Frontier Magic is a trilogy of
Young Adult novels by
Patricia C. Wrede. The books are:
They tell the
Coming of Age Story of Eff Rothmer, a supposedly
unlucky thirteenth child, and her twin brother, Lan, a
seventh son of a seventh son. They and their family live out on the edge of the relatively safe part of the
United States of Columbia, watching as every year more and more people brave the dangerous wildlife to
settle the frontier.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Girl
- All There in the Manual
- Anti-Magical Faction: The Society of Progressive Rationalists
- As You Know
- Awesome Yet Practical: The Great Barrier Spell, even though no one can figure out how to do it again.
- Badass Family: The Rothmers
- Badass Normal: William Graham is this by the third book, compared to Eff and Lan. Brant is a more typical example, as he doesn't even use magic, but still managed to save a dozen people from certain death.
- Bat out of Hell: Daybats
- Beware the Nice Ones
- Can't Catch Up: Everyone with regards to Lan, but particularly Eff.
- Chekhov's Gun
- Closer to Earth
- Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: Miss Ochiba has built her teaching career on these. Incredibly, it works.
- Downer Beginning: Poor Eff
- Dreaming The Truth: Eff has some.
- Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Or, rather, Exotic Magic Supremacy. Avrupan magic is never as effective as Aphrikan or Hijero-Cathayan.
- Exposition Break
- Eye of Newt
- Fantastic Racism
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture
- Feminist Fantasy
- First Person Perspective
- Foreshadowing
- Friendly Rivalry: Lan and William have this going on and off.
- Functional Magic
- The Gift
- Government Agency of Fiction
- Happily Married
- High Turnover Rate
- Humans Advance Swiftly
- In Harmony With Nature: Aphrikan magic
- Istanbul Not Constantinople
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Almost all of the women in the story.
- Kudzu Plot
- Magical Negro
- Magical Seventh Son
- Magic Is a Monster Magnet
- Massive Numbered Siblings
- Mr. Exposition
- Multiethnic Name: Maryann Ochiba
- No Antagonist
- Non-Malicious Monster: All of them, really. None of the monsters from the West are interested in anything other than survival.
- Numerological Motif
- Only Known by Initials: Eff is actually short for Francine.
- The Patriarch: Professor Rothmer when the family is in Mill City. Back in Helvan Shores, it's his father.
- Prehistoric Monster: Wooly mammoths and rhinoceros
- River Of Insanity: The Far West functions as this, as very few people who venture out beyond the Great Plains ever coming back, and none manage to keep their sanity.
- Settling The Frontier
- Spirited Young Lady: Eff, among others.
- Thirteen Is Unlucky
- Time to Unlock More True Potential: Eff does this at least once in every book.
- Unable to Support a Wife: Quite yet, explains Roger.
- Wicked Weasel: Swarming weasels
- Wild Wilderness
- Wise Beyond Their Years
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
- World of Action Girls: Eff, Miss Ochiba and Prof Torgeson are just a few. Eff even says that the farther west you get, the less people care about what you are than what you can do.
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