Patricia C. Wrede

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is an American fantasy writer whose works include the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.
Her other works include two series of Regency Fantasy (one beginning with Mairelon the Magician and the other, co-written with Caroline Stevermer, with Sorcery and Cecelia), and a series set in the world of Lyra, as well as a number of stand-alone novels (including The Seven Towers) and numerous short stories.
Works by Patricia C. Wrede with their own trope pages include:
- Enchanted Forest Chronicles
- Sorcery and Cecelia series
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - She wrote a Novelization of it, a "junior novelization" essentially, though not specifically labeled as such.
Patricia C. Wrede provides examples of the following tropes:
- Baleful Polymorph is invoked in the Mairelon the Magician series, with the "thieves' cant" slang term for a wizard being "frogmaker." It's not clear if they actually can turn people into frogs, although one wizard threatens to transform a friend of hers who's not explaining the situation clearly enough.
- Beam-O-War (in The Seven Towers, with a twist)
- Blue Blood (several)
- Burn the Witch (in Daughter of Witches)
- Cloudcuckoolander: Amberglas in The Seven Towers, although this is at least partly Obfuscating Stupidity. Her spells always do what she wants them to -- unlikely if she were really as ditzy as she seems.
- Cool Old Lady: In the sequel to Mairelon the Magician, Mairelon's mother is, as the back-cover blurb (accurately!) states, "charmingly eccentric." His father's sister is also cool, although it takes longer to show, because she's "formidably correct," which comes out as stuffiness with a touch of Mean Brit. When facing a real crisis, though, she's basically unflappable, practical, and quite clever. Her Crowning Moment of Awesome comes when, realizing a certain spell will only harm wizards — which she isn't — she doesn't hesitate to act as a human shield for the wizard she's with. The very formal way she tells off the bad guy is hilariously awesome, too.
- Culture Clash
- Curse
- Family-Unfriendly Death (in "Cruel Sisters")
- Fractured Fairy Tale (several)
- A Friend in Need
- Friend or Foe
- Historical Fantasy (several)
- Instant Runes (averted)
- It Was a Gift
- Language of Magic (in the Mairelon series)
- Lucky Seven
- Magic A Is Magic A
- Malicious Slander
- Maybe Ever After (The Raven Ring)
- Mentor Ship: In the sequel to Mairelon. And Everyone Can See It — none of Mairelon's friends or relatives are surprised ... or disapproving.
- Regency England (several)
- Retired Badass (in Caught in Crystal)
- Sense Freak (in "The Sixty-Two Curses of Caliph Arenschadd")
- Shotgun Wedding
- Snowball Fight
- So Proud of You
- Street Urchin (in Mairelon the Magician)
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs
- Thirteen Is Unlucky
- Twice-Told Tale (contributed a version of "Snow-White and Rose-Red" to a series of fairy tale retellings overseen by Terri Windling)
- Widow Witch (in Snow White and Rose Red)
- Wild Hair
- Wizard Duel (in The Seven Towers)