack to send a bunch of roaches to swarm their room late at night by convincing the roaches that the room is full of food. Soon after, Lolla-Wossiky forces him to relive the entire experience from the' the perspective of the roaches (most of which were stomped to death), and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Alvin realizes that he lied to a whole swarm of sentient creatures and knowingly sent them to their deaths]] over a childish feud. This is a big step in Alvin learning the importance of using his knack responsibly.
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* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: "Iroquois" (spelled "[[IstanbulNotConstantinople Irrakawa]]" in the series) is now generally agreed to be an improperly used exonym (it's a French transliteration of a Huron word meaning "snake"); they actually call themselves the "Haudenosaunee", meaning "People of the Longhouse". While it's possible that some people in this world might still incorrectly use that word, the state of Irrakawa wouldn't be called that if it were ''actually'' founded and governed by the tribes of the Haudenosaunee alliance.
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* HexSign: They're drawn as a form of RunicMagic here.
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* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous
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* MasterOfAll: Alvin can duplicate the specialized "knack" abilities of almost every other character of European descent in the series, and the generalist greensong powers of the Native Americans as well. A character {{Lampshade}}s this when a phrenological examination of his head reveals that all of his traits and talents are perfectly balanced, wondering if it means he'll be a JackOfAllTrades, MasterOfNone, or [[TropeNamer Master Of All]].
* POVSequel: The first part of ''Red Prophet'' takes place during the same timeframe as ''Seventh Son'', retelling a few minor events from that book from Lolla-Wossiky's perspective. Lolla-Wossiky is first mentioned in passing in ''Seventh Son'' as an alcoholic and recent Christian convert in Hatrack River, and he briefly appears in Alvin's bedroom to give him a vision; in ''Red Prophet'', the full story of his spiritual awakening is finally told, and we see events leading up to the incident in the bedroom from his perspective. Amusingly, one scene in ''Seventh Son'' has Alvin briefly wondering if he's being watched by Reds while he's out using the outhouse; when we see the same scene in ''Red Prophet'', it's revealed that Lolla-Wossiky actually ''was'' watching him at the time.
* TheRedMage: Alvin can duplicate the specialized "knack" abilities of almost every other character of European descent in the series, and the generalist greensong powers of the Native Americans as well. A character {{Lampshade}}s this when a phrenological examination of his head reveals that all of his traits and talents are perfectly balanced, wondering if it means he'll be a JackOfAllTrades, MasterOfNone, or [[TropeNamer Master Of All]].
* TheRedMage: Alvin can duplicate the specialized "knack" abilities of almost every other character of European descent in the series, and the generalist greensong powers of the Native Americans as well. A character {{Lampshade}}s this when a phrenological examination of his head reveals that all of his traits and talents are perfectly balanced, wondering if it means he'll be a JackOfAllTrades, MasterOfNone, or [[TropeNamer Master Of All]].
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* POVSequel: The first part of ''Red Prophet'' takes place during the same timeframe as ''Seventh Son'', retelling a few minor events from that book from Lolla-Wossiky's perspective. Lolla-Wossiky is first mentioned in passing in ''Seventh Son'' as an alcoholic and recent Christian convert in Hatrack River, and he briefly appears in Alvin's bedroom to give him a vision; in ''Red Prophet'', the full story of his spiritual awakening is finally told, and we see events leading up to the incident in the bedroom from his perspective. Amusingly, one scene in ''Seventh Son'' has Alvin briefly wondering if he's being watched by Reds while he's out using the outhouse; when we see the same scene in ''Red Prophet'', it's revealed that Lolla-Wossiky actually ''was'' watching him at the time.
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* TheAntiGod: The antagonists the Maker's opposite, the Unmaker. It's debated In-universe whether he's the same as The Devil.
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* TheAntiGod: The antagonists antagonist is the Maker's opposite, the Unmaker. It's debated In-universe whether he's the same as The Devil.
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* TheAntiGod: The antagonists the Maker's opposite, the Unmaker. It's debated In-universe whether he's the same as The Devil.
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* MagicalSeventhSon: Makers are both seventh sons of seventh sons and thirteenth child in a family. Notable these refer to the the number of siblings alive when the Maker is born so an older brother dying shortly after Alvin was born meant that the next brother, Calvin also got to be a Maker.
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* MagicalSeventhSon: Makers are both seventh sons of seventh sons and thirteenth child in a family. Notable Notably these refer to the the number of siblings alive when the Maker is born so an older brother dying shortly after Alvin was born meant that the next brother, Calvin also got to be a Maker.
