Hardcover, 446 pages
English language
Published April 2014 by Tor.
A vividly imagined fantasy of court intrigue and dark magics in a steampunk-inflected world, by a brilliant young talent
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 …
A vividly imagined fantasy of court intrigue and dark magics in a steampunk-inflected world, by a brilliant young talent
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.
Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor is an exciting fantasy novel, set against the pageantry and color of a fascinating, unique world, is a memorable debut for a great new talent.
It begins with an ableist and classist comment which was wholly unnecessary, and then didn’t manage to hook me after.
Mixed bag for me. The plotting ended weakly because the story is to be continued in future volumes.
This is a pretty straight-forward tale, competently recounted. The politics are wishy-washy and therefore wrong.
4/5
It took a while to get used to the writing style and even then there was a bit of an awkwardness with reading it, but the story itself was great. I loved watching Maia navigate the courts and power structure while still trying to stay true to himself and do what he thinks is the right thing.
I think he was certainly lucky to have a good mentor right from the start who was able to steer him in good directions rather than run headfirst into trouble, but it did result in a lot less tension as there was never any real danger. It was certainly written for an audience who expects a more lighthearted dip into medieval politics.
Overall I loved the story but struggled with the prose itself.
A nicely realized world of Goblins, Elves, and Airships. I'm not normally a fan of court politics but this court was engaging. I'm looking forward to the Witness for the Dead, a novel set in the same world.
Maia, sudden heir to the throne of the Goblin Empire, doesn't really want to be an emperor, but it's still better than being assassinated, right?
The setting is interesting, it's like the Court of the Goblin Empire plays an active part in the story, a mysterious character with whom our hero Maia has to contend.
We really enjoyed it.
Meh. I liked the characters, but it felt too close to every other "let's here more about how difficult it is to be an English noblemen"-story. Kind of wished it was more about the non aristocracy of this universe.
A comforting read about an unexpected heir ascending to the throne and being a good person.
I saw someone compare this read to a warm blanket, and I think that is as accurate a summation as I could manage. It is a tale of nobles in a fantasy world... but it has more in common with The Crown than Game of Thrones.
The book is a confusing jumble of names and names for things, but that feels appropriate given its context. While I might be unsure whether Drakkar Noir of the Bordelaise family was mentioned before, the main character is new to the whole Bernaise Court or... whatever, so he usually didn't know either. I couldn't even begin to guess at how the names were meant to be pronounced or reproduce any of them on command, but I'm really bad with names and they were all meant to be a …
A comforting read about an unexpected heir ascending to the throne and being a good person.
I saw someone compare this read to a warm blanket, and I think that is as accurate a summation as I could manage. It is a tale of nobles in a fantasy world... but it has more in common with The Crown than Game of Thrones.
The book is a confusing jumble of names and names for things, but that feels appropriate given its context. While I might be unsure whether Drakkar Noir of the Bordelaise family was mentioned before, the main character is new to the whole Bernaise Court or... whatever, so he usually didn't know either. I couldn't even begin to guess at how the names were meant to be pronounced or reproduce any of them on command, but I'm really bad with names and they were all meant to be a confusing whirl anyway.
And despite that, the book was still comfortable. A good person was placed in charge of a messy situation, he rises to the occasion, faces adversities and overcomes them. It didn't feel rushed, or stressful, the action was never urgent, yet it had a hypnotic pull that kept me up late reading and left me feeling good afterward. There should be more books like this. There probably are, but I have no idea how they'd be marketed in a genre that typically only extols earth-shattering consequence and heart-rending drama.
Unique fantasy novel that explores unfamiliar terrain.
A fantasy story with a morally good lead character is refreshing but I felt the story lacked enough content to keep me interested. There were significant threads that dealt with political intrigue and jockeying behind the scenes but it felt mostly consequence free. I wasn't hooked all the way through but I finished the book so that's why I feel a solid it was okay is deserving here.
I love, love, love this kind of more talk than action book. I listened to this while suffering through a cold, and it was such a lovely distraction. It made me feel better about myself that this kind and patient and curious person was doubting himself all the time. It's a feel-good book for me through and through.
Great!!! ❤
In a world where goblins and elves make up the world and even intermarry, this is a court-intrigue fantasy and a murder mystery in which the outcast half-goblin fourth son of the Emperor suddenly finds himself heir to the empire after an airship accident. Rushed from an isolated backwater to the middle of court intrigue and assassination plots, Maia has to figure out how to gain allies, govern an empire, investigate his father's highly suspicious death, and deal with more than a few elf noble families who are very less than happy to see a half goblin now on the throne.
If you like political scheming and court intrigue then you'll probably like this. If you like grim fantasy and war and battles then probably not; none of these here. Maia is a surprisingly optimistic 18 year old emperor and almost unbelievably so; the plot read a little bit like …
In a world where goblins and elves make up the world and even intermarry, this is a court-intrigue fantasy and a murder mystery in which the outcast half-goblin fourth son of the Emperor suddenly finds himself heir to the empire after an airship accident. Rushed from an isolated backwater to the middle of court intrigue and assassination plots, Maia has to figure out how to gain allies, govern an empire, investigate his father's highly suspicious death, and deal with more than a few elf noble families who are very less than happy to see a half goblin now on the throne.
If you like political scheming and court intrigue then you'll probably like this. If you like grim fantasy and war and battles then probably not; none of these here. Maia is a surprisingly optimistic 18 year old emperor and almost unbelievably so; the plot read a little bit like a fairy tale where the youngest prince or princess who stops to be kind to the beggar woman or the commoners is rewarded in the end for simply being a good person. It was fine up to a point but I think got a little heavy handed by the end, OR, the author should have made a specific point of Maia making this a deliberate choice, rather than just wandering through being generally A Good Person without much reason why he'd choose to be that way.
The language was both beautiful and frustrating. Beautiful, because the author has paid a lot of attention to creating rules of speech between the formal and informal (we are pleased vs I am pleased) as well as the use of archaic English forms (thee, thou, etc) to create layers of formality and meaning. And listening (because I got this on audiobook) to an author who can actually use the archaic forms correctly rather than butchering them was a real pleasure. It's not often I read anyone using the archaic "an" (meaning "if") correctly. It was also frustrating however as the author got a little too carried away with invented names and titles until during some of the grand events it was a word soup and incredibly difficult to remember who and what was which as the polysyllabic names and titles flew freely. A little flavour is good; this was way too much. I gather the printed book had an appendix which would have helped but that was not an option in the audiobook and I won't even try to spell any of the other characters names or titles or any of the places or building names.
Overall it was a fairly gentle-paced book, following Maia who didn't really go anywhere, and who spent the whole time just dealing with plotting and politics and the murder mystery. If that's your thing, it was well-written and a beautiful world, and I'd read a sequel if there is one. But if that's not your thing you'll probably find it very slow.
Editing to add: there's obviously a lot of anti-goblin racism in this book, and there are constant references throughout to the darkness of goblin skin compared to the whiteness of elf skin. The emperor's formal dress colour appeared to be white as well. With all the frequent references to skin tone and anti-goblin prejudice it was a bit odd that this never actually seemed to go anywhere or to develop into an actual clear message about racism. On the other hand, women's rights did seem to get a more clear defense, and there were also some positively described gay and lesbian characters although this world did seem to have some degree of prejudice against homosexuality, though it seemed pretty mild.
The most important thing to know about this book is that it is not a political intrigue book, despite its appearance. The bad guys twirl their mustaches at the camera, and the only "surprise" betrayal is a surprise because the betrayer is such a non-entity. However, if you're looking for a classic coming-of-age book, maybe this will be more your thing.
