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A review by sarag19
Goblin King by Kara Barbieri
4.0
Goblin King by Kara Barbieri
3.5 out of 5 Stars
***ARC received from St Martins Press and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***
Goblin King is the follow up to White Stag and takes place approximately a year after the end of White Stag. I don’t know how many books there are in this series, whether its just a trilogy or not but it really feels like the middle book in a trilogy. In that not a lot gets resolved but sets the time to set up a bigger conflict.
Janneke is still struggling with her powers of the stag even though it has been a year since the events of the hunt. I appreciated that Janneke is not just this all powerful being at the beginning of the book she has gone through a huge change that was likely going to take her months to even years to be able to come to terms with how to use. I liked Soren in this book, we get to see him struggle both in his role as Erlking and later in the book when he has to deal with the ingrained prejudice of the goblins. Janneke and Soren have always had a bond built on survival. I really liked how their bond was explored but I wish that we had been able to witness more of Soren’s coming to terms with what was happening to him. It all happened off page and felt like a really quick resolution to that characters story line. I think having chapters from both characters views would help balance the book out, instead of just giving up Soren’s feelings from Janneke’s perspective because sometimes she can get a bit too poor me which can drag things down.
Lydian is back and I looked over my review of Goblin King and wished for more of Lydian’s character, how he began the mad monster that he was. We do get more about Lydian’s backstory and what it was that drove him mad. Its not a lot but enough to fill in the gaps about his backstory. Lydian spends a lot more of this story being lucid but it is not out to make him a forgivable character. Janneke and Soren remain angry and a bit fearful of Lydian there is no push to make them forgive him if anything he is used more as a plot device to keep things moving along. Which is not a bad thing but its clear he has a very specific purpose in the book that doesn’t allow him to roam outside of it.
I think what really carried this book for me is that we got to see more of the world outside of the permafrost. It uses Norse mythology which allows the book series to explore a lot more and not be so stuck in a single location. The first world and new character we get to meet is Hel both the location and the person. I wish we had gotten to explore more of Hel, there is a lot of dark things there that could have been explored more because there was a lot of potential that went a little flat. I did really like the trails that Janneke had to go through, because despite it all, its truly a no win situation.
Niflheim had an interesting premise that almost fully delivers but falls just a little short. I think this would have helped if we got different character views or at least from Soren’s point of view. Soren leaves the group for a few chapters and it would have allowed the book to explore Niflheim and what he is up to a little more in depth or at least to explore more of this character. He seems to be a crucial part of the prophecy that is driving the story so I want more of him.
Like the last book, this sets up a very interesting sequel that I look forward to reading.
3.5 out of 5 Stars
***ARC received from St Martins Press and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***
Goblin King is the follow up to White Stag and takes place approximately a year after the end of White Stag. I don’t know how many books there are in this series, whether its just a trilogy or not but it really feels like the middle book in a trilogy. In that not a lot gets resolved but sets the time to set up a bigger conflict.
Janneke is still struggling with her powers of the stag even though it has been a year since the events of the hunt. I appreciated that Janneke is not just this all powerful being at the beginning of the book she has gone through a huge change that was likely going to take her months to even years to be able to come to terms with how to use. I liked Soren in this book, we get to see him struggle both in his role as Erlking and later in the book when he has to deal with the ingrained prejudice of the goblins. Janneke and Soren have always had a bond built on survival. I really liked how their bond was explored but I wish that we had been able to witness more of Soren’s coming to terms with what was happening to him. It all happened off page and felt like a really quick resolution to that characters story line. I think having chapters from both characters views would help balance the book out, instead of just giving up Soren’s feelings from Janneke’s perspective because sometimes she can get a bit too poor me which can drag things down.
Lydian is back and I looked over my review of Goblin King and wished for more of Lydian’s character, how he began the mad monster that he was. We do get more about Lydian’s backstory and what it was that drove him mad. Its not a lot but enough to fill in the gaps about his backstory. Lydian spends a lot more of this story being lucid but it is not out to make him a forgivable character. Janneke and Soren remain angry and a bit fearful of Lydian there is no push to make them forgive him if anything he is used more as a plot device to keep things moving along. Which is not a bad thing but its clear he has a very specific purpose in the book that doesn’t allow him to roam outside of it.
I think what really carried this book for me is that we got to see more of the world outside of the permafrost. It uses Norse mythology which allows the book series to explore a lot more and not be so stuck in a single location. The first world and new character we get to meet is Hel both the location and the person. I wish we had gotten to explore more of Hel, there is a lot of dark things there that could have been explored more because there was a lot of potential that went a little flat. I did really like the trails that Janneke had to go through, because despite it all, its truly a no win situation.
Niflheim had an interesting premise that almost fully delivers but falls just a little short. I think this would have helped if we got different character views or at least from Soren’s point of view. Soren leaves the group for a few chapters and it would have allowed the book to explore Niflheim and what he is up to a little more in depth or at least to explore more of this character. He seems to be a crucial part of the prophecy that is driving the story so I want more of him.
Like the last book, this sets up a very interesting sequel that I look forward to reading.