A brief review, for a very enjoyable book.
I’ve been stuck on this review for a couple of weeks now, so I’m just going to accept I won’t be able to say anything eloquent about it, and move on with my life.
The Goblin Emperor follows half-goblin/half-elven Maia, who after his father and three older brothers are killed in an accident, becomes Emperor. Out of favor his whole life and not allowed to grow up at court, Maia is completely out of his depth being thrown into his new role, and the arc of the book is watching him gradually own it and overcome the (many) obstacles put in his path, as well as coming to terms with his own heritage. His outsider status, and the fact that literally no one ever expected him to be Emperor, have both drawbacks and advantages for him.
It’s been said in many other reviews, but the best thing about this book is how positive it is. Grimdark has been the trend for years now in fantasy, so it’s nice to see authors remembering that you can write good, thoughtful genre without necessarily having to ruthlessly slaughter your entire cast of characters and declare the world morally and emotionally bankrupt. When I got to the end of the book, I will admit a few happy teardrops slipped out.
My only complaint, and it’s a big one, is that the names and naming system Addison employs is the most confusing one I’ve ever encountered in a book. There is a glossary and an appendix explaining it, but they both come at the end of the book, so thanks for that, but too late. The names were so similar I had real trouble distinguishing between characters and remembering from one scene to the next who was who and what they’d done. This was me the whole time:
Wait, whoozat?
Is that the guy with the thing? No wait that’s the lady.
It’s that guy! . . . Nope.
dfkjasdf;lkajsdf;lkajsdf;lj WHO ARE YOU.
But it’s worth pushing through (and making ample use of the glossary). The story is very rewarding.
[4.5 stars]
I really enjoyed this one, when I read it a couple of years ago. It’s just such a comfortable read.
Yeah, I can definitely see myself coming back to it as a comfort read.
I just comfort read The Goblin Emperor this past weekend! It’s such a lovely, soothing book.
I’ve only heard good things about this book, and really need to get to it. My Goodreads TBR list is currently exactly 900 books though (true story!), so there are a lot of books competing for my attention.
Dude, I feel ya. I’ve just had to accept that my TBR is and always will be 1500+ books long. There ain’t nothing I can do about it besides quit my job and read full time, which would then cut off my ability to buy books and feed myself and I would then die, so no reading then. It is a terrible world we live in.
It really is. There should be companies out there willing to pay us to do nothing but read full-time. But only the things I actually want to read, not actual assigned reading or anything. That would be no fun at all.
Sadly, with the husband working as a free-lance translator, mine is the only steady income we have. No quitting my day-job to do all the reading. It’s hard being a grown-up. Teenage me didn’t know how good she had it.