"The youngest, half-goblin son
of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial
Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three
sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no
choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir. Entirely
unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and
the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make
an attempt on his life at any moment. Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry
favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new
life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of
arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the
shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while,
he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend...and hoping for the
possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that
threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.
While this standalone fantasy
novel is way different than anything I’ve read before in this genre, I found
the book extremely well-written, even if I found it dull most of the time. It’s
like two separate stories unfolding here, the day-to-day activity of running a
kingdom, and a story about the tragedy that brought Maia to power. And to be
honest, the “accident” that did do this seemed more interesting and wished a
more parallel story than what unfolded here.
Still, I did appreciate Katherine Addison’s extraordinary world-building, the internal politics that Maia is forced to deal with, but has no idea how to do because he was brought up in such a terrible abusive way. Maia is gentle-hearted and despite some of the unbalancing issues that follow him into court, he is able to quickly pick some politicking very well. The prose and cadence is a bit off-putting for me –I never grew to appreciate of like it, but The Goblin Emperor is certainly a good enough fantasy novel that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And that’s something very rare in this genre.
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