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A review by saturdayreaderinpink
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
emotional
hopeful
tense
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
4.75
What an excellent book. I asked for a recommendation that would have a competent character navigating political intrigue— and I got that!
Compared to other books I’ve read as of late, I took a longer time with this. The pacing is relatively slow. But, what really struck me is the excellence of the writing. Sarah Monette has a clear and precise literary voice. Some books will linger on realizations or experienced the character has to emphasize how profound they sound. Monette has no need to do that. She has a story to tell and doesn’t waste time indulging in her own genius. Instead, this profound and clear literally voice flows austerely swift through a slow and even narrative.
I would give The Goblin Emperor five stars because it’s one of the best written books I’ve ever read but I rank based on personal experience. The slow even pacing I like so much about this book made the end drag a bit for me. Not much! But the dense descriptions and obscure fantasy name/references (which the Kindle search feature helped wonders with) could sometimes feel bothersome.
What kept me engaged was not only fondness for the lovable main character Maia, but his relationships with those around him. Particularly with his nohecharis, Idra, the Avar, Csevet, and Dach’osmin Ceredin. Watching Maia grow into a more capable and capable leader so so satisfying. I loved his internal monologue and I loved the slow, tentative, and rewarding build of his relationships.
The Goblin Emperor also goes into some detail about the impact a patent can have on you and the impact an abuser can have on you, and the lingering of both.
Compared to other books I’ve read as of late, I took a longer time with this. The pacing is relatively slow. But, what really struck me is the excellence of the writing. Sarah Monette has a clear and precise literary voice. Some books will linger on realizations or experienced the character has to emphasize how profound they sound. Monette has no need to do that. She has a story to tell and doesn’t waste time indulging in her own genius. Instead, this profound and clear literally voice flows austerely swift through a slow and even narrative.
I would give The Goblin Emperor five stars because it’s one of the best written books I’ve ever read but I rank based on personal experience. The slow even pacing I like so much about this book made the end drag a bit for me. Not much! But the dense descriptions and obscure fantasy name/references (which the Kindle search feature helped wonders with) could sometimes feel bothersome.
What kept me engaged was not only fondness for the lovable main character Maia, but his relationships with those around him. Particularly with his nohecharis, Idra, the Avar, Csevet, and Dach’osmin Ceredin. Watching Maia grow into a more capable and capable leader so so satisfying. I loved his internal monologue and I loved the slow, tentative, and rewarding build of his relationships.
The Goblin Emperor also goes into some detail about the impact a patent can have on you and the impact an abuser can have on you, and the lingering of both.
Favorite Quotes
She was not at all pretty, her nose too long and her chin too weak, but her eyes were sharp and full of light, and even of kindness.
Perhaps canst meditate with one other in the room? he offered, aware of his own doubtful tone, like a man offering a screaming child a sweet.
“Serenity,” Cala said, “you do not have to do this. No one requires it of you.”
“I do,” Maia said tiredly, and Cala retreated again.
After a time, he felt a deeper rhythm, the rhythm of the stone and water, not the rhythm of his words and heartbeat. He breathed into this deeper rhythm, let it teach him a new mantra, a wordless mantra that waxed and waned, ebbed and flowed, moon and stars and clouds, river and sun, the wordless singing of the earth beneath it all like the world’s own heartbeat. He laid his palms flat on the stone beneath him and listened in quiet rapture to the mantra of the world’s praying.
He took her hand carefully. There was nothing, he thought, that needed to be said, and he remembered from his own mother’s death that she had not wanted to speak very much in the last two or three days that she was cognizant. She had wanted to look at him, to hold his hand. To know that he was there. And he thought there was a light of relief in Osmerrem Danivaran’s eyes when she realized he wasn’t going to make her struggle either to speak or to listen. He held her hand and thought about how kind she had been to him when he was eight, and thought about Thara Celehar saying the prayer of compassion for the dead with the same attention the last time as the first. And when he could see that she was beginning to fade away from this moment of clarity, he stooped and kissed her forehead.
She folded her hands together and bowed to him across them, an old-fashioned gesture of respect and grief. “Varenechibel was like a killing frost.” They were silent a moment, in token of having survived Varenechibel IV
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent