When the emperor and his closest and most beloved heirs perish in an airship ‘accident,’ the least loved and most removed son is called upon to take the throne of his long-estranged father. The heir, known as Maia, becomes the Goblin Emperor and must navigate the perilous paths presented to him in the Untheileneise Court. Raised by an overbearing cousin for the majority of his life, Maia sees his ascension to the throne as an inviting thing to get him out from under his cousin Sethris’s shadow. Much of the novel concerns Maia’s adjustment to court life and making a name for himself which he hopes will separate himself from the father he barely knew and policies that will not be in-line with those of his father, as well as learning the true nature of his father’s death.
The true strength of this novel is the character of Maia. He makes decisions that go against convention and surprise those advisors he takes into his innermost circles. To say his opinions and decisions to problems goes over in a refreshing manner is an understatement. He actually treats all of his subjects as people rather than annoyances, and acts in the personal interests of his siblings who still live. What makes Maia such an easy character to empathize with is that he is experiencing life in the Untheileneise Court for the first time. In other words, he is at the same vantage point for the twisted politics of ruling life and all that it entails as is the reader.
Thus ends my enjoyment of the novel. There are certain novels or works of fiction in general that you as the reader/consumer can acknowledge have merit and things that work for others, but don’t work for you. Such is the case with The Goblin Emperor. The novel presents a very optimistic outlook and for that I appreciate what Addison was aiming to do with the novel. However, the naming conventions for the people, places, and titles of things in the world were a cumbersome obstacle that prevented me from fully enjoying the novel. I also realize this niggle I’m about mention shouldn’t bother me so much, but it did – the protagonist’s name of Maia. It is a name I had never associated with male characters or males in general because I know a Maia who is a woman and of course there’s one of the most famous poets in the world, Maya Angelou (despite the difference in the spelling of the name). Perhaps separately, or by themselves, these elements wouldn’t have detracted from my enjoyment. However, presented together, it felt like one stumbling block after another.
What all of these elements were for me was a barrier erected between the core elements of the novel that worked very well (strong protagonist, inventive setting) and the cumbersome elements (overlong linguistic affectations and idiosyncratic naming conventions) that ultimately prevented me from enjoying the novel. While I understand and enjoy novels that challenge me and challenge conventions of the genre in terms of form, gender assumptions, etc., there’s a line that “challenging” crosses and becomes an impediment to enjoyment. Unfortunately that was the case with The Goblin Emperor.
I also think this novel may be a case of a book’s hype (I’d seen a great deal of extremely high praise for the novel from reviewers and on twitter) working against my enjoyment of the novel. Again, The Goblin Emperor is a novel I realize quite a few people have already enjoyed based on reactions from blogger/reviewers and social media, and that people who have yet to read it will enjoy. However, I seem to be the minority in this one as I didn’t fully enjoy The Goblin Emperor.
Tor, April 2014
Hardcover 978-076-532699-72
http://katherineaddison.com/
Excerpt: http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/03/the-goblin-emperor-chapters-1-4-excerpt-katherine-addison
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Tor
Linguistic concerns is a reason some people have bounced off of Ancillary Justice, too. And, too, hype, perhaps.
Honestly, when I was beginning to hit my personal road-bumps on this one I began to think “here we go again” and really struggled to have a different reaction to this that I did to AJ. TGE, I thought, worked more successfully on the whole, but was still a bit cumbersome for me.
I’ve just finished this as I make my way through the Hugo nominees, and I must say that I rather enjoyed it. I do agree that the naming conventions were cumbersome at times, and I often felt that I was misremembering who people were due to it. However, I listened to this in audiobook form so the language didn’t affect me as much as it would have done were I to have read the book.
It’s nice to read this sort of book that doesn’t rely on action or cliff-hanger chapter ends to be entertaining. I wanted to read more and more, and often thought of the novel when I wasn’t engrossed in it. I think Scott Lynch’s quote on the front cover pretty much sums it up for me.