Reviews

Maia is the unwanted child of the elven emperor's nth wife. Everyone dies in an awful accident, and suddenly the untrained and uneducated half-goblin finds himself whisked to the seat of power, where he has to plot and politick and survive much more experienced people doing the same. All while investigating the deaths of his family.

This could be difficult, and it is (assassins!), but Maia is kind, and lucky, and a good judge of character. What's more, he doesn't have the prejudices of the court-bred, and builds bridges (metaphorical and literal) that wouldn't have been possible for his predecessors, nor his challengers.

The one mark against the book is this: There's a fair bit of thee and thou and thine, which works okay for dialogue but I found especially grating when it was Maia's own thoughts. A lovely book in all though.

gorejoyous's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

blewballoon's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

My boyfriend read this book to me at night to help me fall asleep, and it's great for that. If you need an example of a fantasy book with excessively convoluted names, this is the book for you. If want a painfully slow and dry story with a vague sense of political intrigue but nothing too intriguing, this book is an excellent choice. How much you enjoy this book will depend on how much you enjoy the main character. I personally thought he was.. fine? Not a bad person, but not an exceptional one either in the grand scheme of things. I was much more interested in his close staff, such as his personal assistant who arguably did the most, his rotating bodyguards, and even his royal dressers who picked out his clothes. (Notice how I'm avoiding using anyone's name because I have absolutely no hope of trying to spell them.) I think this book would have been vastly improved by having more perspectives, like the staff members I mentioned, and a female character perspective would have been great as well. The emperor arguably does the bare minimum in terms of treating women decently, at least from a modern viewpoint. I am glad this is a book where

"Good" people have good things happen to them and "bad" people don't get away with doing a lot of bad stuff for very long.

If this were a more pessimistic book, I think the snail's pace and difficult to grasp world-building would have been even harder to wade through.

Content Warnings

griffdog's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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