I do like the trope of unlikely allies where characters who are on the other end of a scale overcome their differences and team up for some bigger thing. It‘s really really cliche, but I just like it. I like it because it‘s somewhat promotes selflessness and working together to self-centeredness and ego trips.

My favourite trope is when the main protagonist is on the run.

My favorite trope is when it doesn’t seem like the author assembled their novel from obvious building blocks that can be easily cataloged on Wikia or whatever.

As long as the story isn’t predictable while still making sense to a rational thinking individual, I’m happy.

I like stories about the encounters of very different civilizations and the result of these difference. (Is that a trope?)

I love stories messing up with the space-time continuum. (Is that a trope?) But they have to be smart and exact. (So many stories about that fail on the logical front)

I just finished “A Shadow of All Night Falling” book 1 of “The Dread Empire”, so I discovered my new favorite trope

At the end of the book, within the space of a few pages, all the main characters are killed. Not at the same time, just in a series of increasingly unlikely events.

Then a character who hasn’t previously appeared in the story shows up suddenly and performs a resurrection spell and brings them all back to life for no particular reason.

So my favorite trope now is the massively unearned deus ex machina. Like the bigger the F-U to the reader, the better. If at the same time the heroes are saved, the ultimately powerful antagonists are also killed trivially, like in this book, Im satisfied

I’m calling it the “Deus ex Maxima”

Can you give one example of the above trope? Which book do you read? I like a lot when it comes to fantasy. But for romance, I only adore enemies to lovers.

You ever watch ‘Leverage’?

The main characters (the “good guys”) being smarter than the antagonists.

Getting all the information in detective stories EXCEPT from the point on when they realise who’s the murderer. Then it’s all shrouded in mystery and “he had to go to some place we won’t tell you right now to do something that we won’t tell you either so you’ll be surprised by the end”.

While we’re at that, the detective giving the murderer a rundown of how everything happened. Like, why do that? Why not tell the police instead of the culprit?

And also while we’re at it, why does it always have to be murder?

Oh, and guessing someone’s password by basically pulling it out of your ass. What, they have a dog? Certainly it will be the dog’s name, without any numbers or special signs. Just a plain name. Yup, that’s how passwords work all of the time.

Protagonist has to go on a roadtrip because his village/ill mother/etc really need him to find something and he has many small adventures on the way and gets to know the country and its people.

Example: Julie Kagawa - Shadow of the fox

Mentor mentee relationships, like knights and squires or wizards and their apprentices. Especially when they’re close enough in age to have older brother vibes instead of surrogate daddy. Like Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Does Ender’s game count for this?

The Genius Ditz Someone who comes across most of the time as a clueless dingbat, until their one area of expertise is needed, and they suddenly snap into a miraculous prodigy.

like on “do revenge” (2022)?

Villain redemption arc. I’m a sucker for them. Jaime Lannister comes to mind.

Dude, time travel shenanigans and the genius manipulator who entraps their opponent before leisurely explaining how they accurately predicted how things would play out. Usually seen in detective novels, but also fits right in with thrillers. I also really like morally grey/borderline villanous protagonists.

Most recent book I read featuring these tropes (sans the time travel) was the Baru Cormorant series.