The Goblin Emperor

This book, the narrative, was very well written. I must confess that the made up names and nonsensical words made this book quite dense. While I enjoyed the story I gave up half way through because I couldn't distinguish one ridiculous character name from another.

I tried really hard to get through this book but there is just NOTHING going on. It's really kinda boring. I keep turning the page (read: hitting Next Page) waiting for something to happen but it doesn't. I have, however, been introduced to an ever-expanding list of hard-to-say and hard-to-remember names for characters and locations that have no relevance to the story.

I think the writing is fantastic and there is great world-building going on. The problem is that the story is dragging on, nothing is happening, and the main character doesn't do much.

According to my kindle I am 35% in. I really wanna finish it but I just don't think I can. I got discouraged when I came on here and read all the other reviews which confirmed my fears: it's not getting any better.

If you like long-winded politics and detailed descriptions of fictional locations then this is the book for you. If, like me, you have a hard time with bizarre names and keeping 30+ characters straight and remembering where borders and rivers are this is going to be a challenge. The pivotal, final, epic thing that happens in this book is that the issue of whether or not a bridge will be built gets decided upon.

Yes, the main character is very likable and genuinely nice and thoughtful, but that wasn't enough to carry it for me. The whole book is basically you sitting in with the guy on court / policy discussions.

Just so you know where I'm coming from I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed all of Pat Rothfuss' books and the whole Locke Lamorra series - if that's your kind of thing as well I'd give this a pass.

Miss Em is so excited about this book, she needs the objectivity of the third person to contain her excitement lest she put you off like an over-eager host. I loved it, dear reader. And I must ask you not to start the book before an important project, like a cruise, because, dear reader, Miss Em snarled every moment she was forced to put the book down for some foolishness like sail-away parties, balcony dining, stunning ocean views, or any of that rot. Thank God I finished it before the Dom Perignon came along! But Miss Em believes this book is destined to be a classic, too. The publisher’s copy cannot do what Ms. Addison does, drawing you heart and soul into both her world and her characters. Read that excerpt, much more revealing than the plot blurb from the publisher.

Obviously, there’s going to be plenty of plot here, and it is deftly handled. No horribly dangling loose ends, but plenty of room for a sequel (please, please!). Lovely world-building; I would call it somewhat Tolkienesque with an Asian touch, just to help you orient yourself—this is a fully original world. (The pronunciation guide is at the back of the book, btw, and the archaic forms do not grate.)

It’s the story of a poor orphan boy elevated to a king, trying to live his values. Now that Maia is king, will he heap upon his former guardian the abuse he deserves? What or who caused the airship to crash? Can he find love, or at least friendship, in an arranged marriage? Can he ever trust anyone, or will he always be as alone as he has been since his mother died? Can and should the artificers build a bridge across the great river? Will anyone at court ever appreciate him like we, the readers, do?

Why does Miss Em think this book deserves “classic” status? The book satisfies on all levels. Beautifully written descriptions and dialogue engage the heart and the mind and the soul in the real lives and dilemmas of the characters. The book’s themes are power, poverty, and compassion—and it doesn’t preach. Miss Em loves it because it is like The Secret Garden in its tenderness and philosophy, and like Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game in its complexity and spirituality.

Miss Em received an e-galley through the publisher and Netgalley, but has ordered the hardcopy to start her collection of Ms. Addison’s books, next to Michelle Sagara West, Modesitt, Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, Miller & Lee, and the other authors in her permanent library. She has assumed the copyright permission. She hopes you will buy it, love it, and gift it, too.

Save your time and money by reading the one paragraph Wikipedia entry. You could easily skip 20 pages at a stretch and not miss anything important. Made it to page 250 hoping it would get better. It didn't.

Sarah Monette is one of my favorite authors, and her Doctrine of Labyrinths series is one of my all-time favorites, so I picked up her new book which is published under the pseudonym Katherine Addison.

One-sentence summary: half-goblin Maia is the fourth son of the emperor of the Elflands, and unexpectedly becomes emperor when his father and brothers are killed in an airship crash.

If it doesn't sound like much of a plot, that's because it's not. I really hope this was the first in a series because it is 95% worldbuilding and only 5% actual things happening. Also, as a general rule of thumb if you have to include a cast of characters, glossary, and grammar guide for your reader to know what's going on, you're probably doing something wrong. I nearly gave up in the first few pages because I couldn't pronounce any of the names and couldn't keep them straight. I'm fine with detailed worldbuilding, but if I can't get interested in the characters because I can't keep track of who's who, it is hurting rather than helping.

This book also suffers from my main annoyance with Monette's writing: her use of dialect. The dialect in this book adds nothing to the story or the atmosphere; it just makes it hard for me to understand what people are saying. Also, the elaborate naming schemes and honorifics detract from the reading experience rather than adding to the atmosphere.

That said, I still enjoyed this book. I found the characters interesting and compelling. I just wish they actually DID something.

I gave up after reading half the book. This is only the 2nd time I have ever done that in my 55 years of being an AVID reader (I'm 64 years old). The story might be interesting if anything every really happened. It's mostly long lists of impossible to pronounce/remember names and relationships. The "intrigue" is only ever vaguely sketched out. It was far too tiresome to remember what relationship a character with a bizarre, unpronounceable and un-rememberable name had to the "protagonist" only to reread early passages and get even more confused.

The actually storyline line seems deliberately obfuscated by all of this and I'm just not willing to play that game. The Goblin Emperor himself seems to be a total wimp, and though that probably changes somewhere along the story line, after reading half the book I found that I just simply did not care.

As another reviewer put it: boring! It's hard to believe that this thing is rated 4.5 stars. Makes me reconsider using the user ratings as they definitely steered me waaaaaaay wrong on this one.

A frustrating book. For the first third of it I thought it was going to be a five-star because the author is very talented and does a great job of putting you into the mind of the protagonist. Then I downgraded it to four-star because I realized that there weren't probably going to be any remarkably original aspects to the story. By the end I was mad that I had spent the time on the book because, in the end, not much really happened -- author takes a whole book to spin out a standard "new emperor" plot that many authors would have packed into a a few chapters and the protagonist ultimately is nothing more than a wish fulfillment projection of politically correct thinking into a fantasy setting. Shouldn't really have been a Hugo nominee.

So why three stars? My first inclination was to give it five stars, but after reflecting on it for the last couple days since finishing it, there's a few things that really bother me about the book.

First of all, the author seems to have deliberately made the book hard to follow (the quotes on the book cover call it "Challenging, but worth it!"). It's not like Malazan Book of the Fallen difficult, but the author intentionally doesn't make it clear what a character's actual, you know, *name* is. So within the space of three paragraphs, you might have a character called six different combinations of their three different names (personal name, clan name, office). And then about twice per chapter, you'll realize you have literally no idea who the main character is talking to, and have to use clues from context to figure it out ("Oh, this person knew about the exile in chapter one... flip to chapter one, re-read chapter one... ah, I see. He's a completely unimportant servant who is mentioned nowhere else in the story except here.")

As a word of advice: there *is* an Appendix in the back. But the Appendix didn't actually include the names of any of the characters I actually tried to look up.

My guess is that the author was intending the readers to absorb all the rules of the world through osmosis (titles and clan names have various declensions that only become obvious once you're about halfway through the book), which I do actually appreciate, but it again seems to just be deliberately designed to confuse the reader.

I highly recommend reading the book straight through, rather than reading it a chapter or two at a time, as I did. You'll be able to keep track of the long list of NPCs in your head much more easily if you do it that way. If you're going to read it in chunks, a little at a time: use index cards and write down the names of every character you meet in the book. I'm serious. It will make the book a lot easier to understand and enjoy.

Second, the characterization of the book (and the worldbuilding in general) was very believable. The characters never acted in any way but what you'd expect from them, and generally acted logically and in accordance with their goals, which was great for a book which is essentially a low-fantasy court drama.

The real issue I had with the main character of the book, though, is that after I put it down and thought about what he'd actually done in the book... I couldn't really come up with anything significant. He's entirely reactive - things happen to him, and then other people do things in response, and he sort of just... does nothing significant... for pretty much the entire book. In the few cases where he does take significant action, they are (honestly) terrible ideas, that really should have come back to bite him in the butt more, but they rarely do. Instead, his terrible ideas always seem to work, because the narrative demands it.

Third, the plot doesn't really go anywhere. There's no real conclusion to the story. It just sort of ends. The only overarching plot to the book is what you immediately expect will happen starting on page 2, and there's no real surprises by the time you close the book. Everything is predictable, and it never really deviates from the expectation it sets up from the very beginning.

If the above sounds harsh, I honestly do not mean it that way. Instead, I write it in the spirit of defending why I *couldn't* give it a five-star review, which I really wanted to. I love good court dramas, and this is a very well written court drama. It's only a "fantasy" book in the nominal sense. It's not even "steampunk" as some people describe it. It could be medieval Europe (and really does feel like it, kudos to Addison!), with just a very minor splash of magic and magical races. I really do recommend this book, and hope that she writes more in the series.

I *really* wanted to like this more than I did. I read this, mainly, because I promised myself I would vote in the Hugo's this year. The Rapid Puppies and Sad Puppies have screwed things up so badly, I nearly feel a duty to get a supporting membership for WorldCon and VOTE. But this means reading all the works nominated, or at least, any I will vote for as Hugo-worthy.

And I still think that is the right thing to do. Not bloc-vote, but dote for things I have READ and LIKED, and thought were WORTHY of a prize.

I can't really recommend this book. I wish I could, but I just . . . can't.
If you want to read this so you can decide about Hugo voting, I think that is well and good. But . . .

If you are going to read this, I recommend you do your homework.

There is an appendix at the end of the novel. It explains much. I read this in ebook form, so I did not see this before I started. I wish I had. It might have helped.

I suggest you START with this appendix, and read it through three or four times, before you ever start the novel. Memorize what you can. Make note cards. It MIGHT help you enjoy the story.

(Maybe I couldn't get this because I am a man. I suppose that *might* be it. I have never been especially good with names, either, but I have had no problem with A Song of Ice and Fire, and THAT has a HUGE cast. maybe I just am not intelligent enough. If I were to estimate, I would say you might enjoy this more if you are in the 160-180 I.Q. range. I'm somewhere in 130-135, so maybe THAT was the problem. I imagine I lack SOMETHING needed for this, as it is a quite impressive work. I *don't* really like putting anyone off of it.)

I read this because it was a Hugo nominee. I don't know why it made it: I can only assume it got there because the Rapid Puppies and Sad Puppies distorted the process via their shenanigans. I wish they had not; I would rather have seen "Station Eleven" make it onto the ballot.

Alas, "The Goblin Emperor" IS on the ballot, and so.

I wanted to like this. It is an impressive work. I like the main character, Maia, the half-goblin who finds himself forced to become emperor on the death of his father and brothers.

It is an impressive work. It really is.

BUT . . . for some reason, the author decided that an elaborate naming system was needed. Each character has three (or four? Maybe five?) names or name-forms, almost all of them nearly unpronounceable. By the time I was halfway through, I had simply given up, and started bleeping over them; I was never going to keep them straight without starting over and making notecards anyway.

There are just so MANY names! And the names are so similar, depending on what house they are from, and what gender, and if they are married or unmarried, and what tribe . . . Or religion . . . Or maybe race? that they belong to. I really am not sure. Maybe it was based on what castle they were from. It COULD be, I suppose.

If you like this sort of thing (and you do your homework!), then this is the sort of thing you will like. I wish I could say something more, but . . . I can't

With a title like "The Goblin Emperor" I thought there would be far more magic in it. It turns out there was almost no magic in the book, which was in a kind of "Steam Punk/Medieval " world that could have been turned into alternate history with only a few revisions. There were a couple instances of magic in this book, but they played very little role. Elves and goblins were effectively just different ethnic groups. Usually this bothers me, but in this case it didn't.

This book revolved around court intrigue, something I haven't encountered a lot lately. The protagonist was the fourth son of the Emperor of the Elflands, the product of a "rebound relationship"/arranged marriage with a goblin...a foreign princess from a country seen as barbarians. The Emperor doesn't like being reminded of his mistakes, so exiled the protagonist to a hunting lodge where he was cared for by another exile who abused him.

Then the Emperor and all his sons were killed in a blimp accident, and Maia is suddenly Emperor. He must decide who to trust, and who not to. There is much exploration of what it means to be surrounded by body guards and courtiers at all times, the roles of women, family, etc. The protagonist is ultimately fairly idealistic. It is true there is very little action...but with the surplus of gun toting action hero(ines) that is somewhat refreshing. I did find the multi-syllable names hard to keep track of, though.

I read the book from beginning to end and I never did really find the difference between a goblin and an elf. There was no historical background presented between elves and goblins. You are just plunked down in this world and have to figure out the context. The story is predictable and moves along but is missing that background. There is a complete index with names and places but I am not a reader who wants to cross reference. Lately it seems the store is not critiquing its reviewers and just like Fake News we have lots of Fake reviewers

This could have been historical fiction, except for the pointy ears and steampunk elements. There's almost no magic. In the end, I wished this was about a reluctant emperor in our world's history, rather than a purely fictional one.

Overall, this book has a warm, fuzzy feeling. Maia is a nice guy. People like him. Everyone (except for the few villains) are really sweet and nice. Peace, joy, and goodwill to all.

My problem is that all the niceness makes for a lack of tension and conflict. Maia's biggest obstacles seem to be when he should wear imperial white. He's lonely as the emperor ... but he's got power, and no one really threatens that power. I was sympathetic to his loneliness at first. After a while, I was rolling my eyes. "Make some friends, Maia! Just say hi to that cute elf girl! Drop the formality! Give some commands! Grow a spine!"

The racial tension between elves and goblins was subdued and too easily dismissed. Goblins aren't a whole lot different from elves, other than a slightly more relaxed sense of propriety and darker skin. If you're expecting crazy gremlins or a long history of conflict between the races, it's absent. The two races apparently coexist nicely with each other. Only one idiotic character dared to protest Maia's right to rule based on his heritage, and it was a flimsy insult. I was expecting a lot more racial tension.

There's a name overload. In historical books, I'm okay with a heaping pile of named places, characters, titles, verbiage, etc., which lends to its historical gravitas. I'm less forgiving of it in fantasy fiction. Unimportant characters and places can, and perhaps should, go unnamed. Their names were beautiful, but since it's fiction, I expect most of the terminology to be "translated" to English.

There were a few moments of brilliance in the dialogue. I particularly liked the confession of the terrorist who destroyed the airship.

I think this really appeals to a certain readership. Not me. I need more mayhem in my stories!

Maia is half goblin, half elvish. He is the product of a unhappy, detached political marriage. After his mother's death he lived in near isolation. Raised by his cruel cousin Setheris, he never dreamed of becoming king. When his father and brothers are killed, Maia finds himself in that exact position.

He is whisked away to an unfamiliar court with a very big task. His family has no love for him and he in very much alone. He has no friends and certainly no one to trust. The book follows him as he navigates the tough political waters.

The book was not without some bumps along the way. To me, the purpose of developing a culture with specialized names, language, titles, landscape is to create richness in a book. It brings to life a new world, where obviously things are different. That it is one of my favorite things about fantasy books, and a mark of a skilled fantasy author. These things help us visualize this foreign landscape. A book that lacks creative world-building falls flat. On the other hand, a book that is too specialized... Is just annoying.

Instead of enriching book it often just left the reader confused. I found it very hard to imagine the scenes of the book because I never had any idea who the people were. It's impossible to tell whether a character is male or female until the author specifies. The names give nothing away. Some of the names are almost identical. The author includes for us 16 pages at the end of the book listing all the people, places and gods. I found this when I had finished the book-- and at that point I just didn't really care. This all explains how to tell gender/status. These nuances become totally lost to the reader with every thing else one has to figure out. I think the author needed to mindfully choose which part she wanted to go crazy with. If you are going to have 10,000 characters, give them names that are easily distinguished and more familiar. Or, if you want the crazy names, do less characters.
I thought this really held the book back. Sometimes I would just skim a paragraph because I had no clue what was going on, or who was talking. I think this will turn a lot of readers away. It was at times, just tedious to figure out who was doing what.

BUT here is the good news-- the book was actually pretty interesting. The story-line kept the book moving right along. The main characters struggle endeared me to him. Even though it relied on elves and goblins, the author made the races her own. I am glad that I stuck with the book and finished it. I hope Katherine keeps writing interesting books-- but maybe streamlines her ideas.

An avalanche of polysyllabic invented names, private and public terms, made up words for headings and denominations and designations, ranks, nicknames, and degrees of royalty all have no recognizable words in English. Except maybe Emporer but it is interchangeable with 3 other terms in this made up language. So there will be made up words meaning dowager, matron, miss, mrs, empress, and also ex-empress with some possible name or nationality or family or designation or rank attached... or not. None of the characters names are in English. None of the names are in gender sounding words one would expect i.e. Maia is the main man's name. Charachters are introduced in rapid-fire fashion. other nations, houses, families all have names that mean nothing to the reader unless he forces himself to memorize 3 dozen sobriquets and formal names. I had to throw this one away 50% of the way through. Maia was a likable enough character but the barrage of nonsense to keep track of was extensive and overwhelming.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is a magical tale about what life would be like if you take an unsuspecting goblin and make him the emperor of the lands. It's very rare when I read fantasy books that a character of the goblin race would be the centerpiece of the story and so when I saw this book, I thought it would definitely provide for a unique reading experience. Add to the fact that goblins and elves both live in harmony with each other in this world, that was something I really did not want to miss! I was getting a bit sick and tired of starting yet another first book out of a 7-8 book series so the change of pace was also welcomed. There is no denying it. The Goblin Emperor is one slow burner of a book. Add to the fact that every thing in this story deals with court life and politics, you're always going to find some readers that will complain that it is slow and boring. While I won't necessarily be that type of reader, I will say that this book had a lot potential that I thought the author missed out on.

Maia, the main protagonist in our story here, gets to be the emperor and it doesn't take long for the details to be revealed. Throughout the book, we get to read about how he has to deal with the many headaches and awkward situations he's thrown into after taking the throne. It's not what I would call "unexpected" but surprisingly, I had little trouble following along and the author managed to hold my attention albeit in a very weird way I must admit. One of the main difficulty when reading The Goblin Emperor stems from having to keep track of the galore of names and family history of not only Maia's but other characters as well. Add to the fact that many of the names are hard to pronounce adds to that task. However, I did feel that was a necessity in order for the author to immerse us that much more into her world.

Where the book fell short in my honest opinion is the many missed opportunities the author could have taken to really spice things up. For example, rather than having almost the entire story take place in the grand palace with Maia at times performing the same tasks day in and day out, it would have been much more exciting if he got to travel to other places of his kingdom to see how his subjects live their daily lives and help solve the many problems they face. This book is being touted as being set in a "magical world" but really, the only magical thing here is the palace where the emperor and the many workers of court life go about their daily ritual. A bit more of action sprinkled throughout the story definitely wouldn't have hurt as well. Another thing worthy of note is that there are many, many times throughout the book that you don't really feel as if Maia was an actual goblin but more so like a human. I don't think I have ever read about a goblin blushing. Last but not least, I would have loved it if a bit more humor was incorporated into the mix! The overall mood of the story from start to finish was very flat. There weren't really any ups or downs. With a goblin that hardly knows what he's doing as the emperor of the land, I would think that would be a good setup for some pretty funny scenes.

All in all, I think The Goblin Emperor is a pretty good debut for a new author. I loved the use of the third person during conversations. I thought that was pretty clever. My biggest hope is for the author to really let it go the next time around. If she can incorporate more elements into her story, I for one would enjoy it that much more.

I’ve been an avid science fiction fan all my life but I’ve always been much pickier about fantasy. There’s a tendency to posit non-human semi-supernatural races of beings for their own sake, and to just wave a wand and say “Magic!” as a cop-out when you don’t want to have to explain something that’d counter to natural law. Tolkien has a lot to answer for in my book. I am a fan, though, of authors like Joe Abercrombie, whose fantasy worlds are more “real.” Addison (who is really Sarah Monette, and has published a number of horror and weird fantasy novels under that name) is closer to that style, and this politics-heavy yarn has a lot to recommend it.

Maia, age seventeen, is the youngest son of the elfin Emperor of Ethuveraz, and he’s been in exile at a remote hunting lodge since he was little. His mother -- a goblin and his father’s fourth wife -- died when he was eight, unmourned by anyone but him, and he’s been kept in seclusion and under the thumb of an out-of-favor courtier ever since. But now word comes that his father, his three older half-brothers, and his nephew are all dead in the crash of an airship and Maia, very suddenly, is the new emperor. And he’s nervously aware that he doesn’t know *anything*. He’s intelligent and empathic, and his heart is in the right place, but he’s also ignorant and naive. He knows, or soon learns, that everyone at the court he’s never even visited will be out to manipulate him. He yearns to trust someone, but who? His father’s surviving former wives? The Lord Chancellor? His younger cousins, who would follow him in the succession if anything untoward should happen? Not to mention that many of his more aristocratic pale-haired elf subjects are thoroughly racist when it comes to the black-skinned goblins who live to the north of the empire. But the law is the law, and elves are very big on obeying it, so Maia becomes Edrehasivar VII and begins trying to rule as well as reign. Which isn’t helped by his innate shyness and the realization that he will have no privacy for the rest of his life. And then the investigating Witnesses have to tell him that the airship crash was actually the result of sabotage. His father and brothers were murdered.

The plot is complex but Addison does a pretty good job of explaining things and keeping it all straight. The characters are fully developed in multiple dimensions and the dialogue illuminates them. If you prefer politics and personal interrelationships and detailed world-building to galloping action, you’ll like this one. But there are also several fundamental problems.

First, why elves and goblins? The former aren’t in the lightest ethereal and the later aren’t at all orc-like. There are aristocrats, merchants, blue-collar working men, and professional military types among both races. They often work at the same jobs together and they can and often do intermarry. Actually, they could be Caucasian and Negro for all the difference it would make to the story, or to the world in which it’s set. Nearly all the time, the characters can be thought of as just people. You can’t just say, “Oh, he’s an elf,” and let it go. (But then it apparently wouldn’t feel like fantasy.)

Second, the author has gone to very great lengths to create terminology and personal names that are long and difficult to pronounce, and for no obvious reason -- except, again, that Tolkien fans probably will expect it. But the actual effect is only to make it very difficult to keep track of characters, the offices they hold, and the various parts of the sprawling palace. (I’d hate to have to listen to the audiobook version of this thing.) Originality in world-building does not require obfuscation.

Third, why is this even an empire? In English, “emperor” implies a superior ruler over a collection of kings. But the ruler of the goblin nation next door -- who is also Maia’s maternal grandfather -- appears to be the political equal of the emperor. And the latter’s upper-level subjects are called princes and dukes and so on. Not a “king” among them. Again, proper world-building should make sense and be internally consistent. Again, there has to be a *reason* for all these things.

Still and all, I enjoyed the story and I have to wonder whether Addison is considering a sequel. Having survived a couple of assassination attempts and a failed coup, Maia is facing marriage, and I would like to know what happens next!

I am only on page 50 of this book, but I have already turned many times to the **14-page word list** at the end of the book looking desperately for explanations of endless, needlessly complex and similar names and words. Before you buy it, look at those pages!

The main character is totally sympathetic, and I do very much want to know what happens to him. And I have read many, many long novels with dozens of active characters: SHOGUN comes to mind. I read it three times and kept a written a cast of characters--which clan they belonged to, their main actions, etc.--and made my own Japanese glossary. I've read lots of Russian novels (where all the men seem to have three names), more than two dozen of Trollope's novels, and 50 years' worth of science fiction and fantasy. I've read LOTR five times.

But nothing prepared me for this. Here's a sample line: "The Adremaza sent us." So off to the glossary:
"Adremaza: the master of the Athmaz'are."
"Athmaz'are: the institution of the mazei of the Ethuveraz."
Mazei: no entry.
"Ethuveraz: the Elflands."

WHAT???

I don't know how far I will make it. I wish Addison's editor had reined her in. Yes, Tolkien built an incredibly deep and complex world, but it took him decades to put together a coherent, *graspable* reality. Making up a lot of words is not the same as world-building. What does it add to write "his Ulimeire was preferable by far to the dank and grimy Orthasmeire..." instead of what is meant (I think -- neither is in the glossary): "his graveyard was preferable to the...temple"?

If I keep reading I will only be skating on thin narrative ice, because I cannot stop every few pages to try to figure out what the bleedin' heck is being said. If I keep going and change my mind about any of this, I'll come back and update.

I really enjoyed The Goblin Emperor!

Maia is a half-goblin and the youngest son of the emperor of the elf lands. When his father and three older brothers die in an “accident,” Maia finds himself unexpectedly plunged into the role of emperor, for which he is almost completely unprepared.

The Goblin Emperor is a novel hard to pin down in terms of genre. It’s obviously fantasy, but beyond that it’s hard to say. My best guess would be fantasy of manners given the focus on court politics and low amounts of magic or action. It also has a coming of age element that could make it work as a cross over for the YA audience, although it doesn’t adhere to what I think of as the “standard YA book” formula. Additionally, I’ve seen it classified as steampunk because its set during an industrial revolution.

The Goblin Emperor is not an action based book. There’s no battles or quests – this is a book centered around Maia and him learning to be emperor. However, The Goblin Emperor maintains good pacing and drive. I found it addicting and hard to put down.

The heart of the novel is Maia himself. He’s just so sympathetic and likable! He’s determined to be a good emperor, and he has such vast empathy for everyone around him. He’s also had almost no preparation or training, and he tends towards naive and awkward. He’s also isolated and desires friendship more than anything else. All of this combines to make him a fantastic protagonist.

The Goblin Emperor is also very well written. I will admit to being worried by the style at first – Addison uses “thee” and “thou” and more formal speech typically found in fantasy novels. However, this works excellently. Word usage such as with the royal “we” allow the dialogue to be divided into formal and informal and add another layer of meaning.

My greatest problem with the book was the confusing multitude of names. I’m used to fantasy names, but there were so many of them! And not just for characters either. Addison made up words for everything from the servants who dress the emperor to wizards (“maza”). I constantly found myself forgetting who characters were or having no idea what a word signified. The extensive glossary at the end of the book was not very helpful, and it would have benefited from a family tree as well.

I would recommend The Goblin Emperor for people looking for a more hopeful sort of fantasy book that goes against the grimdark trend. I would also suggest it for someone looking for a character driven fantasy novel or a fantasy of manners.

Originally posted on <a href=https://theillustratedpage.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/review-of-the-goblin-emperor-by-katherine-addison/>The Illustrated Page.</a>

After finishing this book, I can tell that it is just one of those novels that needs to hit a niche group of readers. I fall outside of that niche. For me, there just isn’t anything here. Yes, the world is deep, the social hierarchy is (slightly) interesting, the cultural do’s and don’t’s are well thought out and creative, and the book is well written for sure. But the plot is just so bland it’s painful at times. Nothing happens. Ever. The book centers around a young, ill fitted emperor thrust into a position for which he has no interest and no knowledge. There are obviously many problems that would promulgate from such a situation but I don’t care about any of the ones presented here. I don’t care about how the emperor is supposed to eat breakfast or that he can’t be friends with his personal guard or that he feels awkward all the time, or that a lot of people begrudge him for his political position. The book is more like a memoir of a dictator’s day to day schedule in a small secluded country where nothing happens. Watch as he talks to people he doesn’t know and the exact same scenario plays out over and over as he is unsure of what to do in accordance with the propriety he should show. Watch as he sits in on political discussions and he doesn’t know what to do because he’s young and not intimate with the court. Watch as he tries to find a wife and… you guessed it, doesn’t know what to do…
All I can say about this book is if you prefer action and pace, do not even try. You will find none of it here. However, if you like the subtleties of court, the day to day happenings in an empire at the highest political level, and immersing yourself in a pretty deep and creative fantasy world, there is a good amount here for you. It all just comes down to what you prefer. It just didn’t resonate with me at all unfortunately but I can see how some would enjoy it.

If I woke up one morning to find a messenger bowing down to me and proclaiming I was queen, I would be completely bewildered. My first reaction would be to think it was some sort of elaborate joke. If it proved to be a joke, I don’t know what I would feel. Irritation? Amusement? Regret? I would probably be relieved. All that envy and discontent at court would be uncomfortable to deal with. Somehow, royal life doesn’t seem quite so dandy anymore.

The Goblin Emperor is a unique fantasy book written by Kate Addison. Maia, an eighteen-year-old half-goblin, is rudely awakened one morning to an unpleasant surprise: a messenger sinks down on one knee on Maia’s threadbare carpet and announces that Maia is king. Soon, Maia is whisked away to the Untheileneise Court. Bewildered an afraid, Maia soon realizes that his arrival is less than welcome. Plots to kill him are springing up all around him. Who can he trust? Who will betray him?

Maia is a fish out of water at the Untheileneise Court. As the courtiers gradually get to know his methods and personality, his reputation deteriorates. Maia’s father, the late king Varenechibel IV, never bothered to tutor Maia or even invite him to court; as a result, Maia knows next to nothing about diplomacy, politics, or etiquette. Indeed, the only time Varenechibel saw Maia, he called him a “damned whelp” (p. 21). Maia desperately tries to gain respect and be kind at the same time, two things that seem to be unattainable as king.

The whole matter of the Untheileneise Court is somewhat laughable. Most of the aristocrats who reside there are no better than any of the commoners—in fact, worse. They are gossipy and frivolous, flouncing their fancy titles and impressive bloodlines. Maia is bewildered when he is introduced the court. How should he treat them? What is considered impropriety in the eyes of a group of touchy egoists? As Maia tries desperately to assert his power, offended courtiers become dangerous enemies.

The Goblin Emperor is an impressive tangle of court intrigue, attempted murder, and unhappy half-goblins. It showed me that, despite the glamour, I would definitely not want to be queen. If you'd like to read more youth-written book reviews, go to my blog, bookshelfexplorer.

Middle-grade fantasy, ages 12–14.

I am only on page 50 of this book, but I have already turned many times to the **14-page word list** at the end of the book looking desperately for explanations of endless, needlessly complex and similar names and words. Before you buy it, look at those pages!

The main character is totally sympathetic, and I do very much want to know what happens to him. And I have read many, many long novels with dozens of active characters: SHOGUN comes to mind. I read it three times and kept a written a cast of characters--which clan they belonged to, their main actions, etc.--and made my own Japanese glossary. I've read lots of Russian novels (where all the men seem to have three names), more than two dozen of Trollope's novels, and 50 years' worth of science fiction and fantasy. I've read LOTR five times.

But nothing prepared me for this. Here's a sample line: "The Adremaza sent us." So off to the glossary:
"Adremaza: the master of the Athmaz'are."
"Athmaz'are: the institution of the mazei of the Ethuveraz."
Mazei: no entry.
"Ethuveraz: the Elflands."

WHAT???

I don't know how far I will make it. I wish Addison's editor had reined her in. Yes, Tolkien built an incredibly deep and complex world, but it took him decades to put together a coherent, *graspable* reality. Making up a lot of words is not the same as world-building. What does it add to write "his Ulimeire was preferable by far to the dank and grimy Orthasmeire..." instead of what is meant (I think -- neither is in the glossary): "his graveyard was preferable to the...temple"?

If I keep reading I will only be skating on thin narrative ice, because I cannot stop every few pages to try to figure out what the bleedin' heck is being said. If I keep going and change my mind about any of this, I'll come back and update.

I really enjoyed The Goblin Emperor!

Maia is a half-goblin and the youngest son of the emperor of the elf lands. When his father and three older brothers die in an “accident,” Maia finds himself unexpectedly plunged into the role of emperor, for which he is almost completely unprepared.

The Goblin Emperor is a novel hard to pin down in terms of genre. It’s obviously fantasy, but beyond that it’s hard to say. My best guess would be fantasy of manners given the focus on court politics and low amounts of magic or action. It also has a coming of age element that could make it work as a cross over for the YA audience, although it doesn’t adhere to what I think of as the “standard YA book” formula. Additionally, I’ve seen it classified as steampunk because its set during an industrial revolution.

The Goblin Emperor is not an action based book. There’s no battles or quests – this is a book centered around Maia and him learning to be emperor. However, The Goblin Emperor maintains good pacing and drive. I found it addicting and hard to put down.

The heart of the novel is Maia himself. He’s just so sympathetic and likable! He’s determined to be a good emperor, and he has such vast empathy for everyone around him. He’s also had almost no preparation or training, and he tends towards naive and awkward. He’s also isolated and desires friendship more than anything else. All of this combines to make him a fantastic protagonist.

The Goblin Emperor is also very well written. I will admit to being worried by the style at first – Addison uses “thee” and “thou” and more formal speech typically found in fantasy novels. However, this works excellently. Word usage such as with the royal “we” allow the dialogue to be divided into formal and informal and add another layer of meaning.

My greatest problem with the book was the confusing multitude of names. I’m used to fantasy names, but there were so many of them! And not just for characters either. Addison made up words for everything from the servants who dress the emperor to wizards (“maza”). I constantly found myself forgetting who characters were or having no idea what a word signified. The extensive glossary at the end of the book was not very helpful, and it would have benefited from a family tree as well.

I would recommend The Goblin Emperor for people looking for a more hopeful sort of fantasy book that goes against the grimdark trend. I would also suggest it for someone looking for a character driven fantasy novel or a fantasy of manners.

Originally posted on <a href=https://theillustratedpage.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/review-of-the-goblin-emperor-by-katherine-addison/>The Illustrated Page.</a>

After finishing this book, I can tell that it is just one of those novels that needs to hit a niche group of readers. I fall outside of that niche. For me, there just isn’t anything here. Yes, the world is deep, the social hierarchy is (slightly) interesting, the cultural do’s and don’t’s are well thought out and creative, and the book is well written for sure. But the plot is just so bland it’s painful at times. Nothing happens. Ever. The book centers around a young, ill fitted emperor thrust into a position for which he has no interest and no knowledge. There are obviously many problems that would promulgate from such a situation but I don’t care about any of the ones presented here. I don’t care about how the emperor is supposed to eat breakfast or that he can’t be friends with his personal guard or that he feels awkward all the time, or that a lot of people begrudge him for his political position. The book is more like a memoir of a dictator’s day to day schedule in a small secluded country where nothing happens. Watch as he talks to people he doesn’t know and the exact same scenario plays out over and over as he is unsure of what to do in accordance with the propriety he should show. Watch as he sits in on political discussions and he doesn’t know what to do because he’s young and not intimate with the court. Watch as he tries to find a wife and… you guessed it, doesn’t know what to do…
All I can say about this book is if you prefer action and pace, do not even try. You will find none of it here. However, if you like the subtleties of court, the day to day happenings in an empire at the highest political level, and immersing yourself in a pretty deep and creative fantasy world, there is a good amount here for you. It all just comes down to what you prefer. It just didn’t resonate with me at all unfortunately but I can see how some would enjoy it.

I really enjoyed this book. There's a reason why I find myself surprised to be writing that sentence. "The Goblin Emperor" has a lot of things I don't normally enjoy reading.

* Byzantine court intrigue
* Elaborate names with weird punctuation
* So many "fantasy" names, all confusing
* Steampunk (not quite sure why the steampunk sub-genre never grabbed me, but there ya go)
* Elves and dwarves (which I just find sort of tired, in the fantasy genre)
* No map

So by all rights, I should have disliked this book, and in fact I only began it because it came highly recommended by three people whose tastes I generally agree with. And, in all honesty, I resisted it, because of (see list above).

But dang if it didn't turn out to be a real page-turner. Due to a tragic and entirely unexpected turn of events, young Maia, the half-goblin and discarded youngest son of the Emperor, finds himself atop the throne of a large and complex kingdom.

He's been raised in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere by a single courtier who hates him since his mother died when he was eight. He knows nothing of ruling or court life or the intrigues of politics. And to make matters even worse, it soon becomes clear that the airship crash which killed his father and all his older brothers was no accident.

"The Goblin Emperor" is a classic fish-out-of-water story, set in an elaborate, gilded and mannered setting. By all rights, I shouldn't have liked it. Instead, I ended up darned near loving it.

There's a little Game of Thrones in this fantasy story of an honorable figure coming to court and facing palace intrigue, but it more closely resembles Assassin's Apprentice in centering its narrative around an abused and friendless child whose station prevents others from getting close. In this case, that child is the youngest son of the elvish emperor, long exiled due to his mother's disfavor but now thrust upon the throne after the sudden death of his father and half-brothers. Maia's mother was a goblin -- a racial minority in the empire -- and many of his new subjects dislike him as much for his mixed heritage as for his attempts to rein in some of his father's more excessive policies.

A little of the worldbuilding here could have been clearer, and the huge cast of characters with similar-sounding names was really hard to keep track of, especially in audio format. Audiobook reader Kyle McCarley does a great job with what he's given, but I think I'll need to actually read the book next time instead of listening, to make sure I catch everything. Still, it was great enough that there definitely will be a next time at some point. There's so much heart to this story, and so much neat language, and so many times when I wanted to reach out to the Elflands and give its lonely emperor a hug. It's a world I fell into deeply, and a book I'm already looking forward to revisiting.

Katherine Addison has delivered a very unique book that could find itself having a following that makes it a very important genre-defining novel in the future. With that said, let me tell you that The Goblin Emperor did not deliver the level of excitement and plot driven story that I expect and want when I pick up a fantasy novel. This book was much more of a character defining story mixed with equal parts world-building. She cleverly twisted into the traditional high-fantasy story of goblins, elves and magic elements of science and how science is also shaping that world, giving the book a fun blend of steam-punk with zeppelins and giant clockwork bridges. The main driving forces of the book are the politics and racism. And while all of this is very interesting, the plot of the story really doesn’t emerge until the last eighth of the book, and every bit of dramatic tension is resolved within a paragraph. Katherine Addison has created a wonderful world and some really fun characters. Now I would like to see her do something more with them.

Reader thoughts: I was unimpressed, but I liked it.

Maya was never in the middle of any of the happenings. He travels once (to the palace in an airship), and then he's threatened twice. He's not harmed, just threatened. And it's only twice. The blurb definitely made it sound like there was more danger and plots going on here.

There is much more to the book's plot, but it's either far away (Maya has at least one private detective who reports back to him) or subtle intrigue I don't understand (women are supposed to get married, not supposed to attend university, how scandalous). Maya isn't a part of it, though. He comments, listens, watches, declares a decision that surprises people (like attending a peasant funeral), listens and watches some more, and makes another decision (in favor of building a bridge, oh goody). Oh, and he went to a few dances, at which he stood in the back.

I wanted Maya to DO stuff. To attack, escape, discover. Instead, he's a proper emperor who is led around and keeps most of his thoughts to himself. He's very stressed and afraid of confrontation (so much so that he practically cowers and flattens his ears every time someone raises their voice). I loved that side of him, because it felt so much like the way I react.

Mostly, there were lots of names that all sounded very similar. I couldn't keep them straight. Was Maya talking to his sister, his sister-in-law, the former empress, his great aunt, his servant, or that one sick lady? The dialogue had enough meaningless pleasantries that it was too hard to tell whom he was talking to. This vastly diminished my interest in the climax. Oh, so those two were working together all along? I thought they were the same person. I don't know if it would have been better to read this book rather than listen to it.

Writer thoughts:
The book held my interest. I attribute this to several factors that KA did well. First, Writing Excuses podcast mentioned this book twice. That caught my attention for sure.

Second, Addison made it clear how hard Maya was working . . . and how much he feared botching the job. He wasn't ready for the responsibility, and running an empire is a HUGE responsibility. That level of stress piqued my interest. It just didn't go anywhere from there.

The novel is a combination of political intrigue, coming of age and whodunnit with a positive outlook/outcome, where the majority of characters stays alive instead of dying cruel, overdramatic or unnecessary deaths.

Titanic wars & armageddon do not feature in the book either, so if you prefer dark, grim, action- and war-packed fantasy books where the world is hopelessly doomed, then you most probably won’t like The Goblin Emperor.

What I loved:
- Maia, the protagonist. A shy, self-doubting, sensitive boy without real family and friends, kept in exile and isolation and treated with disdain and cruelty because he is half goblin. Then his father, the elf-emperor suddenly and unexpectedly dies in an accident with all his other sons, leaving Maia his heir and completely out of his depth.
Maia stays a likeable MC throughout the book, despite his awkwardness & naivity.
His quest for family, friendship and love & his coming into his own as a wise and successful emperor among the heartless political plotting, manoeuvring & vying for power is truly heartwarming and satisfying.
It is great to see how he is learning to sail the dangerous waters of the court who to trust / befriend / love / stand up to / dismiss among the multitude of relations, courtiers, politicians & servants that surround him & how he is literally & figuratively & sometimes even unwittingly building bridges in his empire &.

- The world building is fantastic. It is detailed, well built-up & credible as a whole, but especially the emperor’s court with all its political/economic/interpersonal system, laws & rules, administration and etiquette has been very well drawn.

- The political intrigue/whodunnit plot. The reader is learning about it together with Maia. It is like watching an intense and tense game of chess with all figures moving purposefully and eagerly awaiting the next step trying to figure out who is standing on which side.

What I did not like:

- Utterly and unnecessarily confusing, complicated names. It was very hard to follow who is who and what and whether they are male / female even with the explanatory appendix at the end. I had to consult it every second page & sometimes was still none the wiser for it.

- With such a detailed & precise world-building, a map of the empire, with its neighbouring countries & geography would have come in handy. I would have loved to consult one while reading.

When the Emperor and all of his sons die in a tragic accident, Maia becomes the unexpected heir to the throne Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. The son of a political marriage, Maia is half goblin, half elf, but more his mother's son than fathers, and so is more goblin than elf. After years living on the periphery of the empire, cast off by his father to live a tortured life at the hands of an exiled courtier, Maia finds himself thrust into the deadly intrigues of the imperial court, and it will take all of his wits and luck to learn the skill, develop the relationships, and navigate the politics that swirl around him. Everyone seems to be angling for an advantage, and Maia will have to learn to identify friend from foe before he ends up deposed or worse: dead.

I've struggled for months to come up with how to describe what I thought about The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison's first novel. For months I had seen it appearing at the top of best read lists for 2014, but without an easy way to categorize it, I put off reading.

That was a mistake. The Goblin Emperor is clever, intelligent, subtle, and a complex and beautiful thing. Woven with complex threads of fully imagined characters, cultures, and nations, Addison's novel faces the threat of overwhelming the reader with a high learning curve, and then obliterates any apprehensions with a story that is so real I wanted to read another in the same world as soon as I finished it.

So, yes, The Goblin Emperor is difficult to categorize, and that's part of why it took me a while to talk about why I liked it so much. There is steampunk, there is magic, and there are complex court politics. But none of those define the novel's genre so much as the deep character development of Maia at the center of the story. As he grows in the midst of complex and obscure politics and cultural norms around him, most of which he understands only slightly better than the reader at times, Maia becomes sympathetic and appealing, a protagonist you can cheer for, but whose success remains in doubt until the very end.

Addison's fully formed world (complete with its own social classes, linguistic twists, and religion) is only a supporting character in this breathtakingly fascinating bildungsroman allows the setting to lie in the background, fully textured, but without threatening to overtake the story.

The Goblin Emperor was intellectually stimulating, as well. With an imperial setting, Addison doesn't shy away from asking how a culture composed of individuals that are physically different (goblins and elves) but sexually and genetically compatible might develop and interact. As one who is heavily involved in my own home town's politics, but an avid fiction reader, this is one of the best and most fully imagined depictions of how politics might really look in a multicultural imperial setting.

In the interest of full disclosure, I hasten to note that my better half took a long time to get into The Goblin Emperor. But then, she didn't much enjoy Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, either, which I also enjoyed immensely.

Katherine Addison has already pulled in a few of science fiction and fantasy's biggest awards for The Goblin Emperor, and she's up for the Hugo, as well. I'm still reading The Three-Body Problem, but right now The Goblin Emperor is my top pick for the award when I vote later this month. I hope she does well; The Goblin Emperor deserves it.

The funny thing is, I wasn't at all sure that I'd like this book. It had sat on my wishlist for a very, very long time - I enjoyed her earlier books, and lots of people had given this book great reviews - but when I'd read a Kindle sample, the archaic language had seriously put me off. Still, I left it on my wishlist because the reviews were SO good - and when my husband got it for me for Christmas, I really gave it a real try. Two hours later, I was 82 pages into it and in LOVE. (And I got used to the language very, very quickly as the story picked me up and swept me away completely.)

I can't remember the last time I read a book that made me quite this happy. I was totally absorbed by the story, and completely invested in Maia (the wonderful protagonist, whom I loved and empathized with deeply) by just a chapter or two in, and I was really quite desperately worried about him for about the first half of the book. But the real pleasure came from watching him overcome his (massive, overwhelming) obstacles and come into his own - a kind, deeply compassionate person thrown into the deep end of a toxic court situation, after having been abused by the people who should have looked after him in his own childhood. He was never expected, trained or prepared to become the Emperor, so when all three of his older brothers and his father were assassinated and he inherited the throne, he was completely unequipped to deal with it, AND he'd been trained by his abusive guardian to doubt himself in every situation. But oh, did he come into his own by the end of this book - *and*, better yet, without ever losing his strong sense of ethics or his deep empathy with anyone who had likewise been downtrodden. By the end, I was just glowing with satisfaction and delight at his personal development and at the new family he'd created around himself.

I am SO glad to have gotten a beautiful, durable hardcover copy of this book, so that I can re-read it many, many times in the future. And this book is highly, highly recommended to anyone who wants to dive in and just *live* in a book for a while…and then finish it feeling happier and better about everything.

How you feel about this book will depend heavily on what you like in a book - it could be one or five stars, depending on your tastes.

If you like detailed world building, languages and customs, you'll probably love this book. Reminds me of Empire of the Petal Throne.

If you like pleasant coming-of-age sorts of stories with a clear, likable protagonist, you'll like this book. I _like_ the main character. I'd read more about him, if it was published. He's definitely the good guy - not many shades of grey here. Kind of like a Horatio Alger story. You know, "Poor but honest Goblin becomes emperor, and, by hard work, and good friends, becomes successful."

If you like high fantasy, with lots of magic... not your book. Almost none. This reads like historical fiction. You could drop this story a few hundred years ago, and change "Goblins" and "Elves" to some local groups that don't get along, and almost nothing would need to be changed. Magic is NOT a significant part of the world, or the story.

If you like action, plot and adventure - skip it. The book is mostly talking. Kind of the anti-Game of Thrones.

If you like easy to follow books, run away. This is the one place where I think the book fails. The author is so in love with her titles, names, and language that you really need a program to keep it all straight (Either the kind you get at the Opera, or for a computer. Either would work). Don't get me wrong, I love Tolkein. This is just confusing. The characters have similar names, so it's hard to keep track. It's even harder if you don't read the appendix first (do read it first). You won't know if that's a first name, last name, title, or honorific.

In summary, I enjoyed the book. I'd read more in this series. But not much happens, and half the time I had no idea who Maia was talking to.

Every once in a while, a fantasy novel comes around that doesn’t follow the trends that one almost comes to expect of the genre. If you’re the type who’s looking for sword and sorcery, flaming dragons and epic quests involving objects of power, this is not your novel. If, however, you’re looking for a slow-moving, gradually unfolding tale about an uncomplicated young man who finds himself quite suddenly thrust into the predicament of becoming an emperor, Maia’s story might just well be what you’re looking for.

Maia is the unwanted result of the marriage between the the Goblin princess Chenelo and the emperor of the Elflands. What was supposed to be a political marriage was never intended to produce an heir, let alone a halfbreed, and Maia has spent most of his childhood growing up in an isolate estate with only a relative to care for him (and not very well at that). When the emperor and his heirs die in freak airship accident, Maia is thrust from anonymity onto the emperor’s throne, as he is eldest heir.

Court politics, as he soon discovers, can be deadly, and not everyone is pleased that a half-Goblin is seated on the throne. What also counts against him is his complete naïveté when it comes to intrigue and yet, this very same weakness also proves to be his greatest strength while he establishes his rule. What is clear from the outset is that Maia is a good person. His honesty, his almost-painful lack of guile, elicited a need for me to see him succeed in the snake pit of the imperial court.

There are moments when his social ineptitude made me cringe, but by equal measure watching him grow into his role was ultimately rewarding, even if most of the action – this is partly a murder mystery – takes place offscreen, so to speak. Such action, as it occurs, is brief, and focus is rather placed on the subtle, interpersonal relations between the characters.

This is not a fast-moving novel by any measure. Katherine Addison’s prose is detailed and textured, and at times the array of names for people and places is bewildering (and possibly intentionally so, to create a sense of disorientation that Maia might feel at his situation). Yet the story is compelling, down to the last chapter, to be savoured for the rich world building and the slow weave of power play. The Goblin Emperor’s awarding of the 2015 Locus Award for “Best Fantasy Novel” is well deserved.

With a title like "The Goblin Emperor" I thought there would be far more magic in it. It turns out there was almost no magic in the book, which was in a kind of "Steam Punk/Medieval " world that could have been turned into alternate history with only a few revisions. There were a couple instances of magic in this book, but they played very little role. Elves and goblins were effectively just different ethnic groups. Usually this bothers me, but in this case it didn't.

This book revolved around court intrigue, something I haven't encountered a lot lately. The protagonist was the fourth son of the Emperor of the Elflands, the product of a "rebound relationship"/arranged marriage with a goblin...a foreign princess from a country seen as barbarians. The Emperor doesn't like being reminded of his mistakes, so exiled the protagonist to a hunting lodge where he was cared for by another exile who abused him.

Then the Emperor and all his sons were killed in a blimp accident, and Maia is suddenly Emperor. He must decide who to trust, and who not to. There is much exploration of what it means to be surrounded by body guards and courtiers at all times, the roles of women, family, etc. The protagonist is ultimately fairly idealistic. It is true there is very little action...but with the surplus of gun toting action hero(ines) that is somewhat refreshing. I did find the multi-syllable names hard to keep track of, though.

Real Rating = 4.5*

YA Fantasy with light steam, a touch of punk, and a heavy dose of politics. Sympathetic main character captured my heart.

SUMMARY:
Why do I love a book where everyone has at least three names, political intrigue is the focus, and nothing really happens? Ok, it’s not true that nothing happens, only that the action is a minor part of the story. But everyone really does have multiple names & titles (in a complex fictional language to boot). As for the politics, they aren't my kinds of thing and only the glowing reviews convinced me to give it a try anyway. This book may not be for you if those things are a deal breaker.

So, if you are still with me, why do I love this book? The characters, and the story that flows from them. I will always prefer a story that seems to follow naturally from the people who inhabit it. When asking myself why I dislike a book that is crazy popular, it is usually because I feel like the author had a story (plot) s/he wanted to tell and the characters are just puppets inside it. I can't connect with someone if I never feel like I know them.

While this is a long (and sometimes slow) book, I never felt impatient. I was content to be with Maia as he struggled to become not just a true adult, but an Emperor and someone who wasn't tied to his past or the mistakes of those who came before.

Note: although this book deals with many serious subjects, there were sufficient moments of lightness and humor included to avoid getting bogged down.

CHARACTERS:
Maia Drazhar (aka Edrehasivar VII): 18 year old exiled son of the former emperor. Has spent the last 10 years living with an abusive guardian in near total isolation. He desperately wants to do the right thing, but is very unsure of himself. Not only is he completely unprepared for his new responsibilities, but he struggles just to interact with the crowds of people who now surround him.

Chenelo (Maia's mother): Although she died when he was only 8, this would have been a different book without her. She is the only reason he knows anything about love & compassion and, I believe, the reason he continues to check himself when he responds the way his more recent past has conditioned him to.

Some of my favorites among the giant cast of supporting characters include: Maia’s 14 year old nephew Idra and young nieces Mireän & Ino. / Maia’s prickly and aggressive fiancée (whose name I won’t reveal) / Cala & Kiru Athmaza (mage bodyguards) / the signet maker / Arbelan (Maia’s father’s first, barren, wife)

WORLDBUILDING:
There is both magic and steampunk technology (airships, pneumatic message tubes, etc) in this world, but neither is the focus. Some of my favorite moments, include it though.

The main "world" is the giant city-size palace of the emperor. Maia enters it early in the book leaves it only a few times after that. Ms Addison has created an entire culture encapsulated within it's capital. Certain rooms begin to have their own character, as Maia attaches emotions to the things that take place there or plans things to take place in them because of his feelings towards them.

PLOT:
I think the beginning was perfect. It starts with the event that changes Maia life (his receiving notice of his father & brothers' deaths). It gives us a glimpse of what his life was like before, and introduces two significant characters, one who anchored his past and one who will be instrumental in anchoring his future.

It should be noted that not every hand is against him throughout the book, I doubt I would have been able to stick it out in that case. He does find some supporters, as well as a few loyal & friendly opponents; but, still, he is a young man being slowly crushed by the weight of the empire he now rules, and he feels little hope of finding any true friends.

Although I wanted his story to continue on (I would definitely have loved to see his wedding and to read about him as a father), the book ends in a good place.

HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS :
Any scene with Maia and his nieces & nephew

The only scene in which our mages do any actual magic

“Oh yes…[he is]…very dead.”

Maia’s childlike wonder over an animatronic bridge model

"Maia’s chest felt full of amazement, like a great glowing ball he could barely breathe around."

..."Maia watched as the two ends of the bridge reached slowly and yearningly for each other, knowing he was as wide-eyed and entranced as a child listening to a wonder-tale and in that moment not caring. The bridge was more marvelous than any amount of imperial dignity was worth."

Maia's character growth

"He was not stupid and he was not incapable. He remembered the moment when his thoughts had inverted themselves—that shift from not being able to please everyone to not trying..."

I COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT: Mild swearing

OTHER CAUTIONS(?):
--Before the book began, Maia spent 10 years living with a guardian who was emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive. Some of those incidents are related; and Maia struggles with self-worth and self-judgement.
--In this world Elves are white and Goblins are black (true white & black, as opposed to pink & brown). Mixed-race children are various shades of gray. Having grown up with his abusive guardian in the land of the elves, Maia struggles with his own perceptions that Goblin features (including his own) are less attractive or even ugly.
--At one point, Maia receives an offer of "companionship" (to which he has no clue how to respond).
--It is revealed that one of the side characters had a (married) same-sex lover, for which he was persecuted; one of Maia’s aunts has a wife; and there is at least one other M/M couple mentioned.

NARRATION:
I am so grateful for Mr. McCarley's expert narration; the language and names are so difficult that I might have been lost with out him. (I was thrilled when he responded to my request for an interview.) / Perhaps my only complaint was that his "little girl" voices aren't the best. / I listened on 1.25 speed (my usual)

Note: For me at least, the sound volume is low on this one. I always have to turn it up when switching from a different book.

I almost gave up on this book on the first page. I am very glad that I did not -- in fact the very thing that I hated at first turned into a strength -- but it took me a few chapters to get beyond the awkward dialect. The "thou"s and so forth seem obnoxious until you understand that they're actually part of a very-well constructed linguistic system which indicates a lot to the characters and reader about how the speakers feel toward each other. These varying degrees of formality are intrinsic to learning the ropes of court politics, and the reader gets brought on board through Maia's attempts to remember to use the right words. The world-construction is fascinating, complex, and thorough, and this linguistic tick provides a lot of subtle information through the story along with other indicators like ear movement.

The second area in which this book shines is in the character development of an abused child who is suddenly raised to emperor. Maia's struggles to overcome his past, and adopt a mindset that is a better fit for his current circumstances is a central part of the book. It is this character development that binds the book together -- this is not a plot-driven novel at all. The author does a good job of integrating Maia's slowly adjusting perspective into the back and forth between him and other characters -- inching him from lacking all sense of self-worth to becoming confident and firm. My only complaint on this front is that in some ways things seem to simply work out well for Maia, naivete and all, in a slightly unrealistic way given the power-scrabbling that is apparent elsewhere in the carefully constructed world. It is true that he is clearly very bright -- which is demonstrated, rather than simply claimed as so many authors do of their dubious boy-wonders -- but I doubt that would be enough, particularly given such heavy emotional handicaps. On a similar note, Maia never gets really angry or repeats the same abusive behaviors he experienced -- in short he's always a nice guy -- but this repetition of patterns of abuse is a common one in the real world. His insecurity is well-constructed and easy to identify with, as a reader, but his lack of selfish or less-than-angelic feelings and motivations make him seem a bit less than real. There is a bit of moralistic "he likes poor people, and women, and people with different skintones than him", which is not particularly subtle, and seems to assume that the reader will agree that because Maia is nice, he will be a good emperor. In short, my cynical side would expect an uneducated, unconnected, underprivileged character such as Maia not to last very long. On the other hand, it's an enjoyable story, so if you can suspend for a moment your realpolitik sensibilities then it's an overlookable problem. The politics are otherwise very convincing (I have a PhD in Political Science, so I have unreasonably high expectations on that front) and quite complex, although related largely as a backdrop to the thoughts and feelings of the new emperor.

The third strength is that the author does not beat you over the head with every realization, joke, or comment. I imagine this would be annoying if you want a novel to skim through without paying much attention -- but for my money this type of subtle writing is much more satisfying. It also makes space for a lot more to be crammed into the pages, so that the world feels very fully fleshed out.

Major flaws -- I've already discussed the moralistic content, the dialect, and the rather thin plot. I also would not want to read this book aloud -- too many words I couldn't pronounce, and names that are extremely similar to other names. I struggled to remember which honorifics meant what, although unraveling the rules of these things is something that ultimately I enjoy in a well-constructed fantasy novel. I also did not find the conclusion of this book particularly satisfying; I hope it is the first in a series and that Maia will do something more than simply survive in future installments.

I enjoyed this novel more than I expected to and found it engaging despite the rather brief plot. In some ways it reads a bit like YA literature, although it addresses serious topics such as murder, suicide, and abuse. It also utilizes a broad vocabulary. I would recommend it for folks who enjoy character-driven fantasy strong in world-building.

This is a fantasy full of faith and heart. A true ugly duckling tale of a young half-goblin exiled from his homeland. Nearly alone after being orphaned (except for an abusive cousin), Maia is unexpectedly recalled to the heart of the empire following the death of his estranged father and half-brothers.

The story is largely told through the eyes of Maia, but what eyes they are. Maia is an extremely complex protagonist that may have a few unpolished qualities about him, but it is those edges that makes you love him the more. As other characters are drawn into the story, their lives appear to be the richer for it.

I'm not saying that those characters are co-dependent on him. I'm saying that there are people that we come in contact with in this world that - just by being around them - enliven your life and give you a strong visceral reaction. Maia is one of those people.

The other characters are also very interesting and I'd love to hear a bit more about their backgrounds and motivations.

The world in this story fades into the background and I honestly wish it was given a bit more depth. It feels as though it is just a standard fantasy world with no special touches. Even if this is true, I'd like a bit more exposition.

The plot moves along nicely and does not stop. It has a good amount of depth, but the dramatic tension is lacking (which isn't a bad thing necessarily).

Overall? 4*. I deducted half a point because *darn it! I want to know more about some of the other characters - not just Maia* and because I prefer just a bit more tension in my stories.

Maia, a half-goblin teenage boy, is forced to leave his secluded home at Edonomee after the emperor--a man who may have begot Maia but certainly never raised or loved him--and the emperor's three sons die in an explosion. Maia assumes a busybody life at the Imperial Court, taking his place as the new emperor. Roughly the first half of the book deals with Maia being awkward, confused, and embarrassingly ignorant about goings on in the empire and the machinations of the Imperial Court.

Besides that, nothing much happens--Maia asks endless series of questions about who is whom and what is what in order to get situated in a court he was never before welcome in. He speaks and thinks in a formal court dialect. We're talking thee, thou, thine, the whole shebang. I'm not sure why Addison chose to feature a dialect that Maia struggled with, other than to make his segregation from the elite even more noticeable. Regardless, the "refined" language and molasses-slow pacing throughout the first two parts (read ~225 pages) of the novel were a struggle to trudge through. However, once part three begins, things finally begin to pick up.

Rumors of a purposeful murder, of assassination plots, and of much more pepper the second half of the book, bringing my interest up along with the rising action. This is where Addison shines--she keeps action in the background, with thoughts and social issues at the forefront. For example, she focuses heavily on race--as members of court persistently judge Maia for being half goblin, the reason he was shipped off to live in isolation at Edonomee in the first places.

Elves, who predominate at Court glow with pale skin and aristocraticracy. Maia's grandfather--a full-goblin king--comes to visit the Court, showcasing base manners, his love for things loud and dirty, and his big beautiful black self. Addison has Maia noting precisely the shade of each and every goblin's skin, eyes, and hair, and how that sets them apart from the white, waifish elves. Past the repeated descriptions, I think Addison handled the idea of race well in the book--it was something much different than the typical magical race differences, which added an extra layer to the political intrigue of court.

Overall, The Goblin Emperor was a good first novel, but was by no means an extraordinary tale. Addison brings new ideas to the elf/dwarfgoblin debate and succeeds at wrapping up an exciting murder mystery into political intrigue in an almost quiet manner. The plot could use some serious work in regards to pacing, but the bits that moved the story along were truly thrilling.

I read The Goblin Emperor because I’d seen at least a half-dozen other people on my friends list read it and I wanted to read what everyone else was reading. It also made a lot of top fantasy lists in 2014 so I figured there must be a reason to all the hype. When I look back on the book and try to think of specific reasons why I enjoyed it, I have a hard time narrowing down particular reasons other than, “it was just really good.” I mean as far as fantasy books go, it had little in the way of incident or action and yet it’s a very meticulously crafted, well-oiled machine that moved well from start to finish and I couldn’t help gobble it up.

The Goblin Emperor is about Maia, who is, you guessed it, the goblin emperor and the namesake of the story. Maia is one of the few characters with a name easy to remember and pronounce, so relish that because this book will bombard you with so many names of characters, family houses, dynasties and places that your head will explode keeping track of it all. Luckily there is an appendix at the back that will help you keep track of SOME of this, but not all of it.

Maia is from a human-less world, or so it seems as the only sentient races mentioned are elves and goblins. But forget those races as you’ve known them before. Imagine a fantasy world that has moved past the dark ages and into the industrial age, complete with zeppelins. I suppose you could categorize this as steampunk, but the overall feel of it is really just industrial age fantasy. There aren’t many other steampunk elements. In this world, the elves are ruled by an emperor, who at the start of the story, dies along with his heirs in a zeppelin crash. All of his heirs but one: Maia, the half elf, half goblin who was the only child spawned from the emperor’s marriage to a goblin princess. Maia, having lived in exile from the court and only visiting it a handful of times, is now thrown into the lion’s den, getting a crash course in court intrigue and politics.

And that’s the book. No, really. When it boils down to it, that’s more or less the entirety of The Goblin Emperor. But don’t let that fool you. For a book that is almost entirely bereft of action in the normal sense that fantasy contains action, I found it completely addicting and couldn’t stop turning pages. Despite the fact that the entire cast is comprised of elves and goblins, the story is filled with relatable, very human seeming characters. Maia is constantly in peril of those who want to see him off the throne both for his bloodline and his lack of knowledge. He’s always having to mold and adapt while also using his new found powers of state to change things that he sees as unfair or unjust, which of course causes him more problems in court.

The Goblin Emperor, I’ve come to realize how much I appreciate good writing and well developed characters more than I do violent action. Don’t get me wrong, the inner child in me still hungers for that action, but it’s no longer my favorite part of a story as it once was. The author imbues the story with a simple (aside from all the names) and elegant prose reminiscent of Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet. As for whether or not I recommend the book, I’ll say this: if you’ve read A Song of Ice and Fire and could imagine the entirely of the series being condensed into one book revolving solely around the political court at King’s Landing AND the idea of that sounds like it would be fun to read, then The Goblin Emperor could well be for you.

I noticed that the reviews are very divided but I think they mostly do the book a disservice. The Goblin Emperor, like the two City books, is not an action adventure story; it is a book of politics and consequences. It is neither slow nor boring unless you dislike the intrigues and politics of a very formalized, tradition bound imperial court or a fish out of water story of an outsider (cast off and abused) being thrust onto center stage with no preparation or support to help him find his footing. The characters are goblins and elves in a mixed late enlightenment with touches of industrialization stratified society. Elves are literally white and goblins are literally black. The young man who finds himself suddenly emperor is the half goblin youngest son of the emperor and daughter of the goblin leader who was a political bride and not really expected to bear a child. Though much of the conflict swirling around the new emperor involves his mixed heritage it is really more about tradition and resistance to change and closing ranks against the outsider. I was immediately sympathetic to Maia and felt for him both through his insecurities and his search for all the things an 18 year old looks for even if not suddenly the supreme leader of a contentious empire. I enjoyed the journey and was happy with the conclusion. What more could one ask of a book? I should say this is a stand alone book. There are indications that it could support further books but the story told is complete.

I did have one problem. In the back of the book is a pronunciation guide and a guide to the naming conventions and honorifics. As such they are well thought out and consistent but the names themselves were too long and difficult to pronounce so that I found myself just skipping over them. For me, if I must skip past the names of people and places to maintain a smooth pace in reading, then the author has erred on the side of complexity over readability. Since this was published by a mainstream publisher and the author is well-known, with this being a pseudonym for what was probably intended as a new series, then the editors should have stepped in. It is not that I disliked close attention to detail. The costumes the emperor must wear are like reading a description of the full regalia of Elizabeth I and was an important plot point in its own fashion (? sorry, couldn't resist) and I had no problem with Maia being referred to as Serenity constantly any more than reading Majesty bothers me; but, reading Untheileneise Court frequently was irksome even though I can handle Unseelie Court with no issues.

After the sudden death of his father and his father's first three heirs, Maia, youngest son, half-goblin, and relegated to a backwater estate, suddenly becomes the emperor of elfland. Similar to Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series, this is a second world fantasy of manners; unlike those books, the focus here is on goodness. The worldbuilding tends towards steampunk but its aesthetic doesn't overrun plot; the court intrigues are only complex because of the confusing names. (For that and other reasons, the appendix is useful.) Perhaps the best bit of worldbuilding is the use of first and second person formal and informal, because--despite the fantasy setting, despite the intrigue--the true focus is interpersonal.

Maia begins the book uneducated, outcast, and traumatized, but he possesses a stubborn goodness. As he attempts to do right with the power he's been granted, he's rewarded with respect and friendship. That process is transparent but utterly satisfying--in the slow, intimate pace of the book's first half; in the heartstring-yanking interactions near the end. If the book has a flaw, it's that it's too good--the villains incompetent, Maia's luck superb, too many decent people in the cast--but that's a flaw I will happily accept, because makes for a welcome break from convention which is consistently delightful to read. I recommend it with enthusiasm, and will return to reread it.

Maia has been an outcast for his entire life. One wouldn't think of an emperor's son as an outcast, but Maia's father is the elven Emperor, and he is half Goblin. His father married his mother out of political strategy, and never loved her. He sent her away and Maia only saw his father once in his lifetime. That once, his father made it abundantly clear that he had no feelings for Maia. Maia's mother died when he was eight and rather than bringing him back to court, the emperor left him at a remote court with only a traitorous cousin as his guardian. His guardian was cruel and made it clear that he disliked Maia every day.

But now, something miraculous has happened. The emperor and his three sons, all older than Maia, and before him in the line of succession, have been killed in an airship accident. Maia, the ignored, the one who never expected anything, is the new emperor. He doesn't want the job and is woefully unprepared. He is barely old enough to be emperor, and his youth and ignorance of court procedures is glaringly obvious. But the lines of succession are clear and before he knows it, he is installed on the throne, his every word law and his every moment guarded.

Maia treads carefully, learning about the land he now rules and its culture and procedures. Yet his innate kindness shines through and he reaches out to those who have never had a voice; servants, his guards, women of the court who want something more than marriage and children. Some are pleased with this new emperor's way of doing things, some are appalled. Maia is in danger that someone will find a way to wrest the throne from him before he learns enough to safeguard it.

Katherine Addison has created a wonderful character in Maia. The reader can emphasize with his incredulity at his change in station, and warm to his attempts to reach out and connect with those he rules. The plots against him are numerous, and watching him maneuver the pitfalls of loyalty and other's ambitions is compelling. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

A book that touts court intrigue in the description is not likely one that I’ll end up reading. I picked it up after a friend, DJ, called it his best read last year, and I’m glad to have given this a chance. It could end up being my top read this year.

While the first few chapters kept my interest, the names and titles began to wear me down. Some nights I read on, hoping repetition and future subtext would help me where I was failing to commit to memory. Some nights, and some times for days or weeks at a time, I gave up and read other stuff. I’m thankful I picked this back up and finished it, though, because it is truly special.

The best aspect to The Goblin Emperor is the main character, Maia. He is a young goblin forced to become the Emperor after an airship exploded with his unloving father and many other royalty inside. His story is how he handles the transformation from life as an exiled, distant heir to the throne, half-breed, to a young emperor locked in the sights of those who would seek to manipulate him in his reign or flat out try and take that throne from him.

Maia is an outstanding person. He is a leader who cares because he knows what it’s like to have people not care for him. He is not proud because he’s been bullied into thinking he was both worthless and less than “human” to every other kind of “human” out there. In many ways, this is a story about people society treats as lesser than. Maia finds a way to overcome this prejudice in ways that are inspiring and heart warming. His is a beautiful story I will loudly recommend to anyone who loves stories, not just fans of Fantasy.

Addison is a phenom talent of a writer, and The Goblin Emperor deserves a critical eye, to character development and empathy, dialogue that enhances the story and how we connect to the characters as living beings, and in where one should insert idioms and world facts to make the world more realistic.

I quite enjoyed this book. Right from the beginning, Maia is introduced as a guy that I’m totally behind and root for, and that doesn’t change throughout the book. I’ve read many, many books where I didn’t particularly like or care for the main character, so for the author to so immediately engage my sympathy and fondness for the main character—and to keep it—is an impressive feat. This effectiveness continues with the rest of the characters: I like the ones who are kind to Maia and dislike those who are his enemies. I especially liked his secretary, Csevet (and there were points where Csevet said things that made me want to cry and give him a big hug), his personal guards (with one obvious exception), as well as his fiancée and nephew.

One thing I find interesting is that even though this book is basically about politics, that didn't bother me. I typically hate politics, including fictional politics. Mainly this is because there's so much hypocrisy and backstabbing and corruption in politics. But in this story, in most if not quite all cases, good guys win and bad guys lose. Corrupt people are caught and punished or fall to their own evil schemes. Good and moral actions are rewarded and evil is punished. It's everything I wash real life politics was like but isn't. (It's like the exact opposite of Game of Thrones, and I detest Game of Thrones, so that's a good thing.)

I read this book for the Hugo voting, so I first started reading the free digital version. But I don’t really like reading on my Kindle, so I got a hardcover from the library. Then after reading about 100 pages, I decided I liked it a lot but I was having difficulty with the names. So then I bought the audiobook and started again from the beginning. I personally enjoyed the audiobook best, as the narrator was very good and I did find it easier to deal with the difficult made-up language.

In my opinion, the biggest weakness of this book is the author’s reliance on her made-up language, both in names and in other sorts of words. There were some names that I could keep track of as far as who those people were and why they were important, but a lot of the names and words I was constantly figuring out from context because the names were so long and strange that they just didn’t stick in my memory at all. There were times even at the end of the book where something significant seemed to have just been said about someone I should know about, but I couldn’t recognize or place the name, so it meant nothing to me. I really do think this book would have benefited if the author had simply used normal English words, names that were not quite so strange to English speakers, and only made up totally new words where it was really necessary (because there was no English word that exactly had the effect she needed, like for example the difference between the form of address for an empress vs. that of an emperor’s widow).

Also, I don’t particularly like the cover. The style in general, but also the fact that they’ve drawn Maia as brown when in the book he’s described several times as being slate grey. It’s also noted that his eyes are striking against his skin. I’d have liked to see that, if they were going to put him on the cover, and what we get instead is inaccurate and unimpressive.

But I do have to give this book a solid 4 stars. I’d even go 4 and a half if this site’s star rating system allowed it. It’s what I’d call a “high 4”. It’s definitely not an actiony story, but it’s a compelling character story with a main character who is all the best things a monarch can be, who has a group of people around him that it seems like anyone would want on their team.

First I want to say this is a great book that I heartily recommend. The Goblin Emperor, our titular POV character is a sweet kid thrown into a complex situation trying to do the right thing where the right thing is not always obvious or sometimes even possible. His struggles, both to follow his ideals and to find his feet, are well written and entertaining/riveting.

But Katherine Addison's first book isn't without its flaws. The first to strike me was how cosmetic the Goblin/Elf labels were. These were almost 100% just humans with funny ears (rarely mentioned) and odd skin color (rarely mentioned). I remember one comment about how long lived one character was and that's it, never came up again and had zero to do with the plot or the main people we were following.

Second, Maia the Goblin Emperor is a half breed, his dad was a full blood elf and his mom a full blood Goblin ... and that's about it. We are told his mom was treated badly because Elves think Goblins are barbarians but we are also told that almost all the ill treatment was because his father was forced into the marriage and was still grief stricken/angry about his last wife dying. There are a few lines here that hint at prejudice but nothing really impacts. There's an attack that may have been racially motivated but if it was, race was way down on the list.

I'll also mention the names! I'm a avid fantasy reader so I'm used to outlandish names but in the Goblin Emperor is was a real effort to keep who everybody is straight, I had to go back over previously read paragraphs constantly to make sure I understood who was talking.

Basically the plot the writing and the characters are first rate but the world building is very thin in places.

Well, one technical problem I did notice was that the author had a lot of trouble with the royal/imperial 'We'. As in 'We are not amused!' At first every effort was taken to keep it straight but towards the end of the book she just seemed to give up and just about everybody refered to themselves that way.

All in a fun story, but a few bits could be improved. None of the above problems were enough to ruin the reading experience.

I received this book as part of my Sasquan Hugo packet, so I did not buy it from the store.

SPOILERS

What I liked:
* The world building felt very complete. That is, by the end of the book I felt like I had a pretty good handle on this fantasy society, its languages, customs, etc. The author did a fine job.

* The emperor is a bit of a milquetoast but his character now has a good foundation from which the author can challenge him.

* The supporting characters were well defined.

* The foreshadowing for future books is intriguing. A) The Goblin grandfather leaves behind a company of his marines/guards to help protect the emperor. You just know that's going to play out in future installments. B) Several of the villains of this piece were exiled/banished so they could come back into play in the future. C) The disillusionment felt by the "separatist" clockmakers (engineers) may lead to some interesting future terrorist events. D) Building the bridge across the river may offer lots of plot possibilities from those for or against it. E) The next-in-line male heir seems like a nice kid (too nice) so maybe future installments will put him back into contention for the throne.

* I liked the author's use of language to denote familiarity versus formality. It's certainly an idea well grounded in actual languages, so it was nice to see in this story.

* Having his guardian (Septis? I forget the name already) be such a damaged and abusive person gives the protagonist a solid character basis. Showing how his demanding educational style provided the emperor with a roadmap for overcoming certain obstacles showed how strength can come from adversity. Well done.

What I didn't like:

* This book is 90% world building and about 10% story. While the prose kept me interested enough to finish, there was little excitement along the way.

* The technology could be described as "steampunk" (to a degree) and they also have gun powder (for fireworks and bombs). However, their engineer's capabilities were not well described nor could I discern them from context.

* While it was nice for the emperor to make some egalitarian moves, the lower classes of this society were too accepting of this. Yes, the upper classes got their panties in a wad when he would reject tradition for a more progressive stance (choosing his personal retinue for the chapel visit vs choosing his closest male relatives). That's certainly expected. What I didn't expect was that the lower classes would be so quick to accept their emperor rejecting tradition. This was a rare false note in an otherwise well-crafted society.

* The emperor is supposed to be 18 or 19 years old, yet he has no sex drive (and plenty of opportunity). Unrealistic that he wouldn't avail himself of some of those offers (even if he felt badly after the fact). This romanticism is just straight up unrealistic.

* I have no real sense yet for the overall story arc. There is no quest, no larger goal that I can discern. If the overall arc is watching this guy be the very best emperor that he can be, then it's an ultimately empty story for this genre.

The Goblin Emperor uses two of my favorite tropes: The Fish Out of Water and The Underestimated Hero. Maia is an 18-year old half-elf, half-goblin, who has been disdained by his father and abused by his guardian. He is the 4th son of the emperor of Elfland, and unexpectedly inherits the throne when his father and three older half-brothers die in what appears to be an accident. He is an entirely sympathetic character who, on paper, sounds "too good to be true," but is in fact, beautifully fleshed out and human (if you excuse the terminology). Having been raised outside of Court, he knows little of court politics and etiquette, and being thrust onto the throne means he spends each day trying desperately to survive the dangerous waters he finds himself in, learn how to govern, and gain allies in a hostile environment. The book is a more introspective and meditative work than an action-adventure, I would say. I appreciated this and also Maia's gentle, spiritual nature. There were times in the book where he shows the wisdom of a Solomon in solving some of the problems that are presented to him, all the while maintaining his humility. But this doesn't make him a "Pollyanna," just very appealing. The writing carries you along pretty easily and I enjoyed the story very much. I'd love to read more stories about his reign, although the book could be a stand-alone.

That said, I have a few comments where I feel the book could have been improved. First, I couldn't suspend my disbelief entirely that a humble courier (Csevet, who delivers the news to Maia that he is now emperor) becomes his secretary and, in the beginning, chief adviser on all court matters. He never makes a misstep or is at a loss for the correct thing to do. It just seems like too big a leap for me from one role to the other. Second, the vocabulary is challenging. There is a "handbook for travelers to Elfland" in the back, which people might want to read before reading the novel, and refer to frequently; there's also a glossary, which I found to be frustrating sometimes, because of words that were left out.

However, the biggest change I would have liked is that the book would have benefited greatly (IMHO) from an alternative POV -- that of Celehar, Witness for the Dead investigating the death of Maia's family. The mystery surrounding the investigation is solved, or at least illuminated, off-page in a letter to Maia, but it would have added new dimensions to the book to actually go with Celehar on his investigation. It would have opened up a new location in the empire, interacting with a different class of people with radically different political opinions. I think it would have given it much depth and allowed the author to "show" instead of "tell" what happened. Of course, it would have been a much longer book, but it could have been split into two books, and that would have been fine with me.

But I enjoyed it overall and would like to read more from this author.

I’ve been hearing nothing but praise for The Goblin Emperor since it came out last year – most reviews used the words “optimistic” and “endearing”. I like well-done grimdark (like the First Law series) but I love both court-intrigue and hero-driven fantasy, so I really had to read this.

We follow Maia, the youngest son of the recently deceased emperor, from the moment that he receives the news that his father and brothers are dead and he is now the emperor of the Elflands. Maia is the half-goblin son of the emperor’s least favoured wife, and has grown up in isolation, with no resources and no knowledge of the court and its politics. He’s surrounded by people that either want to take advantage of his naivete or don’t want him around at all, and he has to figure things out very quickly, or he’s going to either end up dead or a puppet.

Maia is one of the best protagonists that I’ve encountered in a while – he’s smart (even if he isn’t knowledgeable), kind, and determined to do the best job he can – I know that sounds like a lot of generic fantasy protagonists, but Maia seems more like a real person, you can actually observe his mind at work. For example, in The Wheel of Time, Rand is ostensibly smart because he ends up making a bunch of decisions about how people should run their kingdoms and they’re good ones – don’t tax the people too much, encourage science, etc. – but you never see the process by which he makes them, and so you just have to take for granted that he’s smart. But in The Goblin Emperor, you observe the process by which Maia figures out when he needs to make a decision and when he needs more information (and when he’s just completely overwhelmed and asks for help) and you come to the conclusion that he’s pretty smart. His kindness is simlar – Maia is kind in a lot of subtle ways and he’s always empathetic towards people, even those that try to kill him. His determination to do a good job is endearing – he doesn’t do it for some noble ideals of serving his country, he just doesn’t think of himself and his wishes as important, so of course he does a good job. There’s a particularly funny scene where someone suggests that he abdicate and join a monastery, and he actually wants to do it because it would be so much easier.

I was worried that Maia would be plunged into a implausible world where he couldn’t trust anyone and everyone would be out to get what they could from him, but most of the characters just wanted to do their job and do it well. There are plenty of people that liked the old emperor and don’t really appreciate the fact that he’s in power now, but very few of them want to do something about it. That’s not to say that there aren’t plots to be foiled, but they’re less prevalent that I had feared. The Goblin Emperor is a much subtler book than than that.

I don’t want to give off the impression that this book is all rainbows and sunshine with no complexity, though – there are a whole variety of people and situations. One of the more notable ones is Maia’s relationship with his cousin and abusive guardian Setheris – it is fraught with terror, even after their power dynamic changes drastically. The experience of growing up abused and ignored informs his decisions heavily, though, he is able to recognize the people that just seem to want power and attention and deal with them appropriately. There are a bunch of other situations where there’s a lot more than meets the eye (the whole arc with Min Vechin, the friendship between Maia and his personal guards, his grandfather’s visit) and it all comes together beautifully because of the author’s superb characterization.

The only (very minor) complaint I have with this book is that the names / places / people have a lot of similar sounding names and it was really hard to get them straight – I’m usually really good at that, so it was doubly frustrating. It helped me empathize with Maia’s predicament since I was also somewhat overwhelmed, so maybe that’s why? There’s a guide at the end of the book that explains the naming scheme (no spoilers), and that was very helpful – I only wish I had found it earlier.

I’m sure this will be one of the best books I read this year, and I read it in February! I’m looking forward to reading some of the author’s other works (Katherine Addison is a psueodonym for Sarah Monette).

Politics aren't really my thing, be they Obama vs. Bush or (as here) elven court intrigue, but the intriguing cover and excellent reviews made me curious enough to at least try this character-centric fantasy debut from the library: I could always put it down if I got bored or displeased, with no cost but a bit of time, right?
Well, I *devoured* it, mile-long names and complex protocol/terminology and all! Incidentally, I do wish the Table of Contents included the two appendices, though; why have a ToC, and not be complete?! At first I only noticed the list of proper nouns in the very end, leaving me with a steep learning curve re. (for example) the conventions of title/address, that the preceding "Guidebook for Travelers in the Elflands" section might have helped with. Maybe it should be moved to the front?
Other than this thrown-in-at-the-deep-end issue (which is pretty much the only reason I didn't go ahead and give it 5 stars), the writing style and quality was excellent, rich and descriptive, with well-developed and self-consistent characters of various ages, genders, classes, and races.
As for action/suspense, there is the mystery of the fatal airship explosion, plus Maia himself is targeted (SPOILER: twice! END SPOILER), but it's mainly about finding his footing in the court. If your sf/f tastes run exclusively toward "directed by Michael Bay", this is NOT the story for you. I don't know whether there'll be a follow-up story addressing the long-running border conflict with the "barbarians," but if so, hopefully that too will be resolved with open-mindedness, not army vs. army.
The main reason I liked this book so much was that I liked *Maia* so much. He may come into it lacking much of the knowledge and skills he needs in his unexpected new role, but he's not as naïve as some think, and not at all stupid -- and above all, he's genuinely good-hearted, striving to remain just and even forgiving, within reason (at times more than I would be!). There were passages where I almost wept for his loneliness, but the book was not without humor or fragile warmth, and ended well. To me, "reading for pleasure" means the ending should never leave you frustrated or worse, depressed! Overall, definitely recommended, for the right audience.

I can't stop thinking about Maia and his life as emperor and all of the implications for him. This tells me I need to rate this at 5 stars instead of four.

This kind of book is usually not one that I would pick up to read. I find court intrigue to be difficult to follow and difficult to understand. However, I'm reading 2015 books, so I decided to try it. I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting this book was. The main character, Maia, was instantly engaging and I enjoyed watching him grow and change as he assumed his new role as emperor. The intrigue was dense, but I was able to follow it enough to enjoy it. The world felt detailed and fully fleshed out, and the non-human cast was an interesting change in perspective from the usual fantasy fare. Overall, I would recommend this book, especially if court intrigue and politics are your cup of tea.

I heard of this book from the Sword and Laser book club. I enjoyed listening along with their pick of the month, although it took me longer to finish this audiobook.

The pacing of this book is very slow. I have no idea how to spell so many things in this book. I could pronounce them as I was listening to the book, but I can't even remember them now. The language in this book is most definitely creative and exotic, but it is difficult to get used to. I used context to remember what most names and things were.

This is a political story, but from the perspective of someone who isn't familiar with the system. This makes it easy for the reader to understand and learn as the protagonist discovers new things. The protagonist is very likable and his personality helps the book to be digestible.

There are many interesting topics brought up within this book. Change is the main idea, how different people respond to it. Royalty and family are also at the forefront of this novel.

I really enjoyed the literary use of bridges and building them. "The Bridge Builder"

The magic in this book is almost nonexistent. It is used in only few dire situations. The people are elves and goblins, but it really only serves as a parallel to race relations. The airships add a steampunky feel to this world.

Kyle McCarley does an excellent job at reading this audiobook. His performance of so many characters is done so well. I loved his different voices.

The first few hours of this book went by so slowly, but by the end I had been drawn in. I give this book a 3.5/5. I was entertaining, but heavy. If you enjoy political intrigue that addresses an old system and how to move forward, you'll like this. This is a fantasy novel, but there's hardly anything fantastical in this book.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison weaves an impressively intricate tale of court politics in a steampunk-fantasy world that is completely unique. Maia is an incredibly sympathetic MC who never imagined being thrust onto the throne and really just wants to do the right thing even if that means the rest of the court laughs behind his back. The Goblin Emperor tells the story of how Maia adjusts to this incredible twist of fate and just how tricky a sudden change in power can be. It is, however, one of those books that definitely requires the glossary provided and probably could have used an extended encyclopedia along with it.
Note: I received The Goblin Emperor from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Published by Tor Books on April 1st, 2014
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Steampunk
Length: 448 pages
How I got my copy: Publisher

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend... and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.

Strengths:
I love the combination of steampunk elements (airships and steam-powered bridges) and fantasy that The Goblin Emperor weaves together. The two main races in the world are goblins and elves, though they can interbreed, creating a fresh setting free of stinky humans ;-).
Maia is such a charming MC that you can’t help but cheer for him. He is rather adorably naive at times but also quite quick and determined to do a good job. His lack of self confidence at times really just endears him to the reader even more.
There are so many secondary characters to love in The Goblin Emperor! In particular three small children won my heart by the end, but I also loved Maia’s various support staff and certain family members. Despite the incredible number of characters I met in the Goblin Emperor, a handful left a very meaningful impression that warms my heart.
While The Goblin Emperor is definitely not a fast book, the plot was interesting throughout and never actually dragged. There was always something that Maia was trying to figure out or deal with, and just as one issue gets wrapped up, another crops up. The timing of the plot was really quite impressive now that I look back on it!

Weaknesses:
The Goblin Emperor is incredibly confusing at the start and doesn’t really get all that much easier as you go along. I read it in only a few days, but still struggled to remember all the different characters at court. There is a glossary, but for some reason the particular things I wanted to look up weren’t covered or weren’t detailed enough to be helpful. The amount of similar names contributed to this. If you like fantasy that has this intricate nature, go for it, but it isn’t something I seek out.
There was some fairly troubling ableist language in The Goblin Emperor that crept up a number of times without being necessary at all.
One of the more frustrating things for me as a reader is when tales of an amazing world are told by secondary characters, but I can’t go explore them with the main character. The Goblin Emperor takes place nearly completely at court, so I didn’t get to see all these interesting places that are hinted at. I need a spinoff series!
The writing of The Goblin Emperor is quite thick. I consider myself to have a decent vocabulary, but there were a number of words that I didn’t know. The Goblin Emperor also has accurate historical speech with the “Royal We” and a bunch of thou’s and thee’s all over. This makes for cool immersion but really slow going if you aren’t used to reading that language (which I’m definitely not).

Summary:
The Goblin Emperor is the perfect book for a particular kind of reader. If you love court intrigue and fresh fantasy worlds, this is your book. If you are looking for something fast and light, it definitely isn’t. I’m looking forward to more stories in this world that have more of an adventure slant to them, since the world of The Goblin Emperor sounds so amazing.

This is another book that critics loved and I felt was, at best, only okay. The language--thee and thou and canst--annoyed the crap out of me. Also, is it really necessary for high fantasy writers to create such difficult languages when they're world-building? Every time I came across one of the multi-syllable messes, I stumbled over trying to pronounce it and was pulled immediately out of the story. And since the vast majority of the characters' names in this book were virtually the same, I found myself flipping back and forth between the glossary at the end and whatever page I was on just so I could figure out who was who and why they were important. This, too, pulled me out of the story. Neither of these things lend themselves to allowing the reader to become submersed in a world or the story the author wrote, which is what I want out of everything I read for pleasure.

The plot of the book was extremely thin and weak. I get that the author was attempting to write a steampunk-fantasy Jane Austen-esque thing, but... I dunno. I needed more plot, more action, less moping about and hesitancy from the main character. Yes, he's a nice guy and a fish out of water and all that, but did he have to be such a milquetoast about it? Grow some balls, man!

I had to force myself to finish this book because I wanted to see what all the buzz was about, why a friend had recommended it so highly, and because I'm not a quitter. Needless to say, I was very disappointed.

This is the best fantasy novel I have read in quite a while.

Nineteen-year-old Maia is the youngest son of the current emperor of the Elven lands. He is also despised by his father, due to the fact that he is the product of an arranged marriage with a goblin. (Elves have light skin and eyes, goblins have dark skin and red or orange eyes; both have big moveable ears.) Not wanting to deal with his half-breed son, the emperor has isolated Maia on a remote estate with few companions. However, when the emperor and all his other sons are killed in an airship crash, Maia finds himself thrust onto the throne, a position for which he is ill prepared. He has to learn how to be emperor, which is made more difficult by the fact that some of his new subjects aren't particularly happy with his rule. And then there's the fact that the airship crash that killed his family wasn't an accident . . . .

If you are a lover of fantasy novels with a lot of action--sword fights and pitched battles--this isn't the book for you. This is a character-driven coming-of-age story, where the main character learns how to be both a man and an emperor. Instead of swords, the book features court etiquette and court intrigue, which in the wrong hands could be boring. But Addison does such a masterful job of making Maia a likeable and interesting character and of building a nuanced, interesting court (and world) for him to inhabit, that I was engrossed in the story from the very first page and sorry to reach the end of the novel.

The world Addison builds is so fresh (hard to do in fantasy these days) that I really want to see more stories set it it. As far as I can tell, there are no humans in this world at all, just elves and goblins. But the elves and goblins aren't fairies and monsters, just people who look different from each other. And this isn't a quasi-medieval setting, but a world at the beginnings of industrialization, with steam-powered airships and other devices--and yet these steampunk elements are kept in the background and don't overwhelm the story. It's just a fascinating blend of elements that feels completely unique to me--and I read a lot of fantasy, so that's hard to do!

I would recommend that anyone reading this book read the excerpts from the traveler's companion at the end of the novel before starting the story, because they will help the reader make sense of things like naming conventions and titles that can be a bit hard to follow. And be prepared to consult the glossary a lot--there are many characters and places referenced in the book, and they can be hard to keep straight. The use of antiquated language (wouldst, art, etc.) and of linguistic conventions like the use of a formal plural (not just a royal "we", but for all characters speaking formally) also make the book a bit more challenging to read. And yet, who can complain, because all these things add to the really great worldbuilding at work here!

If you like character-driven fantasy novels that feature kings and courtly life and politics, do yourself a favor and read this book!

An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There are a fairly high number of books that I like very much, books that I read over and over because I value the writing or like spending time with the characters.

No book of the thousands I've read (and reread) have had quite the effect on me of the Goblin Emperor. It was a Christmas present and today (January 13th, 2017) I just finished rereading it for the third time.

The reason is simple. The effect comes on gradually, but today I managed to isolate and name the effect: this book makes me happy, not at every moment to be sure. But several times today I knew myself to be *suffused* with happiness.

I will allow the many other reviewers to fill out the details. I merely wish to express the buzzy, happy feeling that may be available to discerning, careful readers if they pay attention.

Overall this book is very very well done. Maia and many other characters have complex motivations and personalities and the characters are the primary attraction of the book. Some of the negative reviews have mentioned that not much happens in the way of plot, and to be honest they're right. There are a few things that didn't quite work as well as they could have. The elvish language, as others have mentioned, intrudes on the experience and should only be done at this level of complexity if it is introduced slowly and for a much larger work such as a long series.

The other criticism I have actually made the book more interesting for me. Maia as a point of view character is wonderful, but not quite believable as an eighteen year old male. I hear a lot about male authors having trouble capturing female voices and it was very interesting to have the opposite experience. As interesting and well developed a character as Maia is, he just does not come off like a teenage boy, or even as a man. In fact, the closer we are to any male character in the book, including for instance Csevet, the more female their voice sounds. This did not ruin the experience at all for me, because I found it absolutely fascinating.

Sometimes you read a book that you probably normally might not have, and you find yourself absolutely loving it. That was my experience with 'The Goblin Emperor' by Katherine Addison.

So the premise is court intrigue, and the hero is a half goblin, half elf. That and the almost 400 pages (inluding glossary of hard to pronounce names) kind of had me adding it to the 'read in the distant future' pile. It was the March pick for my book club, so I decided to give it a shot, and I'm so very glad I did.

Maia is a largely forgotten half goblin living a life far from court, when he gets the news that his father and brothers have died in a steamship accident. This leaves Maia the new emperor. With no training, and no real love for his father or family, Maia is bound to make mistakes along the way according to court traditions. It is through these blunders that we see Maia's tru character come through. Whether it's showing compassion for the other victims that died in his father's airship, or dealing with his new staff, Maia is full of grace and warmth. He won me over.

The airship accident was no accident, and the throne Maia finds himself on is apparently a very large target. Can he find his way? Can he trust his staff? Can he find a friend?

It's not the fastest moving story. The names are a bit tricky to get through, but they never feel gimicky, and eventually they made a bit of sense to me. The main character is so likeable, that I ended up loving the book. The last paragraphs felt entirely satisfying to this story.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in the Hugo Voters Award packet.

Hot damn, this book was right up my alley.

TGE is the story of a teen that gets thrust in the limelight to be emperor after living with an abusive guardian for most of his life. It's not a story of great conflict and rising tension. It's not a swashbuckling story of adventure and derring do. But it is a very well written "growing up" tale and packed full of intrigue and character development.

What I enjoyed about this story is how it showed the burdens of rule from someone not so callous as to believe that rule was their due or their god given talent. The struggle, the self-doubt, the wrestling to do the right thing... it's pretty easy to relate to. I believe everybody has struggled with those themes. It allows us to empathize with Maia.

Frankly, I believe how capable you are of empathizing with or understanding Maia is going to determine whether or not you bounce off of this book.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in character driven fantasy. It reminds me of my favorite parts of the Outback Stars novels by Sandra McDonald, where the protag tries to take her newly given division and make it into a function machine. I believe it to be very worthy of a Hugo award. Similar books include Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. CanDido

Maia, fourth son of the Emperor of the Elven lands, was exiled from the Imperial Court and relegated to an outlying estate as a child following the death of his mother. After all, with three sons before him (and the fact that he was half-goblin), there was really no need to have him present. And because of these facts, he never expected he would see the Court again. But when the Emperor and everyone in the line of succession before Maia is killed when their airship crashes, Maia finds himself suddenly returning to the Imperial Court for a purpose no one--including Maia--ever would have expected: to take his now rightful place on the throne. But becoming Emperor certainly isn't easy. There are those who certainly oppose Maia's ascendance to the crown. And his absence from Court means he missed out on much of the necessary education to fully understand all of the requirements, expectations, and duties of his new role. Add to that the revelation that the death of his father was not an accident, and Maia certainly has his work cut out for him if he's going to keep his realm prospering and his people inspired.

Talk about some well-written fantasy here. Katherine Addison has created a wonderful world with a rich history and a very complex set of relationships between these characters. While not poised as a mystery per se, it also contains a whodunnit plotline that certainly kept me guessing until the end, too. It's very easy to become invested in these characters, to see all of their dimensions (including their flaws), and really understand what motivates them. The players here are certainly not stock characters by any means and the storytelling is masterful.

It can be easy to feel intimidated by the 12-page list of names at the end of the book: but I say don't be. While there are a lot of names (some of which are a bit similar due to family relationships), I found it is always very easy to understand who is who by relationships. In pretty much every scene, it is apparent the role each person plays either in relation to the Imperial Court or to Maia and thus it's easy to track the major players that way.

Maia is a young man who we gradually realise is half elven, half goblin from a token marriage by an emperor. As the fourth child he was packed away to a rural setting to be raised by a courtier who was ordered to leave his wife at court. Naturally this resentful man Setheris was not a pleasant guardian, though he might have tried harder.

Life changes when the emperor and other heirs are killed in an airship crash. Maia is heir presumptive, and needs to go to the city palace, get proper clothing, make funeral arrangements and the rest before he can be crowned. He doesn't know who to trust, especially when it looks likely that the crash was a result of sabotage. His advisors tell him that he has a duty to marry - soon - but he doesn't know any girls and can't even dance.

There is little action but much fun in the labyrinthine formalities and how the resourceful young man adapts. We get to like some people and dislike others, while it's fun to hear Maia called Serenity and all the formal use of "We" in speech. The names of people and places are the hard part to pick up as they are unusual, often complex and some are quite similar, so some readers will gloss over names and miss some subtleties. While there is a steampunk element it is not prominent, so this is more a tale of culture clash and bridge building. Those who enjoy an intelligent fantasy will like to get their teeth into The Goblin Emperor.

Maia is the youngest and least-favored son of the Emperor of Elfland. Half goblin on his mother's side, he's been relegated to a life outside of his father's court, kept in the care of a cousin who despises and abuses him. Everything changes when his father and brothers die in the crash of their steam-powered airship. Suddenly Maia, 18 years old and as unsure of himself as any real-life teen, is the Emperor.

This is a coming-of-age story as well as an exploration of what it means to have power and no one to answer to. Most people think absolute power means the freedom to do whatever you want, but Maia soon learns that certain behavior is expected of the Emperor, and he has responsibilities and obligations that he was never trained for. Suddenly he has to juggle the governing of the Elflands with attempts on his life, courtiers who want either to see him fail or want something from him (including the despised cousin), and all the expectations of the head of a dynasty: Maia has to choose a wife. All of this would be overwhelming, but Maia as a few things going for him: A secretary who seems to know everything (Csevet, another fully-realized and intriguing character); childhood training in his mother's spiritual beliefs (meditation helps keep him grounded); and a kind heart. This last serves him especially well; unlike his father, who kept his distance from his subjects, Maia is concerned about everyone, from his own servants and bodyguards to the families of the retainers killed along with his own family in the airship crash.

The book takes us from the moment Maia learns of his father's death through his journey, physically and emotionally, to court and his new life. There is court intrigue, the beginnings of the dance of courtship, the investigation of his father's death, and the dodging of assassins. The characters are well-rounded and many-layered, and the society of elves and goblins explored in just enough detail to whet the appetite for more. Magic is here, but it's subtle and only appears at need. I hope there's a sequel, because I really want to follow Maia through the changes he's making in his world.

When the Emperor of the Elflands and his three sons die in an airship crash, his ignored and despised youngest son inherits the crown. Maiä has spent the last ten years exiled to a hunting lodge in a bog and finds himself in terrifyingly over his head. He knows nothing about how to rule, has no friends, and now it appears his father’s death was not an accident. He’s determined to be a good king, but he may not even live that long.

Political intrigue! Amazing world-building! Language! Court machinations! Maiä, oh my heart.

I brought my copy with me on my travels so I could hold it and have a friend when I felt lost (which happened a lot). I want a sequel so badly it hurts (though I know it took the author five years to write this one and she’s said it’s a stand-alone, so, don’t get my hopes up). This is an exemplary book. I am nominating it for all the awards

This review was originally posted on Avid Reviews: [...]
The Goblin Emperor is a unique debut that challenges expectations for modern speculative fiction. This novel seems to be the opposite of the “grimdark” movement in fantasy that has flooded the genre with stories that are dark and gritty, where the protagonist is an antihero and the plot is filled with violence. Instead, this novel harkens back to the days when Mary Stewart and Peter S. Beagle were the leaders of the fantasy genre, and it is easy to find echoes of these author’s style in this debut. It is a high fantasy novel with a hint of steampunk thrown in, and, like many of the other upcoming books for 2014 that I have reviewed, it is an incredibly unique novel.

The book’s main character and POV protagonist is Maia, a half goblin and half elf, though the goblins in this book are more like a different race of elves rather than a completely different species. The goblins are also much different from those from fairy tales, and are actually very noble and proud. Maia is the estranged youngest son of the King of the Elves, and because of his goblin heritage, he never expects to leave his modest home in a backwater town. He has only met his father once at his mother’s funeral, and his father was less than impressed with his half goblin appearance. Maia’s life changes forever when he receives the news that his father and all of his brothers have all perished in the same airship crash. He is suddenly king of a country he has never really seen, and a people that he doesn’t fully belong to. He has never had a friend in his life, and ruling a kingdom seems to do nothing for him but make enemies.

This is not a book about an evil goblin, as some might deduce from the title alone, but rather the tale of a genuinely good man who has been thrust into a situation that he cannot begin to comprehend. Maia struggles to improve a country full of people he feels will never accept him, but all he really wants is the thing that has been missing from his life since he was a child: compassion and friendship.

It took me a little while to get used to the language that is used in this book. All the characters speak in extremely formal language, full of the royal “we,” “thou,” and other strict conformation to proper speech. In addition, the names of places and characters are extremely long, intricate, and hard to pronounce, and many of them are very similar to each other. I often had a bit of trouble remembering which name belonged to a certain person. The book is also paced a lot like a Jane Austen novel, with the vast majority of the book being the reflections and struggles of the main character rather than being action packed. Despite this, I found this book delightful. The author makes it incredibly easy for the reader to sympathize with Maia’s struggles, and the story was overall very touching. Though the action is sparse, it keeps the reader engaged, and I did have a bit of trouble putting the book down. The world Addison created in this novel was original and fascinating, and I would love to read more novels in this setting in the future.

This novel is not for every speculative fiction fan. The characters and situations put forth in this story are all very formal, and the main character struggles to show the subjects of his new kingdom who he really is despite the reserved atmosphere that comes with his station. This is a novel that I would recommend for fans of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, as I found the pacing and overall feeling of the novels to be quite similar, even though the subject matter was different. I would also recommend this book to Jane Austin fans that also happen to love fantasy, and also to speculative fictions fans who desire a break from the “grimdark” influx into the genre. It is a very well written and heartwarming book, and I hope that readers give it a chance, especially as I would love to see more from this author.

Overall, I will give this book a rating of 8/10.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in return for an honest review.

This is simply a wonderful book. If you're not of the sword/dragon/blood and copses everywhere persuasion or you just crave for some "quiet" fantasy, you'll love this. The characters are well drafted and we get to know them slowly, motives and all, not with flashbacks or whole chapters about them, but through the eyes of Maia. We know them, like them and trust them but only as far as Maia knows them, likes them and trusts them.

Maia is a great character. Yes, he is compassionate and kind and well meaning. But he is also nobody's fool. He has a sharp intellect and logic (love his self-sarcasm) and fully understands that his decisions as Emperor are not necessarily the ones he would make as a man. And how he manages to keep the balance between the Emperor and the man and not loose himself is what I really liked in this book.

There is magic and danger and uncertainty, but all kept in the background. Always there for us to worry constantly but never in our face. No super-heroes here. No great, apocalyptic moments either. You read this book and you think it's "low key" by today's fantasy genre standards but when you finish it you feel full and content and sorry that you won't get to know what happened to Maia next.

I purchased this paperback originally to take to the beach with me over spring break. As I started the tale, I was immersed in the high-quality writing detailing a world similar in many respects to our own, yet slightly fantastical. In this setting, magic exists, as does steam technology, and so it is a blend of fantasy and steampunk, though the novel seems more familiar than overdone in either of these genres.

This type of story is not new. Think, The Name of the Wind, Harry Potter, and the Assassin's Apprentice, each of which involves a dejected, and orphaned boy about to come into power (of some type) The central character is a displaced, unwanted, unloved, and rejected "half-breed" heir to the empire, and the story is largely centered on him taking the throne and learning the ways of the court. However, the many interactions, and events that take place work together to create and wonderful and enjoyable read. The character development, the immersion in the setting, and the ability of the author to make you truly connect with, and care about, her characters makes this a book that I am happy to have read. I would love to see a sequel, but the novel is complete and done, on its own accord. The ending provides a resolution, and there are no dangling threads. However, one is left to wonder what will happen next in the world, and how the populace will adapt to their new ruler and the changes he is bringing forth.

Absolutely brilliant, deeply engaging, character-driven story.

Remember the movie Elizabeth, with Cate Blanchett? Well, imagine dropping an 18-year-old mixed-race boy, who raised by an abusive mentor in almost total isolation, into a similar environment. The lad must not only stay alive in an overwhelmingly complex and hostile situation, he must also figure out who he is, and who he wants to become.

The only flaw in the storytelling, and it is kind of a biggie, is the difficulty keeping track of characters.

The Elvish (?) names are beautiful, even musical to say aloud, but we end up with swarms of incomprehensible names, almost all beginning with one of only 4-5 letters...and they're largely confusingly alike, and often a hostile and a benevolent character share very similar names, such as beginning with Cz or Cs.

But read it anyway...perhaps keeping short notes of character names. That's what I'm going to do when I re-read.

The author has considerable ambition to create a dense and layered world. So many titles and names left me a bit at sea, I must confess. Although, in this, I was right along with the protagonist who also was at sea being suddenly promoted to emperor. I thought the author also did a good job showing all the layers of custom and bureaucracy surrounding a monarchy, and what a handicap it was for Maia not to have grown up with this knowledge.

Maia himself is very sympathetic and I was cheering for him all the way through. He struggles with the choices he has to make, but manages to bring fresh air to what seems like a very hidebound court. Perhaps everything fell out a little too neatly his way, but I still prefer it to some of the darker "high fantasy" where characters die left and right.

Parents with kids under 12 need not worry about the content in terms of violence and sexuality. However, keeping the characters and vocabulary straight is likely to challenge younger readers.

I was not sure about the book but from the moment I started reading I was hooked. The author used something tried and true. The Emperor and his entire family are killed leaving only the son he hated alive. I have seen it done before but that did not matter. Addison put a fresh spin on the story and I loved it. Maia is the son and he has been raised away from court. His Mother was an unwanted bride and was sent away soon after the wedding. She raised Maia until her death. He was then sent away in the care of a man who was physically and mentally abusive. He never expected to be Emperor.

The story starts when he learns he is Emperor and it follows Maia as he learns and grows into the job. The world of Elves and Goblins is built as the story progresses. New and interesting characters fill the pages and they are developed using their actions around Maia. The story is full of tension, action and intrigue. The Goblin Emperor seems to be a stand alone and ends on a very nice note. I will admit I hated to see Maia and his world end. Maybe the author will build on the world she created and we will see more of both the Elves and the Goblins.

If you like a combination of fantasy and steampunk I think you would love The Goblin Emperor.

It's been far too long since I discovered an author who truly delights me. I've been looking for books that I love as much as those by Lois McMaster Buujold, Robin McKinley, Georgette Heyer, Connie Willis, and Diana Wynne Jones. And the pickings have been slim. The Goblin Emperor has ended a long drought.

I was captivated by the book and its protagonist almost from the first sentence. The world was different and well realized. The writing was smooth and seamless. The characterizations, nicely drawn. I loved the story itself, and I was utterly immersed as it moved forward. I can't wait to read more by Katherine Addison.

I read this as part of the Hugo voting packet.

This book will not be to everyone's taste. Strip away the world-building, steampunk, elves, and goblins, and it's a pretty straightforward Bildungsroman -- a coming-of-age story. I, however, liked it.
Maia, a young Elf lord with some goblin in him (think mixed-race, including status issues on the elf side of the fence), is woken in the middle of the night to find out that he's Emperor. This is not helped by the fact that after his mother died, he's been shuffled off to be raised in the ass-end of nowhere by a vengeful, bitter drunk who pissed off his Imperial Old Man, back in the day. Anyway, an airship crash that wipes out Dad, brothers, and everyone else ahead of him in the Imperial succession, drops him in the deep end and he has to learn to swim.
Of course, this being a Bildungsroman, he grows into it. He spends a large chunk of the book playing catch-up on all the stuff he missed out on, during the dysfunctional-upbringing phase. He also shocks a lot of people by being a most un-Imperially decent person. There's stumbling blocks, evil stepmothers (including one who's only a couple years older than him, and a brat), nefarious plots, and adapting to life in the Imperial precincts.
Addison's world-building and level of detail vary with distance from the Palace. The outer lands are painted with the spare strokes of a Japanese artist working with brush and ink. Immediate surroundings are described in enough detail that you can imagine them, without resorting to info-dumps. The bits and pieces of language are thrown in in such a way that I derived some amusement on the side, deducing grammar and syntax and whatnot. The plot moves along, for all that most of it is happening around Maia and in his head.
This one is most emphatically not about exploding spaceships (well, one airship gets blown up, off-camera), or armored armies clashing with sword and spear, or horse-chases, or whatnot. It's still worthwhile as a coming-of-age story.

The Good
Coming off of some books written by less skilled wordsmiths, I was delighted by the clever turns of phrase and novel descriptions in the book. The characters enjoyed complex, tangible personalities, and the world, though sparsely explored, seems to hold interesting treasures.

The Challenge
I found that the entirety of the plot in the book felt like a ramp up to the rest of the story. The characters get established and start to grow, a few teaser events happen and are promptly dealt with, and then .... nothing. The book ends. If you're happy to just enjoy following along as someone takes a meandering journey, you may find this book satisfying. If you like a more traditional storytelling structure with a set of intertwined and overlapping notes that build to a crescendo - look elsewhere.

When I first saw this book in my local library it looked intriguing so I checked it out. As with so many other books I took it home and put in in the "to be read" heap. When I started reading it I was immediately drawn in and once I was drawn in I enjoyed it more and more! It has been a while since I have been entranced by a book in this way. After finishing The Goblin Emperor, I went online to find out more about the author--and found out Katherine Addison is a pseudonym for none other than Sarah Monette, author of the Doctrine of the Labyrinths quartet which I absolutely loved!!! No wonder I was so taken with this book!

The Goblin Emperor is the story Maia, a half-goblin son of the Emperor. At the age of eight, upon the death of his goblin mother, Maia was exiled to a dismal minor principality to keep him out of the way. His only companion, Setheris, a disgraced cousin, treated him harshly. When news reaches them that there has been an airship crash killing both Maia's father and brothers, Maia must step up and take the throne. Without any education in court politics Maia is thrust into a world of intrigue and plotting. If he is to survive he must learn quickly how to maneuver in the dangerous court.

Maia is a wonderful character. While there isn't much "action" in The Goblin Emperor, Maia will to succeed as ruler and his complicated relationships with those around him keep the reader enthralled. It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a book as much as I did this one.

If stories like "Harry Potter" are your thing - abused orphan makes good - and you like a lot of "intrigue" that mostly happens behind the scenes makes you happy, you'll like this book. Unfortunately, while it's mildly entertaining, there's only one character that gets any development at all, and Maia, the Goblin Emperor, is just a little too Mary-Sue for my tastes. Nor is there any truly credible threat outside the court intrigues themselves. I was disappointed that magic and/or the steampunk technology barely made an appearance in the novel - and to be honest, despite being called "goblins" and "elves," the races in this book might as well have been human. Since this novel was nominated for the Hugo Award, I was hoping for better.

The writing was serviceable - the appendix detailing the naming conventions should have been in the front, as picking up on the titles and naming patterns was a little difficult at first. Additional viewpoint characters would have helped as well - most of the intrigue comes out of nowhere for Maia, and since he is the sole viewpoint character, the reader doesn't get the opportunity to see any of the inner workings of the imperial court or the conspiracies as they develop. This strips the novel of a lot of potential suspense and tension that a good "intrigue" plot should have had!

I've read through this book 11 times now and I never get bored with it! It can be a challenging read because there is much more depth than most novels today, but that is really what makes it amazing. It's a very immersive experience! From the beginning you can feel the intensity of the main character's emotions, and not once are the characters anything but real. I sincerely hope Ms. Addison plans to write another novel soon.

First of all, read the naming conventions and the list of characters in the back *first*. I enjoyed the book extremely well and adored Emperor Maia, but the names just made my brain all hurty. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend this book because I fell in love with Maia and wanted him to win (and wanted Setheris to have a little quality time with the Adjuster of Sensibilities that I'm sure this empire has, but Maia might not know about him or her yet).

And this desperately needs to be a series. I want a sequel! This is a lovely, complex universe and I would hate to see only one book in it. I know that Maia isn't done yet dealing with his new station and old customs, and I really really want to see more.

The very best thing about The Goblin Emperor is the main character, Maia. It's refreshing to have a hero who isn't bearing some dark secret or hidden agenda. The story is full of court politics, with multiple subplots driven by realistic motivations.
Despite Maia being half-goblin, half-elvish, I think he's one of the most human characters I've read in ages. By this I mean, he's not wise, he makes mistakes, he has insecurities; and yet he strives to do his best anyways. The entire novel is much more character-driven than plot-driven, so if you require lots of battles and big action sequences this may not be for you (though there is definitely action here, too).

This is not a quick read - the names are difficult and there are a lot of characters to keep track of.
And still, I found myself putting off finishing the book because I was so greatly enjoying my time in its world. When I finally reached the last page, I was left with a sense of optimism and encouragement.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. The world is elaborate, detailed and intriguing. My only quibbles are minor: the names were (very) difficult to pronounce (even mentally) and hard to differentiate. The appendix at the end that explained the naming conventions would have been better served at the beginning of the book; I would have liked a better physical description of the two races. I get that goblins are dark-skinned and have yellow/red/orange eyes and elves are light-skinned with blue/green/purple eyes but what are their other features? Obviously their ears are quite large and expressive. What other things?;

I would like there to be another book in this series or maybe some short stories to tell of Maia's wedding, his aunts' lives, his sisters' fates etc.

Goblin Emperor has a neat concept and the ride into <I>Game of Thrones</i>-esque courtly intrigue is pretty entertaining.

Kathryn Addison clearly has big plans in this story of a stepson rejected from his family who takes over the kingdom when everyone above him in the lineage dies. That his family are elves and he's a goblin is secondary. Courtly intrigue is the whole book, and it's executed well once all the players are on the table. There are really good parts; my favorite is the excellent emotional weight of the hero's love for his mother.

But on the way there, Addison invents a language and fantasy names for common items. I love, love that stuff. But "Dial it down a little," is what I thought, after the third time someone's name has an apostrophe in the middle. <I>--Joe Crowe, [...]

As I started to read this book I thought I had made a mistake, it seemed boring, naïve and overly burdened with honorifics that quickly became confusing, but I decided to read on, and I am glad I did, I loved the story. Yes, Maia is naïve, abused and ill prepared to be emperor of his kingdom, yes he is the unwanted, unloved and "ugly" prince and yet this time it works. Yes it is true, as some have noted in their reviews, that the usual outcome for the "Maias'" of this world is a quick assassination, but every once in a while, on that rare occasion, the good guys do win, so dear reader, just read and hopefully enjoy.

The Goblin Emperor is in many ways a very good book, although I don’t think it’s a great book in any way. It’s also very different than the usual speculative fiction fare.

Maia is a forgotten fourth son of the emperor banished to a far corner of the Empire when a courier arrives late at night with a message: Maia’s father and three brothers were all killed in an act of airship terrorism. And so Maia is thrust into the seat of power without the education, the experience, . . . or the breeding. Maia, you see, is a goblin, hence the title. Well, a half-goblin, courtesy of his mother the fourth empress. The old emperor, all of Maia’s brothers and the other empresses, and most of the subjects of the empire are elves. (The book doesn’t have much to say about the difference between elves and goblins beyond that goblins have darker skin. I can only imagine that the elves look like ugly Peter Jackson elves and the goblins like Nightcrawler.)

Maia is a great character and that is probably the great strength of the novel. He’s a character that jumps off the page and starts tugging on your heart strings. He is emotional. He is most of all endearingly earnest. He is a product of neglect and abuse and he wears it on his sleeve. It works when it comes from his internal monologue; it grates when it is expressed through Maia being overly apologetic.

It’s good that Maia is a strong character because this is Maia’s story and told entirely from his perspective. The minor characters unfortunately tend to be very much one note and don’t ever leap off the page. They are usually defined by a single characteristic we see repeatedly. The single biggest exception, I think, and not unrelatedly the most interesting character, is Maia’s arranged fiancée. Alas, we see too little of her.

I’ll get to the worldbuilding next, but The Goblin Emperor’s biggest weakness is a lack of conflict. Not just action, but conflict. And conflict is what drives all fiction, even if it is only “the human heart in conflict with itself.” Addison keeps the stakes too low. In The Wire Tommy Carcetti gets served a s*** sandwich almost as soon as he takes office. Maia doesn’t, if only because nothing he does at first seems to be of much greater import (which is the great advantage of the monarchy really—symbolic leadership is one of the few things government can consistently do well). It robs the novel of tension, and Maia’s ostensible great triumph doesn’t overcome this. There are two action set pieces and they work well enough for what they are, which are very limited set pieces. The first cleverly ties into a single act from earlier in the book but that’s it. The second draws on events from earlier in the book in a more general way. Both have rather limited effect going forward. And the broader event that should drive much of the novel—building a bridge over a river bisecting the empire—doesn’t amount to much. It’s unfortunate. Bridges have a historical importance not reflected in fantasy. And something as prosaic as a bridge can drive narrative tension. For all Atlas Shrugged’s faults, the bridge sequence drives the first act. (There is also a rather groan-worthy metaphor there I will just ignore.)

I’ve seen The Goblin Emperor described as steampunk. The steampunk elements are, as usual for the subgenre, presented without explanation or much apparent thought (I like steampunk; the problem is I want to like it more than I do). We get a few airships and pneumatic tubes and the big bridge is a “clockwork” drawbridge but there’s not a whole lot else. There is a subtle tension between elves and goblins that Addison revisits often to good effect, but the elf and goblin moniker don’t amount to much more than labels. Far too much of the worldbuilding, especially that emphasized, is clunky or ineffective. The elaborate naming conventions are mystifying. The beginning uses bizarre archaisms (lots of thous and tharts) without explanation or seeming purpose. Thankfully they rarely resurface after.

I've read through this book 11 times now and I never get bored with it! It can be a challenging read because there is much more depth than most novels today, but that is really what makes it amazing. It's a very immersive experience! From the beginning you can feel the intensity of the main character's emotions, and not once are the characters anything but real. I sincerely hope Ms. Addison plans to write another novel soon.

First of all, read the naming conventions and the list of characters in the back *first*. I enjoyed the book extremely well and adored Emperor Maia, but the names just made my brain all hurty. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend this book because I fell in love with Maia and wanted him to win (and wanted Setheris to have a little quality time with the Adjuster of Sensibilities that I'm sure this empire has, but Maia might not know about him or her yet).

And this desperately needs to be a series. I want a sequel! This is a lovely, complex universe and I would hate to see only one book in it. I know that Maia isn't done yet dealing with his new station and old customs, and I really really want to see more.

The very best thing about The Goblin Emperor is the main character, Maia. It's refreshing to have a hero who isn't bearing some dark secret or hidden agenda. The story is full of court politics, with multiple subplots driven by realistic motivations.
Despite Maia being half-goblin, half-elvish, I think he's one of the most human characters I've read in ages. By this I mean, he's not wise, he makes mistakes, he has insecurities; and yet he strives to do his best anyways. The entire novel is much more character-driven than plot-driven, so if you require lots of battles and big action sequences this may not be for you (though there is definitely action here, too).

This is not a quick read - the names are difficult and there are a lot of characters to keep track of.
And still, I found myself putting off finishing the book because I was so greatly enjoying my time in its world. When I finally reached the last page, I was left with a sense of optimism and encouragement.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. The world is elaborate, detailed and intriguing. My only quibbles are minor: the names were (very) difficult to pronounce (even mentally) and hard to differentiate. The appendix at the end that explained the naming conventions would have been better served at the beginning of the book; I would have liked a better physical description of the two races. I get that goblins are dark-skinned and have yellow/red/orange eyes and elves are light-skinned with blue/green/purple eyes but what are their other features? Obviously their ears are quite large and expressive. What other things?;

I would like there to be another book in this series or maybe some short stories to tell of Maia's wedding, his aunts' lives, his sisters' fates etc.

Goblin Emperor has a neat concept and the ride into <I>Game of Thrones</i>-esque courtly intrigue is pretty entertaining.

Kathryn Addison clearly has big plans in this story of a stepson rejected from his family who takes over the kingdom when everyone above him in the lineage dies. That his family are elves and he's a goblin is secondary. Courtly intrigue is the whole book, and it's executed well once all the players are on the table. There are really good parts; my favorite is the excellent emotional weight of the hero's love for his mother.

But on the way there, Addison invents a language and fantasy names for common items. I love, love that stuff. But "Dial it down a little," is what I thought, after the third time someone's name has an apostrophe in the middle. <I>--Joe Crowe, [...]

As I started to read this book I thought I had made a mistake, it seemed boring, naïve and overly burdened with honorifics that quickly became confusing, but I decided to read on, and I am glad I did, I loved the story. Yes, Maia is naïve, abused and ill prepared to be emperor of his kingdom, yes he is the unwanted, unloved and "ugly" prince and yet this time it works. Yes it is true, as some have noted in their reviews, that the usual outcome for the "Maias'" of this world is a quick assassination, but every once in a while, on that rare occasion, the good guys do win, so dear reader, just read and hopefully enjoy.

The Goblin Emperor is in many ways a very good book, although I don’t think it’s a great book in any way. It’s also very different than the usual speculative fiction fare.

Maia is a forgotten fourth son of the emperor banished to a far corner of the Empire when a courier arrives late at night with a message: Maia’s father and three brothers were all killed in an act of airship terrorism. And so Maia is thrust into the seat of power without the education, the experience, . . . or the breeding. Maia, you see, is a goblin, hence the title. Well, a half-goblin, courtesy of his mother the fourth empress. The old emperor, all of Maia’s brothers and the other empresses, and most of the subjects of the empire are elves. (The book doesn’t have much to say about the difference between elves and goblins beyond that goblins have darker skin. I can only imagine that the elves look like ugly Peter Jackson elves and the goblins like Nightcrawler.)

Maia is a great character and that is probably the great strength of the novel. He’s a character that jumps off the page and starts tugging on your heart strings. He is emotional. He is most of all endearingly earnest. He is a product of neglect and abuse and he wears it on his sleeve. It works when it comes from his internal monologue; it grates when it is expressed through Maia being overly apologetic.

It’s good that Maia is a strong character because this is Maia’s story and told entirely from his perspective. The minor characters unfortunately tend to be very much one note and don’t ever leap off the page. They are usually defined by a single characteristic we see repeatedly. The single biggest exception, I think, and not unrelatedly the most interesting character, is Maia’s arranged fiancée. Alas, we see too little of her.

I’ll get to the worldbuilding next, but The Goblin Emperor’s biggest weakness is a lack of conflict. Not just action, but conflict. And conflict is what drives all fiction, even if it is only “the human heart in conflict with itself.” Addison keeps the stakes too low. In The Wire Tommy Carcetti gets served a s*** sandwich almost as soon as he takes office. Maia doesn’t, if only because nothing he does at first seems to be of much greater import (which is the great advantage of the monarchy really—symbolic leadership is one of the few things government can consistently do well). It robs the novel of tension, and Maia’s ostensible great triumph doesn’t overcome this. There are two action set pieces and they work well enough for what they are, which are very limited set pieces. The first cleverly ties into a single act from earlier in the book but that’s it. The second draws on events from earlier in the book in a more general way. Both have rather limited effect going forward. And the broader event that should drive much of the novel—building a bridge over a river bisecting the empire—doesn’t amount to much. It’s unfortunate. Bridges have a historical importance not reflected in fantasy. And something as prosaic as a bridge can drive narrative tension. For all Atlas Shrugged’s faults, the bridge sequence drives the first act. (There is also a rather groan-worthy metaphor there I will just ignore.)

I’ve seen The Goblin Emperor described as steampunk. The steampunk elements are, as usual for the subgenre, presented without explanation or much apparent thought (I like steampunk; the problem is I want to like it more than I do). We get a few airships and pneumatic tubes and the big bridge is a “clockwork” drawbridge but there’s not a whole lot else. There is a subtle tension between elves and goblins that Addison revisits often to good effect, but the elf and goblin moniker don’t amount to much more than labels. Far too much of the worldbuilding, especially that emphasized, is clunky or ineffective. The elaborate naming conventions are mystifying. The beginning uses bizarre archaisms (lots of thous and tharts) without explanation or seeming purpose. Thankfully they rarely resurface after.

A thoroughly enjoyable read. I was given the book as a gift, and was surprised as I have never found contemporary Sci-Fantasy very interesting. Much of the criticism I've read in these reviews might well have been said of J R R Tolkien, i.e. strange and difficult names of both people and places and a thin plot as well (The Hobbit). Addison writes extremely well, and the twists and turns of her relatively straightforward story are wonderfully plotted. Like many great writers - Hilary Mantel comes to mind - Addison's writing is not all that easy to follow ... she demands much of her readers, and then delivers. Beautifully.

Bought this book on a whim, and wasn't sure I would like it. I don't normally like books that are heavily political. I was surprised how much I really loved it, And have come back to it to reread it multiple times.

It's relatively light on action, so that's your thing, you may struggle with this book. It's more of a character study, and a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of fantasy government.

What I thought really set it apart was the general good heartedness of most of the characters. Typically in a novel that deals with political elements more realistic, or fantasy, there tends to be a lot of corruption and a lot of really terrible things happening by really terrible people. I don't like to read those books, I just don't really like to dwell on a lot of unpleasantness in my fiction – I get enough of that in the real world.

But in this book, a lot of the characters really are trying to do the right thing. Don't give me wrong, bad things happen, there is intrigue and drama and people doing things, but the main character is really trying to be a stand up guy and a good ruler, and has some unexpected support along the way. Makes for refreshing reading and a world I want to revisit.

Incredible, and unlike anything I have read recently. This is how I imagine Cinderella's story would go, if you started at the moment the glass slipper slid onto her foot. All the natural beauty and grace in the world probably didn't prepare her for the culture shock of going from servant to princess.

A few cons: This book took me a little longer to read than normal because I was trying to sound out all the names in my head. And since I had to put it down several times rather than read straight through, I couldn't remember who was who when I first resumed. So, names were a little bit complex. (There is a glossary and pronunciation guide at the back, btw.)

But. BUT, the geeky linguist in me also loved the complexities of the names too, once I figured out the rhythm of things. I also loved that there was minimal back-story explanation. Although it meant I might be lost for longer, I didn't feel as dumb about getting lost. And any explanations that were needed came naturally in conversation, rather than as an awkward aside. The book never came out and blatantly said "I am a steampunk novel" either, for which I was very grateful. Overdoing it is far too easy a trap to fall into, but this was perfectly executed.

All in all, this was a slick, well-thought-out world, and a beautiful story of a compassionate young man who never aspired to be emperor, but being thrust into it, was humbly trying to do a better job than his father.

All the stars. Will read again. (My teenage self wishes it had been around about 20 years ago.)

Really a fascinating story. I agree with other reviewers that the fact that the main character was a goblin really had little to do with the story -- it simply folded into the whole made up world in which the story took place. I do think that the author did not have to use such a convoluted "naming" system, where characters are often referred to by more than one name. It made following the "who's who" kind of difficult. I would not let it keep you from giving the book a try, however.

I read the description for this book a few months ago and so downloaded it onto my kindle to give it a try. I was not disappointed.

I'm not normally one for political intrigue or even politics in general, but this book made both fascinating and kept me turning the pages. The characters were rich and unique and the world in which they lived was just as rich and unique as the characters. I absolutely loved this book and would read it again and again... and have recommended it to several friends. I would love to see more books set in this particular universe and I hope that the author has some planned for the future!

My the store purchase account pre-dates my the store author account, but I assure you: I own this book. In fact, I own it in ebook, hardback, and in audio. Lois McMaster Bujold posted a favorable review on Goodreads so I purchased the ebook and I was hooked.

Maia Drazhar is the youngest and least favored son of the Emperor. When his father and all his siblings are killed after their airship explodes, he becomes Emperor and inherits all the plots, enmities, and interwoven family plots of a 5,000 year old empire. He's been abused by his guardian, he is poorly educated, and he's a half-goblin at an elvish court. Then he discovers his father was murdered.

Maia is a wonderfully sympathetic hero. The descriptions of the choking court protocols. the elaborate costumes, and the formal manners do not drag the story down. They are the point: unless Maia learns to command them, they will kill him.

I admit to a problem with the elaborate naming protocols, but it's possible to read the story without following every nuance. I've read this several times and I have figured them out (plus there's a guide at the back). As in all the best traditional fantasy part of the fun is in the elaborate detail and meticulous craftsmanship of the world-building.

Since I'd purchased the Kindle version, I bought the reduced price audio via Audible's Whispernet. I highly recommend the audiobook but whatever version you get, you can't lose. Highly, highly recommended.

After seeing most of my friends, and much of the SFF blogosphere, geek out over Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, I knew I needed to read it at some point. A few weeks ago I finally got the final push to actually read it (Thank you, Justin) and then the book was nominated for a Hugo, which clinched it: I was reading this book ASAP. And I’m glad I did, because The Goblin Emperor was brilliant and addictive. I just wanted to keep reading this book, even if I had to put down the book because life. I couldn’t wait to go back to Maia’s tale and find out what happened next.

What sets The Goblin Emperor apart from its contemporaries in the field is its tone. In a publishing environment where much of epic fantasy has taken a decidedly dark and grim direction in the past years, The Goblin Emperor offers something quite the opposite. That doesn’t mean that Maia’s story is all sweetness and light – because it isn’t – but it does mean that the narrative is hopeful and optimistic, trying to see the best in people and acting accordingly. When I was asked to describe the book to my husband, the first thing that sprang to mind was that the book was a weird sort of slice of life epic fantasy, where the events impacts an entire empire, yet the narrative is oddly intimate and very much moves day to day, only speeding up towards the end.

Maia is a fascinating protagonist. While not completely naive of the realities of court politics, he is inexperienced in how to survive them, due to his isolated upbringing by a disgruntled courtier who fell from the Emperor’s graces around the time Maia’s mother passed away. Due to this much of Maia’s arc is concerned with learning to navigate around the court and to handle the intrigues surrounding him. As I love me some political intrigue in my fantasy, this aspect of the book was absolute catnip to me. I really liked that much of what made Maia an effective ruler was due to his following his sense of common decency and justice. His developing relationships with not only his nohecharei, his bodyguards, but also his secretary are wonderful; I loved how Addison let them illustrate the tension between the (emotional) needs of Maia the person and the rules that bind Maia the Emperor.

While political intrigue forms much of the plot, I loved that the plot is moved forward through Maia’s forming relationships with those around him, instead of him defeating his enemies ‘on the field of battle’. The connections he forms with those around him and the loyalties they inspire and the alliances they create, are what saves him in the end. I especially liked how Addison had Maia relate to the different women of the court. His reaching out to his father’s first wife was beautifully done and gained him a staunch ally. I also really liked his fiancée, who is more than he first thinks and I loved the way Addison developed not only her character, but also their relationship. Plus Csethiro just kicks ass! Addison litters her narrative with interesting women, who are interesting both because they are women and because of their achievements. However, one thing that niggled me, in hindsight, is that their achievements or rather the acceptance of their achievements – Vedero’s astronomy studies or Kiru’s being selected as nohecharei – is used to showcase Maia’s exceptionality, not theirs.

Addison took some risks in her writing style. The most eye-catching of these, is her use of pronouns in dialogue. In the world of The Goblin Emperor, in addition to the majestic plural we, people use we in all forms of (reasonably) formal speech. In fact, dropping into first person is seen as very personal and shockingly informal. I thought this was a gutsy move, especially as these nuances are hard to convey organically, without resorting to overt info dumping an explanation, yet Addison managed it quite smoothly. Stylistic choices that didn’t work as well, at least for me as a reader, were the overly complicated family names and the apostrophised titles. I kept stumbling over them and back-tracking to get them correctly. Yet ultimately I found I did not care; in the end I just garbled the names and as long as I garbled them consistently everything made sense and the story was so good it drew me on regardless of my stumbles.

The Goblin Emperor made for absolutely addictive reading. I couldn’t get this book out of my head; I even dreamed about it. Was it flawless? No, not really, as illustrated above. But it was completely and utterly immersive and the reading experience was like falling into a warm bath: welcoming and very soothing. I was quite saddened to learn that The Goblin Emperor is a standalone novel, because I definitely would love to return to Maia’s court and see how his life develops. The book ends in a good place, but consistent with my impression of it being a slice of life epic fantasy tale, it also feels as if it could continue on without a hiccup and still be satisfying. “Always leave them wanting more” is an old adagio in many contexts and Katherine Addison certainly held true to that maxim here. I definitely want more of Addison’s writing and hopefully there’ll be much more to come in the future.

There are 3 main things wrong with this book, with a handful of little things only made worse by the three main things. And there are about 2 things this book does well that keeps it in the "deserves attention" category.

First the bad. If Katherine Addison had spent half as much time thinking about her character's arc as she did on the ridiculously overwrought names and titles, this book could easily have earned five stars. There's so much potential here, but it feels like it just never got going. At the end of the day, the main character doesn't change. Sure, his circumstances change, his position in life, the people around him, the jewelry he wears, changes, but he, on the inside, is still the same, timid "momma's boy" he is in the beginning. He has virtually no role in resolving any of the conflicts in the story. Rather people around him (his guards, his advisors, etc.) resolve things for him and then report to him. Yes, that's how presidents and emperors probably work, but it makes for dull reading. So, strike one is a plot that meanders, with very little tension building and no clear goal or action on the part of the protagonist to resolve those criminally mild tensions.

Strike two I've already alluded to. The names. God, the names. I love me some huge character casts and complicated political intrigue, but in order to get into it you need to be able to discern who is who, who is on who's side and what their relationships to each other are. Addison, in an attempt to create a more dense and textured world, crafted a naming convention that strings together mind-numbingly long prefixes and suffixes. It makes the names virtually impossible to pronounce and retain in sight-memory. So you'll see a name, you'll suspect you've seen that name before, but you won't realize that, no, that's just the honorific and actually the part of the name you should have been remembering was five syllables further on and truncated to its root. To help, Addison includes a glossary of sorts at the back. If this is her version of helping... The names of minor characters (who appear in the dozens in each chapter - literally) are never listed. The main characters, who you eventually will remember, are listed, but with spoilers in some cases (consider how disappointing it is to have a major [as major as her twists come, at least] plot twist revealed when you are trying to look up who this new character is in the glossary for reference). And in most cases, one made up word is used to define another made up word and you find yourself going from one definition to the next in the hopes you discover, finally, in English, what the eff this word means. Take this definition for example: "Untheileneise'meire: the othasmeire of the Untheileneise Court." Don't bother looking up "othasmeire." It's not there. Feel informed?

Worse is that these names directly contribute to strike one. It's very hard to feel concern, excitement, dread — whatever — for a character or an antagonist's machinations if you don't even know who the heck this guy is by page 350. You can't get invested in the lives of people/characters you don't know. Just look at the thousands of dead children every day in Africa for proof.

Strike 3: There's no reason for this to be a fantasy novel. The only difference between Maia (the main character) as a Goblin and you and me, is that he uses his ears to express emotions. They blush, they droop, they perk up, they hold lots of earrings. That's it. Take that away and we're reading a story about a 19 year old human boy who misses his dead mom and is thrust into being emperor. This isn't a serious strike against the book (1 and 2 were fatal enough), but I felt it just added to the unnecessary-ness of everything in here. Strip that away, give the characters, if not normal names, at least varying names that are slightly easier to remember, and you have a more pure story that doesn't get in its own way.

Now the good.

Bunt 1: The intrigue, if you can follow it and know who the characters are, is interesting. She makes the world of a medieval court slightly compelling. She put a lot of thought into the customs and culture. And she (mostly) revealed it in the way the characters acted, rather than long winded exposition. I enjoyed that and I enjoyed peeling away the layers. Had I known who the damn characters were or if I had met them previously, I know I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Bunt 2: Her prose is very good. It's descriptive, elegant and carefully crafted. Just one example and probably not the best, but I remember it yet after finishing:
"Then he heaved himself into his coach; the coachman touched his cockaded hat in the direction of the emperor and cried, 'Hai!' to the ten black horses. In the center of his own private thunderstorm, [REDACTED] departed."

I don't know, it worked for me, as did many other key word choices and phrases. Unfortunately, lipstick on a pig and all that.

All in all, I don't feel like I wasted my time reading this novel, but neither do I feel it was time well spent. Ugh. I wish it were otherwise. I started with high hopes, but by midpoint I could tell there was no clear objective for our protagonist, no building tension or any reason I should really worry for him and in the end, he did little himself to solve what few problems he had. Not quite boring. But not compelling.

Sword and sworcery tales, and Grimdark machinations have there place, but i've always been a sucker for a new take on a slice of life story.
Sword and sworcery doesn't always have to be about fulfilling a prophecy, and the ONE.
Grimdark doesn't always have to be all blood, guts, rape and pillage.
Slice of life doesn't always have to be about high school boy meets girl, and coming of age.
Likeways, they can all enjoyably belong in one story.

There's a lot to like about The Goblin Emperor. Maia, the main character, is compelling - a boy, thrust into a hostile world he doesn't understand, struggling to make his way. It's a familiar tale, especially for fantasy novels, but Addison adds an interesting twist by making the world he's thrust into the world of politics rather than adventure. Maia isn't the Chosen One; he's just the only one of his family left to claim the throne. He's naive and ignorant but he knows it, and he works to overcome his deficiencies. As Maia learns the rules of his new world, so too does the reader.

Undoubtedly, The Goblin Emperor is a good book. That said, I simply couldn't get into it. The prose, and in particular the dialogue, lapses into excessively stilted formalism regularly. The novel sticks with Maia's POV, as the narrative demands, but Maia's ignorance comes through too strongly at times. The world is a cipher for him, and hence for the reader. This isn't bad - but it's not what I'm looking for, most of the time. And when I am looking for it, I'll open up something like House of Leaves instead.

Final verdict: TGE is excellent. I'd recommend it. But I'd suggest getting it from the library and reading the first few chapters first, because it's not for everyone.

I read this book for the Hugo's. Alas, after 150 pages I simply can not endure the suffer. This is the most boring book I've read in a long time. Too many names hard to pronounce. Too much attention on court manners, very little on actual plot. The main character, while sympathetic, is too weak to be the hero of his own story. The author's writing is painfully dull, her use of vocabulary as unfriendly as her character's names. This book read more like a drawn out college term paper on court manners than a fantasy. The only thing that was interesting was the cover. I usually finish a book, even if I don't like it just so I can say I read to the end. But this is torture.

Emotionally intelligent, complex, and compelling. Following the nearly completely ignorant Maia from when he suddenly inherits the throne through all of his rough and rude introduction to the complexities, responsibilities, and dangers of being emperor was a wonderful way to get to know the world and the people around him and his place in it along with him. Maia is a very sympathetic character for me, and I enjoyed the book immensely.

Maia is the youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor of the Elflands, and he's lived his entire life in exile from the imperial court. He has visited the imperial court just once, when he was eight, for his mother's funeral.

Now, at eighteen, a messenger arrives from court with the shocking news that his hated father and all three unknown brothers have died in an airship crash. He is now Emperor. And while he's been taught court etiquette, he's been taught nothing suitable for governing an empire. Maia is alone at court, with no friends, no allies, and no knowledge of either governing, or the common culture of the court. What he does know is that whoever killed his father and brothers didn't intend him to inherit, and could kill him at any point.

This is, in broad strokes, the starting point for many an action-packed fantasy, and with a few details changed, space operas of political struggle in sprawling star empires. Where The Goblin Emperor differs is that Maia isn't a believer in bloody autocracy as The Only Way. He doesn't set out to hunt down and kill his enemies, although he's no fool and does start an investigation into the airship crash.

Maia wants to govern well. He wants his rule to benefit not just himself and his court, but all the people for whom he is now responsible. While learning the rules of basic survival at court, he's also feeling out those around him to learn the essentials of governing, looking for possible friendships and alliances, and trying to right the wrongs he can identify and see solutions for.

Maia is a reformer. A young, inexperienced, in some ways naive reformer, but if he doesn't always have much confidence in himself, he did learn a strong sense of right and wrong, and the importance of kindness, from his goblin princess mother. Sometimes that kindness leads him into potentially dangerous errors; more often, it surprises those around him, catches them off guard, and shakes their assumptions about the unregarded goblin heir.

One of Maia's great strengths is a willingness to change his mind, and give others the chance to change theirs.

Addison has given us a richly developed world. The empire itself, and its neighbors, including the goblin empire from which Maia's mother came, feels complex and lived-in. The politics of the imperial court feel real, and the individual characters have a depth and complexity. Even in minor characters, the existence of more complexity than we get to see is hinted at.

I really love this book, and would like to read more in this world.

Highly recommended.

I bought this book.

Wow. Sometimes when you finish a book, all you can do is step back and say, “Wow.” That was my reaction upon finishing The Goblin Emperor. The sheer amount of detail presented to you in this story, the glorious worldbuilding that makes everything feel so very real. It’s not always easy to keep track of, since you’re being thrown into a culture that works quite differently from, well, anything I’ve experienced, at the very least.

This is part of what makes Maia such a good character to sit on the shoulders of. He’s something of a blank slate character, kept at just the right amount of ignorance through his life that when the horrific happens and his father dies and he is catapulted onto the throne of an empire without any training or even so much as a moment’s notice. It’s this state that allows the intricacies of court life and ruling to be unveiled, both to Maia and the reader, without convoluted infodumps or endless, “As you know, Emperor Maia…”

But not all of it gets explained so clearly. Anything to do with titles of address get thrown out in narration and speech perfectly naturally, and while you can untangle them in the end, for a little while you’re drowning in dach’osmers and osmerrems and mins and trying to figure out who’s who and what means what. Times like this make me glad that I’ve got a bit of a knack for picking up other languages, because exposure to common use helped me more than a glossary at the back of the book. (Though for those who are daunted by certain translations and proper titles, there is, thankfully, just such a glossary.)

The Goblin Emperor can feel like a bit of a slog sometimes. More than once I lost track of the overarching plot by getting bogged down in the minutiae of Maia’s newfound imperial life, and while I loved the utter immersion in the world, it was a little bit jarring to occasionally be reminded of right, right, the whole “someone murdered the previous emperor” bit. As a presentation of realism, this gets some bonus points, because Maia had far more on his plate than just one agenda, however important that agenda may have been. As compelling reading, however, I’d say it detracts from the novel, because unless you’re a major culture geek like me or you have a great deal of patience of slow-moving but intricate plots, you’re probably going to find yourself bored and wondering what the point of this whole novel is.

For all that it’s slow, though, it does stand out in many other areas that might endear it to readers. First off, the fact that it’s a world without humans, or at least none of the characters are human. Most are elves, though there are also goblins, and elf/goblin mixes like Maia himself. I won’t say that this removes any issues of racism, because it really doesn’t, but it does mean that the racism you’re seeing isn’t a tired old cliché. (Admittedly, light-skinned elves looking down on dark-skinned goblins does skirt some borders pretty closely.) Maia may be the emperor, but he faces that racism every day, knowing that people close to him in court dislike him solely because he’s part goblin. The setting is definitely not your typical medieval European fantasy setting, either, thought I’d be hard-pressed to narrow it down to one particular area of our world and history that it’s most like. I did see what looked like some east Asian influences, but beyond that I can’t say for sure. It may not break all the stereotypes, but it bucks enough trends to really make it stand out, especially for anyone who’s looking for something a little bit different, a little bit beyond your classic traditional fantasy fare.

But if slow builds are what you’re seeking, and you’re craving something that has phenomenal worldbuilding and amazing attention to detail, then absolutely take the time to sink into The Goblin Emperor like it’s a warm bath. It’s a beautiful novel, intricate and wonderful, and my only regret is that there’s not going to be any sequel, because I would love visiting this world again. It’s one that you only get to see a very narrow sliver of, but it’s got the potential for so many stories, so much diversity, and I hope that Addison at least writes other stories set in the world because I will devour them in a heartbeat!

Part of me really liked this book, as it is a fresh take on palace intrigue with a fantasy sheen. The protagonist is fantastic, the other characters are rich and compelling, especially the goblins, and the world is deep and vivid. Lots of social commentary but in a non-intrusive way, and the goblin spin is unique and frankly fun.

But the endless string of unpronounceable names got old and cumbersome, and despite the blurbs touting "epic" court intrigue, that part of the story was a little predictable actually. It's a debut work apparently, which perhaps explains a slight dearth of polish, but the author clearly has talent and I hope her next work is even stronger.

This was an outstanding book. The story was addicting (one of those books you keep reading one more chapter and get to bed way too late).

It is a story of a young man who is the fourth son of a king, who inherits the crown with no preparation. The characters are wonderful. In the story the young man starts growing into the role of king.

My only complaint is that the book is obviously the first of a several part series. The ending sort of leaves you hanging. I am now anxiously waiting the next volume.

I admit to reading far too much action packed fantasy and science fiction lately. I really needed a break, and perused the Nebula award nominees to see what I might have missed. This book came up and it is incredibly satisfying to read. I note that some negative reviewers have complained that nothing happens in this book, that there is no plot. In fact, I find the opposite, a break neck pace of complicated motives unveiled, subtle strategies unfold and every page is a delight to read. I can't wait to read more, and I shall, since she has written other books under the name Sarah Monette.

While the plot is straight out of Tom Clancy's Executive Orders, I thought the idea was interesting enough for a read in the fantasy setting.

I had several problems with this book:

1) Boring - The main character is just so nice, so bumbling, and constantly asking everyone for forgiveness (and then it is constantly pointed out that he shouldn't since he is the emperor). There is hardly any drama. There are two or three mildly exciting "action" sequences but they last a few pages and then you deal with pages and pages of the main character telling everyone they aren't to blame and asking for forgiveness some more. Even something as potentially interesting as finding his future empress is handled in a few pages with an anti-climactic vote by his ruling council.
2) Fantasy setting is arbitrary. This isn't a huge nit-pick, but there is almost no point in making him a half-goblin / half-elf, other than to enable him to constantly internally monologue that he hates his "dark skin." This might as well have been a book about Native Americans. There is nothing "fantasy" about it, and the presence of out of context phrases from our modern era just further serve to make the setting bland.
3) Names. Usually by about page 400 I have a grasp on the names, no matter how random. This book is FILLED with characters that do not matter, and they are introduced 5 or 6 at a time with similar sounding names (like his prospective wives). The end result is that someone is mentioned 50 pages later and I have no clue which cousin's step-sister they are, but I frankly don't care.

The world building in this was exquisite. At points, it was almost too detailed, but I adored the world Addison created and was along for the ride, long, unpronounceable names included.

It’s funny, not much actually happens in this book. She goes into the many intricacies of her main character adjusting to being thrown into court life, and yet, I couldn’t stop reading. She literally described them eating meals and going to meetings and I couldn’t read it fast enough. This is one I’m sad to be finished with.

I have read this 3 times, each time wanting to write a review but never having the words to describe the utter beauty of this book. Little did I know that the author mainly writes under the name Sarah Monette (search and buy EVERYTHING she writes). The only disppointment being that i had already read her other works. I check every time i search for a new book in the hopes of encountering a sequel to this...this beautiful book. You will enjoy this as a standalone but it will leave you craven for more. Please let there be more for those of us, once bullied, seeking, not vengeance, but peace with our tormentors and the betterment of ourselves. Thank you.

I had begun to give up hope of finding old style story telling. It's now been three years since this came out and I just discovered it and found it charming and lovely. I searched for sequels immediately and was terribly disappointed to find none. I guess I will just have to read the book again to find myself back in that world.

A very strong story of an appealing young emperor, and one that had me enthralled from beginning to end. Not much "action," but lots of intrigue and character growth. The author's incredible creation of a language complete with complex grammar was both a strength and a weakness, in that unfamiliar words did have me a bit bogged down, and I wish I had waited for the audiobook to help with the pronunciations. But I couldn't put this down!

Wonderful, wonderful story. Will change your preconceived notions about goblins, and by extension, other beings who might not look behave as we expect. Like George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, this book delves deep into the politics of a fantasy world, build so solidly, that the characters live and breath on the page. Maia's story was a pure delight. Kudos to Katherine Addison for bringing him to life so vividly. I'll read this one again.

This is a good read, a well crafted story. It was not for me a fabulously or epically good story, but something I could recommend without embarrassment.
It has much court intrigue, handled as best as I have seen. I did not find that always fascinating, but did have some trouble putting the book down.
It shows the growth of the goblin boy into the kind of Emperor he wanted to be.
And the black/white racial theme was handled decently.

one dimensional. listless. shallow. tedious. predictable. like playing the same game of solitary repetedly. each chacter is presented like a playing card. made it 77 percent thru then gave up. added one star for consistant prose but it's a boring book.

The Goblin Emperor is an enjoyable read with intricate world building and political intrigue. The number and spelling of names can be daunting, yet they are worth dealing with. At the beginning the story seems to be merely a typical fantasy, yet it takes a departure by giving the experience of a young ruler who is who is woefully unprepared to take the reins of power, yet does so and comports himself well. Refreshingly it has very little magic, instead shows the drama of court intrigue.
The story could be improved by better imagery and handling of scenery in the opening chapter and by some judicious editing to make names easier to keep track of

With a writing style reminisce of the 80’s and a JK Tolkein feel, The Goblin Emperor is an outstanding, and quite often challenging read. From the groundbreaking world-building to plethora of great characters, Katherine Addison’s book is one you soon won’t forget.

More thorough review on creatyvebooks.com

Imagine Song of Ice and Fire but only the King's Landing bits (and a much less cynical world view) and you've got a pretty good idea of what this book is like. Honestly, that description is exactly what I always wanted in a fantasy novel, so I really loved it. There are a metric ton of characters that you have to keep track of and honestly it's pretty confusing a lot of the time, but if you're willing to flip back a few pages every now and then to refresh your memory on who is related to who, the vast web of inter-character relationships is a really impressive piece of work. There aren't any big action sequences or battles or quests, just lots and lots of politicking, but if you like that sort of thing (and I do) it's a great execution of it

This is a book about an underdog Emperor who should have never been Emperor, and who certainly shouldn't have survived the first few chapters. And who is really quite an admirable individual. I'm not much on fantasy, but even so I loved this book. It has been a long time since I found a book worth re-reading, but I'm quite sure I'll be coming back to The Goblin Emperor.

This is suitable for YA, but it is a great fantasy for any age. The character of Maia,the youngest, scorned son of an assassinated emperor who succeeds to the throne is wonderful. There is political intrigue, great world building, and complex, absorbing character development. The title character and his struggle to become a good ruler really drew me in. I've read it twice now, and I hope Katherine Addison writes more about this world.

I just read this in eight straight hours, four of which I should have been asleep for. I don't regret it at all. Katherine Addison's prose saturates her world in the most intense colors, and I loved the subtle and unobtrusive mix of technology and fantasy and magic. And of course I love Maia: while every one of her characters is rich and interesting and wonderful (even when you hate them, or cringe whenever they show up on the page), her protagonist is kind and petty and generous and flawed and impossible to forget. The way he tries to do what's right, while the world and even the definitions of that word seem to shift around him, endears and inspires. I'll be reading this book, and this author, again.

Excellent writing, detailed world building, complex characters. I looked for the next book in a hoped for series but was disappointed not to find one. Truth, not a lot of action scenes or swordplay but didn't really miss that. Liked the steam-punk threads. The names of the characters are a bit hard to keep straight but there is a guide included. Bottomline, well and truly worth the time spent reading it.

I absolutely hate typing on a kindle and will not do so unless I totally love or hate a book. With its well developed world view and central characters, this work is worth your time and mine. Ihope we see more from this author.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and was surprised I hadn't stumbled across this author before. A bit irritated with Tor when I found it it was Sarah Monette, as I love her beautiful writing. Evidently Tor thought she needed a pseudonym. Her impressive work speaks for itself!

Katherine Addison has written an engrossing novel that plunges the reader immediately into a strange but compelling world. There is no cutesy magic in this fantasy novel; instead, it is a well-told coming of age novel. I appreciated that this can be read as a stand-alone novel, with a clear plot arc and a satisfying ending. That said, if Addison plans to write a sequel, I certainly would want to read it!

I really appreciated the likable main character, the interesting world-building (with just the right number of characters -- enough to be interesting, but not too many to keep track of), and the good pacing of the plot. I sometimes felt a little too far ahead of the main character, but I look forward to the next installment!

It is a solid, if not overly exciting piece of writing. It's fascinating in its world construction and idea, but there just isn't a whole lot going on in terms of physical action. If you really put yourself in the main character's shoes, you can feel the intrigue, but it doesn't bubble up to a rapid boil. This is a slow simmer of a novel.

I hope she continues the series, or at least the world. I think it's a promising start.

A rich and fascinating world full of complex characters and court intrigue. I loved that this was a completely original coming-of-age story, and Maia is one of my favorite protagonists ever. Loved it!

I agree with many of the reviewers -- that the names of characters, areas of the country, etc. are poorly chosen and confusing, even with the the index. That aside, I was enjoyed the book and read it in a few sittings ... good story and some great characters -- especially Maia. Was actually here on the store to see if she has written anything else.

4th and despised son of the emperor, raised in poverty and abuse,It all changes with the death of his father and three half brothers. He is the emperor now, but for how long, and where will his assassin strike? A story about characters you will care about, it kept me reading, page after page, if there is a sequel, I will be there.

I loved this book. I did the audiobook which gives a totally different perspective to a "reader". I had no trouble following the multitude of characters because the narrator is excellent. I liked this world and the characters very much. I do like an interesting fantasy and this one delivered for me.

This is a well-written, fast-paced novel set in a complexly realized new fantasy universe. It uses the terms "Elves" and "Goblins" in new ways, and has an intricacy of story and characterization that hold the imagination right through to the end.

One of the most significant components to my enjoyment was the fact that in the end I truly felt for the protagonist, and wanted them to succeed. Interestingly, I also understood the perspective of the opponents to their success, even if I didn't agree. That made an already beautifully crafted tale into something rich and worthy.

I do not throw 5-star ratings around willy-nilly. This book earned it.

A very different story than expected...despite the Goblin Emperor title it is a book completely about Royal Court intrigue and operations. The young emperor starts to get his "footing' as emperor as the book progresses. He ultimately emerges as a much better monarch than his father blending both tough minded decisions and a benevolent side as well. The author blended story lines and court detail without boring the reader. Good read, and well done

Not my usual type of story but this proves it's good to branch out. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter and found myself reading at every chance, both enjoying the story and dreading reaching the end. I wish there were more like this. I would give it 6stars if I could.

I liked the world, the setting and the way the author constructed the setting. It captures a mix of politics and human (or human like in this case) reaction which is spot on. It reminded me of a mix of Roman and Elizabethan court drama.

I will need a sequel or two to fully judge it, but I enjoyed it very much on it's own.

It says on the cover of the book “ambitious and meticulously executed world building”.

This reviewer tried in vain to find an atlas of this ambitious and meticulously executed world, but not before, nor after 500 pages, was a single map to be found. Instead, a single bridge is the focal point of the emperor’s attention, that is, when he is not confronted with his own inadequacies.

So, how does the Goblin Emperor stand, compared to the greats of the past? Has it stood on the shoulders of giants to move the genre further? I am afraid it has stood no higher than the knees of giants, and even this may be generous.

While the novel reads fast, is a real page turner and is an excellent companion to a long flight, one cannot hep the feeling that by the end of the day, and except one page, where a soon to be executed conspiratior sends a deeper message across, shallowness abounds. And to be honest, almost all action taking place inside a building, regardless its size, for so many pages, must be a first for an “empire”. Majipoor’s Castle Mount is also vast, but so is the world around it.

I am sure there is going to be a bright future for the Goblin Emperor, spanning at least 8 to 10 novels. I hope they end up in the coveted Hugo short list only if they, unlke this one, really deseve it.

2 ½ stars.

I like this book but I feel strongly that it is a book aimed at the teen market and not adult. There is no sex, remarkably little violence, and the protagonist is just 18. There is nothing adult about this book. I wanted my librarian to remove it from the adult section and put it in the young adult section. She refused. She said that they go by what the Library of Congress catalogs the book as and that's that.

I could write more but that is the one reason I am posting a review. If you are expecting an adult book you will be disappointed. If you are 12-16 this is a great book.

I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review. I had heard a lot of great rumors about this book and what a wonderful fantasy it was so I was excited to read it. While the writing is beautiful and the world is incredibly rich in detail...this just wasn’t the book for me. I made it about 25% of the way through this book and finally stopped reading it. I just didn’t have the patience for it, the story moves soooo slowly. I know I am in the minority here...but these types of books are just not for me.

Maia has been isolated from the rest of the family, hidden away as an unwanted son. Then the news comes, the royal family is dead, and Maia is the Emperor. This was never supposed to happen and Maia is fully unprepared for this turn of events. He returns to the center of the empire and is faced with hatred and intrigue from all side. However Maia is a good man, and he is going to try and do his best for the Empire. That’s when news is exposed that the death of the royal family may not have been a complete accident.

This is a beautifully written fantasy novel that is full of incredible detail and has a well imagined world. I am sure people who really enjoy incredibly detailed writing dealing with intricate court politics will really enjoy this.

I did not enjoy it. There are loads and loads of long complicated names thrown at you right from the beginning. This is the kind of book where you might want to write them down as you go so you can figure out who all the political figures are later in the book.

The story moves at a incredibly slow rate. In the first 25% of the book our character flew back to the seat of power and went through his coronation. That and he dealt with the numerous tiny details that an Emperor deals with.

Many pages are spent describing how the Emperor's jewelry and clothing are put on. We listen to things like the Emperor deciding what the menu should be for lunch. We listen to numerous letters of complaint from various political figures we haven't meet. The names are very long and strange and for me were difficult to keep track of. I had a very hard time sorting through the copious political details and names and deciding what was relevant and what wasn’t...and honestly in the end it was all just too tedious and boring for me.

While I appreciate the delicate work it took to put together this complex political scenario and world, I found it all to be mind-numblingly boring. At 25% through there was really no plot to speak of, nothing to really drive the story forward for me and engage the reader. I did like Maia as a character, he is a good man, but he was also very vanilla and just didn’t engage me all that much as a reader.

Overall a beautifully written, incredibly detailed world, with complex court politics...that just wasn’t for me. For me this was a DNF. I found it to be boring and tedious...and at 25% through there wasn’t really much of a plot going on at all. I just didn’t not have the patience for this book, I had trouble keeping straight all the long complex names, and got bored reading about how the Emperor’s jewels were applied. I didn’t find the characters to be interesting or engaging at all either. I guess I would recommend reading both some positive and negative reviews on this one and decided from that if this is the type of book for you.

This is a 2 and 1/2 star review. The main character was supposedly so rustic and naive. He seemed to know the right protocols and have the required savvy at just the right moments. The story was only ok.

The Goblin Emperor was wonderful! I got lost in the struggles of the characters and the world in which they lived. Great writing and story telling. Hope we get more and more from you, Katherine Addison.

Honestly I got lost in the names so I am sure much of the court intrigue, which the book was centered around, was lost on me. I am not sure if this was supposed to be a sequel or adjunct book to a world already described, but I was unfamiliar with the "goblins' and "elves" described in this capacity, so felt a bit lost through the whole thing. Still, I found the main character endearing enough to stick with it and see what happened.

I started reading this book late at night and stayed up late. Then I woke up early and finished it. I loved it so much, I *immediately* read it again.

I am so gobsmacked by this book that I have a hard time finding words to praise it. This will not be a helpful review, I am afraid, but it will give the book yet another rave.

A very entertaining coming of age book with the main character unexpectedly thrust into power. Refreshingly, the story is NOT centered on magical powers or battles. Instead it is a story of political intrigue seen from the point of view of a virtual outsider. The world-building is well done and very interesting.

The plot complexity was astounding, and the characters were so intense and diverse, I loved it all!

It took some patience for me to get through the first chapter or two because her world and language were lot to take in, but it was 100% worth diving into.

As I read this book I grew to love the characters, and looked forward to each chapter. It was such a good story, I was sorry when the book ended. I would have given it five stars, except that there were so many characters with very similar names, it was difficult to keep them straight. Otherwise, very engaging story.

Great book, populated with believable and likeable character. The only negative point is that the 'elf' part (the main character becomes the emperor of the elf empire) has no impact on the story, except for exotic names and strange traditions.

Ok.. I read Baru Cormorant and loved it. Looking for similar books, I read this book next. Its decent.. a coming to age story with some aspects of discrimination and lack of belonging. I get it....decent pace, kept me reading. But, Baru Cormorant is so damn damn damn good, this books is above average at best.

Amongst the dross that is churned out in the name of fantasy comes a rare jewel of a book. I hope this is not the end of this story arc, it was a pleasure to read, well characterised, and head and shoulders over anything published recently. I look forward to the next book by this author, whatever it may be.

This book was enjoyable and satisfying. I can't say I have ever made it through a book on intrigue and court politics before. I read this book in just a few days though. My only complaint is the names were hard to pronounce and I didn't discover the pronunciation key until after I finished the book.

There are so many sequels and series out there in the fantasy/science fiction universe that asking for another seems silly, But this novel is so well-written, with such an intriguing world and such a sturdy, likeable protagonist - and so many story threads at the end of this tale, all available to be woven into new tales - that a sequel is definitely called for (by me at least.)

Excllent book with well-done characterisation and intriguing plot. I came to care about the goblin emperor as the book advanced. Depending on your style, you might find the pace slow. To me, it fit the style very well.

This book was enjoyable and satisfying. I can't say I have ever made it through a book on intrigue and court politics before. I read this book in just a few days though. My only complaint is the names were hard to pronounce and I didn't discover the pronunciation key until after I finished the book.

There are so many sequels and series out there in the fantasy/science fiction universe that asking for another seems silly, But this novel is so well-written, with such an intriguing world and such a sturdy, likeable protagonist - and so many story threads at the end of this tale, all available to be woven into new tales - that a sequel is definitely called for (by me at least.)

Excllent book with well-done characterisation and intriguing plot. I came to care about the goblin emperor as the book advanced. Depending on your style, you might find the pace slow. To me, it fit the style very well.

An Excellent book. While not perfect, the plot does drag at times, the character development, politics and writing are such a joy to read that I'm more than willing to forgive it's minor imperfection, and can honestly say that I am looking forward to reading the sequel.

You will get tired of the goblin emperor being addressed as "Serenity" within the first chapter. Ten percent of the book is dialogue and the rest is boring blah-blah.
I kept reading in the hope that something would happen that was worth the investment in time, but in the end, it was just a waste.

I decided to read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor because of a fair amount of online praise. I was especially willing to take the plunge based on two facts: 1) refreshingly enough, this book is not another grimdark fantasy, and 2) this book is a stand-alone tale.

However, despite my initial enthusiasm, and though I liked certain aspects of this book, overall I found it to be a disappointment. Furthermore, there were even elements of this book to which I found myself responding quite negatively.

To start with some positives, I did enjoy Addison's treatment of Maia, the young half-goblin thrust from obscurity into the role of Emperor. Maia is likeable and well meaning, and recognizes and seeks to overcome his faults and limitations as he strives to live up to his role. Addison portrays with real skill and nuance both the great personal loneliness and complete lack of privacy the Emperor is forced to endure, and vividly demonstrates how the Emperor is compelled to be on duty during all his waking hours. Maia's is a formidable task, made even more so by his lack of proper training and the resulting lack of self-confidence, and by the fact that others wish to remove this upstart from the throne. Perhaps not surprisingly, Maia seeks (and is able occasionally to find) elusive serenity in spiritual meditation. By the end of the book Maia, who has lately been neglecting meditation practices because of a lack of privacy and a fear that he will be sneered at, decides he must bring these personal practices out in the open. I really liked this part of the book, since I think that one can't hermetically seal off their spiritual life from others without starving it.

There is much that can be said for The Goblin Emperor, and I can see why some people might really love it. If I was writing a more positive review I might choose to play up at length other aspects of the book as well, such as some of Maia's well-rendered and complicated relationships. However, there are definite problems I wish to focus on. I won't say too much about the confusing names and titles Addison employs, other than she probably didn't do herself any favors with this strategy. I was slightly annoyed, but I really wouldn't rate this book any less for this relatively minor issue. A much bigger problem concerns the inadequacy of Addison's plotting. Multiple efforts to get rid of Maia are rather simple and slipshod, and almost seem like an afterthought on the part of the author. More generally, Maia's opponents are rather inept, which partially undermines the whole concept of a good natured but ill-prepared young man stepping into a hornet's nest of intrigue and opposition. Of course, one might concede that the attempts to take down Maia are rather laughable, but still contend that this book contains a bit of sophisticated scheming that comes to light at the end of the story. I agree, but this merely helps bring to light the book's biggest problem.

In my estimation, the biggest problem with The Goblin Emperor concerns the book's political message. To whom is the message addressed? Addison's book is surely written with a politically progressive audience in mind. For instance, Maia, who has paid a price for being dark-skinned, has a natural affinity for others who are oppressed. He roots for and supports the women who wish to live outside the constraining roles that the patriarchy prescribes for them. He also, by the end of the story, uses governmental power in a way that eventually promises to better the life a whole bunch of oppressed workers. Etc. Etc. And to her politically progressive readership, Addison ultimately endorses a Machiavellian "ends justify the means" philosophy as a way to better actualize utopian goals. This message only emerges near the end of the book, as schemes are revealed, but it is a message central to understanding the book. It is interesting too that Addison chooses not to dirty the hands of her likable Emperor we are meant to admire, but has him labor and prosper on the paths prepared for him by others who made the hard, ugly, but apparently (in Addison's mind) necessary decisions.

Should social justice warriors throw innocents under the bus if by doing so they can advance their agenda? This is not an idle question. Addison's answer seems to be yes. I strongly reject her apparent affirmation. Despite the fact that this book has its very real strengths, and despite the fact that this is "only" a fantasy book, Addison's political message leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This is not my cup of tea. To be clear, I am not here attacking political progressivism per se, but I do think the means this story endorses as a way to achieve progressive ends are repugnant and self-defeating if taken seriously in the real world. But for this political message, I probably would have awarded this book 3.5 stars, instead of the 2 I am giving it.

Ms. Katherine Addison’s THE GOBLIN EMPEROR should have been an enjoyable book but sadly, it wasn’t. I certainly don’t fault her writing, which I’m happy to say was above par. And the mix of steam-punk and fantasy genres was a clever idea, seamlessly executed. It was the needless, pointless and worthless inclusion of sodomy into the novel’s world that ruined it for me.

Oh well, one more writer I need never read again.

I read this as part of the Hugo packet, and so wanted to like it. A half-goblin ruling the elves, mixed in with Mr. Smith goes to Washington, makes for a decent premise. Alas, the slow dragging start and the 50 character names are like the author wanted to out-Tolkien Tolkien, and it was too much to endure. My uncle couldn't make it through the first chapter, and I finally gave up half-way through. It works for putting me to sleep, a few pages on the Nook and I'm down for the count.

The Goblin Emperor

By Katherine Addison
Tor Books
Published 2014
448 pages
Hardcover $19.70
kindle $10.99
Paperback $8.09
ISBN 978-0765326997

The protagonist of The Goblin Emperor is Maia, fourth son of the emperor of Elfland. He and his goblin mother were cast-off by his elfin father. But the sudden death of the emperor (and his heirs) in a nasty airship accident has thrust Maia back into a court that was not expecting a half-goblin to rule over it. Maia, who has lived in uneducated exile, now has to learn what he should have been learning all along — court etiquette, clan alliances, court laws and politics, dance moves, imperial behavior.

Maia is one of the best characters I’ve encountered in a while. He’s kind-hearted, tolerant, self-loathing (because of his dark skin), apologetic about his existence, and full of insecurity. He’s confused about everything and his intellectual growth is the same as the reader’s because we are as lost in this world as Maia is. More so. Luckily for Maia— perhaps too luckily— he is surrounded by a few relatives, courtiers, and councilors who are willing to help him in a court which largely belittles and despises him. And this is one of the serious miscalculations of the novel.

The Goblin Emperor contains whole sections that cause one’s eyes to glaze over. There are other sections where a reader simply rolls her eyes. First, the eye-rolling. There are a whole mess of Wish-fulfillment characters in this book. All are placed in the right places to make our main character feel better about himself. I have nothing against wish fulfillment characters but Horatio is a good wishfulfillment character to Hamlet, Prince Idra is not a good character for Maia. Prince Idra pretty much takes the words out of Maia’s mouth whenever they are talking. While the emperor has many enemies out to get him, he also has a whole bastion of people whose existence are made wonderfully better because he has arrived in their lives. Worse yet, the characters who dislike the emperor are “bad,” worthy of (the reader’s) mockery, unenlightened, greedy, or weak. Yep. whoever loves the emperor is incredibly good. And because Maia likes and approves of certain oppressed people we know he is good because he is politically-correct for the reader. There are feminist-agenda storylines that don’t actually matter to the plot. They seem thrown in to make the emperor look “good” and progressive or because the author seemingly had to get all her agenda stuff off her chest. I mean “all.” This easy delineation of good characters versus bad characters is so judgmental, easy, and childish that
one can only endure it and keep reminding one’s self that this is a flaw of many newbie writers with passionate convictions who don’t believe they’ll have another chance to get all their stories out in other published books. Trust me, I know whereof I speak. When I first began writing, I was tempted to do this kind of thing but luckily my friends slapped some sense into me.

The oldfashioned feminism creates pages of sorrowful wimpy princesses who “want to study the stars” but are forced to marry, noble good homosexual former priest who are being blackmailed, and lesbian princesses who run away from home to become sea captains.

As for eyes glazing over: The worldbuilding is a mess and is not integrated into the story as well as it should be. I’ve always thought that a good world-builder should also be a good teacher, specifically a good language teacher. The reader should be dropped into a novel like an immigrant dropped into a large city. Utterly confused but with enough clues to fend for ourselves. This book is overly complicated and doesn’t have that teacher sensibility. And no, the glossary in the back is not that helpful.

For one, the language and naming system get in the way. I’m all for inventing new languages and names but information should not be continually thrown at the reader at breakneck speed on every page of the book. And, if they are being thrown at us, they should really be part of the plot. It often feels that the author throws information at the reader in memo form and almost as an aside. Casual backstories are jockeyed around as self-contained or extended anecdotes. And again, they often have nothing to do with the main plot, which makes the main plot somewhat thin.

Even with all this glut of information, the world-building is insufficient. It’s as if the author’s priorities were in the wrong place. So much is left unclear. The only difference I can see between elves and goblins is that elves are white and goblins are black. I don’t know the difference between elves and men or if men really matter in this world. The magic and fantasy are inconsistent. A conversation with the dead here. An airship there. But for the most part the racial issues between elves and goblins weren’t really explored.

The book is a strange compelling combination of the confusing and the simplistic. I say compelling because although I found this book incredibly confusing more on this later I couldn’t put it down.

While I’m not a feminist, I do agree with some of their tenets. I admire some authors’ goodwill toward black folks, equality, etc., but sometimes I cringe when I see token Black women or Magical Negroes. While it is good to have allies, sometimes those allied to our cause can be frustrating. Bad Feminist fiction is often reductionist and The Goblin Emperor often seem to exist primarily as a vehicle to carry an agenda. Gay rights is a large part of the feminist movement but the presence of Magical/Suffering Homosexual might make some gay folks cringe. The blackmailed suffering homosexual snippet was
particularly egregious because the author’s desire to show how much gay folks have suffered at the hands of conservative people not only doesn’t fit into the story but she leaves the reader wondering if the author thinks homosexuality is unnatural, given the elffolk and goblins reaction to it. Why not just create an elfworld where homosexuality is normal? Unless this is a specific branch of Judeo-Christian elves out there, this is a case of the agenda missing its mark. I’m thinking of Kari Sperring’s fine fantasy novel, Living With Ghosts which had homosexual characters and of Sylvia Kelso’s Amberlight, which is a feminist fantasy novel which does not fall into typical feminist tropes.

I reviewed this book for a review site which gave me the book free for a fair and honest review

This novel is a big tent erected around one central pole, the main character, who is weak and unappealing. Result: tent falls down.

If it weren't for the clumsy and unceasing progressive propaganda in the book, it would have sunk without a trace.

Ugghh, this was horrible, like reading a medieval book on court etiquette. Loads of uninteresting chatter on how to behave at the Emperor's court and not much else. I got half way through and couldn't continue. It has elves and goblins that have no reason to be elves and goblins– they’re humans in all but name– and in fact appear at times to be poor analogues of black people and white people. Take out the goblin part and no one pays any attention to this book. Just a cheap ploy to call this a fantasy novel. One thing is fantasy, the main character wouldn't have lasted a week as emperor during any time as he bends over backwards not to offend any of his lessors. Makes me wonder why he wasn't offed when he first got to court as he is treated as a pee-on by nearly everyone he meets. Don't know about the last half of the book, but nothing really interesting or exciting happened in the first part causing me to put this one away. The dialogue didn't help either, Serenity this, Serenity that, Serenity my a$$, this book is overrated.