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freesiaelect's review
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I struggled a lot remembering who was who, as many characters had several names/titles they might be called. But the story pulled me in and kept me turning pages.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual assault
flickster's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness
Minor: Sexual assault
littki's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Suicide
Minor: Chronic illness, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, and Panic attacks/disorders
bleepbloop's review against another edition
3.75
sweet but absolutely zero nuanced character development. very black and white morality and soooo neoliberal. impossible to keep any names of people or places straight.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
hannan_'s review
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-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
4.0
Would have probably enjoyed this a lot more with a simpler naming convention and a glossary that wasn’t 30 pages long.
Overall, nice and slow story — there isn’t too much action, and any action is very very curt.
Katherine Addisons main strength comes in her characterization. Maia is such a complex, empathetic character. The way he thinks about other characters also brings them to life. Maia’s longing for companionship, working through his trauma, his developing emotional intelligence, and overall kindness was a delight to read. The most unrealistic part of this story? The fact that he’s a teenage boy (18, but still…).
I do think that there were some themes that were introduced that I felt could have been explored a bit more. For example, I felt that the prejudice that goblins felt in the elven court (including Maia) was hinted at but never fully resolved. (Which, now thinking about it, might have been intentional on the author bc can racism be solved overnight?) another aspect is that Maia learns of a fortress built on top of a sacred indigenous burial ground, and feels bad about it— but this conflict was brought up and never resolved (maybe in a future novella?)
This is often recommended as a “cozy” fantasy. While 80% is cozy, I’d recommend checking content warnings for the other 20%, because they are quite grim, to the extent that I wouldn’t recommend this as a cozy fantasy.
I think that the pacing was nice and slow, and the beginning was super interesting. There was a middle book slump, but a really engaging payoff in the last 150ish pages. The book just takes a while to set up this complex net of a political machination.
The world building was complex. It presented this small slice of this larger world, alluding to but not fully developing the world beyond the court.
I think my biggest problem is that for the first time in my life, I’ve had trouble juggling characters in my head. There were so many, and each of them had multiple names and titles based on an imaginary and unnecessarily complex naming system. There were so many similar names, from people who weren’t related, making it even worse. Addison needed to realize, that naming 10 people in a paragraph— some multiple times with different titles and different honorifics— made it impossible to read. I’d understand if the naming system was based off of an already established culture, but you had terms 20+ characters long, and a 30 page glossary which took up alot of time to get through and really broke immersion in the story.
Thankfully, there were parts where I realized I didn’t necessarily need to recall who a person was. But there were also multiple parts in the story where I had to put the book down to take a breather because the book was throwing alot of information at you at once.
Overall, nice and slow story — there isn’t too much action, and any action is very very curt.
Katherine Addisons main strength comes in her characterization. Maia is such a complex, empathetic character. The way he thinks about other characters also brings them to life. Maia’s longing for companionship, working through his trauma, his developing emotional intelligence, and overall kindness was a delight to read. The most unrealistic part of this story? The fact that he’s a teenage boy (18, but still…).
I do think that there were some themes that were introduced that I felt could have been explored a bit more. For example, I felt that the prejudice that goblins felt in the elven court (including Maia) was hinted at but never fully resolved. (Which, now thinking about it, might have been intentional on the author bc can racism be solved overnight?) another aspect is that Maia learns of a fortress built on top of a sacred indigenous burial ground, and feels bad about it— but this conflict was brought up and never resolved (maybe in a future novella?)
This is often recommended as a “cozy” fantasy. While 80% is cozy, I’d recommend checking content warnings for the other 20%, because they are quite grim, to the extent that I wouldn’t recommend this as a cozy fantasy.
I think that the pacing was nice and slow, and the beginning was super interesting. There was a middle book slump, but a really engaging payoff in the last 150ish pages. The book just takes a while to set up this complex net of a political machination.
The world building was complex. It presented this small slice of this larger world, alluding to but not fully developing the world beyond the court.
I think my biggest problem is that for the first time in my life, I’ve had trouble juggling characters in my head. There were so many, and each of them had multiple names and titles based on an imaginary and unnecessarily complex naming system. There were so many similar names, from people who weren’t related, making it even worse. Addison needed to realize, that naming 10 people in a paragraph— some multiple times with different titles and different honorifics— made it impossible to read. I’d understand if the naming system was based off of an already established culture, but you had terms 20+ characters long, and a 30 page glossary which took up alot of time to get through and really broke immersion in the story.
Thankfully, there were parts where I realized I didn’t necessarily need to recall who a person was. But there were also multiple parts in the story where I had to put the book down to take a breather because the book was throwing alot of information at you at once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Grief, and Death of parent
birdofalltrades's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Grief, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Murder, Blood, and Sexism
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, and Alcoholism
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Infertility
pantaruja's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Sexual assault
sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexism
Minor: Violence, Suicide, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, and Murder
literarylottie's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
After years of having this book recommended to me, I finally picked this up after learning the author was releasing a sequel this year. I'm so glad I did. This book instantly rocketed into my top five favorite books of all time. Yes, it's that good.
I think I should note the context of in which I first read this book: I picked up the Goblin Emperor in January of 2021, wanting a comforting read after a year of increasingly scary news. What I didn't expect was how timely this book - at its heart about a fundamentally decent person trying their best in difficult circumstances - would be, or how quietly revolutionary it would feel. If you're bitter or burnt out after the past two years of horror, I can't recommend a better salve of a story.
Maia Drazhar is the fourth, neglected son of the Emperor, Varenechibel IV. Exiled after the death of his mother ten years before, the eighteen year old understands that he is not likely to regain his father's favor. But an airship crash which kills his father and older brothers prompts a sudden reversal of fortune as the formerly ill-starred son becomes the most viable heir to the throne. Bustled off to the imperial court, Maia finds himself contending with a hornet's nest of shifting political alliances, shadowy conspiracies, and a grieving family who has little love for him.
Maia is unprepared, but determined to do his best for the people he now rules. Yet it's his insistence on egalitarianism and concern for those less fortunate - rather than concern for his rich courtiers - that get him into trouble, as he eventually faces not one but two different coup attempts . But Maia has allies too, and watching his relationships with his guards, Cala and Beshelar, his secretary Csevet, and fiancé Csethiro - along with various family members - develop is one of the principle pleasures of this novel. Another pleasure is watching Maia always resist the cruel and callous path, no matter how expedient, or how deserving those on the receiving end may be. Maia always chooses kindness, which not only makes him an easy character to root for, but sets him apart in a genre saturated by antiheroes and grimdark stories. But The Goblin Emperor is never saccharine - there are real, deadly consequences in this world, and Maia is not so naïve as to not understand that one wrong move may cost him his life. The stakes become even higher when Maia learns that the crash which killed his father and brothers was no accident, but instead sabotage, leaving him with the burning question: is he next?
One thing to note is the focus on prejudice and racism in the story. Maia is the son of the elvish Emperor, and a Barizhan - or goblin - princess, hence the book's title. Maia knows that his parents' marriage was due to a political treaty, and that his father never cared for his mother or for him, even despising them for their goblin blood. Maia faces both external racism from members of the court who feel he is unfit to rule due to being half-goblin, as well as his own internalized shame of not meeting elven standards of beauty. He also despairs at knowing little about his heritage or the language and customs of his mother's people. While there is enough difference between human and elven/goblin cultures for this to not fall into a tiresome allegory for real-life racism, there were one or two moments which gave me pause and which I would be interested in hearing a BIPOC reader's perspective on. But for the most part I thought this storyline was handled well; I found the scenes where Maia first comes to court and is secretly thrilled to finally be meeting other Barizhan and biracial individuals for the first time to be particularly poignant. The author definitely nailed what it feels like to exist as a minority within a space that is inherently hostile to you.
The storyline that I found most affecting was Maia overcoming his trauma after being physically and emotionally abused by his guardian, Setheris, from age eight onwards. While never maudlin, the author writes realistically about the effects of abuse on a person. We see Maia's history of abuse and codependence reflected in his avoidance of conflict, his reflexive self-doubt and fear of being disliked. We see him cope with anxiety and struggle to stand up for himself against Setheris; it's a pleasure to watch him grow more assertive - while never becoming cruel - throughout the novel. More than anything, I appreciated the message that it's okay to be angry with those who have harmed you, and to want them to face consequences - that it doesn't make you a bad person. I feel like the traditional narrative with abuse in SFF is either a redemptive arc for the abuser, or a vengeance arc for their victim, but the story doesn't go in either of these directions, instead delivering a far more nuanced resolution. As a survivor of abuse myself, I found it truly affecting, and it made me wish that more authors were able to write about the subject with the same compassion and grace.
I should note that while this book features magic, elves, and goblins, it's not exactly a swords and sorcery fantasy. The story is grounded in court politics (themselves modeled on real life historical courts; just try to tell me that Maia's father isn't based on Henry VIII), and focuses on the backroom dealings of political alliances and deadly conspiracies. I never found it slow or academic, but the focus on Maia's courtship and political fortunes may put off those hoping for swashbuckling adventure. There's also substantial focus on the worldbuilding, but while I found the pages-long glossary of characters at the front of the book intimidating, the narrative never left me feeling lost, or like I needed to refer to front material. If you love the court intrigue of Game of Thrones, or the Zen Cho novel Sorcerer to the Crown, this book is for you.
Honestly, there's so much more I could say about The Goblin Emperor, but if I haven't convinced you to read it by now I don't know what else could. This books is easily one of the best I've read in the past decade, and one I'm sure I'll return to time and again (I've already reread it twice). I'm looking forward to the author's follow-up set in the same world, though I will admit that Celehar - whom the sequel focuses on - was probably the least interesting character to me. But I'll read it just to spend more time with other characters, and more time in the world of The Goblin Emperor.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Sexual assault
kingcrookback's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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 desperately didn't want this book to end. The satisfaction in watching Maia's journey go from reviled, forgotten son to a young man who's (mostly) found his footing and knows his worth is akin to properly caring for a wound, watching it knit back together, and seeing it finally fade. There's a gentleness and a sweetness to this story that doesn't seem very common in contemporary fantasy stories that purport to veer toward realism. Often, it seems as though "realism" goes hand-in-hand with "gritty" and therefore necessitates graphic physical violence and great emotional tumult. (George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, which I'm also a fan of, comes to mind.) But I think The Goblin Emperor is also fairly realistic in its depiction of monarchy even if in real life I have a generally unfavorable opinion of monarchies. The bureaucracy is tedious, dealing with the egos of the individuals involved is confusing and exhausting, and the unfortunate fact that what one symbolizes takes precedence over who one is, is disheartening. Such is Maia's case. However, this story is far from bleak. The small, everyday acts of kindness and decency aren't any less important for their smallness. In fact, in an environment that discourages and discredits them, such acts feel like something of an active rebellion, real change on a small level. Maia's efforts in suppressing the impulse to behave like his abusive cousin pay off; by the end, he is no longer alone. He has built bridges. He cares and is cared for. One might even imagine that he may be truly loved, at some point in his near future.
Like other readers, I had some difficulty getting used to the way Addison constructed the world's naming conventions and terms of address. I do think that the confusing nature had a purpose, though (outside of worldbuilding). I feel like my sort of floundering at the beginning regarding names, for places as well as people, not only mirrored Maia's feeling of being unmoored when he first arrives at the Untheileineise court, it fostered my attachment to him. Maia is also a fish out of water, but Addison constructed him in such a way that I didn't mind letting him guide the both of us through this new world. He's endearing, and so I liked him enough to sit through the dry minutiae of administration and politics. He's trustworthy and fundamentally honest, and so I trusted that the information filtered through him as a lens was relevant. By the time I'd begun to get a grasp on how the world works, so had he. There's a sweetness to this story that I hadn't anticipated, and I adore it for that.
Like other readers, I had some difficulty getting used to the way Addison constructed the world's naming conventions and terms of address. I do think that the confusing nature had a purpose, though (outside of worldbuilding). I feel like my sort of floundering at the beginning regarding names, for places as well as people, not only mirrored Maia's feeling of being unmoored when he first arrives at the Untheileineise court, it fostered my attachment to him. Maia is also a fish out of water, but Addison constructed him in such a way that I didn't mind letting him guide the both of us through this new world. He's endearing, and so I liked him enough to sit through the dry minutiae of administration and politics. He's trustworthy and fundamentally honest, and so I trusted that the information filtered through him as a lens was relevant. By the time I'd begun to get a grasp on how the world works, so had he. There's a sweetness to this story that I hadn't anticipated, and I adore it for that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide, Physical abuse, and Death of parent
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Classism