Prospero's Daughter is a fantasy trilogy by American writer L. Jagi Lamplighter, consisting of Prospero Lost, Prospero In Hell, and Prospero Regained.
The narrator of the story is Miranda, of The Tempest fame, although she explains that William Shakespeare fictionalized it. Five centuries and several half-siblings later, in a Crossover Cosmology world, Miranda is running Prospero Inc., which keeps elemental powers in check by providing them with such valuable goods as phoenix ash. Her father has left her a message that he is in trouble and she must warn all her siblings that they are in danger.
Tropes featured in this trilogy
- Alchemic Elementals: Though the traditional four has gnome where it should have oread — one character explains why.
- Asleep for Days: Miranda at the North Pole; Mab wishes it was one more day.
- The Atoner: Caliban.
- Attempted Rape: Caliban to Miranda, in the backstory. As a result of this, Miranda regards rape as the unforgivable crime.
- Babies Ever After: The prospect of babies is discussed at the end.
- Badass Normal: Theo has stopped taking the Water of Youth and has abandoned his powers. He then proceeds to blast a hellhound with a shotgun full of rock salt.
- Black Magic: Very real. Very dangerous. Theo thinks all magic is this.
- Blood Magic: The denizens in Hell can really use the blood of the living.
- Bread and Circuses: Ulysseus disapproves of democracy because it leads to this
- Broken Angel:The Good Folk are fallen angels, whose wings have been amputated. Leaving scars.
- Call to Agriculture: Prospero was gardening in his retirement.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: or, to be more precise, can come back from the underworld eight times without drinking from Lethe
- Celestial Deadline: Prospero needs to be rescued in a certain amount of time.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Several of the antagonists in Prospero Lost come in red and gray.
- Commonality Connection: Theo and Caliban at one point share a brotherly smile about how they had both always seen Miranda as an angel.
- Crossover Cosmology: Angels, elementals, Greek gods, Shakespeare — there are also allusions to Norse Mythology and Japanese, about the edges.
- Democracy Is Bad: Ulysses came to the conclusion while giving up socialism.
- Demon Lords And Arch Devils: Lots of them, ready to fight
- Dramatic Wind: In Hell, Gregory's cloak billows when he blesses.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Parts of Hell of cold
- Exact Words: Ferdinard offers a marriage-in-name-only to Miranda so she can, technically, fulfill her vow to marry him or die a maid; then they dissolve it, and she's free to marry as she pleases.
- External Retcon: And you thought Shakespeare was fiction
- Familiar: Miranda has a black cat named Tybalt.
- Fertile Feet: In Hell no less after Miranda becomes a sibyl
- First-Name Basis: Warns Miranda of an imposter.
- Friend to All Living Things: Mephistopheles's Staff of Summoning summons all kinds of animals or creatures, without giving him any control once summoned; however, they don't seem to mind doing him favors.
- Grail in the Garbage: The chameleon cloak in the thrift shop.
- Healthy in Heaven: Cornelius gets killed in Prospero Regained but as a ghost, realizes he can see again.
- Hell Gate: How they stage their invasion.
- Immortality: With the Water of Life.
- Immortal Procreation Clause: The Prosperos can have children, but since their immortality comes from an external source, the children die.
- Inhuman Emotion: The natural temptations to angels and other inhuman beings
- Kick the Dog: Erasmus cursed Miranda with aging several centuries in a year. And then refused to revoke the curse, making her crawl to the World's End to get the cure.
- Lack of Empathy: Miranda starts out with this — badly enough that some people wonder whether she's been enchanted.
- Love Hurts: Ferdinard laments what he has suffered for the chaste love of a pure maid.
- Magic Music: Miranda's flute-playing controls spirits of the air.
- Magic Wand: All the Prospero siblings' Staves.
- Mall Santa: Sometimes is the original himself.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: The possibilities of Caliban's paternity are hashed out.
- Man Hug: Mephisto's reaction to Astreus's being freed.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Gregor dismisses a vision he had as delirum, even while recounting that it changed his life.
- A Million is a Statistic: Miranda averts this to the point people are surprised at her Lack of Empathy.
- The Mourning After: Eramus is still grief-striken for his first wife.
- New Old Flame: Two different ones from Prospero Lost alone.
- Oblivious to Love: Given the character in question goes out of his way to deny his love. . .
- One-Steve Limit: only violated from characters mentioned not appearing.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: The winds did.
- The Phoenix: Phoenix feathers and ash are valuable commodities.
- Physical God: Many. The winds in particular are Greek gods.
- Private Detective: Mab takes the form of a Sam Spadesque private eye.
- Public Domain Artifact: Dozens. The Prosperos collect them.
- Refusing Paradise: In Prospero Regained, Cornelius dies in the final battle, and is found standing over his own corpse. Not only are angels ready to escort him to Heaven, he can now see. His brothers are unable to persuade him to stay, but Miranda comments on how he can retire as he wished, and he puts off the angels and has his father resurrect him.
- Releasing from the Promise: The winds really want this from Miranda.
- Sacred Hospitality: Santa Claus's is such that the Fair Folk will behave themselves under his roof.
- Santa Claus: Among his many other names.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Miranda's assistant, not being in on the masquerade, thinks she is this.
- Swamps Are Evil: If they are in Hell, sure.
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Or so Eramus claims.
- Thicker Than Water: Somebody believes this...or the series would be much shorter.
- A True Story in My Universe: There's mention of William Shakespeare writing The Tempest based on the actual Prospero.
- Undead Tax Exemption: Averted with lampshades. Miranda contemplates the difficulty of updating her id, and the entire process of faking someone is discussed in detail.
- Witch Hunt: Discussed. Gregory points out that most victims were guilty — a fact that has been censored out of history.
- A Year and a Day: How long it takes Miranda to get more Water of Life. Also, how long elves have to claim the freedom from Hell that Miranda granted before it lapses.
