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* TheMultiverse
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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Creator/NeilGaiman (or, at least, an unnamed famous author in a leather jacket whom Maree thinks is good-looking) makes an appearance at the convention.
** In his memorial post about Diana Wynne Jones, Neil also says that Nick's MustHaveCaffeine (and the sleep eating) were based on him.
** In his memorial post about Diana Wynne Jones, Neil also says that Nick's MustHaveCaffeine (and the sleep eating) were based on him.
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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Creator/NeilGaiman (or, at least, an unnamed famous author in a leather jacket whom Maree thinks is good-looking) makes an appearance at the convention.
** In his memorial post about Diana Wynne Jones, Neil also says that Nick's MustHaveCaffeine (and the sleep eating) were based on him.
** Creator/NeilGaiman (or, at least, an unnamed famous author in a leather jacket whom Maree thinks is good-looking) makes an appearance at the convention.
** In his memorial post about Diana Wynne Jones, Neil also says that Nick's MustHaveCaffeine (and the sleep eating) were based on him.
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* BigBeautifulWoman: Zinka. Maree describes her as "plumpish" (but then, Maree's not small herself), and Rupert refers at one point to her "lovely, ample form."
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* BigBeautifulWoman: Zinka. Maree describes her as "plumpish" (but then, Maree's not small herself), and Rupert refers at one point to her "lovely, ample form."form".
* BlessedWithSuck: If people with enough magic power to become magids aren't taught to harness it properly, it has bad effects on their mind, either making them insane or just jerks.
* BlessedWithSuck: If people with enough magic power to become magids aren't taught to harness it properly, it has bad effects on their mind, either making them insane or just jerks.
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* BlessedWithSuck: If people with enough magic power to become magids aren't taught to harness it properly, it has bad effects on their mind, either making them insane or just jerks.
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* DoingItForTheArt: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] InUniverse. Nick and Maree are both disappointed that Nick's father discuss writing in such a mechanical, bland way at the convention. They agree that, despite what he says, he ''must'' love writing, or else he wouldn't be able to imagine his {{Eldritch Abomination}}s so dotingly. And he does--ironically, he's just bad at articulating it.
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Has Two Mommies is now a disambig. Dewicking
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* HasTwoMommies: There's a group of {{Recurring Extra}}s in the book who consist of a trio of [[AmbiguousGender ambiguously-gendered]] people who all share duty taking care of a baby. Rupert and Maree both spend time wondering what their story is.
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* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Nick's mom and Gram White]].
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* OddNameNormalNickname: Nick Mallory's full first name is revealed to be Nicothodes.
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* ImmuneToFate: Magids, to an extent. They're removed from the fatelines [[spoiler:or so Rupert Venables thinks]] once they're made Magids, but Them Up There can still mess with them.
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* ImmuneToFate: Magids, to an extent. They're removed from the fatelines "fatelines" [[spoiler:or so Rupert Venables thinks]] once they're made Magids, but Them Up There can still mess with them.
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* MagicDance: The Witchy Dance is an old kids' game that Maree and Nick used to do to calm down, turns out it has actual power. [[spoiler: It's been keeping the local hedge goddess from completely subsuming Maree and is important in the climax in raising the power needed to danish the goddess for good and reinstate the emperor Koryfos]].
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* OurArchonsAreDifferent: They are part of the make up the 72 beings that run The Upper Room, the local PowersThatBe while also being a CouncilOfAngels. Some take on human form and others do not. [[spoiler:The emperor Koryfos is one of the form.]]
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Added image.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deep_secret.png]]
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----
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* LeyLines: Rupert is very distressed when he realizes the hotel where he's gathering his magical candidates is built at a node between ley lines. It has a bit too much magical power behind it for him to be comfortable working with it.
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* LeyLines: LeyLine: Rupert is very distressed when he realizes the hotel where he's gathering his magical candidates is built at a node between ley lines. It has a bit too much magical power behind it for him to be comfortable working with it.
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* PlaceOfPower: Hotel Babylon is built right on top of a power node, giving it hallways that turn ninety degree angles and keep going on past the point of a perfect square, a clear path to the next dimension over, and a hotel full of people unconsciously attracted to the fan convention it's hosting. (Admittedly, the Rupert's fiddling around with fate may have something to do with the last one.)
to:
* PlaceOfPower: Hotel Babylon is built right on top of a power node, giving it hallways that turn ninety degree angles and keep going on past the point of a perfect square, a clear path to the next dimension over, and a hotel full of people unconsciously attracted to the fan convention it's hosting. (Admittedly, the Rupert's fiddling around with fate may have something to do with the last one.)
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cross wicking
* AlienGeometries: The Hotel Babylon has halls where you can go around more than four right angles before coming back where you started, thanks to the building being on top of a bunch of ley lines. And someone is [[MagicAIsMagicA toying with the node that the hotel is set on.]]
* AllPartOfTheShow: After the action moves to Phantasmacon, a lot of the magical goings-on go unremarked because the con-goers assume they're just part of the convention, with a high point being [[spoiler:an injured centaur]] passing through the busiest part of the convention with the excuse that it's preparation for the costume competition.
* AmnesiacGod: It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:Rupert's rather boring, bland neighbor Andrew]] is actually one part of Emperor Koryfos, who was split into multiple people thousands of years ago. Once returned to his full power, Koryfos then reveals himself to be one of the PowersThatBe.
* AuraVision: One of Rupert's Magid candidates is a new-age-ish woman who claims to be able to read auras and keeps button-holing people and telling them their aura is in a terrible state. After spending some time with her, Rupert determines that she really does have Aura Vision, but her own psyche is so messed up that she can't see through it when she tries to read other people.
* AuraVision: One of Rupert's Magid candidates is a new-age-ish woman who claims to be able to read auras and keeps button-holing people and telling them their aura is in a terrible state. After spending some time with her, Rupert determines that she really does have Aura Vision, but her own psyche is so messed up that she can't see through it when she tries to read other people.
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* ChaosArchitecture: The Hotel Babylon--explicitly so, because someone is [[MagicAIsMagicA toying with the node that the hotel is set on.]]
* ChessMaster: [[spoiler:Nick's mom and Gram White]].
* ChessMaster: [[spoiler:Nick's mom and Gram White]].
to:
* ChaosArchitecture: The Hotel Babylon--explicitly so, because someone is [[MagicAIsMagicA toying with the node that the hotel is set on.]]
* ChessMaster:TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Nick's mom and Gram White]].
* ChessMaster:
* TheConqueror: The Koryfonic Empire was founded by Koryfos, a pseudo-Alexander the Great who conquered entire universes. By the time of the story, his empire has dwindled and is on the verge of total collapse.
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* FanConvention: The main setting for the latter part of the novel.
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* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: One of these occurs when the identities of the Emperor's heirs are uncovered. [[spoiler:Nick and Maree, who thought of themselves as cousins, are actually half-siblings, as they're both children of the Emperor by different mothers. Janine is Nick's real mother, but Ted is only his stepfather.]]
* FanConvention: The main setting for the latter part of thenovel.novel is an sf convention called Phantasmacon.
* FanConvention: The main setting for the latter part of the
* GuardianOfTheMultiverse: The Magids take instruction from a group of PowersThatBe known as "the Upper Room".
* HiddenBackupPrince: ''All'' of Emperor Timos's children are raised in hiding, partly to prevent his enemies taking advantage of them and partly to prevent them getting any ideas about speeding up the succession. This causes problems when an explosion kills the Emperor and destroys the records of where his children are hidden, leaving Rupert with the job of figuring out who and where his heir is.
* HotConsort: High Lady Alexandra, one of the only survivors of the assassination of Emperor Timos and his many wives and consorts, was one of the least important of his consorts. Given how beautiful and intelligent she is, Rupert speculates that after all his political marriages were accomplished, the emperor started picking ones like her for his own amusement.
* HotConsort: High Lady Alexandra, one of the only survivors of the assassination of Emperor Timos and his many wives and consorts, was one of the least important of his consorts. Given how beautiful and intelligent she is, Rupert speculates that after all his political marriages were accomplished, the emperor started picking ones like her for his own amusement.
* IAmNotYourFather: [[spoiler:Nick]] is rather shocked to learn that his mom is the BigBad and the man who raised him is not his real father--in fact, his birth dad is [[spoiler:the recently-murdered Koryfonic Emperor]]. He's visibly relieved when he finds out that ''obviously'' his adoptive father still plans to raise him, despite his mom's death.
* LeyLines: Rupert is very distressed when he realizes the hotel where he's gathering his magical candidates is built at a node between ley lines. It has a bit too much magical power behind it for him to be comfortable working with it.
* NotAMorningPerson: Nick is very much not a morning person. Not only is he grumpy, he can't even speak coherently or open his eyes until he's had four cups of coffee.
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: Centaurs turn out to be very central to the plot, after they first appear roughly halfway through. They're standoffish and proud with a distinctive set of cultural norms, and they, like other magical creatures, can no longer live in this world for long since it's less magical than it used to be. Their human halves are the same color as their horse parts, and their culture is clannish and matrilineal. Female centaurs can interbreed with humans, though it's noted that a human woman could not carry a male centaur's child.
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: Centaurs turn out to be very central to the plot, after they first appear roughly halfway through. They're standoffish and proud with a distinctive set of cultural norms, and they, like other magical creatures, can no longer live in this world for long since it's less magical than it used to be. Their human halves are the same color as their horse parts, and their culture is clannish and matrilineal. Female centaurs can interbreed with humans, though it's noted that a human woman could not carry a male centaur's child.
* PerceptionFilter: Magic-users can put "don't-notice" workings on objects, though it works only as a weak WeirdnessCensor.
* PlaceOfPower: Hotel Babylon is built right on top of a power node, giving it hallways that turn ninety degree angles and keep going on past the point of a perfect square, a clear path to the next dimension over, and a hotel full of people unconsciously attracted to the fan convention it's hosting. (Admittedly, the Rupert's fiddling around with fate may have something to do with the last one.)
* PlaceOfPower: Hotel Babylon is built right on top of a power node, giving it hallways that turn ninety degree angles and keep going on past the point of a perfect square, a clear path to the next dimension over, and a hotel full of people unconsciously attracted to the fan convention it's hosting. (Admittedly, the Rupert's fiddling around with fate may have something to do with the last one.)
* PowersThatBe: The Upper Room, the group that guides the Magids, is a mixture of senior Magids who have been promoted into the group and of greater-than-human Powers. [[spoiler:The emperor Koryfos is one of the latter.]]
* ProductionForeshadowing: The characters mention a demon designed by horror writer Ted Mallory, who is blue, has three legs, smells of ozone and feels acidic. A demon fitting this description is a character in ''Literature/DarkLordOfDerkholm'' which was published a year later.
* ProductionForeshadowing: The characters mention a demon designed by horror writer Ted Mallory, who is blue, has three legs, smells of ozone and feels acidic. A demon fitting this description is a character in ''Literature/DarkLordOfDerkholm'' which was published a year later.
* QuestForAWish: Maree and Nick's journey to Babylon to find a wish-granting entity [[spoiler:that can heal Maree after half her soul was murdered]].
* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: The quest to Babylon to restore [[spoiler:Maree's soul]]. Babylon isn't the land of the dead exactly, but it's definitely "outside here or there", and it's associated with death in the folk songs and myths which contain echoes of it.
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* SaveBothWorlds: More like save ''all'' worlds.
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* SaveBothWorlds: More like save ''all'' worlds.If the villains are successful, it will be bad not only for their own world, but also for many others including Earth.
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* SmallNameBigEgo: An in-universe example in Mervin Thurless, one of the guests at the convention.
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* SmallNameBigEgo: An in-universe example in Mervin Thurless, one of the guests at the convention.
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* SuccessionCrisis: The Koryfonic Emperor is so paranoid that his children will overthrow him that he has them all hidden away with adoptive families; at one point he even executes a son who accidentally found out the truth. Then a bomb goes off in his palace, killing him and most of his wives/consorts, and as the worlds-spanning empire descends into chaos the protagonist has to track down someone capable of taking the throne.
* TwirlOfLove: Rupert and Maree, when they're reunited near the end.
* TwirlOfLove: Rupert and Maree, when they're reunited near the end.
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* HotGuyUglyWife: Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. Maree's old boyfriend was rather handsome, [[spoiler:and she of course ends up with Rupert, who is fairly good-looking and ''does'' love [[SharpDressedMan leather jackets and other stylish clothes.]]]] She's just that plucky, no one can resist her.
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* HotGuyUglyWife: Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. Maree's old boyfriend was rather handsome, [[spoiler:and she of course ends up with Rupert, who is fairly good-looking and ''does'' love [[SharpDressedMan leather jackets and other stylish clothes.]]]] ]] By the time she comes back from Babylon, he's convinced there's no more beautiful woman in all the Multiverse and wouldn't dream of having anyone else.]] She's just that plucky, no one can resist her.
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* UglyGuyHotWife: [[spoiler:Inverted with Maree and Rupert. Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. By the time she comes back from Babylon, he's convinced there's no more beautiful woman in all the Multiverse and wouldn't dream of having anyone else.]]
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* InterspeciesRomance: Rob is ''half'' centaur. Centaur/human interbreeding is described as being a very bad idea, though, with the babies often stillborn (always, if the human is the mother).
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* InterspeciesRomance: Rob is ''half'' centaur. Centaur/human interbreeding is described as being a very bad idea, though, with the babies often stillborn (always, if the human is the mother). It's also indicated that the joining of Rob's parents wasn't romantic as such, but part of a political alliance.
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* KingInTheMountain
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* KingInTheMountainKingInTheMountain: There's a prophecy that the first Koryfonic Emperor -- Koryfos himself -- will return when the Empire is in grave need. [[spoiler:He shows up at the end of the novel, at the head of a detachment of Imperial troops, just in time to help defeat the villains]].
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: The prophecy about Emperor Koryfos returning when the Empire was in great need comes true near the end. Rupert's superiors mention that not all prophecies are right, but this one happened to be from a reliable source.
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* SmallNameBigEgo: An in-universe example in Mervin Thurless.
* SpiritAdvisor: Stan.
* SpiritAdvisor: Stan.
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* SmallNameBigEgo: An in-universe example in Mervin Thurless.
Thurless, one of the guests at the convention.
* SpiritAdvisor:Stan.Stan gets a dispensation to stick around as a ghost and help Rupert find his successor.
* UglyGuyHotWife: [[spoiler:Inverted with Maree and Rupert. Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. By the time she comes back from Babylon, he's convinced there's no more beautiful woman in all the Multiverse and wouldn't dream of having anyone else.]]
* SpiritAdvisor:
* UglyGuyHotWife: [[spoiler:Inverted with Maree and Rupert. Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. By the time she comes back from Babylon, he's convinced there's no more beautiful woman in all the Multiverse and wouldn't dream of having anyone else.]]
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* HotGuyUglyWife: Maree's old boyfriend was rather handsome, [[spoiler:and she of course ends up with Rupert, who is fairly good-looking and ''does'' love [[SharpDressedMan leather jackets and other stylish clothes.]]]] She's just that plucky, no one can resist her.
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* HotGuyUglyWife: Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. Maree's old boyfriend was rather handsome, [[spoiler:and she of course ends up with Rupert, who is fairly good-looking and ''does'' love [[SharpDressedMan leather jackets and other stylish clothes.]]]] She's just that plucky, no one can resist her.
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* UglyGuyHotWife: [[spoiler:Inverted with Maree and Rupert. Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. Of course, by the time she comes back from Babylon, he's convinced there's no more beautiful woman in all the Multiverse and wouldn't dream of having anyone else.]]
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Rupert is not a failure; he's explicitly said to have been more successful than his superiors expected. The actions of his which contribute to the day being saved are not always the ones he intends, or in the way he intends, but he does contribute. If it weren't for his actions earlier in the novel, there would have been no cavalry at the end.
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* FailureHero: Rupert spends all of the novel bumbling around and screwing things up, and during the climax [[spoiler:his only contribution is holding a shield long enough to save his own skin before TheCavalry saves the day for him.]]
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extracted from The Magids
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[[redirect:Literature/TheMagids]]
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The [[TheEmpire Koryfonic Empire]] sits in the center of the multiverse. That is because the multiverse itself is shaped as an infinity sign, with the Koryfonic headquarters on the center of it all, its empire ruling across several worlds with an iron fist. Its domains include both sides of the multiverse. One side is "Ayewards", in which magic is common practice and easy to do, while the other is "Naywards", the worlds in which magic is nothing more than superstition, if not completely unknown. Our Earth is currently on the Naywards side, and seems to have been sliding back for a while.
Keeping watch over the balance of magic, a group of persons of great power called the Magids have a great number of agents on each one of the worlds, Ayewards and Naywards alike. One of the Magids from Earth, Stan, passes away. His successor Rupert Venables needs to find a successor himself to replace his late mentor. Among them he finds a great prospect on the person of Maree Mallory; however, he is horrified to find that she doesn't seem to be ethical enough for the Magid job, and all other candidates are on different parts of the globe. Looking for a way to contact them all, he meddles with the fates of each one to get them all together at a [[FanConvention Fantasy Convention]] at Hotel Babylon near where he lives, but they are not the only ones to show up.
Not being in enough trouble, Rupert is also suddenly called to the Koryfonic Empire. A terrorist attack blows up the palace and kills the Emperor and most higher-ups, and odd customs make finding the heirs very hard, what with most of them already being dead and the others protected by a very secure system. Rupert gets his hands full with both jobs as he searches for the missing heirs and searches for a Magid successor, and things start getting out of hand quickly.
The book has a lot of tense situations while still poking fun at its own nature and, of course, at fantasy conventions themselves. It also is, unlike many of Jones's novels, written for adults and has no qualms on mentioning sex and featuring horror.
''Deep Secret'' was followed by ''Literature/TheMerlinConspiracy'', featuring the further adventures of Maree's cousin Nick. The second book is somewhat tamer than the first and can be enjoyed without having read the first, though some backstory may be missed. It is also less definitely aimed at young adults; this is part of the reason it was not advertised as a sequel.
----
!!Tropes appearing in ''Deep Secret'' include:
* AlliterativeFamily: Rupert's brother Will Venables has six daughters, all of whose names begin with the letter V.
* AmicableExes: Rupert and Zinka used to date. They broke up many years ago, but are still very good friends and still stick out for each other.
* BeautifulAllAlong: A variant of sorts. [[spoiler:Maree doesn't actually get any more physically attractive, apart from a haircut and change of clothes, and she was never a looker to begin with. However, due to both understanding her personality better and the fact that she's very nearly just come BackFromTheDead, Rupert ''perceives'' her as more beautiful, and that's good enough for him.]]
* BelligerentSexualTension: Rupert and Maree. Both of them having JerkWithAHeartOfGold tendencies helps ''nothing.''
* BigBeautifulWoman: Zinka. Maree describes her as "plumpish" (but then, Maree's not small herself), and Rupert refers at one point to her "lovely, ample form."
* BumblingDad: Nick's. Despite being a famous horror writer, he absolutely does not understand his teenaged son.
* BlessedWithSuck: If people with enough magic power to become magids aren't taught to harness it properly, it has bad effects on their mind, either making them insane or just jerks.
* CarnivoreConfusion: Everyone wonders if the centaur Rob eats meat. (He does.)
* ChaosArchitecture: The Hotel Babylon--explicitly so, because someone is [[MagicAIsMagicA toying with the node that the hotel is set on.]]
* ChessMaster: [[spoiler:Nick's mom and Gram White]].
* ChubbyChaser: Rupert seems to go for larger women.
* CloudCuckoolander: Andrew, though there's a reason for that.
* DoingItForTheArt: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] InUniverse. Nick and Maree are both disappointed that Nick's father discuss writing in such a mechanical, bland way at the convention. They agree that, despite what he says, he ''must'' love writing, or else he wouldn't be able to imagine his {{Eldritch Abomination}}s so dotingly. And he does--ironically, he's just bad at articulating it.
* FaceDoodling: Pulled by Zinka on a poor slob left drunkenly passed out on the stairs. Rupert notes that the vines she's drawing will bring him under her power.
* FailureHero: Rupert spends all of the novel bumbling around and screwing things up, and during the climax [[spoiler:his only contribution is holding a shield long enough to save his own skin before TheCavalry saves the day for him.]]
* FanConvention: The main setting for the latter part of the novel.
* FantasticRacism: Thanks to being brought up on an isolated compound, Rob is confused about why he should care about the deaths of people outside his family. Will sets him straight.
* {{Geas}}: [[spoiler:Rupert defeats one antagonist by putting him under a geas not to cast magic. If broken, he would die. He does.]]
* GoodBadGirl: Zinka rather gets around (and makes spending money while on Earth by selling her, uh, [[{{Rule 34}} interesting artwork]] at conventions), but she's quite well-respected and generally considered a really good person by everyone who meets her.
* HalfHumanHybrids: [[spoiler:Rob the centaur, and he's not the only centaur of the sort.]]
* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler:Nick and Maree. Neither of their "fathers" is actually related to them. Maree starts calling her stepfather her "As-it-were Dad" and still loves him immensely. Nick has some difficulty getting to know his stepfather for real, but in the end, he's still better than Janine.]]
* HasTwoMommies: There's a group of {{Recurring Extra}}s in the book who consist of a trio of [[AmbiguousGender ambiguously-gendered]] people who all share duty taking care of a baby. Rupert and Maree both spend time wondering what their story is.
* HotGuyUglyWife: Maree's old boyfriend was rather handsome, [[spoiler:and she of course ends up with Rupert, who is fairly good-looking and ''does'' love [[SharpDressedMan leather jackets and other stylish clothes.]]]] She's just that plucky, no one can resist her.
* ImmuneToFate: Magids, to an extent. They're removed from the fatelines [[spoiler:or so Rupert Venables thinks]] once they're made Magids, but Them Up There can still mess with them.
* InterspeciesRomance: Rob is ''half'' centaur. Centaur/human interbreeding is described as being a very bad idea, though, with the babies often stillborn (always, if the human is the mother).
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Nick, Rupert, ''and'' Maree all have rather bitter exteriors hiding kind hearts. In all three of their cases, it's mostly a defense mechanism--Rupert against his job, and Nick and Maree against their mother/aunt. Nick also has the excuse of being [[TeensAreMonsters fourteen.]]
* KingInTheMountain
* LoveAtFirstSight: A variation. Rupert realizes, after meeting the ''real'' Maree for the first time, that he was deeply infatuated with her just from the vibe she gave off in the letter she wrote back to him. Repulsed by her appearance, he changes his mind [[spoiler:but after spending more time with her, he realizes that he loves her anyway]].
* MeetCute: And lord, what a meeting it is...
* MoreThanMindControl: [[spoiler:Nick's mother uses this on him.]] (He's mostly immune by the time the story takes place).
* TheMultiverse
* MustHaveCaffeine: Nick is a classic example of this trope.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Creator/NeilGaiman (or, at least, an unnamed famous author in a leather jacket whom Maree thinks is good-looking) makes an appearance at the convention.
** In his memorial post about Diana Wynne Jones, Neil also says that Nick's MustHaveCaffeine (and the sleep eating) were based on him.
* NoBloodTies: In centaur culture, like in RealLife matrilineal societies, a male centaur is expected to be more loyal to his sister's children than his own. This is a plot point, as it explains Rob's upbringing: [[spoiler:the (human) emperor was [[HalfHumanHybrids his father]], and his uncle brought him up]].
* OutOfClothesExperience: On the journey to Babylon, Nick feels a thorn cut his stomach and suddenly realizes that all of their clothes have disappeared (which sucks extra, given that it's freezing and the ground is rather rough). A short while later, they find trees filled with any clothes that they've ever given away in the past, and dress in those.
* PluckyGirl: Maree, to the point where even [[spoiler:losing half her soul]] won't stop her.
* RagsToRoyalty: [[spoiler:Nick, Rob, ''and Maree'' are all royalty. Nick and Rob know; Maree doesn't, and when she finds out, she is NOT pleased.]]
* RuleThirtyFour: Actually invoked ''in-story,'' as the character of Zinka likes to sell her... ''interesting'' paintings at the convention.
* SaveBothWorlds: More like save ''all'' worlds.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: Rupert's glasses are described as doing this at one point when he's especially angry at someone.
* ScrewDestiny: Rupert finds himself thinking this a ''lot.''
* SelflessWish: When Maree and Nick [[spoiler:reach Babylon]], Maree is supposed to wish for [[spoiler:the other half of her soul back]], but instead wishes for her dad to be cured of cancer, so Nick, in turn, has to use his wish on her.
* SmallNameBigEgo: An in-universe example in Mervin Thurless.
* SpiritAdvisor: Stan.
* UglyGuyHotWife: [[spoiler:Inverted with Maree and Rupert. Rupert is repulsed by Maree at first, her being chubby, a bit smudgy, and her voice being rather whiny. Of course, by the time she comes back from Babylon, he's convinced there's no more beautiful woman in all the Multiverse and wouldn't dream of having anyone else.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Janine would ''murder'' several.]]
* YouAreInCommandNow: Dakros, a mid-ranking military official, winds up in charge of the entire Koryfonic empire when the Emperor, and almost all of his high-ranking staff, are assassinated. Rupert even suggests that he take over as Emperor for good, but Dakros [[{{Cincinnatus}} vehemently refuses]].
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