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* MuggingTheMonster: Zancresta not only [[TrashTalk dismisses Snooth as being of any consequence]], he actually insults and threatens her with bodily harm when she won't give him the medicine and dares to interrupt his MotiveRant by demanding payment for the damages to her shop. Big mistake, since [[spoiler:she's got an all-powerful and fairly wicked genie [[KangarooPouchRide in her pouch]]]]. [[DeaderThanDead He regrets it]].
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* MuggingTheMonster: Zancresta not only [[TrashTalk dismisses Snooth as being of any consequence]], he actually insults and threatens her with bodily harm when she won't give him the medicine and dares to interrupt his MotiveRant by demanding payment for the damages to her shop. Big mistake, since [[spoiler:she's got an all-powerful and fairly wicked genie [[KangarooPouchRide in her pouch]]]]. pouch]]. He tries to beg for mercy, so the djinni gives it to him - [[DeaderThanDead He regrets it]].by crushing him to paste fast instead of slow]]]].
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** In the third book and fifth book it even becomes ''more'' literal, as Jon-Tom has to battle with a ''[[UpToEleven mockingbird]] Spellsinger brought in by the villain - after their attle ends in a draw, though, the bird declares Jon-Tom a WorthyOpponent and [[HeelFaceTurn joins with him]] in a "jam" session ([[IncrediblyLamePun minus the berries]]).
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** In the third book and fifth book it even becomes ''more'' literal, as Jon-Tom has to battle with a ''[[UpToEleven mockingbird]] mockingbird]]'' Spellsinger brought in by the villain - after their attle ends in a draw, though, the bird declares Jon-Tom a WorthyOpponent and [[HeelFaceTurn joins with him]] in a "jam" session ([[IncrediblyLamePun minus the berries]]).
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* ThePowerOfRock: Literally--the music Jon-Tom plays with his duar creates magical spells of varying effect. In the third book and fifth book it even becomes ''more'' literal, as book three includes a raven Spellsinger brought in by the villain to have a magical showdown (except the fellow is more of a WorthyOpponent and ends up turning it into an awesome jam session), and book five has a whole band of MagicMusic-playing demons Jon-Tom has to fight--and he actually ''destroys'' them with a particularly powerful song ([[LoudOfWar musically]], not just magically).
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* ThePowerOfRock: Literally--the music Jon-Tom plays with his duar creates magical spells of varying effect. effect.
** In the third book and fifth book it even becomes ''more'' literal, asbook three includes Jon-Tom has to battle with a raven ''[[UpToEleven mockingbird]] Spellsinger brought in by the villain to have - after their attle ends in a magical showdown (except draw, though, the fellow is more of bird declares Jon-Tom a WorthyOpponent and ends up turning it into an awesome jam session), and book [[HeelFaceTurn joins with him]] in a "jam" session ([[IncrediblyLamePun minus the berries]]).
** Book five has a whole band of MagicMusic-playing demons Jon-Tom has to fight--and he actually ''destroys'' them with a particularly powerful song ([[LoudOfWar musically]], not just magically).
** In the third book and fifth book it even becomes ''more'' literal, as
** Book five has a whole band of MagicMusic-playing demons Jon-Tom has to fight--and he actually ''destroys'' them with a particularly powerful song ([[LoudOfWar musically]], not just magically).
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* AnimalStereotypes: Appears everywhere, but a particularly prominent example is the BigBad of book five, a wolverine...who is an AxCrazy wizard who [[LonersAreFreaks abandoned his people]] because they in turn [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer would not accept him]] and [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery wants to make the whole world insane like him, even if the being he uses to do it also destroys creation]]. When Jon-Tom [[HopeSpot succeeds in curing his insanity]] he then still ends up trying to kill the heroes--partly because Jon-Tom took away [[EvilFeelsGood something he was actually enjoying]] that made him unique in his opinion, and partly because of the HotBlooded BerserkButton tendency of wolverines.
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* AnimalStereotypes: Appears everywhere, but from [[CunningLikeAFox clever foxes]] to [[CatsAreMean villainous cats]] to sex-crazed otters to temperamental badgers to evil insects. But a particularly prominent example is the BigBad of book five, a wolverine...who is an AxCrazy wizard who [[LonersAreFreaks abandoned his people]] because they in turn [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer would not accept him]] [[SubvertedTrope for being a coward]]--and this is actually suggested as the ''reason'' he is insane, that being HotBlooded and fierce fighters is so in the nature of wolverines that his mind could not handle him being a coward. As a result, he [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery wants to make the whole world insane like him, even if the being he uses to do it also destroys creation]]. When Jon-Tom the departure of the perambulator [[HopeSpot succeeds in curing cures his insanity]] insanity]], [[DoubleSubversion he then still ends up trying to kill the heroes--partly heroes]]--partly because by freeing it Jon-Tom took away [[EvilFeelsGood something he was actually enjoying]] that made him unique and powerful in his opinion, and partly because of the HotBlooded BerserkButton tendency of wolverines.wolverines.
** Subversions do exist, however. The Weavers of Gossameringue, despite their fearsome appearance, turn out to be loyal and dependable allies; Colin the koala, far from being somnolent, lethargic, and slow of mind is a {{Badass}} warrior and runecaster; and Dormas the hinny, while a bit stubborn, is also one of the calmest and most sensible members of the party.
** Subversions do exist, however. The Weavers of Gossameringue, despite their fearsome appearance, turn out to be loyal and dependable allies; Colin the koala, far from being somnolent, lethargic, and slow of mind is a {{Badass}} warrior and runecaster; and Dormas the hinny, while a bit stubborn, is also one of the calmest and most sensible members of the party.
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him. [[spoiler: They turn him into an AndroclesLion by repairing his rotting sabertooth with spellsinging. He's so overjoyed to be free of pain he brings them have the Veritable and the giant golden stand it came with.]]
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him. [[spoiler: They turn him into an AndroclesLion by repairing his rotting sabertooth with spellsinging. He's so overjoyed to be free of pain he brings lets them have the Veritable and the giant golden stand it came with.]]
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* InevitableWaterfall: ''Four'' waterfalls actually, at the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Helldrink]] in the second book.
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* InevitableWaterfall: ''Four'' waterfalls actually, at the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Helldrink]] in the second book. [[spoiler: Unlike most examples of the trope, Helldrink is quite lethal to anyone foolish enough to get that far, and only some VERY fast work by Clothahump saves the party.]]
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** Flor is infatuated with Caz, a rabbit.
** Pog the bat is in love with a falcon.
** Pog the bat is in love with a falcon.
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** Flor is infatuated with Caz, a rabbit.
rabbit. [[spoiler:Much to Jon-Tom's chagrin, they end up a couple at the end.]]
** Pog the bat is in love with a falcon. [[spoiler:Jon-Tom turns him into a most magnificent phoenix in the end, but whether he gets the girl is left up to the reader.]]
** Pog the bat is in love with a falcon. [[spoiler:Jon-Tom turns him into a most magnificent phoenix in the end, but whether he gets the girl is left up to the reader.]]
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* LoveableRogue: Mudge, for a certain definition of "loveable".
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* LoveableRogue: Played with with Mudge, for a certain definition of "loveable"."loveable". Yes, he's as cute as any otter, but he's also a gambling, hard-drinking, harder-wenching bastard who's hello to Jon-Tom is to stab him with a rapier.
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* BugWar: The periodic wars against the Plated Folk.
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* BugWar: The periodic wars against the Plated Folk.Folk, much more difficult in that unlike most Bug Wars, the bugs in question are ''sentient.''
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* BestialityIsDepraved: Played with throughout the series, but especially in the first book. These animals walk upright and are sentient, but Jon-Tom just cannot bring himself to a liason with them.
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* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: The dancing ermine at the Pearl Possum. Jon-Tom is squicked at finding himself as aroused as the various other species of patrons.
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* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: The dancing ermine at the Pearl Possum. Jon-Tom is squicked [[BestialityIsDepraved squicked]] at finding himself as aroused as the various other species of patrons.
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* ZergRush: The Plated Folk's preferred method of attack, rather appropriately as they are all insects. [[spoiler:In ''The Hour of the Gate'', they actually use a ZergRush as a ''feint'' to cover their real tactics: explode the Jo-Troom Gate from underneath and drop paratroopers behind the wall to catch the Warmlanders in a pincer.]]
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him. [[spoiler: They turn him into an AndroclesLion by repairing a rotting saber with spellsinging. He's so overjoyed to be free of pain he brings them have the Veritable and the giant golden stand it came with.]]
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him. [[spoiler: They turn him into an AndroclesLion by repairing a his rotting saber sabertooth with spellsinging. He's so overjoyed to be free of pain he brings them have the Veritable and the giant golden stand it came with.]]
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* ShoutOut: A huge one to LordOfTheRings in ''The Hour of the Gate.'' [[spoiler:The Plated Folk blow up the Jo-Troom Gate exactly like the Uruk-Hai blew up the outer wall in Helm's Deep - with high explosives. More generally, they had acquired a military computer, and were using it to vastly improve their tactics, much as Saurman helped the Uruk-Hai.]]
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* ShoutOut: A huge one to LordOfTheRings in ''The Hour of the Gate.'' [[spoiler:The Plated Folk blow up the Jo-Troom Gate exactly like the Uruk-Hai blew up the outer wall in Helm's Deep - with high explosives. More generally, they had acquired a military computer, and were using it to vastly improve their tactics, much as Saurman helped gave the Uruk-Hai.Uruk-Hai new tactics to breach the wall mere Orcs never had managed to breach.]]
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him. [[spoiler: They use an even older {{Aesop}} to get him on their side, by repairing a rotting saber with spellsinging. He's so overjoyed to be free of pain he brings them have the Veritable and the giant golden stand it came with.]]
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him. [[spoiler: They use an even older {{Aesop}} to get turn him on their side, into an AndroclesLion by repairing a rotting saber with spellsinging. He's so overjoyed to be free of pain he brings them have the Veritable and the giant golden stand it came with.]]
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* PirateParrot: Corroboc and Kamaulk. In this case, the parrots ''are'' the pirates.
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* PirateParrot: Played with in the case of Corroboc and Kamaulk. In this case, the The parrots ''are'' the pirates.pirates, and incredibly nasty.
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-->'''Mudge:''' I'll have you know, me elephantine kitten, that [[SophisticatedAsHell my language is as fucking refined as anyone's!]]
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-->'''Mudge:''' I'll have you know, me elephantine kitten, that [[SophisticatedAsHell [[CompletelyMissingThePoint my language is as fucking refined as anyone's!]]
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him:
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** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also averts this, in the form of a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him:him. [[spoiler: They use an even older {{Aesop}} to get him on their side, by repairing a rotting saber with spellsinging. He's so overjoyed to be free of pain he brings them have the Veritable and the giant golden stand it came with.]]
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** Roseroar. Although when dealing with Corroboc at the end of the third book [[TastesLikeChicken she doesn't even bother with her swords]].
** Corroboc himself could allegedly throw four knives at once: one with each wing, one with his beak, and one with his good foot while perching on his peg leg.
** Corroboc himself could allegedly throw four knives at once: one with each wing, one with his beak, and one with his good foot while perching on his peg leg.
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** Roseroar. Although when dealing with Corroboc at the end of the third book [[TastesLikeChicken she doesn't even bother with her swords]].
swords]]. [[spoiler:She doesn't actually eat him, but uses her claws to dismember him faster then he can draw his sword.]]
** Corroboc himself could allegedly throw four knives at once: one with each wing, one with his beak, and one with his good foot while perching on his peg leg. [[spoiler: It doesn't do him the slightest bit of good against an enraged Roseroar.]]
** Corroboc himself could allegedly throw four knives at once: one with each wing, one with his beak, and one with his good foot while perching on his peg leg. [[spoiler: It doesn't do him the slightest bit of good against an enraged Roseroar.]]
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%%* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy
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%%* UnfazedEveryman: Jon Tom
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%%* AndCallHimGeorge
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%%* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Jon-Tom
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%%* GeniusLoci: The Brulumpus.
%%* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Empress Skrritch
%%* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Empress Skrritch
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%%*
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Empress
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** The spider folk of Gossameringue and the owl/lemur town of Ironcloud. [[spoiler:Rather like the elves and Rohirrim in the Film\LordOfTheRings, both send late war parties to help defend the Jo-Troom Gate, and combined prove decisive.]]
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** The spider folk of Gossameringue and the owl/lemur town of Ironcloud. [[spoiler:Rather like the elves and Rohirrim in the Film\LordOfTheRings, Film/LordOfTheRings, both send late war parties to help defend the Jo-Troom Gate, and combined prove decisive.]]
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* HollywoodTactics: Subverted in the second book when the heroes find the Plated Folk are fighting with [[TunnelKing intelligent]] [[ItsRainingMen tactics]], which are supplied by [[spoiler:a military computer from Earth]]. This is an OhCrap moment by Clothahump who notes that magic items or great beasts he can counter, but there is no simple way to deal with what an enemy ''knows''.
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* HollywoodTactics: Subverted in the second book when the heroes find the Plated Folk are fighting with [[TunnelKing intelligent]] [[ItsRainingMen tactics]], which are supplied by [[spoiler:a military computer from Earth]]. This is an OhCrap moment by Clothahump who notes that magic items or great beasts he can counter, but there is no simple way to deal with what an enemy ''knows''. Also see ShoutOut below.
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** The spider folk of Gossameringue and the owl/lemur town of Ironcloud. [[spoiler:Rather like the elves and Rohirrim in the {{Film\LordOfTheRings}}, both send late war parties to help defend the Jo-Troom Gate, and combined prove decisive.]]
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** The spider folk of Gossameringue and the owl/lemur town of Ironcloud. [[spoiler:Rather like the elves and Rohirrim in the {{Film\LordOfTheRings}}, Film\LordOfTheRings, both send late war parties to help defend the Jo-Troom Gate, and combined prove decisive.]]
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** The spider folk of Gossameringue and the owl/lemur town of Ironcloud.
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** The spider folk of Gossameringue and the owl/lemur town of Ironcloud. [[spoiler:Rather like the elves and Rohirrim in the {{Film\LordOfTheRings}}, both send late war parties to help defend the Jo-Troom Gate, and combined prove decisive.]]
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*** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also features a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him:
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*** ''Son of Spellsinger'' also features a very feral smilodon [[spoiler:as the Guardian of the Grand Veritable.]] There isn't the least bit of CarnivoreConfusion about him:
-->'''Guardian''':I don't discriminate between idiots and geniuses. They all taste the same going down.
-->'''Guardian''':I don't discriminate between idiots and geniuses. They all taste the same going down.
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* ShoutOut: A huge one to LordOfTheRings in ''The Hour of the Gate.'' [[spoiler:The Plated Folk blow up the Jo-Troom Gate exactly like the Uruk-Hai blew up the outer wall in Helm's Deep - with high explosives. More generally, they had acquired a military computer, and were using it to vastly improve their tactics, much as Saurman helped the Uruk-Hai.]]
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* FrogsAndToads: The boatman from ''The Hour Of The Gate''
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* FrogsAndToads: The boatman Bribbens from ''The Hour Of The Gate''
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** The spider folk and the owl/lemur town.
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** The spider folk of Gossameringue and the owl/lemur town.town of Ironcloud.
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* NowDoItAgainBackwards: Played with, and inverted. At one point in book five, when one of the perambulator's reality tweaks causes [[HumanityEnsues all the animal members of the party to turn into humans]], Jon-Tom proceeds to change them back by singing Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch"...backwards. Unfortunately for him, this also causes him to turn into a howler monkey, so that he must then sing the song forwards again to restore himself.
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* NowDoItAgainBackwards: Played with, and inverted. At one point in book five, when one of the perambulator's reality tweaks causes [[HumanityEnsues all the animal members of the party to turn into humans]], Jon-Tom proceeds to change them back by singing Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch"...backwards. Unfortunately for him, this also causes him to turn into a howler monkey, so that monkey; he must then sing considers singing the song forwards again to restore himself.himself, but has to pick something else so as to protect his friends.
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* WackyWaysideTribe: Occurs everywhere, but is particularly prevalent in books three and five where Jon-Tom and his party keep encountering people or random events which have nothing to do with their goal. Book three alone has the fungi of the Muddletop Moors, Corraboc and his pirates, the HiddenElfVillage, the interlude with the virgin, and the town they had to hole up in to be safe from the moving desert. Book five has a literal one with the tribe that captures Jon-Tom and the others until they are rescued by Colin.
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* WackyWaysideTribe: Occurs everywhere, but is particularly prevalent in books three and five six where Jon-Tom and his party keep encountering people or random events which have nothing to do with their goal. Book three alone has the fungi of the Muddletop Moors, Corraboc and his pirates, the HiddenElfVillage, the interlude with the virgin, and the town they had to hole up in to be safe from the moving desert. desert, while book six has the pirates, the cannibal village, the Tree-Hunters and the Lost City, and the Ogre village. Book five also has a literal one with the tribe that captures Jon-Tom and the others until they are rescued by find in the northern forests which has captured Colin.
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* MuggingTheMonster: Zancresta not only [[TrashTalk dismisses Snooth as being of any consequence]], he actually insults and threatens her with bodily harm when she won't give him the medicine and dares to speak up during his MotiveRant. Big mistake, since [[spoiler:she's got an all-powerful and fairly wicked genie [[KangarooPouchRide in her pouch]]]]. [[DeaderThanDead He regrets it]].
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* MuggingTheMonster: Zancresta not only [[TrashTalk dismisses Snooth as being of any consequence]], he actually insults and threatens her with bodily harm when she won't give him the medicine and dares to speak up during interrupt his MotiveRant.MotiveRant by demanding payment for the damages to her shop. Big mistake, since [[spoiler:she's got an all-powerful and fairly wicked genie [[KangarooPouchRide in her pouch]]]]. [[DeaderThanDead He regrets it]].
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The ''Spellsinger'' series is a fantasy series written by AlanDeanFoster.
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The ''Spellsinger'' series is a fantasy series written by AlanDeanFoster.
Creator/AlanDeanFoster.
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* ChummyCommies: Played with: the local communist, the dragon Falameezar, who is quite heroic if a bit of a KnightTemplar.
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* DirtyCommunists: Averted with the local communist, the dragon Falameezar, who is quite heroic if a bit of a KnightTemplar.
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** [[CatGirl Roseroar]] briefly muses about a dalliance with Jon-Tom but quickly decides he's [[DestructoNookie much too fragile]]. (At least, that's what she tells herself to keep her obvious jealousy under control.)
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** [[CatGirl Roseroar]] briefly muses about a dalliance with Jon-Tom but quickly decides he's [[DestructoNookie [[ManofSteelWomanofKleenex much too fragile]]. (At least, that's what she tells herself to keep her obvious jealousy under control.)
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The ''Spellsinger'' series is a fantasy series written by AlanDeanFoster.
In the first book, ''Spellsinger'', the hero Jonathan Thomas Meriweather, also known as Jon-Tom, is a prelaw student with pretentions to rock stardom, who is innocently smoking pot when he's abruptly transported from the University of California at Los Angeles to a weird world in which [[LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy animals talk, wear clothing, and live alongside humans]] by the turtle wizard Clothahump, who was searching for a great wizardly "En'geeniar" (meaning an engineer, as he was under the impression that this is the name our world gives to wizards). Unfortunately, he caught Jon-Tom, who works part-time as a janitor and on his pay stubs is called a "sanitation engineer"[[hottip:*:and his mind was "the most receptive" at the moment, which might have had to do with that joint he smoked]].
It all works out for the best, though, as Jon-Tom soon discovers that in the magical world he has the power of a spellsinger: a wizard who can make powerful magic through music. Using this new-found power, he and a cast of creatures set out to do battle with the evil anthropomorphic insects known as the Plated Folk.
----
!!''Spellsinger'' provides examples of:
%%%
%%%Zero Context Examples are commented out. To restore them please read the tropes and describe
%%%how this work uses them.
%%%
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Flores, whom Jon-Tom had a crush on back at UCLA. To his great dismay, it turns out she's ''not'' a ditzy [[TheCheerleader Cheerleader]], but an ActionGirl.
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Accidentally applied to a village full of wading birds in ''Chorus Skating'', when Jon-Tom magically re-grows their lost feathers by revising the lyrics of songs about custom auto paint jobs. Luckily, the altered birds get a real kick out of their new makeovers.
%%* AndCallHimGeorge
* AndIMustScream: Jon-Tom when he's captured by the underwater Plated Folk colony in the fourth book. His captors need to carry him back alive and whole to their homeland [[AFateWorseThanDeath to answer for his crimes]], but they don't dare give him the slightest chance to work his magic. Enter "[[BewareMyStingerTail The]] [[TheParalyzer Ruze]]"...
* AnimalStereotypes: Appears everywhere, but a particularly prominent example is the BigBad of book five, a wolverine...who is an AxCrazy wizard who [[LonersAreFreaks abandoned his people]] because they in turn [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer would not accept him]] and [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery wants to make the whole world insane like him, even if the being he uses to do it also destroys creation]]. When Jon-Tom [[HopeSpot succeeds in curing his insanity]] he then still ends up trying to kill the heroes--partly because Jon-Tom took away [[EvilFeelsGood something he was actually enjoying]] that made him unique in his opinion, and partly because of the HotBlooded BerserkButton tendency of wolverines.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Or possibly Animorphic Personification. Or something in between. Either way, Gyrnaught is evidently the Personification of the Nazi [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reichsadler.svg Iron Eagle symbol]].
* AnythingThatMoves: If it's female and a mammal, Mudge will almost certainly make a pass at it (though he's a bit more hesitant than usual with regards to Roseroar, due to fear of angering her). According to his son, Squill, in book seven, the average mink makes him look like a celibate.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Talea at the end of book two.]]
* BearsAreBadNews: Several bears turn up as elite Mooks for villains, and occasionally as TheDragon.
* BugWar: The periodic wars against the Plated Folk.
* BunniesForCuteness: Played straight with Caz, although contrasted by his QuintessentialBritishGentleman personality.
* CanonWelding: ''Chorus Skating'', the last novel, includes repeated cameo appearances by [[spoiler: a dimension-hopping [[HumanxCommonwealth thranx]]]].
* CarnivoreConfusion: Solved via the inclusion of many non-sapient reptile species.
** Although there was one brief scene where an owl (Clothahump's [[TheAlcoholic drunken assistant]] Sorbl) is seen quickly gulping down a mouse; whether or not it was someone's father was never addressed.
** Likely a continuity error when he just wasn't thinking, as mice are considered quite sentient and the suggestion of eating any sentient being fills anyone but the most evil with disgust and horror. So 'well the owl ought to be eating a mouse because owls eat mice' and totally forgetting he wrote mice as sentient and far larger than the non-sentient variety.
*** Or maybe Jon-Tom only caught a glimpse of something mouse-sized with a long tail in the frying pan, and subconsciously ''assumed'' it was a mouse for the same reason. In which case, it was probably a small long-tailed lizard. Indeed, a mouse from the Warmlands would probably be much too big for Sorbl to swallow.
** ''Son of Spellsinger'' suggests that even the now-civilized Warmlander carnivores used to prey on the others, but gave that up around the dawn of history, at the same time they started walking upright. Throughout the series, many WackyWaysideTribe encounters involve throwbacks that have backslid into such cannibalism.
* ChangingOfTheGuard: Subverted. The 7th book hands off the story to Jon-Tom's son and Mudge's kids, but the original duo take back the spotlight for the 8th and final novel.
* ChekhovsGun: The large amount of money that Jon-Tom wins by gambling in the first book is used to pay a boatman to take them into Plated Folk lands when no one else has any money.
* ContemptibleCover: Most of the early editions' covers seem to have nothing to do with the actual contents.
* CosmicHorror: M'nemaxa. Also, Massawrath, Mother of Nightmares, but she lives under a mountain.
%%* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Jon-Tom
* DirtyCommunists: Averted with the local communist, the dragon Falameezar, who is quite heroic if a bit of a KnightTemplar.
* DirtyCoward: Mudge likes to ''pretend'' he's one of these, probably so that others won't expect anything from him. The degree of competence he reveals when his help is truly needed makes him more of a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass.
* DreadfulMusician:
** Jon-Tom can ''play'' well, but his ''singing'' is appalling. This actually gets him and Mudge into a bar fight in the first book with a wolverine and his associates.
** [[spoiler: The villain from the eighth book takes this trope UpToEleven, singing so horribly that merely being on the same island as him ''kills plants''.]]
* DualWielding:
** Roseroar. Although when dealing with Corroboc at the end of the third book [[TastesLikeChicken she doesn't even bother with her swords]].
** Corroboc himself could allegedly throw four knives at once: one with each wing, one with his beak, and one with his good foot while perching on his peg leg.
* EverythingsWetterWithOtters: Mudge most prominently, but any given otter also qualifies, particularly since otters as a rule tend to be CrazyAwesome.
* FantasticRacism: Rats and mice are treated as inferior and have to cope with jobs like janitor, though they get a CrowningMomentOfAwesome during the Battle of the Jo-Troom Gate when Falameezar rallies them to drive back the Plated Folk, which boosts them into near-respectability from then on.
* FantasyWorldMap: Every book provides one. For the first two only a small subsection is shown relevant to each book's plot (with a zoomed-in view of the Bellwoods for the first); after that a full-sized world map is provided, identical in each book, again with subsections added for that book's plot.
* FeatherFingers: The birds, to the extent that they can play stringed instruments and use weapons with specially-designed hollow grips.
%%* FieryRedhead: Talea
* FirstGirlWins: Talea. She's the first human Jon-Tom meets, and the first female as well; despite his summoning of Flor, it's Talea he falls for while [[PairTheSpares Flor ends up with Caz]], and no matter how many other females he meets in his journeys, he always comes back to her. They eventually wed and have children.
* FloatingWater: Sloomaz-ayor-le-Weentli, the literal Double River.
* FloweryInsults: In ''Paths of the Perambulator'', the group are trapped in a magical cage ''made'' of "gratuitous insults".
* FrogsAndToads: The boatman from ''The Hour Of The Gate''
* FunctionalMagic: Indeed, their wizard's speech is our technical language, and mention is made of working with transuranic elements. If Clothahump had succeeded in capturing a real engineer, he'd have been pretty powerful.
* FunetikAksent: For a number of TalkingAnimal characters, including Mudge's rural-British speech and Roseroar's Southern drawl. Colin's accent is described in a way that brings to mind JohnWayne.
* FunnyAnimal: The world is entirely populated by these, the vast majority being walking, talking, and clothes-wearing but otherwise looking like their animal counterparts. Very much a FurryFandom world.
%%* GeniusLoci: The Brulumpus.
%%* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Empress Skrritch
* GroinAttack: Mudge does this in the first book during a fight.
* HairRaisingHare: In the seventh book, there is a group of rabbits who are so sick of being regarded as cute and harmless that they went insane and started messing around with TheDarkArts / MadScience in order to take over the world.
* HellishHorse: M'nemaxa. He takes on the appearance of a giant equine literally made of fire. Played with in that, while hardly a force for good, neither is he evil--more a case of a neutral EldritchAbomination that can't be bothered to notice mere mortals, being neither aware of nor caring what his presence does to them.
* HiddenElfVillage:
** The spider folk and the owl/lemur town.
** A more literal one in the third book. With fat man-eating elves.
** Crancularn is an odd case, as at first it appears to be a completely normal town, one which just happens to be hard to find because it's the ''way'' you get there that is hidden. But when Jon-Tom and his party flee, its citizens take on the weirdly distorted forms of beasts and demons, and then the whole town fades away into nothing. Whether this was its true form or an effect created by [[spoiler:the genie]] to scare them into never returning isn't known.
* HollywoodTactics: Subverted in the second book when the heroes find the Plated Folk are fighting with [[TunnelKing intelligent]] [[ItsRainingMen tactics]], which are supplied by [[spoiler:a military computer from Earth]]. This is an OhCrap moment by Clothahump who notes that magic items or great beasts he can counter, but there is no simple way to deal with what an enemy ''knows''.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Talea is actually fairly tall for a human in her native land, but she's a good foot shorter than Jon-Tom.
* HumanityEnsues: Clothahump threatens Mudge with it when the otter initially refuses to help Jon-Tom. Also happens to Jon-Tom's group in ''Perambulator''.
* IChooseToStay: At the end of sixth book, Jon-Tom finds a stable portal to return to his home dimension, but he's grown so comfortable to the fantasy world, he returns home on a tentative basis and decides to return to the fantasy for good, taking as many goodies from Earth such as songbooks as he can with him.
* InexplicableTreasureChests: Lampshaded in book eight, when Mudge finds a chest of treasure and Jon-Tom ponders that, for all many their adventures, it's [[SubvertedTrope the first time they've ever found any]].
* IResembleThatRemark
-->'''Mudge:''' I'll have you know, me elephantine kitten, that [[SophisticatedAsHell my language is as fucking refined as anyone's!]]
* IneptMage: Jon-Tom's spellsinging is variable, to say the least.
* InevitableWaterfall: ''Four'' waterfalls actually, at the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Helldrink]] in the second book.
%%* InTheDoldrums: The Muddletup Moors.
* InterspeciesRomance: Normal in the warmlands to the point that Jon-Tom gives offense by refusing the advances of a lupine female.
** [[CatGirl Roseroar]] briefly muses about a dalliance with Jon-Tom but quickly decides he's [[DestructoNookie much too fragile]]. (At least, that's what she tells herself to keep her obvious jealousy under control.)
** Flor is infatuated with Caz, a rabbit.
** Pog the bat is in love with a falcon.
* KangarooPouchRide: Snooth keeps [[spoiler:an uber-powerful genie]] in her pouch.
* The LanguageOfMagic equals TechnoBabble here.
* LikeAFishTakesToWater: Flor assimilates much more quickly than Jon-Tom does.
%%* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: Possibly the record-holder for this, as every species of mammal, bird, amphibian or turtle known to Earth is a sentient race. Also an unspecified number of insects and spiders, plus assorted mythical creatures and unique creations.
* LoveableRogue: Mudge, for a certain definition of "loveable".
* MagiciansAreWizards: [[strike:Markle Kratzmeier]] Markus the Ineluctable, a two-bit StageMagician on Earth who finds his tricks work for real after he gets into the Spellsinger world.
* MagicMusic: Any song Jon-Tom plays and sings with his magical duar will create spells. The effects vary greatly depending on what song/poem he chooses, his concentration, and RuleOfFunny.
* MeaningfulName / StealthPun: M'nemaxa's name, when Jon-Tom sounds it out, sounds like "Omni-maxa". M'nemaxa is described by Clothahump as the supreme gestalt embodiment of all beings, and "omni" means "all", while "max" means "most" or "greatest".
** Also Folly from book three. Not only was the name given to her because her family (and everyone else) believed her to be useless and worthless, she ends up inadvertently causing a great deal of trouble for Jon-Tom by believing TheMole, then [[DistressedDamsel getting kidnapped]] and [[HypnotizeThePrincess ensorcelled]].
* TheMole[=/=]DevilInDisguise: [[spoiler:Jalwar]] in book three is actually [[spoiler:the BigBad Zancresta]].
* MuggingTheMonster: Zancresta not only [[TrashTalk dismisses Snooth as being of any consequence]], he actually insults and threatens her with bodily harm when she won't give him the medicine and dares to speak up during his MotiveRant. Big mistake, since [[spoiler:she's got an all-powerful and fairly wicked genie [[KangarooPouchRide in her pouch]]]]. [[DeaderThanDead He regrets it]].
* NonMammalMammaries: Considering the moments, when Jon-Tom was unable to recognize that the animal before him is female, before hearing her voice/paying attention to her makeup, this is decisively averted.
* NowDoItAgainBackwards: Played with, and inverted. At one point in book five, when one of the perambulator's reality tweaks causes [[HumanityEnsues all the animal members of the party to turn into humans]], Jon-Tom proceeds to change them back by singing Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch"...backwards. Unfortunately for him, this also causes him to turn into a howler monkey, so that he must then sing the song forwards again to restore himself.
* NukeEm: Apparently a last resort of the Plated Folk in the second book's final battle. It's actually a very clean bomb, as there is nothing described about the radiation affecting anyone.
* OneHeadTaller: Jon-Tom (over six feet tall) and pretty much any human in the other world (even the males top out at five-and-a-half).
%%* OrphanageOfFear: The Friends of the Street.
* OverlyLongName:
** Mudge accuses Jon-Tom of having one and insists on shortening it. Ironic since he knows someone named "Caspar di Lorca di l'Omollia di los Enansas Giterxos", but then he shortens that to Caz.
** The hummingbird Councilor in Polistrindu is named Millevoddevareen.
* PirateParrot: Corroboc and Kamaulk. In this case, the parrots ''are'' the pirates.
* ThePowerOfRock: Literally--the music Jon-Tom plays with his duar creates magical spells of varying effect. In the third book and fifth book it even becomes ''more'' literal, as book three includes a raven Spellsinger brought in by the villain to have a magical showdown (except the fellow is more of a WorthyOpponent and ends up turning it into an awesome jam session), and book five has a whole band of MagicMusic-playing demons Jon-Tom has to fight--and he actually ''destroys'' them with a particularly powerful song ([[LoudOfWar musically]], not just magically).
* RealityWarper: The perambulator in the fifth book.
* ReallyGetsAround: Mudge likes to insinuate this about Talea... then turn it into InnocentInnuendo whenever she overhears.
* {{Retcon}}: In the first book, Jon-Tom is told that hoofed mammals aren't intelligent, but later books have him converse with talking camels and horses, and hire a talking hinny to accompany his group.
* RuleOfFunny: What generally determines the effects of Jon-Tom magic whenever he's not fighting a BigBad.
* SapientCetaceans: In a world where ''every'' species of mammal or bird is intelligent, dolphins are essentially a bunch of slackers, whose only interest in land-goers is the chance to swap dirty jokes.
* SeenItAll: After their encounter with the [[EldritchAbomination Queen of Nightmares]] in book two, the main cast is simply not scared of anything, since they've basically stared into the face of the anthropomorphic personification of fear itself.
* [[spoiler: ShaggyDogStory]]: ''The Day Of The Dissonance''. Not only is Clothahump not actually dying from the illness he claims he needs the medicine for, said medicine is [[spoiler:only aspirin. [[ItWasWithYouAllAlong And Jon-Tom had a bottle in his jeans pocket the whole time]]]]. So the whole trip and all of its deadly dangers really was for nothing.
* SimpleStaff: Jon-Tom's backup weapon when he's unable to use his spellsinging. Justified due to his lack of weapons training and long reach compared to almost everyone/thing else. A series of four or five "decorative" studs on the staff [[SubvertedTrope release a concealed spearpoint]] from the butt end of said "simple" staff, however...
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Jon-Tom is almost an AnthropomorphicPersonification of this trope. The results of his spellsinging are not very predictable and range from cosmically powerful to hilariously pathetic. But in the final confrontations and other important moments it always works perfectly, or far better than expected.
* TechnoBabble doubles as the LanguageOfMagic.
%%* TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer
* ThoseWackyNazis: Raptors (birds of prey), led by the one from the Nazi emblem.
* ToServeMan: Played straight with the cannibal fairies; inverted with [[spoiler: Kamaulk]], who's mistaken for a chicken and eaten by homeless men [[spoiler: from our own Earth]].
* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Jon-Tom is stuck in this world of talking animals since Clothahump summoned him but doesn't know how to send him back, or can't, depending on the novel. Eventually he does find a way home, but by then he doesn't want to leave.
* TribalCarry: When the Ogres capture Jon-Tom and his friends.
* TricksterMentor: Although Clothahump does his best to save the world, when it needs saving, otherwise he's quite a dick, not above tricking Jon-Tom into going on highly dangerous quests because he feels like it. Unlike many fantasy mentors, though, he's at least aware of his own dickishness.
%%* TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside
%%* {{Tsundere}}: Talea.
* TurtlePower: Clothahump--greatest wizard in the world (and on several occasions he proves it), and he's a turtle.
%%* UnfazedEveryman: Jon Tom
* TheUnpronounceable: The Brulumpus' real name.
* VirginPower: Doesn't ''quite'' work on [[SorryImGay this particular]] {{Unicorn}}.
* VitriolicBestBuds: The standard dynamic between Jon-Tom and Mudge.
* WackyWaysideTribe: Occurs everywhere, but is particularly prevalent in books three and five where Jon-Tom and his party keep encountering people or random events which have nothing to do with their goal. Book three alone has the fungi of the Muddletop Moors, Corraboc and his pirates, the HiddenElfVillage, the interlude with the virgin, and the town they had to hole up in to be safe from the moving desert. Book five has a literal one with the tribe that captures Jon-Tom and the others until they are rescued by Colin.
* WanderingMinstrel: Jon Tom becomes this after the Plated Folk are defeated.
* {{Whatevermancy}}: Colin the BadAss koala is a runecaster, a form of cleromancy.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** In the fourth book, Oplode's apprentice Flute is never mentioned again after hiring a messenger to contact Clothahump and his ultimate fate remains unknown.
** Similarly, Drom and Roseroar indicate a desire to return to the Bellwoods with Jon-Tom and Mudge at the end of the third book, as did the group of otters from the fourth, but aside from a few passing references to Roseroar, none of them are ever seen or mentioned again.
** The fate of Flor and Caz from the first two books is also left unstated, though you'd think Jon-Tom would want to inform the former about [[spoiler: the gateway home that he eventually discovers.]]
** Prickett, Mudge's daughter from ''Transference'', seems to have vanished without trace during the hiatus between it and ''Son of''.
* WhosOnFirst: Sorbl's fear of "nothing" in the basement.
* WorkingForABodyUpgrade: Pog wants Clothahump to transform him from bat to falcon. [[spoiler: Jon-Tom eventually gives him an even better upgrade, to ''phoenix''.]]
* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: The dancing ermine at the Pearl Possum. Jon-Tom is squicked at finding himself as aroused as the various other species of patrons.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Averted in that in ''The Time of the Transference'', Jon-Tom discovers a passage that allowed him to go back. He did go back to his own world, but returned to Clothahump's, because he liked it there better.\\
\\
The last two books suggest he's made the trip back and forth a few more times, to sample our world's new music and stay in touch with his parents.
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: "Arboreal" is used as if it means "flying" or "winged"; its actual definition means "lives/travels in trees".
%%* YourUniverseOrMine
----
In the first book, ''Spellsinger'', the hero Jonathan Thomas Meriweather, also known as Jon-Tom, is a prelaw student with pretentions to rock stardom, who is innocently smoking pot when he's abruptly transported from the University of California at Los Angeles to a weird world in which [[LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy animals talk, wear clothing, and live alongside humans]] by the turtle wizard Clothahump, who was searching for a great wizardly "En'geeniar" (meaning an engineer, as he was under the impression that this is the name our world gives to wizards). Unfortunately, he caught Jon-Tom, who works part-time as a janitor and on his pay stubs is called a "sanitation engineer"[[hottip:*:and his mind was "the most receptive" at the moment, which might have had to do with that joint he smoked]].
It all works out for the best, though, as Jon-Tom soon discovers that in the magical world he has the power of a spellsinger: a wizard who can make powerful magic through music. Using this new-found power, he and a cast of creatures set out to do battle with the evil anthropomorphic insects known as the Plated Folk.
----
!!''Spellsinger'' provides examples of:
%%%
%%%Zero Context Examples are commented out. To restore them please read the tropes and describe
%%%how this work uses them.
%%%
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Flores, whom Jon-Tom had a crush on back at UCLA. To his great dismay, it turns out she's ''not'' a ditzy [[TheCheerleader Cheerleader]], but an ActionGirl.
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Accidentally applied to a village full of wading birds in ''Chorus Skating'', when Jon-Tom magically re-grows their lost feathers by revising the lyrics of songs about custom auto paint jobs. Luckily, the altered birds get a real kick out of their new makeovers.
%%* AndCallHimGeorge
* AndIMustScream: Jon-Tom when he's captured by the underwater Plated Folk colony in the fourth book. His captors need to carry him back alive and whole to their homeland [[AFateWorseThanDeath to answer for his crimes]], but they don't dare give him the slightest chance to work his magic. Enter "[[BewareMyStingerTail The]] [[TheParalyzer Ruze]]"...
* AnimalStereotypes: Appears everywhere, but a particularly prominent example is the BigBad of book five, a wolverine...who is an AxCrazy wizard who [[LonersAreFreaks abandoned his people]] because they in turn [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer would not accept him]] and [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery wants to make the whole world insane like him, even if the being he uses to do it also destroys creation]]. When Jon-Tom [[HopeSpot succeeds in curing his insanity]] he then still ends up trying to kill the heroes--partly because Jon-Tom took away [[EvilFeelsGood something he was actually enjoying]] that made him unique in his opinion, and partly because of the HotBlooded BerserkButton tendency of wolverines.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Or possibly Animorphic Personification. Or something in between. Either way, Gyrnaught is evidently the Personification of the Nazi [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reichsadler.svg Iron Eagle symbol]].
* AnythingThatMoves: If it's female and a mammal, Mudge will almost certainly make a pass at it (though he's a bit more hesitant than usual with regards to Roseroar, due to fear of angering her). According to his son, Squill, in book seven, the average mink makes him look like a celibate.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Talea at the end of book two.]]
* BearsAreBadNews: Several bears turn up as elite Mooks for villains, and occasionally as TheDragon.
* BugWar: The periodic wars against the Plated Folk.
* BunniesForCuteness: Played straight with Caz, although contrasted by his QuintessentialBritishGentleman personality.
* CanonWelding: ''Chorus Skating'', the last novel, includes repeated cameo appearances by [[spoiler: a dimension-hopping [[HumanxCommonwealth thranx]]]].
* CarnivoreConfusion: Solved via the inclusion of many non-sapient reptile species.
** Although there was one brief scene where an owl (Clothahump's [[TheAlcoholic drunken assistant]] Sorbl) is seen quickly gulping down a mouse; whether or not it was someone's father was never addressed.
** Likely a continuity error when he just wasn't thinking, as mice are considered quite sentient and the suggestion of eating any sentient being fills anyone but the most evil with disgust and horror. So 'well the owl ought to be eating a mouse because owls eat mice' and totally forgetting he wrote mice as sentient and far larger than the non-sentient variety.
*** Or maybe Jon-Tom only caught a glimpse of something mouse-sized with a long tail in the frying pan, and subconsciously ''assumed'' it was a mouse for the same reason. In which case, it was probably a small long-tailed lizard. Indeed, a mouse from the Warmlands would probably be much too big for Sorbl to swallow.
** ''Son of Spellsinger'' suggests that even the now-civilized Warmlander carnivores used to prey on the others, but gave that up around the dawn of history, at the same time they started walking upright. Throughout the series, many WackyWaysideTribe encounters involve throwbacks that have backslid into such cannibalism.
* ChangingOfTheGuard: Subverted. The 7th book hands off the story to Jon-Tom's son and Mudge's kids, but the original duo take back the spotlight for the 8th and final novel.
* ChekhovsGun: The large amount of money that Jon-Tom wins by gambling in the first book is used to pay a boatman to take them into Plated Folk lands when no one else has any money.
* ContemptibleCover: Most of the early editions' covers seem to have nothing to do with the actual contents.
* CosmicHorror: M'nemaxa. Also, Massawrath, Mother of Nightmares, but she lives under a mountain.
%%* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Jon-Tom
* DirtyCommunists: Averted with the local communist, the dragon Falameezar, who is quite heroic if a bit of a KnightTemplar.
* DirtyCoward: Mudge likes to ''pretend'' he's one of these, probably so that others won't expect anything from him. The degree of competence he reveals when his help is truly needed makes him more of a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass.
* DreadfulMusician:
** Jon-Tom can ''play'' well, but his ''singing'' is appalling. This actually gets him and Mudge into a bar fight in the first book with a wolverine and his associates.
** [[spoiler: The villain from the eighth book takes this trope UpToEleven, singing so horribly that merely being on the same island as him ''kills plants''.]]
* DualWielding:
** Roseroar. Although when dealing with Corroboc at the end of the third book [[TastesLikeChicken she doesn't even bother with her swords]].
** Corroboc himself could allegedly throw four knives at once: one with each wing, one with his beak, and one with his good foot while perching on his peg leg.
* EverythingsWetterWithOtters: Mudge most prominently, but any given otter also qualifies, particularly since otters as a rule tend to be CrazyAwesome.
* FantasticRacism: Rats and mice are treated as inferior and have to cope with jobs like janitor, though they get a CrowningMomentOfAwesome during the Battle of the Jo-Troom Gate when Falameezar rallies them to drive back the Plated Folk, which boosts them into near-respectability from then on.
* FantasyWorldMap: Every book provides one. For the first two only a small subsection is shown relevant to each book's plot (with a zoomed-in view of the Bellwoods for the first); after that a full-sized world map is provided, identical in each book, again with subsections added for that book's plot.
* FeatherFingers: The birds, to the extent that they can play stringed instruments and use weapons with specially-designed hollow grips.
%%* FieryRedhead: Talea
* FirstGirlWins: Talea. She's the first human Jon-Tom meets, and the first female as well; despite his summoning of Flor, it's Talea he falls for while [[PairTheSpares Flor ends up with Caz]], and no matter how many other females he meets in his journeys, he always comes back to her. They eventually wed and have children.
* FloatingWater: Sloomaz-ayor-le-Weentli, the literal Double River.
* FloweryInsults: In ''Paths of the Perambulator'', the group are trapped in a magical cage ''made'' of "gratuitous insults".
* FrogsAndToads: The boatman from ''The Hour Of The Gate''
* FunctionalMagic: Indeed, their wizard's speech is our technical language, and mention is made of working with transuranic elements. If Clothahump had succeeded in capturing a real engineer, he'd have been pretty powerful.
* FunetikAksent: For a number of TalkingAnimal characters, including Mudge's rural-British speech and Roseroar's Southern drawl. Colin's accent is described in a way that brings to mind JohnWayne.
* FunnyAnimal: The world is entirely populated by these, the vast majority being walking, talking, and clothes-wearing but otherwise looking like their animal counterparts. Very much a FurryFandom world.
%%* GeniusLoci: The Brulumpus.
%%* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Empress Skrritch
* GroinAttack: Mudge does this in the first book during a fight.
* HairRaisingHare: In the seventh book, there is a group of rabbits who are so sick of being regarded as cute and harmless that they went insane and started messing around with TheDarkArts / MadScience in order to take over the world.
* HellishHorse: M'nemaxa. He takes on the appearance of a giant equine literally made of fire. Played with in that, while hardly a force for good, neither is he evil--more a case of a neutral EldritchAbomination that can't be bothered to notice mere mortals, being neither aware of nor caring what his presence does to them.
* HiddenElfVillage:
** The spider folk and the owl/lemur town.
** A more literal one in the third book. With fat man-eating elves.
** Crancularn is an odd case, as at first it appears to be a completely normal town, one which just happens to be hard to find because it's the ''way'' you get there that is hidden. But when Jon-Tom and his party flee, its citizens take on the weirdly distorted forms of beasts and demons, and then the whole town fades away into nothing. Whether this was its true form or an effect created by [[spoiler:the genie]] to scare them into never returning isn't known.
* HollywoodTactics: Subverted in the second book when the heroes find the Plated Folk are fighting with [[TunnelKing intelligent]] [[ItsRainingMen tactics]], which are supplied by [[spoiler:a military computer from Earth]]. This is an OhCrap moment by Clothahump who notes that magic items or great beasts he can counter, but there is no simple way to deal with what an enemy ''knows''.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Talea is actually fairly tall for a human in her native land, but she's a good foot shorter than Jon-Tom.
* HumanityEnsues: Clothahump threatens Mudge with it when the otter initially refuses to help Jon-Tom. Also happens to Jon-Tom's group in ''Perambulator''.
* IChooseToStay: At the end of sixth book, Jon-Tom finds a stable portal to return to his home dimension, but he's grown so comfortable to the fantasy world, he returns home on a tentative basis and decides to return to the fantasy for good, taking as many goodies from Earth such as songbooks as he can with him.
* InexplicableTreasureChests: Lampshaded in book eight, when Mudge finds a chest of treasure and Jon-Tom ponders that, for all many their adventures, it's [[SubvertedTrope the first time they've ever found any]].
* IResembleThatRemark
-->'''Mudge:''' I'll have you know, me elephantine kitten, that [[SophisticatedAsHell my language is as fucking refined as anyone's!]]
* IneptMage: Jon-Tom's spellsinging is variable, to say the least.
* InevitableWaterfall: ''Four'' waterfalls actually, at the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Helldrink]] in the second book.
%%* InTheDoldrums: The Muddletup Moors.
* InterspeciesRomance: Normal in the warmlands to the point that Jon-Tom gives offense by refusing the advances of a lupine female.
** [[CatGirl Roseroar]] briefly muses about a dalliance with Jon-Tom but quickly decides he's [[DestructoNookie much too fragile]]. (At least, that's what she tells herself to keep her obvious jealousy under control.)
** Flor is infatuated with Caz, a rabbit.
** Pog the bat is in love with a falcon.
* KangarooPouchRide: Snooth keeps [[spoiler:an uber-powerful genie]] in her pouch.
* The LanguageOfMagic equals TechnoBabble here.
* LikeAFishTakesToWater: Flor assimilates much more quickly than Jon-Tom does.
%%* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: Possibly the record-holder for this, as every species of mammal, bird, amphibian or turtle known to Earth is a sentient race. Also an unspecified number of insects and spiders, plus assorted mythical creatures and unique creations.
* LoveableRogue: Mudge, for a certain definition of "loveable".
* MagiciansAreWizards: [[strike:Markle Kratzmeier]] Markus the Ineluctable, a two-bit StageMagician on Earth who finds his tricks work for real after he gets into the Spellsinger world.
* MagicMusic: Any song Jon-Tom plays and sings with his magical duar will create spells. The effects vary greatly depending on what song/poem he chooses, his concentration, and RuleOfFunny.
* MeaningfulName / StealthPun: M'nemaxa's name, when Jon-Tom sounds it out, sounds like "Omni-maxa". M'nemaxa is described by Clothahump as the supreme gestalt embodiment of all beings, and "omni" means "all", while "max" means "most" or "greatest".
** Also Folly from book three. Not only was the name given to her because her family (and everyone else) believed her to be useless and worthless, she ends up inadvertently causing a great deal of trouble for Jon-Tom by believing TheMole, then [[DistressedDamsel getting kidnapped]] and [[HypnotizeThePrincess ensorcelled]].
* TheMole[=/=]DevilInDisguise: [[spoiler:Jalwar]] in book three is actually [[spoiler:the BigBad Zancresta]].
* MuggingTheMonster: Zancresta not only [[TrashTalk dismisses Snooth as being of any consequence]], he actually insults and threatens her with bodily harm when she won't give him the medicine and dares to speak up during his MotiveRant. Big mistake, since [[spoiler:she's got an all-powerful and fairly wicked genie [[KangarooPouchRide in her pouch]]]]. [[DeaderThanDead He regrets it]].
* NonMammalMammaries: Considering the moments, when Jon-Tom was unable to recognize that the animal before him is female, before hearing her voice/paying attention to her makeup, this is decisively averted.
* NowDoItAgainBackwards: Played with, and inverted. At one point in book five, when one of the perambulator's reality tweaks causes [[HumanityEnsues all the animal members of the party to turn into humans]], Jon-Tom proceeds to change them back by singing Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch"...backwards. Unfortunately for him, this also causes him to turn into a howler monkey, so that he must then sing the song forwards again to restore himself.
* NukeEm: Apparently a last resort of the Plated Folk in the second book's final battle. It's actually a very clean bomb, as there is nothing described about the radiation affecting anyone.
* OneHeadTaller: Jon-Tom (over six feet tall) and pretty much any human in the other world (even the males top out at five-and-a-half).
%%* OrphanageOfFear: The Friends of the Street.
* OverlyLongName:
** Mudge accuses Jon-Tom of having one and insists on shortening it. Ironic since he knows someone named "Caspar di Lorca di l'Omollia di los Enansas Giterxos", but then he shortens that to Caz.
** The hummingbird Councilor in Polistrindu is named Millevoddevareen.
* PirateParrot: Corroboc and Kamaulk. In this case, the parrots ''are'' the pirates.
* ThePowerOfRock: Literally--the music Jon-Tom plays with his duar creates magical spells of varying effect. In the third book and fifth book it even becomes ''more'' literal, as book three includes a raven Spellsinger brought in by the villain to have a magical showdown (except the fellow is more of a WorthyOpponent and ends up turning it into an awesome jam session), and book five has a whole band of MagicMusic-playing demons Jon-Tom has to fight--and he actually ''destroys'' them with a particularly powerful song ([[LoudOfWar musically]], not just magically).
* RealityWarper: The perambulator in the fifth book.
* ReallyGetsAround: Mudge likes to insinuate this about Talea... then turn it into InnocentInnuendo whenever she overhears.
* {{Retcon}}: In the first book, Jon-Tom is told that hoofed mammals aren't intelligent, but later books have him converse with talking camels and horses, and hire a talking hinny to accompany his group.
* RuleOfFunny: What generally determines the effects of Jon-Tom magic whenever he's not fighting a BigBad.
* SapientCetaceans: In a world where ''every'' species of mammal or bird is intelligent, dolphins are essentially a bunch of slackers, whose only interest in land-goers is the chance to swap dirty jokes.
* SeenItAll: After their encounter with the [[EldritchAbomination Queen of Nightmares]] in book two, the main cast is simply not scared of anything, since they've basically stared into the face of the anthropomorphic personification of fear itself.
* [[spoiler: ShaggyDogStory]]: ''The Day Of The Dissonance''. Not only is Clothahump not actually dying from the illness he claims he needs the medicine for, said medicine is [[spoiler:only aspirin. [[ItWasWithYouAllAlong And Jon-Tom had a bottle in his jeans pocket the whole time]]]]. So the whole trip and all of its deadly dangers really was for nothing.
* SimpleStaff: Jon-Tom's backup weapon when he's unable to use his spellsinging. Justified due to his lack of weapons training and long reach compared to almost everyone/thing else. A series of four or five "decorative" studs on the staff [[SubvertedTrope release a concealed spearpoint]] from the butt end of said "simple" staff, however...
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Jon-Tom is almost an AnthropomorphicPersonification of this trope. The results of his spellsinging are not very predictable and range from cosmically powerful to hilariously pathetic. But in the final confrontations and other important moments it always works perfectly, or far better than expected.
* TechnoBabble doubles as the LanguageOfMagic.
%%* TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer
* ThoseWackyNazis: Raptors (birds of prey), led by the one from the Nazi emblem.
* ToServeMan: Played straight with the cannibal fairies; inverted with [[spoiler: Kamaulk]], who's mistaken for a chicken and eaten by homeless men [[spoiler: from our own Earth]].
* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Jon-Tom is stuck in this world of talking animals since Clothahump summoned him but doesn't know how to send him back, or can't, depending on the novel. Eventually he does find a way home, but by then he doesn't want to leave.
* TribalCarry: When the Ogres capture Jon-Tom and his friends.
* TricksterMentor: Although Clothahump does his best to save the world, when it needs saving, otherwise he's quite a dick, not above tricking Jon-Tom into going on highly dangerous quests because he feels like it. Unlike many fantasy mentors, though, he's at least aware of his own dickishness.
%%* TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside
%%* {{Tsundere}}: Talea.
* TurtlePower: Clothahump--greatest wizard in the world (and on several occasions he proves it), and he's a turtle.
%%* UnfazedEveryman: Jon Tom
* TheUnpronounceable: The Brulumpus' real name.
* VirginPower: Doesn't ''quite'' work on [[SorryImGay this particular]] {{Unicorn}}.
* VitriolicBestBuds: The standard dynamic between Jon-Tom and Mudge.
* WackyWaysideTribe: Occurs everywhere, but is particularly prevalent in books three and five where Jon-Tom and his party keep encountering people or random events which have nothing to do with their goal. Book three alone has the fungi of the Muddletop Moors, Corraboc and his pirates, the HiddenElfVillage, the interlude with the virgin, and the town they had to hole up in to be safe from the moving desert. Book five has a literal one with the tribe that captures Jon-Tom and the others until they are rescued by Colin.
* WanderingMinstrel: Jon Tom becomes this after the Plated Folk are defeated.
* {{Whatevermancy}}: Colin the BadAss koala is a runecaster, a form of cleromancy.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** In the fourth book, Oplode's apprentice Flute is never mentioned again after hiring a messenger to contact Clothahump and his ultimate fate remains unknown.
** Similarly, Drom and Roseroar indicate a desire to return to the Bellwoods with Jon-Tom and Mudge at the end of the third book, as did the group of otters from the fourth, but aside from a few passing references to Roseroar, none of them are ever seen or mentioned again.
** The fate of Flor and Caz from the first two books is also left unstated, though you'd think Jon-Tom would want to inform the former about [[spoiler: the gateway home that he eventually discovers.]]
** Prickett, Mudge's daughter from ''Transference'', seems to have vanished without trace during the hiatus between it and ''Son of''.
* WhosOnFirst: Sorbl's fear of "nothing" in the basement.
* WorkingForABodyUpgrade: Pog wants Clothahump to transform him from bat to falcon. [[spoiler: Jon-Tom eventually gives him an even better upgrade, to ''phoenix''.]]
* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: The dancing ermine at the Pearl Possum. Jon-Tom is squicked at finding himself as aroused as the various other species of patrons.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Averted in that in ''The Time of the Transference'', Jon-Tom discovers a passage that allowed him to go back. He did go back to his own world, but returned to Clothahump's, because he liked it there better.\\
\\
The last two books suggest he's made the trip back and forth a few more times, to sample our world's new music and stay in touch with his parents.
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: "Arboreal" is used as if it means "flying" or "winged"; its actual definition means "lives/travels in trees".
%%* YourUniverseOrMine
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