Monday 9 March 2015

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison



Aaaaaaand done!  An okay story about Maia, an half elf/half goblin who is the (unwanted) fourth son of the Emperor living on a secluded estate in more or less exile, when an unfortunate 'accident' occurs which kills the Emperor plus other three sons, meaning that Maia is the heir to the throne.  From here on in his life becomes a whirlwind of protocols, servants and adjusting to court life, which was interesting, I liked this part of the story.

But, oh my, the names! So many of them and so complicated they were!  Each person seemed to have a number of names, ranging from titles, to formal, to informal, males and females would share the first part of their names but have a different suffix according to their sex and marriage status.  Plus the place names.....unfortunately I am the kind of reader who likes to be able to pronounce everything in the story so this issue caused a number of stumbling blocks for me.  My only other 'issue' was the inclusion of goblins.  Not that I am at all fantasy racist, just that I had a hard job imaging the goblins as they were represented in this novel, let alone an elf/goblin mixture...I still picture goblins as the things from the Hobbit films, or from the Goblin Banks in Harry Potter... (or David Bowie!) and also elves apparently have very animated ears...read it, you'll see!

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