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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
This was one of those strange books where I kept feeling like I shouldn't like it. For one thing, it was mostly about court politics and intrigue and that is just not something that I enjoy usually. There was something about this book, however, that had me totally engrossed.
The story follows a half-goblin, half-elf, fourth and hated son of an emperor who gets himself offed at the beginning. So suddenly Maia, who is male, despite the name, is the emperor who should never have been. He's 18 and has been banished to the middle of nowhere for the last 10 years with only an abusive distant cousin as a keeper. Maia is in no way educated or trained for any future position. He's basically just left out there to rot.
The story follows his ascension to Emperor and the subsequent time as he navigates his new role and who he can trust. This is where the novel shines because Maia is a very kind and gentle person of great integrity. You see everything from his POV and he has a very clear-sighted way of seeing to the heart of people - especially for someone who wasn't raised around them. He became one of those truly endearing characters that never really leaves you. He was beautiful.
This would easily have been a five star read for me if it wasn't for the completely and totally obnoxiously frustratingly asinine way that the naming system worked. It was bloody freaking impossible to follow and I couldn't keep track of who was doing what between one scene and the next. I feel like I should have been taking notes! There is an explanation of the world at the end of the book but it would end up working more as a reference guide. It was horribly frustrating.
The story follows a half-goblin, half-elf, fourth and hated son of an emperor who gets himself offed at the beginning. So suddenly Maia, who is male, despite the name, is the emperor who should never have been. He's 18 and has been banished to the middle of nowhere for the last 10 years with only an abusive distant cousin as a keeper. Maia is in no way educated or trained for any future position. He's basically just left out there to rot.
The story follows his ascension to Emperor and the subsequent time as he navigates his new role and who he can trust. This is where the novel shines because Maia is a very kind and gentle person of great integrity. You see everything from his POV and he has a very clear-sighted way of seeing to the heart of people - especially for someone who wasn't raised around them. He became one of those truly endearing characters that never really leaves you. He was beautiful.
This would easily have been a five star read for me if it wasn't for the completely and totally obnoxiously frustratingly asinine way that the naming system worked. It was bloody freaking impossible to follow and I couldn't keep track of who was doing what between one scene and the next. I feel like I should have been taking notes! There is an explanation of the world at the end of the book but it would end up working more as a reference guide. It was horribly frustrating.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
There was a lot I liked about this book; Maia himself, the relationships he built and the struggles he faced were well told and kept my interest. Unfortunately there was also a lot I didn't like; the overly complicated language (I had to read some sentences multiple times and still not understand what was being said), the plethora of names that all sounded like each other and that entirely blurred together and the way Maia immediately knew how to be an emperor despite having been kept away from court all his life. There were also some plot points that I did not understand at all, maybe because the story was relying on the reader being able to read nuance that I'd did not grasp, which is frustrating as in a lot of other things l found the writing to be telling way more that showing.
It's really not an usual book in it's construction, there was no great final battle, but the end felt satisfying all the same. I don't know if there's continuation to the story but I would happily read any there was.
It's really not an usual book in it's construction, there was no great final battle, but the end felt satisfying all the same. I don't know if there's continuation to the story but I would happily read any there was.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
hopeful
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Suicide, Murder
Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, War
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really liked both the book and the narrator. It was definitely found family, which I really enjoy. I'll definitely read more books by this author (and try to find more books by this narrator too).
I received a galley of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I think that so far I'm the only person in the world not to fall in love with this book. I tried; I read about 150 pages, and then skipped into the book here and there until I got to the end. Maybe it's me.
You probably already know that the concept of the book is that Maia, an unregarded son of the fourth wife of the Emperor, suddenly finds himself as the heir to the throne when the Emperor and all of his closer heirs die in an airship crash. We read everything from Maia's point of view. He has been shunted off to a remote estate with a disgraced courtier for chaperone and tutor, and while his etiquette is top-notch, he knows nothing of the political machinations of the court. Oh, and he's half-goblin in an elven world. Since Maia knows nothing about the court, we are introduced to people and situations as he is.
Maia certainly has the grace and nobility needed to make a good ruler, along with many other fine qualities. So why was I bored? I generally read books for plot and character, not for the joy of reading the writing itself. I notice writing if it really gets in the way, or if a turn of phrase is especially amazing. So maybe I missed something there. But: there's not a ton of description, but I felt that this book would have been exactly the same if told about an obscure heir in some small country in Europe in the eighteenth century. That's about where the manners, clothing, and language appear to be situated, and if elves weren't snow-white while goblins are coal-black, the characters would fit perfectly into such a historical novel. There are airships and priests who can "read the dead", but that's the only "magic" or unusual thing I read about. Everything feels quite formal and stilted, and I didn't find the developing relationships of interest. I didn't really see the point of using elves and goblins, since the book really didn't use these races except as political rivals-no magic or overt hostility, just prejudice.By the end of the book, I had no idea whether elves stood six feet or six inches tall. Or what they were besides white, beautiful, and stuck in the eighteenth century.
The languidness of the pace is certainly soothing, but eventually I wanted something to just _happen_. In the first hundred and fifty pages, we get the barest inkling that maybe not all was kosher with the airship crash. Really? You mean it wasn't an amazing coincidence that almost the entire royal family was killed? I skipped ahead, and a hundred pages later it seemed that more information was just beginning to arrive.
I also had a problem with the names. I don't make a habit of skipping to the back of e-books to see if there's an index or glossary, and in this case there was, and it would probably have helped if I'd known that. Most names were long and impossible to tell which syllable was supposed to be accented- kind of like reading a novel translated from Russian. I had no frame of reference, so a lot of the names just bounced off me and I had a hard time keeping track of which hostile, beautiful white elf was which. These names are apparently based in a language created by the author. Do yourself a favor and read that index! There's a long passage in which Maia has to choose his imperial name, and he doesn't want to emulate his father, so he chooses from several long names beginning with the letter E, all of which have been used by other emperors sometime in the past. By the end of the decision-making, I couldn't tell which E- name he had chosen or remember the relative importances of each E-name.
So, the problems I had with the book: slow pacing, a decided lack of the fantastic for a fantasy book, and confusion of the characters due to my difficulty with their names.
If you've got the time and the patience, and just allow the book to unfold at its own slow pace, you may do just fine with this book. It just wasn't for me.
I think that so far I'm the only person in the world not to fall in love with this book. I tried; I read about 150 pages, and then skipped into the book here and there until I got to the end. Maybe it's me.
You probably already know that the concept of the book is that Maia, an unregarded son of the fourth wife of the Emperor, suddenly finds himself as the heir to the throne when the Emperor and all of his closer heirs die in an airship crash. We read everything from Maia's point of view. He has been shunted off to a remote estate with a disgraced courtier for chaperone and tutor, and while his etiquette is top-notch, he knows nothing of the political machinations of the court. Oh, and he's half-goblin in an elven world. Since Maia knows nothing about the court, we are introduced to people and situations as he is.
Maia certainly has the grace and nobility needed to make a good ruler, along with many other fine qualities. So why was I bored? I generally read books for plot and character, not for the joy of reading the writing itself. I notice writing if it really gets in the way, or if a turn of phrase is especially amazing. So maybe I missed something there. But: there's not a ton of description, but I felt that this book would have been exactly the same if told about an obscure heir in some small country in Europe in the eighteenth century. That's about where the manners, clothing, and language appear to be situated, and if elves weren't snow-white while goblins are coal-black, the characters would fit perfectly into such a historical novel. There are airships and priests who can "read the dead", but that's the only "magic" or unusual thing I read about. Everything feels quite formal and stilted, and I didn't find the developing relationships of interest. I didn't really see the point of using elves and goblins, since the book really didn't use these races except as political rivals-no magic or overt hostility, just prejudice.By the end of the book, I had no idea whether elves stood six feet or six inches tall. Or what they were besides white, beautiful, and stuck in the eighteenth century.
The languidness of the pace is certainly soothing, but eventually I wanted something to just _happen_. In the first hundred and fifty pages, we get the barest inkling that maybe not all was kosher with the airship crash. Really? You mean it wasn't an amazing coincidence that almost the entire royal family was killed? I skipped ahead, and a hundred pages later it seemed that more information was just beginning to arrive.
I also had a problem with the names. I don't make a habit of skipping to the back of e-books to see if there's an index or glossary, and in this case there was, and it would probably have helped if I'd known that. Most names were long and impossible to tell which syllable was supposed to be accented- kind of like reading a novel translated from Russian. I had no frame of reference, so a lot of the names just bounced off me and I had a hard time keeping track of which hostile, beautiful white elf was which. These names are apparently based in a language created by the author. Do yourself a favor and read that index! There's a long passage in which Maia has to choose his imperial name, and he doesn't want to emulate his father, so he chooses from several long names beginning with the letter E, all of which have been used by other emperors sometime in the past. By the end of the decision-making, I couldn't tell which E- name he had chosen or remember the relative importances of each E-name.
So, the problems I had with the book: slow pacing, a decided lack of the fantastic for a fantasy book, and confusion of the characters due to my difficulty with their names.
If you've got the time and the patience, and just allow the book to unfold at its own slow pace, you may do just fine with this book. It just wasn't for me.
I enjoyed this but also there were too many names to keep track of and it made me lose the impact of some of the scenes. Context clues only went so far after about 40%. That said it was written really well and an easy read with tight world building that did what was necessary and left room for expansion.