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Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1
The Hands of the Emperor
An impulsive word can start a war. A timely word can stop one. A simple act of friendship can change the course of history.
Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation.
One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.
The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world.
Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1.
Cliopher Mdang is the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Lord Magus of Zunidh, the Sun-on-Earth, the god. He has spent more time with the Emperor of Astandalas than any other person. He has never once touched his lord. He has never called him by name. He has never initiated a conversation.
One day Cliopher invites the Sun-on-Earth home to the proverbially remote Vangavaye-ve for a holiday.
The mere invitation could have seen Cliopher executed for blasphemy. The acceptance upends the world.
Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1.
740 pages, Paperback
First published January 8, 2019
663 people are currently reading
19109 people want to read
About the author
Victoria Goddard
43 books787 followersI walked across England in 2013, fulfilling a long-held dream. I'm currently the sexton of an Anglican church in Nova Scotia, which means I am keeper of the keys and opener of doors (and shutter-off of alarms). I have a PhD in medieval studies from the University of Toronto, looking at poetry and philosophy in the works of Dante and Boethius -- both the poetry and the philosophy come into my stories a great deal (and occasionally the Dante and the Boethius).
I like writing about the ordinary lives of magical people on the other side of the looking glass ... and the extraordinary deeds of ordinary folk, too. Three of my favourite authors are Patricia McKillip (especially 'The Riddle-Master of Hed' trilogy and 'The Bell at Sealy Head'), Connie Willis ('Bellwether' and 'To Say Nothing of the Dog,' which latter would make my top-ten books on a desert island), and Lois McMaster Bujold ('The Curse of Chalion' and its sequels).
I like writing about the ordinary lives of magical people on the other side of the looking glass ... and the extraordinary deeds of ordinary folk, too. Three of my favourite authors are Patricia McKillip (especially 'The Riddle-Master of Hed' trilogy and 'The Bell at Sealy Head'), Connie Willis ('Bellwether' and 'To Say Nothing of the Dog,' which latter would make my top-ten books on a desert island), and Lois McMaster Bujold ('The Curse of Chalion' and its sequels).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 840 reviews
May 29, 2021
This book breaks all the laws of book physics. By all rights, this book should not have worked, and yet it DOES, brilliantly, because Victoria Goddard is just that BREATHTAKINGLY good at characters. This is the kindest, gentlest, most empathetic book I have ever read, and it is still delightfully funny and wry, and it has a burning core of fierce righteousness and a belief that good people doing hard, thankless work can make the world BETTER (they institute worldwide universal basic income!!!). The friendship between the two main characters is incredibly profound and I've never read anything like it.
Additionally, I do not as a rule cry at books. In all my life there were only two books I've ever cried at, and only one scene in each of them. This is the third, and I must have had tears pouring down my face at more than a dozen scenes, not because they are sad at all--nothing very sad happens in this book--but simply because of how much this book CARES, how much these characters matter, and how keenly it portrays the ache of someone with a dream in their heart wanting badly to be Known and Seen and Understood as he really is.
Please, please, please read this book. This is my favorite, favorite book. I have not had a favorite book in years, but this is it.
Additionally, I do not as a rule cry at books. In all my life there were only two books I've ever cried at, and only one scene in each of them. This is the third, and I must have had tears pouring down my face at more than a dozen scenes, not because they are sad at all--nothing very sad happens in this book--but simply because of how much this book CARES, how much these characters matter, and how keenly it portrays the ache of someone with a dream in their heart wanting badly to be Known and Seen and Understood as he really is.
Please, please, please read this book. This is my favorite, favorite book. I have not had a favorite book in years, but this is it.
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February 22, 2022Read for the 'randos rec me 12 books' Twitter challenge.
Absolutely loved the first half or so of this. Novel of manners, with the Emperor and his loyal secretary establishing a friendship through the layers of protocol, with interesting worldbuilding and loads of character. Great relationships and all sorts of plot elements weaving together that seem to be working up to a complex political situation, with thoughts about culture and influence and how to change power structures.
Sadly, the second half rather disintegrated. It contains multiple variations on the same two scenes: either someone is rude to Cliopher, and is firmly put in their place by the revelation of his status and personal impressiveness, or Cliopher sits embarrassed while other characters tell each other how amazing he is. The first time we see him put down some racist aristocrat we cheer; by the time he's the acknowledged second most powerful man in the entire world, it's somewhat embarrassing to see him score off a minor provincial bank manager or rude aunt. It's the Clark Kent moment (which is fairness we all adore), where the unassuming MC is revealed to be a superhero and thus vindicated to their astonished family, played out over and over again for the best part of 400 pages.
This is very clearly what the author wanted to do, and it's also what the book is about to a large extent: the theme of visible status vs invisible power is hugely important, and the issues of what good governance and the responsible exercise of power look like. As is the question of home, and family, and being torn between cultures. All of that matters, though for me the meaning was rather swamped by the presentation in the second half. And it's still very atmospheric and world-building and if what you are searching for is the triumph of the kind and decent man then this delivers a *lot* of that. But I regretted that we saw so little in the way of political machinations or tension, not to mention so little of the Emperor, in the second half, and the repetitive structure just didn't work for me. Hey ho.
Absolutely loved the first half or so of this. Novel of manners, with the Emperor and his loyal secretary establishing a friendship through the layers of protocol, with interesting worldbuilding and loads of character. Great relationships and all sorts of plot elements weaving together that seem to be working up to a complex political situation, with thoughts about culture and influence and how to change power structures.
Sadly, the second half rather disintegrated. It contains multiple variations on the same two scenes: either someone is rude to Cliopher, and is firmly put in their place by the revelation of his status and personal impressiveness, or Cliopher sits embarrassed while other characters tell each other how amazing he is. The first time we see him put down some racist aristocrat we cheer; by the time he's the acknowledged second most powerful man in the entire world, it's somewhat embarrassing to see him score off a minor provincial bank manager or rude aunt. It's the Clark Kent moment (which is fairness we all adore), where the unassuming MC is revealed to be a superhero and thus vindicated to their astonished family, played out over and over again for the best part of 400 pages.
This is very clearly what the author wanted to do, and it's also what the book is about to a large extent: the theme of visible status vs invisible power is hugely important, and the issues of what good governance and the responsible exercise of power look like. As is the question of home, and family, and being torn between cultures. All of that matters, though for me the meaning was rather swamped by the presentation in the second half. And it's still very atmospheric and world-building and if what you are searching for is the triumph of the kind and decent man then this delivers a *lot* of that. But I regretted that we saw so little in the way of political machinations or tension, not to mention so little of the Emperor, in the second half, and the repetitive structure just didn't work for me. Hey ho.
May 25, 2021
Oh wow, a book that out-The Goblin Emperor's The Goblin Emperor. I found it so compulsively readable and cozy: the main character Kip just wants to do good in the world (like introducing universal basic income??? more fantasy books should do this omg!!). The main "plot" is really his developing relationship with his emperor, who he starts off the book extremely formal with, and with his family, who love him but really don't get what he's off doing in the capital and just want him to come home. Immigrant feels ahoy :')
In general I side eye longer books and this is a loooong book, and I genuinely think some chapters near the end could have been condensed.
But putting that aside, this is just the nicest coziest slice of life book. Kip and gang go on vacation! Kip and gang fix a harp! Kip and gang have super fucked up tragic backstories and slowly open up to each other and overcome trauma! Kip and gang go to an art gallery! Yay! Oh and gang = mostly Kip's middle aged friends. Fuck yeah.
In general I side eye longer books and this is a loooong book, and I genuinely think some chapters near the end could have been condensed.
But putting that aside, this is just the nicest coziest slice of life book. Kip and gang go on vacation! Kip and gang fix a harp! Kip and gang have super fucked up tragic backstories and slowly open up to each other and overcome trauma! Kip and gang go to an art gallery! Yay! Oh and gang = mostly Kip's middle aged friends. Fuck yeah.
January 30, 2025
1.5 stars for this long, cozy fantasy novel. The first half is charming, if a little mawkish, but the second half is somehow both tedious and infuriating.
It’s about a middle-aged bureaucrat who serves and befriends his emperor, a powerful mage whose life is restricted and isolated to an inhuman degree. In the beginning we have Cliopher daring to make the presumptuous suggestion to this immensely remote figure that he might benefit from a vacation. Then there are the logistics of arranging such a preposterous thing, the wonder of a developing friendship, and the opening of possibilities.
That’s all pretty fun, but the novel goes downhill rapidly once, as a result of all this chumminess, Cliopher is promoted to an exalted position and this becomes the story of how amazing he is.
In the beginning Cliopher’s frustration with his provincial family arouses sympathy: they are resentful that he left home, dismissive of his ambitions, and willfully ignorant about his success. It’s a nice moment to see them first realize with amazement and delight just how high he has risen. Unfortunately, and rather inexplicably, his family’s ignorance persists so that Cliopher’s importance must be explained to them a second time, and then a third and fourth time, so that we get repeated scenes of Cliopher’s increasingly peevish hurt feelings at their obliviousness.
Similarly, the first time Cliopher publicly skewers an aristocratic bigot is satisfying. The next several times he delivers identical rants, in front of similarly slack-jawed audiences, are much less so. There are many more such repeated scenes. It feels like the author imagined several different versions of the scenarios she wanted, and then instead of choosing the best she just included all of them.
With the repetition comes a wild escalation of the book’s themes. The rational promotion of multiculturalism progresses from the ridicule of lazy selfish bigoted cosmopolitan aristocrats to the elevation of noble savage islanders. When one of Cliopher’s clerks describes his tribe’s sacred tradition of ritual murder and cannibalism, everyone gets weepy and Cliopher solemnly intones, “It is never easy to be so different.”
At the start of the book Cliopher is the best secretary the emperor has ever had. By the end he’s being pronounced the most important statesman in history and credited with single-handedly transforming the world from a hellhole into a utopia complete with a universal basic income.
In regards to the magical elements, I rather like the way the author does not really explain “the Fall”, but I was disappointed to find that magical restrictions surrounding the emperor
It’s about a middle-aged bureaucrat who serves and befriends his emperor, a powerful mage whose life is restricted and isolated to an inhuman degree. In the beginning we have Cliopher daring to make the presumptuous suggestion to this immensely remote figure that he might benefit from a vacation. Then there are the logistics of arranging such a preposterous thing, the wonder of a developing friendship, and the opening of possibilities.
That’s all pretty fun, but the novel goes downhill rapidly once, as a result of all this chumminess, Cliopher is promoted to an exalted position and this becomes the story of how amazing he is.
In the beginning Cliopher’s frustration with his provincial family arouses sympathy: they are resentful that he left home, dismissive of his ambitions, and willfully ignorant about his success. It’s a nice moment to see them first realize with amazement and delight just how high he has risen. Unfortunately, and rather inexplicably, his family’s ignorance persists so that Cliopher’s importance must be explained to them a second time, and then a third and fourth time, so that we get repeated scenes of Cliopher’s increasingly peevish hurt feelings at their obliviousness.
Similarly, the first time Cliopher publicly skewers an aristocratic bigot is satisfying. The next several times he delivers identical rants, in front of similarly slack-jawed audiences, are much less so. There are many more such repeated scenes. It feels like the author imagined several different versions of the scenarios she wanted, and then instead of choosing the best she just included all of them.
With the repetition comes a wild escalation of the book’s themes. The rational promotion of multiculturalism progresses from the ridicule of lazy selfish bigoted cosmopolitan aristocrats to the elevation of noble savage islanders. When one of Cliopher’s clerks describes his tribe’s sacred tradition of ritual murder and cannibalism, everyone gets weepy and Cliopher solemnly intones, “It is never easy to be so different.”
At the start of the book Cliopher is the best secretary the emperor has ever had. By the end he’s being pronounced the most important statesman in history and credited with single-handedly transforming the world from a hellhole into a utopia complete with a universal basic income.
In regards to the magical elements, I rather like the way the author does not really explain “the Fall”, but I was disappointed to find that magical restrictions surrounding the emperor
January 19, 2021
I’ve just read another book that has me babbling incoherently. I have no idea how to organize my thoughts about this book so I think I will just blither at you.
This book is the perfect, the ideal book to read in these troubling times. If you want to read a book in which nothing terribly bad happens, if you want to read a book about nice people being nice to each other, about good people doing good things, this is that book. This is also a book about the aftermath of a global catastrophe, and about the rebuilding required, and it is an infinitely hopeful book in that regard. (To the point of being hopelessly idealistic, perhaps, but the world could use more idealism at the moment!) Someone described this book as competence porn: if you love watching competent people do their jobs competently, this is the book for you.
I was drawn in by the blurb, which reveals the central twist at the heart of the book: which I can't seem to put into coherent words. Power, and relationships, and the difference between how people are seen and how they are. (Those words don't elucidate it at all, sorry!) But I can say that if that blurb intrigues you, you will not be disappointed.
This is not a plot-based book by any means. The entire first quarter consists of a group of nice people who like each other going on vacation in a beautiful, friendly place. I enjoyed it so much! It isn't remotely boring for a number of important reasons: complex power dynamics are being tested and redefined in simple actions such as deciding to go swimming; a fascinating, vibrant world is being gradually revealed; the tentative friendship developing between the Emperor and his secretary Cliopher is delightful to watch; and there is the piquancy of dramatic irony in almost every scene, because no one knows that this is the Emperor. (I've always been particularly tickled by the conceit that here's an important/significant/powerful person and everyone else bustles around officiously having no idea who they are. Like that scene in Sabriel when she first crosses the border.)
That conceit is actually the organizing conceit of the novel, because no one actually knows who Cliopher is, even though everyone thinks they do.
The Hands of the Emperor is a character study: a long, deep, complex, extended character study of a really interesting person. Cliopher is a bureaucrat—and if you think would never want to read the story of a bureaucrat, this book will change your mind. He loves his job; he is exceedingly good at his job; he is transforming the world through his job. He also has an amazing backstory, which gets gradually revealed, and the way his story is told—by whom, to whom, under what circumstances—is crucial to the plot, the character development—it's really interestingly done.
This book is a true successor to The Goblin Emperor. If you loved that book you will also love this one. Cliopher is heart kin to Maia. They would like one another, they would recognize in each other similar challenges, desires and goals. The way politics and world events are used as backdrops to define and highlight character is very similar in both books.
You know who else would like Cliopher: Miles Vorkosigan. He is almost as opposite a character as can be, and yet they share the same passion, incorruptibility, desire for justice, joy in service. (They need to meet later in Miles's career, though. Cliopher would probably have a hard time with younger Miles!)
Goddard's writing has the same combination of wisdom and humour that I enjoy in Lois McMaster Bujold's work. Her prose is delightful.
This is a book about friendship, about family, about how our identities are tied up with our families and our friends. It is also a treatise on culture: what culture means, why culture is essential and necessary and intrinsically woven with our identity. And it brilliantly, viscerally, gorgeously elucidates what it means to be from different cultures, what it takes to understand a different culture. (If you liked what Rachel Neumeier did in Tuyo, know that The Hands of the Emperor does that in spades. And bulldozers.)
The world building in this book, oh my! It reminds me most of Sherwood Smith and her novels set in Sartorias-Delas. So broad and deep and full of detail. Its a multi-world empire with strange magic and stranger history, and you won't understand all of it, but the parts you need to understand will end up written in your hearts.
I'm getting ridiculous so it's time to stop. I can't recommend this book highly enough to people who like the same kind of books I do. It hits all of my buttons. I immediately bought the sequel, which is shorter and in an entirely different style (and focuses on a different main character) but which I liked just as much (and she's promised a sequel with Cliopher, so yay!)
I will mention two caveats: The Hands of the Emperor is self-published, and there are rather more typos than I'm used to encountering. There is also a structural flaw (I think that's the best way to describe it) that would probably have been corrected by more editing. I was bothered by it, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book as a whole—I still say this is going to be one of my all-time favourite novels, one I will re-read over and over again. It's that good.
Cross-posted on my blog: Dead Houseplants
This book is the perfect, the ideal book to read in these troubling times. If you want to read a book in which nothing terribly bad happens, if you want to read a book about nice people being nice to each other, about good people doing good things, this is that book. This is also a book about the aftermath of a global catastrophe, and about the rebuilding required, and it is an infinitely hopeful book in that regard. (To the point of being hopelessly idealistic, perhaps, but the world could use more idealism at the moment!) Someone described this book as competence porn: if you love watching competent people do their jobs competently, this is the book for you.
I was drawn in by the blurb, which reveals the central twist at the heart of the book: which I can't seem to put into coherent words. Power, and relationships, and the difference between how people are seen and how they are. (Those words don't elucidate it at all, sorry!) But I can say that if that blurb intrigues you, you will not be disappointed.
This is not a plot-based book by any means. The entire first quarter consists of a group of nice people who like each other going on vacation in a beautiful, friendly place. I enjoyed it so much! It isn't remotely boring for a number of important reasons: complex power dynamics are being tested and redefined in simple actions such as deciding to go swimming; a fascinating, vibrant world is being gradually revealed; the tentative friendship developing between the Emperor and his secretary Cliopher is delightful to watch; and there is the piquancy of dramatic irony in almost every scene, because no one knows that this is the Emperor. (I've always been particularly tickled by the conceit that here's an important/significant/powerful person and everyone else bustles around officiously having no idea who they are. Like that scene in Sabriel when she first crosses the border.)
That conceit is actually the organizing conceit of the novel, because no one actually knows who Cliopher is, even though everyone thinks they do.
The Hands of the Emperor is a character study: a long, deep, complex, extended character study of a really interesting person. Cliopher is a bureaucrat—and if you think would never want to read the story of a bureaucrat, this book will change your mind. He loves his job; he is exceedingly good at his job; he is transforming the world through his job. He also has an amazing backstory, which gets gradually revealed, and the way his story is told—by whom, to whom, under what circumstances—is crucial to the plot, the character development—it's really interestingly done.
This book is a true successor to The Goblin Emperor. If you loved that book you will also love this one. Cliopher is heart kin to Maia. They would like one another, they would recognize in each other similar challenges, desires and goals. The way politics and world events are used as backdrops to define and highlight character is very similar in both books.
You know who else would like Cliopher: Miles Vorkosigan. He is almost as opposite a character as can be, and yet they share the same passion, incorruptibility, desire for justice, joy in service. (They need to meet later in Miles's career, though. Cliopher would probably have a hard time with younger Miles!)
Goddard's writing has the same combination of wisdom and humour that I enjoy in Lois McMaster Bujold's work. Her prose is delightful.
This is a book about friendship, about family, about how our identities are tied up with our families and our friends. It is also a treatise on culture: what culture means, why culture is essential and necessary and intrinsically woven with our identity. And it brilliantly, viscerally, gorgeously elucidates what it means to be from different cultures, what it takes to understand a different culture. (If you liked what Rachel Neumeier did in Tuyo, know that The Hands of the Emperor does that in spades. And bulldozers.)
The world building in this book, oh my! It reminds me most of Sherwood Smith and her novels set in Sartorias-Delas. So broad and deep and full of detail. Its a multi-world empire with strange magic and stranger history, and you won't understand all of it, but the parts you need to understand will end up written in your hearts.
I'm getting ridiculous so it's time to stop. I can't recommend this book highly enough to people who like the same kind of books I do. It hits all of my buttons. I immediately bought the sequel, which is shorter and in an entirely different style (and focuses on a different main character) but which I liked just as much (and she's promised a sequel with Cliopher, so yay!)
I will mention two caveats: The Hands of the Emperor is self-published, and there are rather more typos than I'm used to encountering. There is also a structural flaw (I think that's the best way to describe it) that would probably have been corrected by more editing. I was bothered by it, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book as a whole—I still say this is going to be one of my all-time favourite novels, one I will re-read over and over again. It's that good.
Cross-posted on my blog: Dead Houseplants
December 4, 2021
This is a) the book I was most excited to read this year, b) the ONLY book I paid actually money for this year, c) my biggest disappointment of the year 💀 I'd be even more crushed if the relief at finally having skimmed the last 10% so I can get it off my Currently Reading shelf wasn't so great. (But it is omg I'm free I'M FREEEEEEEEE)
I feel a bit duped after seeing so many people sell this as one of the "greatest character-driven novels ever!" In fairness, I found the first part (and by part I mean like...the first 15% maybe? this is a LONGGGG book) to be exactly that—a beautifully, even masterfully, done character introduction. The initial building of Cliopher and his Radiancy's relationship was so gorgeously handled and brimming with potential. As a slow burn lover (romantic or otherwise) I was SO excited, looking at how much of the book I had left with eagerness, ready for some slow and steady and yummy progression.
And then.......like Icarus...........*mimes wings melting, tumbling to the ground...falling...falling.......for HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF PAGES* 😔🔥
His Radiancy, who is, hands down imo, the most interesting character in this book, started to disappear for large swathes of it, only reappearing every so often to—like everyone else in this damn book—talk about how great Cliopher is. Cliopher who very quickly starts to feel less and less like an actual person and more just like a vehicle for Goddard to make Points™. The story began to really lose me when I realized entire scenes were being contrived just so Cliopher could come out of them looking Amazing—truly this book needed a [and everyone in the room applauds!] track. (I'm not even commenting on Cliopher's politics/the politics of the novel itself, to be clear—that's a massive and complicated can of worms.) It got so repetitive and boring that by like the fifth time I realized Goddard had trapped me in a scene where some asshole said something Wrong and Cliopher was about to start ranting heroically for 30 pages I just started skipping entire chunks on my kindle, and probs gave myself a repetitive strain injury in the process. Cliopher is Kind and a Genius and the Best—a perfect little paper mâché man, but to me, a relatively boring character to spend this much time with.
Aside from this, none of the many many side characters in this actually feel like individual characters. They all just feel like NPCs who are there to momentarily bump up against or cheer on Cliopher. And when they do bump up against him they often come across as being in the wrong, even if the book tries to paint them as valid. For ex. Cliopher has many family members and some of them resent him for spending all his time overworking himself instead of giving them more attention. (I think this is supposed to be like...his one and only flaw or something lol). But most of the time they just come across as provincial, unable to see (or just kept in the dark about) how vital Cliopher is to ~creating a better world~. Honestly, Cliopher's relationship with his family actually takes up the bulk of this book, and the fact that I just couldn't get myself to care about any of it is a huge part of why it didn't work for me. I couldn't tell you a single name of any of his family members, and none of their individual relationships stood out to me, because they weren't built to. It's just Family Member #1 who is a stand-in for this line of thought and Family Member #2 who is a stand-in for this line of thought, and so-on for almost every other character in this book.
I knew to some extent that this book would be a plotless Utopian Rumination, but I thought it would be that with incredible character work, and with Cliopher and His Radiancy's relationship at the center, developing all the while. Unfortunately it was not that, and I can't help feeling robbed after returning to the synopsis and thinking about how JUICY and and MOVING that relationship could've been. Alas, even if their "friendship" (👀) was actually more front-and-center throughout, it probs would've let me down on the angst factor, because this book really is for people who just want to read something overwhelmingly Nice.
tl;dr *slaps book* this book could've fit so much more His Radiancy in it. MORE EMPEROR, LESS THE HANDS PLZ. (but I guess...*points to title*....that one's on me 🙍🏻)
I feel a bit duped after seeing so many people sell this as one of the "greatest character-driven novels ever!" In fairness, I found the first part (and by part I mean like...the first 15% maybe? this is a LONGGGG book) to be exactly that—a beautifully, even masterfully, done character introduction. The initial building of Cliopher and his Radiancy's relationship was so gorgeously handled and brimming with potential. As a slow burn lover (romantic or otherwise) I was SO excited, looking at how much of the book I had left with eagerness, ready for some slow and steady and yummy progression.
And then.......like Icarus...........*mimes wings melting, tumbling to the ground...falling...falling.......for HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF PAGES* 😔🔥
His Radiancy, who is, hands down imo, the most interesting character in this book, started to disappear for large swathes of it, only reappearing every so often to—like everyone else in this damn book—talk about how great Cliopher is. Cliopher who very quickly starts to feel less and less like an actual person and more just like a vehicle for Goddard to make Points™. The story began to really lose me when I realized entire scenes were being contrived just so Cliopher could come out of them looking Amazing—truly this book needed a [and everyone in the room applauds!] track. (I'm not even commenting on Cliopher's politics/the politics of the novel itself, to be clear—that's a massive and complicated can of worms.) It got so repetitive and boring that by like the fifth time I realized Goddard had trapped me in a scene where some asshole said something Wrong and Cliopher was about to start ranting heroically for 30 pages I just started skipping entire chunks on my kindle, and probs gave myself a repetitive strain injury in the process. Cliopher is Kind and a Genius and the Best—a perfect little paper mâché man, but to me, a relatively boring character to spend this much time with.
Aside from this, none of the many many side characters in this actually feel like individual characters. They all just feel like NPCs who are there to momentarily bump up against or cheer on Cliopher. And when they do bump up against him they often come across as being in the wrong, even if the book tries to paint them as valid. For ex. Cliopher has many family members and some of them resent him for spending all his time overworking himself instead of giving them more attention. (I think this is supposed to be like...his one and only flaw or something lol). But most of the time they just come across as provincial, unable to see (or just kept in the dark about) how vital Cliopher is to ~creating a better world~. Honestly, Cliopher's relationship with his family actually takes up the bulk of this book, and the fact that I just couldn't get myself to care about any of it is a huge part of why it didn't work for me. I couldn't tell you a single name of any of his family members, and none of their individual relationships stood out to me, because they weren't built to. It's just Family Member #1 who is a stand-in for this line of thought and Family Member #2 who is a stand-in for this line of thought, and so-on for almost every other character in this book.
I knew to some extent that this book would be a plotless Utopian Rumination, but I thought it would be that with incredible character work, and with Cliopher and His Radiancy's relationship at the center, developing all the while. Unfortunately it was not that, and I can't help feeling robbed after returning to the synopsis and thinking about how JUICY and and MOVING that relationship could've been. Alas, even if their "friendship" (👀) was actually more front-and-center throughout, it probs would've let me down on the angst factor, because this book really is for people who just want to read something overwhelmingly Nice.
tl;dr *slaps book* this book could've fit so much more His Radiancy in it. MORE EMPEROR, LESS THE HANDS PLZ. (but I guess...*points to title*....that one's on me 🙍🏻)
June 4, 2024
Comparing this to Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison's "The Goblin Emperor" does both books a disservice: TGE, because it's a far better novel, and Hands because it makes the novel's flaws worse by comparison. This is not "what if TGE but longer", nor is it Csevet Aisava/Maia Drazhar fanfiction, unless it's a very bad approximation of both those things. A lot of people who like TGE think it's TGE but longer. At least a few don't. I'm among the latter, and I'm at the point where I find the comparison ridiculous and wonder what book people read when they were reading TGE. But given so many people recommend this as "TGE but more", I'll run with that here for folks who expect to find that (particularly for those who are confused when they don't).
One major issue in the comparison is the opening. Monette has strong openings in her work, exemplified particularly well in TGE. Hands does not. It is at first tedious and then even more tedious by going into a literal fishing trip, which is partially described with inaccurate sailing terminology. There is no real sense of character or plot, and I find Cliopher more exasperating than compelling. I love Csevet, but I cannot even remotely pretend Cliopher is any version of him, and on Cliopher's own, absent comparisons, I can't stand him. The political analysis is also incredibly stupid to the point of farce.
Another comparison issue is that TGE at once feels long and also doesn't. Your mileage may vary, but I've always described it as the longest, most detailed political fantasy that doesn't feel its length. For all its faults, and TGE has a number, this is one of the good things about it (I adore TGE, but I acknowledge it's not perfect). Hands doesn't have that, and describing a positive as "TGE but longer", as many people have, is an incredibly strange thing to say, given one of TGE's highlights is that it doesn't outstay its welcome (and much as I'd love more of its ideas to be explored, I'm not sure the experience would be improved if the book were 2-3+ times as long). All Hands does is focus in on minute details in an overly cluttered story, dragging out scenes beyond what they should be, throwing in a dozen different concepts without connection, and making the story read like a collection of first draft ideas that never saw an edit (while this is apparently self-published, that shouldn't have gotten in the way of Goddard finding an editor, and I've read better self-published work; if this book actually had an editor, something went terribly wrong). This isn't helped by the frequently stilted dialogue.
If you love this book/series and think it's TGE but longer, I won't convince you otherwise. If you haven't read TGE, I would highly recommend it, as it's a wonderful fantasy novel, and in my opinion, Hands is no reflection on TGE's quality. If you like TGE and want more of it, there's a spin-off trilogy called "The Cemeteries of Amalo" (along with two short stories). Book 3 comes out in 2025. Monette also has a large catalogue of work to browse, and her quartet fantasy series, "The Doctrine of Labyrinths", is finally back in English ebooks in entirety. There are a lot of m/m fantasy political thrillers out there, now, so this really isn't all you're stuck with. Try "Thousand Autumns" by Meng Xi Shi, "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" or "Heaven Official's Blessing" by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, "The Imperial Uncle" by Da Feng Gua Guo, "Golden Terrace" by Cang Wu Bin Bai, or 북부대공의 햄스터 by 플루토리. If you want funny, angsty, and shippy found family stories with protagonists with self-esteem issues showing how amazing they are while shaking up established political infrastructures, try "S-Classes That I Raised" by geunseo or its free to read manhwa adaptation, "My S-Class Hunters" on Webtoon. All of those are way better than this. Maybe you'll like this novel too, since so many people do. I didn't.
One major issue in the comparison is the opening. Monette has strong openings in her work, exemplified particularly well in TGE. Hands does not. It is at first tedious and then even more tedious by going into a literal fishing trip, which is partially described with inaccurate sailing terminology. There is no real sense of character or plot, and I find Cliopher more exasperating than compelling. I love Csevet, but I cannot even remotely pretend Cliopher is any version of him, and on Cliopher's own, absent comparisons, I can't stand him. The political analysis is also incredibly stupid to the point of farce.
Another comparison issue is that TGE at once feels long and also doesn't. Your mileage may vary, but I've always described it as the longest, most detailed political fantasy that doesn't feel its length. For all its faults, and TGE has a number, this is one of the good things about it (I adore TGE, but I acknowledge it's not perfect). Hands doesn't have that, and describing a positive as "TGE but longer", as many people have, is an incredibly strange thing to say, given one of TGE's highlights is that it doesn't outstay its welcome (and much as I'd love more of its ideas to be explored, I'm not sure the experience would be improved if the book were 2-3+ times as long). All Hands does is focus in on minute details in an overly cluttered story, dragging out scenes beyond what they should be, throwing in a dozen different concepts without connection, and making the story read like a collection of first draft ideas that never saw an edit (while this is apparently self-published, that shouldn't have gotten in the way of Goddard finding an editor, and I've read better self-published work; if this book actually had an editor, something went terribly wrong). This isn't helped by the frequently stilted dialogue.
If you love this book/series and think it's TGE but longer, I won't convince you otherwise. If you haven't read TGE, I would highly recommend it, as it's a wonderful fantasy novel, and in my opinion, Hands is no reflection on TGE's quality. If you like TGE and want more of it, there's a spin-off trilogy called "The Cemeteries of Amalo" (along with two short stories). Book 3 comes out in 2025. Monette also has a large catalogue of work to browse, and her quartet fantasy series, "The Doctrine of Labyrinths", is finally back in English ebooks in entirety. There are a lot of m/m fantasy political thrillers out there, now, so this really isn't all you're stuck with. Try "Thousand Autumns" by Meng Xi Shi, "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" or "Heaven Official's Blessing" by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, "The Imperial Uncle" by Da Feng Gua Guo, "Golden Terrace" by Cang Wu Bin Bai, or 북부대공의 햄스터 by 플루토리. If you want funny, angsty, and shippy found family stories with protagonists with self-esteem issues showing how amazing they are while shaking up established political infrastructures, try "S-Classes That I Raised" by geunseo or its free to read manhwa adaptation, "My S-Class Hunters" on Webtoon. All of those are way better than this. Maybe you'll like this novel too, since so many people do. I didn't.
August 17, 2023
What if there was a guy who was an absolute genius and in charge of everything?
What if he derived his authority from a magical, godlike, infinitely benevolent emperor?
What if his only character flaw was that he was just too nice and humble?
What if his friends and family back home were incredibly - unrealistically, even - mulish and obtuse about understanding all the great things he had done for them and the world, and he had to spend huge swathes of time walking humbly around while his friends and emperor put them in their place?
What if he reformed the dictatorship and disempowered its oligarchs right in their face, and they did nothing about it and just quietly accepted having their power and status stripped from them?
What if the economy of a non-industrialized, feudal empire could support enormous welfare programs including universal housing and a basic grant for all citizens, essentially eradicating poverty?
What if we could introduce communism just by saying that the new guy in charge should be a cool communist and capital holders would do nothing to move against or undermine this process?
The Hands of the Emperor is wish fulfillment in all aspects at all times. From a world building perspective it sketches out for us what would happen, if a huge imperial economy was made up not of thousands of actors all competing to advance their own interests and those of their economic class, but instead there was one guy who did things, and everyone just shrugged and went along.
Cliopher reforms a calcified imperial economy through sheer genius and hard work, and in so doing suffers no set-backs ever. The opposition to his reforms, reforms we must imagine would be extremely upsetting for many powerful people, comes almost exclusively in the form of feudal princes arguing against him in councils and him then getting his way straight away.
When the book starts, Cliopher is already the second most powerful person in the world, and the one actively wielding by far the most power. He has already set up an enormous, extremely efficient, and scrupulous bureaucracy filled with people who hold him in extremely high regard both professionally and personally. Major corruption has largely been weeded out, and minor corruption is easily dealt with throughout the story.
We never get to experience Cliopher's rise to power or his struggles to clean out the imperial bureaucracy, because the book is entirely uninterested in telling a story of competing interests in which the protagonist might make mistakes or be up against meaningful challenges to his genius. We only hear of how Cliopher came to his position when he recounts the story of it to himself and others - from a safe, present day perspective, where we can be snugly secure in our knowledge that it all turned out alright in the end.
All in all, the world building works entirely on fairy tale logic and vibes. No stakes are ever present, nor even attempted. This leaves the characters and interpersonal relationships to present a compelling narrative, which they entirely fail to do.
The main conflict in Cliopher's life (not counting easily running a massive empire and staying winning against the princes and princesses) is finding a balance between his metropolitan life as the de-facto ruler of the world and his own islander culture and its customs and culture.
Throughout the book, his family and friends from his homeland, the Vangavaye-ve archipelago, do not seem to understand or respect Cliopher's work and often mulishly refuse to do so, even when confronted with a living almost-diety, whom they actively worship, straight up telling them how cool and smart and powerful Cliopher is right to their face.
Fairly early in the book, the emperor realizes that Cliopher's countrymen don't understand his position and decides to do something about it, elevating him from his position of running the country to running the country and also being a nobleman - the lord chancellor - in a grand ceremony in front of a host of people in the Vangavaye-ve. When this scene happens, we expect it to be the big shift that lets Cliopher's family and friends from home finally understand just how much he has accomplished, but it makes no appreciable different at all in the behavior of the other characters.
This is because the book needs them to remain uncomprehending and rude towards Cliopher to trade in its main currency: scenes where it's revealed to people from Cliopher's life just how powerful and awesome he is, one at a time, over and over and over and over....
Most of the book is a series of interminable scenes in which some character underestimates Cliopher and circumstances conspire to put them in their place in some way which allows Cliopher to remain humble and mild, but also makes it totally clear to everyone present how great of a dude he is.
This kind of scene where the protagonist has secret knowledge and is confronted by some venal asshole who is about to be put into his place is always great fun. It's a recurrent concept in lots of great books, and it's easy to see the appeal of having this scene be the main point of a book. However, it doesn't fucking work. The Hands of the Emperor has no stakes, and this means that there's no weight to these scenes.
I've seen Hands of the Emperor referred to as "cozy literature", and it makes sense. Hands of the Emperor never wants you to feel bad or worry. All the materially dangerous or challenging situations are done with before the book starts and all the emotionally challenging situations are tackled from a place of supreme correctness and with repeated affirmations that the main character has a throng of loving and extremely supportive friends who will pick him up and care for him no matter what happens.
This unwillingness to ever make the reader feel bad neuters the book. The emotional range is snipped off so dramatically at nadirs that the peaks are no longer peaks. All the situations are reduced to flavorless gruel, and this is the exact reason that the "tipping of the hand" scenes don't work. What do we care that some local corrupt bureaucrat is 420 noscoped by Cliopher's awesome paperwork skills and authority? We always knew how that interaction was going to end, there was never any indication that it would go differently, or even that it could, conceivably, do so.
Even the core challenge Cliopher faces - the conflict between his work and his culture - isn't real. He's never made to make any meaningful cultural sacrifices or in any way choose between being the bestest bureaucrat and the bestest tribal cultural keeper. The one concession he does make is allowing people to mispronounce his name because he doesn't want start a tiff about it. But of course that's all resolved before the book even starts.
Instead, Cliopher is actually the guy who was given all the rituals and the fire dance and songs and other customs by his uncle. He retains all this perfectly and throughout the book remains a paragon of islander culture. The dances and songs actually even contained the blueprint for how to govern a massive empire in them - how convenient!
The "conflict" then, is actually not the potentially interesting conflict of Cliopher's culture vs his position. Rather it's the same conflict that pervades the entire book. The only one that ever shows up: other people not realizing that Cliopher is the goodest, nicest, cleverest, most honorable boy in all the world.
What if he derived his authority from a magical, godlike, infinitely benevolent emperor?
What if his only character flaw was that he was just too nice and humble?
What if his friends and family back home were incredibly - unrealistically, even - mulish and obtuse about understanding all the great things he had done for them and the world, and he had to spend huge swathes of time walking humbly around while his friends and emperor put them in their place?
What if he reformed the dictatorship and disempowered its oligarchs right in their face, and they did nothing about it and just quietly accepted having their power and status stripped from them?
What if the economy of a non-industrialized, feudal empire could support enormous welfare programs including universal housing and a basic grant for all citizens, essentially eradicating poverty?
What if we could introduce communism just by saying that the new guy in charge should be a cool communist and capital holders would do nothing to move against or undermine this process?
The Hands of the Emperor is wish fulfillment in all aspects at all times. From a world building perspective it sketches out for us what would happen, if a huge imperial economy was made up not of thousands of actors all competing to advance their own interests and those of their economic class, but instead there was one guy who did things, and everyone just shrugged and went along.
Cliopher reforms a calcified imperial economy through sheer genius and hard work, and in so doing suffers no set-backs ever. The opposition to his reforms, reforms we must imagine would be extremely upsetting for many powerful people, comes almost exclusively in the form of feudal princes arguing against him in councils and him then getting his way straight away.
When the book starts, Cliopher is already the second most powerful person in the world, and the one actively wielding by far the most power. He has already set up an enormous, extremely efficient, and scrupulous bureaucracy filled with people who hold him in extremely high regard both professionally and personally. Major corruption has largely been weeded out, and minor corruption is easily dealt with throughout the story.
We never get to experience Cliopher's rise to power or his struggles to clean out the imperial bureaucracy, because the book is entirely uninterested in telling a story of competing interests in which the protagonist might make mistakes or be up against meaningful challenges to his genius. We only hear of how Cliopher came to his position when he recounts the story of it to himself and others - from a safe, present day perspective, where we can be snugly secure in our knowledge that it all turned out alright in the end.
All in all, the world building works entirely on fairy tale logic and vibes. No stakes are ever present, nor even attempted. This leaves the characters and interpersonal relationships to present a compelling narrative, which they entirely fail to do.
The main conflict in Cliopher's life (not counting easily running a massive empire and staying winning against the princes and princesses) is finding a balance between his metropolitan life as the de-facto ruler of the world and his own islander culture and its customs and culture.
Throughout the book, his family and friends from his homeland, the Vangavaye-ve archipelago, do not seem to understand or respect Cliopher's work and often mulishly refuse to do so, even when confronted with a living almost-diety, whom they actively worship, straight up telling them how cool and smart and powerful Cliopher is right to their face.
Fairly early in the book, the emperor realizes that Cliopher's countrymen don't understand his position and decides to do something about it, elevating him from his position of running the country to running the country and also being a nobleman - the lord chancellor - in a grand ceremony in front of a host of people in the Vangavaye-ve. When this scene happens, we expect it to be the big shift that lets Cliopher's family and friends from home finally understand just how much he has accomplished, but it makes no appreciable different at all in the behavior of the other characters.
This is because the book needs them to remain uncomprehending and rude towards Cliopher to trade in its main currency: scenes where it's revealed to people from Cliopher's life just how powerful and awesome he is, one at a time, over and over and over and over....
Most of the book is a series of interminable scenes in which some character underestimates Cliopher and circumstances conspire to put them in their place in some way which allows Cliopher to remain humble and mild, but also makes it totally clear to everyone present how great of a dude he is.
This kind of scene where the protagonist has secret knowledge and is confronted by some venal asshole who is about to be put into his place is always great fun. It's a recurrent concept in lots of great books, and it's easy to see the appeal of having this scene be the main point of a book. However, it doesn't fucking work. The Hands of the Emperor has no stakes, and this means that there's no weight to these scenes.
I've seen Hands of the Emperor referred to as "cozy literature", and it makes sense. Hands of the Emperor never wants you to feel bad or worry. All the materially dangerous or challenging situations are done with before the book starts and all the emotionally challenging situations are tackled from a place of supreme correctness and with repeated affirmations that the main character has a throng of loving and extremely supportive friends who will pick him up and care for him no matter what happens.
This unwillingness to ever make the reader feel bad neuters the book. The emotional range is snipped off so dramatically at nadirs that the peaks are no longer peaks. All the situations are reduced to flavorless gruel, and this is the exact reason that the "tipping of the hand" scenes don't work. What do we care that some local corrupt bureaucrat is 420 noscoped by Cliopher's awesome paperwork skills and authority? We always knew how that interaction was going to end, there was never any indication that it would go differently, or even that it could, conceivably, do so.
Even the core challenge Cliopher faces - the conflict between his work and his culture - isn't real. He's never made to make any meaningful cultural sacrifices or in any way choose between being the bestest bureaucrat and the bestest tribal cultural keeper. The one concession he does make is allowing people to mispronounce his name because he doesn't want start a tiff about it. But of course that's all resolved before the book even starts.
Instead, Cliopher is actually the guy who was given all the rituals and the fire dance and songs and other customs by his uncle. He retains all this perfectly and throughout the book remains a paragon of islander culture. The dances and songs actually even contained the blueprint for how to govern a massive empire in them - how convenient!
The "conflict" then, is actually not the potentially interesting conflict of Cliopher's culture vs his position. Rather it's the same conflict that pervades the entire book. The only one that ever shows up: other people not realizing that Cliopher is the goodest, nicest, cleverest, most honorable boy in all the world.
November 4, 2022
This is a book about middle aged men with little action, no romance, and a lot of bureaucracy. Its the story of a man who dares to extend an act of friendship to his emperor. It’s the story of an emperor who was a god, learning to be a man. It’s the story of a man who dreams of building a government that serves the people, modeled on the ancient songs of his people. It’s the story of a man who is afraid he has given up his family and culture in pursuit of his dream. It’s the story of an emperor who encourages his friend to reach for everything. It is an amazing story that I had to re-read immediately.
There is some repetition, the reasons why his family doesn’t understand that he is in fact the second most powerful person in the world are heartbreaking the first time but made everyone seem a little dense by the third time.
The emperor has a secret about his past that is hinted at several times but I didn’t catch until I read the related short story “The Tower at the Edge of the World”.
I realized about a quarter of the way through that this story reminds me of C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series, which I also love.
I hope there is more to the story!
There is some repetition, the reasons why his family doesn’t understand that he is in fact the second most powerful person in the world are heartbreaking the first time but made everyone seem a little dense by the third time.
The emperor has a secret about his past that is hinted at several times but I didn’t catch until I read the related short story “The Tower at the Edge of the World”.
I realized about a quarter of the way through that this story reminds me of C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series, which I also love.
I hope there is more to the story!
September 29, 2024
I think the best description of this novel would be to say that it is not really a novel in the modern sense, but a Utopian tale whose primary objective is a disquisition on and illustration of ideal government, with the personal journey of the architect of this Utopia layered over it. It's very self-indulgent, and more than a little repetitive, especially in the second half.
August 5, 2021
Do u like The Goblin Emperor
Do u wish The Goblin Emperor was 900 pages long
Well do I have the book for YOU!!!
This book had all my favorite things - bureaucracy, political machinations, elaborately described formal outfits, crying... YAS!!!
(my original review was just "hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah" but that doesn't really... review anything... not that what I have written is much more informative though tbh)
Do u wish The Goblin Emperor was 900 pages long
Well do I have the book for YOU!!!
This book had all my favorite things - bureaucracy, political machinations, elaborately described formal outfits, crying... YAS!!!
(my original review was just "hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah" but that doesn't really... review anything... not that what I have written is much more informative though tbh)
September 6, 2021
I am clearly the odd one out here, but like… autocratic technocracy is a bad thing? The author expects us to believe this one guy is creating utopia and he hasn’t even abolished the death penalty? It’s all Ra Ra Democracy, but do we ever see some actual DEMOCRACY? (No spoiler to say no!) We never even see a republic! Are there unions?
And look, I’m sorry, but you can’t attribute this guy’s benevolent political genius to his Indigenous lifeways, engage in a fairly deep way with these traditions, borrowed from Polynesian cultures, and then not really deal with the GIANT EMPIRE he is a part of?
Also, man, I don’t actually think you get to have that cannibal character. I don’t think you get to do that at all!
And the MANY moments of “Cliopher is so underappreciated, poor Cliopher, let’s make him Bureaucratic Ayla and justify all his decisions in public AGAIN,” were clearly meant to be raspberry mousse for someone’s id, but uh, that’s not my id. He could have tried talking to people? Or not majorly messing up the governance of his home province, as, you know, happens under autocracies, however supposedly benign? And the repetition drove me up the wall.
Yet ANOTHER book where nothing at all was earned. And yes, I did notice the fatphobia and cissexism, thanks very much. Also the many copy-editing errors, especially in the first half of the book — just saying.
And look, I’m sorry, but you can’t attribute this guy’s benevolent political genius to his Indigenous lifeways, engage in a fairly deep way with these traditions, borrowed from Polynesian cultures, and then not really deal with the GIANT EMPIRE he is a part of?
Also, man, I don’t actually think you get to have that cannibal character. I don’t think you get to do that at all!
And the MANY moments of “Cliopher is so underappreciated, poor Cliopher, let’s make him Bureaucratic Ayla and justify all his decisions in public AGAIN,” were clearly meant to be raspberry mousse for someone’s id, but uh, that’s not my id. He could have tried talking to people? Or not majorly messing up the governance of his home province, as, you know, happens under autocracies, however supposedly benign? And the repetition drove me up the wall.
Yet ANOTHER book where nothing at all was earned. And yes, I did notice the fatphobia and cissexism, thanks very much. Also the many copy-editing errors, especially in the first half of the book — just saying.
November 15, 2022
Hmmmm.
My life recently:
- new release in series by author I have been reading for years....dud.
- another new release in a series by author I have been reading for years......dud.
- see random rec on facebook page for a fantasy novel I have never heard of, by an author I have never heard of....may be Not Short? ...hm. Oh why not. Whatever. Anything for a giggle.
....start reading....keep reading....
...Knock back almost 1000 pages in one sitting....I think the sun set and rose somewhere while I was reading?
Just had the very odd experience of reading a story with a MC who shares exactly my beliefs and passions .
This is a big picture story with big picture world building and big picture plot as well as great characters. It is complex and nuanced. There are references to What Has Gone Before and the nine worlds. Just go with it.
Once you finish it, you are left with happy thoughts about 1. hunting down all the rest of her books, and 2, rereading this one.
My life recently:
- new release in series by author I have been reading for years....dud.
- another new release in a series by author I have been reading for years......dud.
- see random rec on facebook page for a fantasy novel I have never heard of, by an author I have never heard of....may be Not Short? ...hm. Oh why not. Whatever. Anything for a giggle.
....start reading....keep reading....
...Knock back almost 1000 pages in one sitting....I think the sun set and rose somewhere while I was reading?
Just had the very odd experience of reading a story with a MC who shares exactly my beliefs and passions .
This is a big picture story with big picture world building and big picture plot as well as great characters. It is complex and nuanced. There are references to What Has Gone Before and the nine worlds. Just go with it.
Once you finish it, you are left with happy thoughts about 1. hunting down all the rest of her books, and 2, rereading this one.
June 21, 2021
I want to be clear that this book was brilliant. You can't look at the world Goddard has designed, the Characters and Bonds she has forged and not applaud. However, I found that at every turn there was a dripping faucet, a tiny something which dampened the experience.
Whether minor grammatical errors, long winding sentences, or the near unbearable drag of approbation towards the end (I get that he's done a lot but oh my god I don't need to hear him explain it to every cousin) I found myself wondering who edited this novel. I think it could have been half the length and twice as strong for it.
Regardless of this rating, if you are one less bothered by the things aforementioned, I highly recommend this book as a deeply diverse, warm one. Should themes of the cost of assimilation, tradition, community, family, and friendship interest you, then this is the book to pick up.
Whether minor grammatical errors, long winding sentences, or the near unbearable drag of approbation towards the end (I get that he's done a lot but oh my god I don't need to hear him explain it to every cousin) I found myself wondering who edited this novel. I think it could have been half the length and twice as strong for it.
Regardless of this rating, if you are one less bothered by the things aforementioned, I highly recommend this book as a deeply diverse, warm one. Should themes of the cost of assimilation, tradition, community, family, and friendship interest you, then this is the book to pick up.
November 16, 2021
Beautiful, brilliant, multi-coloured vision of a workable utopia
This is such a good book on so many levels. As others have said, it’s the perfect lockdown novel simply because it’ll leave you feeling as if you’ve been on holiday in the South Seas. And travelled a lot.
It’s a beautiful, literate, literary exploration of utterly whole, decent masculinity - the absolute inverse of the usual toxic masculinity paraded by almost every fantasy novel in print.
OK, there are some noted exceptions, but this is almost unique in that you can relax: there’s never going to be an occasion when power is misused/abused, where the bullies win, where the petty-minded idiots get their way and ruin the lives of our main protagonists. In this way, it’s diametrically opposed to The Goblin Emperor to which it seems to be being compared. I loved TGE, but it was a story of overt and devastating racism against a young man taking up the reins of power and his battle to create a decent court.
This is far more an exploration of what an intelligent man of integrity can do in ways that do not abuse power.
It’s also a really quite intriguing exploration of a different way of managing things. It doesn’t step out of the extractive capitalist paradigm - not quite - but it’s heading that way. We hear the arguments for and against universal basic income and see what happens when it’s applied. We see the sharp contrast between someone who comes from an indigenous culture 10,000 years old, where LaDonna Harris’s quartet of Relationship, Responsability, Reciprocity and Redistribution are active and alive, vs the places where hierarchies still hold and the web of life amongst those lower than the top have been shattered. We see the ways that life could be better - in this sense, it’s a utopian novel.
It’s also a glorious depiction of platonic love between two men. Given how rarely male authors manage to write the emotional depth of women in a way that’s remotely convincing (I could list on the fingers of one hand, the male authors whose women feel real), I’d really like to know what men feel about Cliopher Mdang - does he feel real? Do his relationships resonate? Do they feel plausible or is this how women would *like* men to be? That would be a fascinating topic of enquiry.
But in the meantime, this is a huge, vast, glorious panorama of a book. It made me laugh out loud. It made me weep. And I loved every sentence. Heading off to find everything else Victoria Goddard has written.
This is such a good book on so many levels. As others have said, it’s the perfect lockdown novel simply because it’ll leave you feeling as if you’ve been on holiday in the South Seas. And travelled a lot.
It’s a beautiful, literate, literary exploration of utterly whole, decent masculinity - the absolute inverse of the usual toxic masculinity paraded by almost every fantasy novel in print.
OK, there are some noted exceptions, but this is almost unique in that you can relax: there’s never going to be an occasion when power is misused/abused, where the bullies win, where the petty-minded idiots get their way and ruin the lives of our main protagonists. In this way, it’s diametrically opposed to The Goblin Emperor to which it seems to be being compared. I loved TGE, but it was a story of overt and devastating racism against a young man taking up the reins of power and his battle to create a decent court.
This is far more an exploration of what an intelligent man of integrity can do in ways that do not abuse power.
It’s also a really quite intriguing exploration of a different way of managing things. It doesn’t step out of the extractive capitalist paradigm - not quite - but it’s heading that way. We hear the arguments for and against universal basic income and see what happens when it’s applied. We see the sharp contrast between someone who comes from an indigenous culture 10,000 years old, where LaDonna Harris’s quartet of Relationship, Responsability, Reciprocity and Redistribution are active and alive, vs the places where hierarchies still hold and the web of life amongst those lower than the top have been shattered. We see the ways that life could be better - in this sense, it’s a utopian novel.
It’s also a glorious depiction of platonic love between two men. Given how rarely male authors manage to write the emotional depth of women in a way that’s remotely convincing (I could list on the fingers of one hand, the male authors whose women feel real), I’d really like to know what men feel about Cliopher Mdang - does he feel real? Do his relationships resonate? Do they feel plausible or is this how women would *like* men to be? That would be a fascinating topic of enquiry.
But in the meantime, this is a huge, vast, glorious panorama of a book. It made me laugh out loud. It made me weep. And I loved every sentence. Heading off to find everything else Victoria Goddard has written.
June 6, 2021
I liked this book VERY much, but I don't trust my liking. The protagonist is from a culture very like some of our world's Pacific Islands and has to struggle greatly with the pressures of assimilation, colonization, and so forth ... but the author does not appear to share these experiences, nor does she have acknowledgments etc talking about her sources or advisors. Since I don't share these experiences, either, I'm reluctant to trust that what she shows isn't appropriation or something else kind of sketchy.
So, I want to see what Pacific Islanders, people from subaltern or colonial diaspora groups, or at least PoC say about this book, before committing.
So, I want to see what Pacific Islanders, people from subaltern or colonial diaspora groups, or at least PoC say about this book, before committing.
September 8, 2021
I really really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, I grumbled more than I should have, which was a shame because it started off beautifully. So beautiful that I actually lost myself for hours on YouTube watching videos of the ocean, turquoise beaches and surfing, naturally.
I do understand that this is a fantasy novel so I'm not going to be a stickler about things like aspects of colonialism, assimilation and the kind of politics kicking around. I mean, Kip's choice to not sweat his name and curb his accent is a real time thing. Goddard's world included a panoply of diversity, a class system and the death penalty, and while Kip's ambition was to have a governing body comprised of an array of representatives, marginalization and overt prejudice hasn't disappeared, even with a black Emperor, and his brown-skinned bff as chancellor.
I'm not sure what Goddard wants us POC readers to garner from that observation.
Winning on ALL fronts is that the absolute ruler of the world is a smooth AF black mage. And his Second is from the islands?
Honestly, I could read that forever.
If only the 900 pages were of just that.
I loved everything about Kip. He was so sweet and I understood, intimately, what he endured during his family visits. I loved his Radiancy. He was so regally badass and lovely at the same time. I loved Kip's friends in the Palace of Stars in Solaara. I even loved the bureaucratic parlance.
What I really didn't love or understand, like at all, and which I will comment on, as this book is a character driven piece and it was a significantly weighty contrivance comprising roughly 2/3 of this book, was the family dynamics.
Basically, why were Kip's family, minus Gaudy, a bunch of ignorant AF jerks? And WHY did they persist in being so even AFTER they stayed with him in the Palace and watched him RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT, nevermind meeting and hanging out with his Radiancy? Like witnessing that bromance wasn't confirmation enough of Kip's importance?
Honestly, save for Buru Tovo, who legit made me feel like I had an ancestral dance within me to claim for my island, I was pretty much spitting nails at how callous Kip's family acted towards him, and I seriously almost dnfed at 57% and 90%-if you could believe that shit- for the same reason.
I don't understand the aunt Hilda part. Like at all. No one is coming into my house talking about my baby. That's not a thing.
Also, the islands were technologically connected and ruled by a trash bucket princess, so governance was not a foreign concept introduced to the barbaric Islanders by their civilized betters, while they ran around naked spearing things.
Where's the problem here? He left to pursue his dreams. He visits more than he should tbh. He lets you do you. And you have the audacity to blame his countenance for a 58-person common-decency fail? No, I don't think so, Goddard.
I'm taking it personally.
Actually 57, because Dora is legit.
Like, no one will ever misunderstand what you mean when you say you run the government... Of the fkin world... As in second-in-command... To the dude who's face is on the money. That you met. In his magical gorgeous palace.
Not only that! No one RELATED to you, ESPECIALLY your mother, will remotely respect your privacy enough to NEVER ask you to clarify what the FK your fancy ass title means. No matter how disinclined you are to discuss state secrets, or if some dirtbag royalist rage chucks all the official pronouncements about your important work into the sea. Your mother will wring out something worth gossiping about.
Because she wants to brag about how important her child is. To everyone. Because that's EVERY island mom in the history of the relatable world.
Yes. I get it. It's a work of fiction. But the characterization is flawed and noticing it, intrinsically, is like worrying a sore tooth.
This book started off sincerely lovely, and had some wonderful elements that I would have loved to explore further, but because I felt annoyed on Kip's behalf most of the book, I don't think it's something I would recommend at 900+ pages.
3 ⭐ for the pearls of pleasure, cultural pride and found-family peace I lived for while navigating this tome, within which I have determined that Goddard modelled family dynamics for 600 pages on a confusing mashup of Islander insularity and a sort of B-movie hillbilly family reunion happening in backwoods Virginia; the one where the non-overalls wearing cousin returns for a visit from hoity-toity New York.
If you do decide to give this book a shot, prepare to meet your biases.
I do understand that this is a fantasy novel so I'm not going to be a stickler about things like aspects of colonialism, assimilation and the kind of politics kicking around. I mean, Kip's choice to not sweat his name and curb his accent is a real time thing. Goddard's world included a panoply of diversity, a class system and the death penalty, and while Kip's ambition was to have a governing body comprised of an array of representatives, marginalization and overt prejudice hasn't disappeared, even with a black Emperor, and his brown-skinned bff as chancellor.
I'm not sure what Goddard wants us POC readers to garner from that observation.
Winning on ALL fronts is that the absolute ruler of the world is a smooth AF black mage. And his Second is from the islands?
Honestly, I could read that forever.
If only the 900 pages were of just that.
I loved everything about Kip. He was so sweet and I understood, intimately, what he endured during his family visits. I loved his Radiancy. He was so regally badass and lovely at the same time. I loved Kip's friends in the Palace of Stars in Solaara. I even loved the bureaucratic parlance.
What I really didn't love or understand, like at all, and which I will comment on, as this book is a character driven piece and it was a significantly weighty contrivance comprising roughly 2/3 of this book, was the family dynamics.
Basically, why were Kip's family, minus Gaudy, a bunch of ignorant AF jerks? And WHY did they persist in being so even AFTER they stayed with him in the Palace and watched him RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT, nevermind meeting and hanging out with his Radiancy? Like witnessing that bromance wasn't confirmation enough of Kip's importance?
Honestly, save for Buru Tovo, who legit made me feel like I had an ancestral dance within me to claim for my island, I was pretty much spitting nails at how callous Kip's family acted towards him, and I seriously almost dnfed at 57% and 90%-if you could believe that shit- for the same reason.
I don't understand the aunt Hilda part. Like at all. No one is coming into my house talking about my baby. That's not a thing.
Also, the islands were technologically connected and ruled by a trash bucket princess, so governance was not a foreign concept introduced to the barbaric Islanders by their civilized betters, while they ran around naked spearing things.
Where's the problem here? He left to pursue his dreams. He visits more than he should tbh. He lets you do you. And you have the audacity to blame his countenance for a 58-person common-decency fail? No, I don't think so, Goddard.
I'm taking it personally.
Actually 57, because Dora is legit.
Like, no one will ever misunderstand what you mean when you say you run the government... Of the fkin world... As in second-in-command... To the dude who's face is on the money. That you met. In his magical gorgeous palace.
Not only that! No one RELATED to you, ESPECIALLY your mother, will remotely respect your privacy enough to NEVER ask you to clarify what the FK your fancy ass title means. No matter how disinclined you are to discuss state secrets, or if some dirtbag royalist rage chucks all the official pronouncements about your important work into the sea. Your mother will wring out something worth gossiping about.
Because she wants to brag about how important her child is. To everyone. Because that's EVERY island mom in the history of the relatable world.
Yes. I get it. It's a work of fiction. But the characterization is flawed and noticing it, intrinsically, is like worrying a sore tooth.
This book started off sincerely lovely, and had some wonderful elements that I would have loved to explore further, but because I felt annoyed on Kip's behalf most of the book, I don't think it's something I would recommend at 900+ pages.
3 ⭐ for the pearls of pleasure, cultural pride and found-family peace I lived for while navigating this tome, within which I have determined that Goddard modelled family dynamics for 600 pages on a confusing mashup of Islander insularity and a sort of B-movie hillbilly family reunion happening in backwoods Virginia; the one where the non-overalls wearing cousin returns for a visit from hoity-toity New York.
If you do decide to give this book a shot, prepare to meet your biases.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2022
“The world changes one person and one decision at a time. None of us know what decision, precisely, is the telling one.”
I have found a new author to love. How is this book even possible, and how does Victoria Goddard make it work?
Welcome to one thousand pages of…
- Humanity and hope, yet this is not a naïve book (not AT ALL).
- People who did not know they were friends, finding out that they are.
- People being very good at what they do, slowly changing a tyrannical system from within.
- Cliopher being himself, and I love this so much.
- Gorgeous details, from everyday simplicity to imperial spendour.
- Hints and tales of darker things, of a larger world, of catastrophes and deadly politics.
- Gentle humour.
- Assumptions we make about other people, the roles we stick them and ourselves in, family dynamics with love and resentment and old hurts so intertwined that there is not much distinction between them.
- Scenes and dialogues so emotionally intense I had to stop reading to recover.
- Meeting prejudice, bigotry and trying to reconcile the cultures you belong to.
- Not compromising with your dreams.
- A fantasy novel that seriously talks about universal income and ecology.
- The reader wanting to know even more about everything and everyone.
- Vangavaye-ve, which is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful - in every way imaginable.
- Coming home.
Am I doing the book justice? I have no idea, but at least I tried.
P.S. Don’t be put off by the page count. I mean it. It took me a week and a half to finish this (yes, I am a fast reader, but still…) and I thought the book was over much too quickly
I have found a new author to love. How is this book even possible, and how does Victoria Goddard make it work?
Welcome to one thousand pages of…
- Humanity and hope, yet this is not a naïve book (not AT ALL).
- People who did not know they were friends, finding out that they are.
- People being very good at what they do, slowly changing a tyrannical system from within.
- Cliopher being himself, and I love this so much.
- Gorgeous details, from everyday simplicity to imperial spendour.
- Hints and tales of darker things, of a larger world, of catastrophes and deadly politics.
- Gentle humour.
- Assumptions we make about other people, the roles we stick them and ourselves in, family dynamics with love and resentment and old hurts so intertwined that there is not much distinction between them.
- Scenes and dialogues so emotionally intense I had to stop reading to recover.
- Meeting prejudice, bigotry and trying to reconcile the cultures you belong to.
- Not compromising with your dreams.
- A fantasy novel that seriously talks about universal income and ecology.
- The reader wanting to know even more about everything and everyone.
- Vangavaye-ve, which is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful - in every way imaginable.
- Coming home.
Am I doing the book justice? I have no idea, but at least I tried.
P.S. Don’t be put off by the page count. I mean it. It took me a week and a half to finish this (yes, I am a fast reader, but still…) and I thought the book was over much too quickly
August 17, 2022
DNF 42%. From everything I heard about it, this should have been just up my alley despite the length. A slow burn friendship between a god-emperor and his right hand man? Bureaucrat power fantasy? Yes. And initially, it went just fine, feeling a lot like taking your late-game fully-leveled-up Stardew Valley character on a vacation to Ginger Island. The worldbuilding is incredibly intricate and I loved Kip’s complex relationship with his culture. But it got old fast.
Since Cliopher, or Kip, has already accomplished nearly everything there is to accomplish, there are no real challenges, no conflicts, no sense of tension whatsoever, even of the small interpersonal kind. We are also shown quite forcefully and repeatedly how great and clever and flawless and always right he is, which doesn’t exactly endear me to a character. That, I think, was the main problem – what’s a cozy character-focused book where you don’t care about the protagonist? And being nearly 350k words, the percentage barely moves as you read. I was not really itching to pick it back up and besides, I’ve been told by people who liked it that some things that bothered me get worse in the second half. So I quit.
Enjoyment: 2/5
Execution: 3/5
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
Since Cliopher, or Kip, has already accomplished nearly everything there is to accomplish, there are no real challenges, no conflicts, no sense of tension whatsoever, even of the small interpersonal kind. We are also shown quite forcefully and repeatedly how great and clever and flawless and always right he is, which doesn’t exactly endear me to a character. That, I think, was the main problem – what’s a cozy character-focused book where you don’t care about the protagonist? And being nearly 350k words, the percentage barely moves as you read. I was not really itching to pick it back up and besides, I’ve been told by people who liked it that some things that bothered me get worse in the second half. So I quit.
Enjoyment: 2/5
Execution: 3/5
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
January 31, 2023
Epic high fantasy isn't usually to my taste and my enjoyment of The Hands of the Emperor reminded me of why: I find it dull when a quasi-feudal system is treated as immutable. As long as the magical world has political change, though, I'm into it. One of my initial impressions of The Hands of the Emperor is that it's an optimistic mirror of my all time favourite The Gormenghast Trilogy. Both are set within an ancient absolutist regime bound by elaborate rituals, the apparent stasis of which is radically disrupted by the carefully planned actions of one functionary. Here, it's as if an older and wiser Steerpike and Titus Groan collaborate to undermine sclerotic old traditions and implement progressive reforms, rather than fighting to the death. While Gormenghast is a largely empty decaying ruin, the emperor's castle is bright and vibrant. The Gormenghast Trilogy is an extraordinarily poignant narrative of collapse; The Hands of the Emperor is one of transformation and restoration. Despite these similarities in setup, though, they are stylistically very different books. Although I liked The Hands of the Emperor very much, I doubt it will haunt my dreams as The Gormenghast Trilogy has.
The 900-page narrative follows Cliopher Mdang, also known as Kip, personal secretary to the godlike emperor and effective head of the world government, as he transforms the empire from within. His agenda is one of decolonisation, dismantling autocratic institutions, building public infrastructure, and, of particular note, implementing universal basic income. (There are some great discussions about the latter.) Although this is a world with magic of various kinds, the most fantastical element to me was the incredible success of these top-down reforms. Even with the support of the emperor, Kip comes off as a truly miraculous civil servant. I have various thoughts on this.
Ostensibly the concept has a strong air of Great Man history about it, given that Kip is stated to have entirely redesigned the government by himself. However, one of the particularly interesting and rather uncanny elements of world building concerns a magical cataclysm that broke time. If I was reading correctly, Kip worked on his government reform for a subjective thousand years or so while his family, on the other side of the world, experienced only decades. (I wondered what magic was doing to lifespans, although old age very clearly exists and even the emperor is subject to it.) Going back to The Gormenghast Trilogy, it's funny how Steerpike's malicious and meticulous destruction of an ancient regime feels superficially more plausible than Kip benevolently doing much the same thing. Ultimately, I found it wonderfully escapist to imagine that one intelligent and well-meaning person with sufficient time and magic behind them could remake a whole world for the better.
In addition to the fascinating and unusual political themes, The Hands of the Emperor distinguishes itself with excellent world building. The gentle pace of the plot leaves plenty of time for cultural details, which are carefully thought-through and make the world feel vivid. Kip's islander background is important to his beliefs and characterisation, as the reader gradually learns.
I may be giving the impression that this is a very solemn book, but that's not the case. It features some amusingly deadpan comedy and many joyful moments. The narrative is rich with art, music, and material details. Descriptions of sumptuous outfits, furnishings, and jewellery convey cultural and social meaning, as well as aesthetic pleasure. It speaks well of such a long novel that upon finishing it I was immediately eager to read the 800 page sequel! The world of The Hands of the Emperor is beguiling. I want to know more about its magic, politics, and history as well as what Kip and the emperor do next. If, like me, you wish epic fantasy included more utopian optimism and less wrangling over feudal kingdoms, I highly recommend giving this novel a try.
The 900-page narrative follows Cliopher Mdang, also known as Kip, personal secretary to the godlike emperor and effective head of the world government, as he transforms the empire from within. His agenda is one of decolonisation, dismantling autocratic institutions, building public infrastructure, and, of particular note, implementing universal basic income. (There are some great discussions about the latter.) Although this is a world with magic of various kinds, the most fantastical element to me was the incredible success of these top-down reforms. Even with the support of the emperor, Kip comes off as a truly miraculous civil servant. I have various thoughts on this.
Ostensibly the concept has a strong air of Great Man history about it, given that Kip is stated to have entirely redesigned the government by himself. However, one of the particularly interesting and rather uncanny elements of world building concerns a magical cataclysm that broke time. If I was reading correctly, Kip worked on his government reform for a subjective thousand years or so while his family, on the other side of the world, experienced only decades. (I wondered what magic was doing to lifespans, although old age very clearly exists and even the emperor is subject to it.) Going back to The Gormenghast Trilogy, it's funny how Steerpike's malicious and meticulous destruction of an ancient regime feels superficially more plausible than Kip benevolently doing much the same thing. Ultimately, I found it wonderfully escapist to imagine that one intelligent and well-meaning person with sufficient time and magic behind them could remake a whole world for the better.
In addition to the fascinating and unusual political themes, The Hands of the Emperor distinguishes itself with excellent world building. The gentle pace of the plot leaves plenty of time for cultural details, which are carefully thought-through and make the world feel vivid. Kip's islander background is important to his beliefs and characterisation, as the reader gradually learns.
I may be giving the impression that this is a very solemn book, but that's not the case. It features some amusingly deadpan comedy and many joyful moments. The narrative is rich with art, music, and material details. Descriptions of sumptuous outfits, furnishings, and jewellery convey cultural and social meaning, as well as aesthetic pleasure. It speaks well of such a long novel that upon finishing it I was immediately eager to read the 800 page sequel! The world of The Hands of the Emperor is beguiling. I want to know more about its magic, politics, and history as well as what Kip and the emperor do next. If, like me, you wish epic fantasy included more utopian optimism and less wrangling over feudal kingdoms, I highly recommend giving this novel a try.
December 18, 2023
An incredibly engrossing book in dire need of editing. There is absolutely no reason why this book should be almost 1000 pages long. Egregious repetition, frequent grammar errors, and some truly outrageous monologuing - so much monologuing - on the part of our protagonist Kip stand out as major issues.
And Kip. Okay. So, I understand that the story is meant to be his backstory - like, he's ultimately a character straight out of legends, right? But he's honestly a Gary Stu. He's selfless, a brilliant leader and statesman, versed in traditional ways as well as the modish ways of high society, incredibly humble (so fricking humble)... he has lived a thousand years (literally) and done more than even gods of legend ever did. Probably his only negative trait is how humble he is, but even that isn't so negative. He's just too perfect, and that pulls me out of the story.
Also, and I realize that this is considered a cozy fantasy, but I think it could've used some more tension. It's basically a character study/life study of half a decade in the life of a bureaucrat. It's well done and enjoyable, yes, but I would've liked a bit more drama, honestly.
Regardless of its faults, I had trouble putting down the book, so... that's something to keep in mind. Worth reading, but if you're pressed for time, maybe read The Goblin Emperor instead since the plots are similar, it's better written, and it's a hell of a lot shorter.
And Kip. Okay. So, I understand that the story is meant to be his backstory - like, he's ultimately a character straight out of legends, right? But he's honestly a Gary Stu. He's selfless, a brilliant leader and statesman, versed in traditional ways as well as the modish ways of high society, incredibly humble (so fricking humble)... he has lived a thousand years (literally) and done more than even gods of legend ever did. Probably his only negative trait is how humble he is, but even that isn't so negative. He's just too perfect, and that pulls me out of the story.
Also, and I realize that this is considered a cozy fantasy, but I think it could've used some more tension. It's basically a character study/life study of half a decade in the life of a bureaucrat. It's well done and enjoyable, yes, but I would've liked a bit more drama, honestly.
Regardless of its faults, I had trouble putting down the book, so... that's something to keep in mind. Worth reading, but if you're pressed for time, maybe read The Goblin Emperor instead since the plots are similar, it's better written, and it's a hell of a lot shorter.
July 15, 2024
Reread: Look, this is (with ATFOTS) my favourite book in the entire world. It's 900 pages long and I just went "Oooh I love this bit!!" on every one of them. I wish I was exaggerating except I don't - what wonderful luck, what an absurd privilege to have found a book like this at a point in my life when it resonates the most.
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My alternative titles for this book include 'The Emperor's New Retirement Plan', 'Bureaucracy is the new Piracy', 'Man Good At His Job' and 'Watch as This Chronic Workaholic Learns to Find Reasonable Work-life Balance. Also, Cannibalism'.
Really though, this is a book about a secretary who extends a small gesture of kindness to his employer in a highly hierarchical and ritualised society, and accidentally sets into motions events that change the functioning of their world and maybe also ensure universal income in the process. It's about splitting one's heart into two in that moment of leaving home in search of one's dreams, about feeling unwelcome where one once belonged but eternally a foreigner in the place where one has moved, and about learning to reconcile the two. It's about middle-aged people encouraged to take stock of the work they've done and imagine how much they could still do, and also learning to take rest and maybe a compliment. Ultimately, it's 900 pages of watching a bureaucrat trying his hardest to make the world a better place, which is a premise that shouldn't work but that ended up in a lovely book that is funny, thoughtful, deep and just unspeakably kind.
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My alternative titles for this book include 'The Emperor's New Retirement Plan', 'Bureaucracy is the new Piracy', 'Man Good At His Job' and 'Watch as This Chronic Workaholic Learns to Find Reasonable Work-life Balance. Also, Cannibalism'.
Really though, this is a book about a secretary who extends a small gesture of kindness to his employer in a highly hierarchical and ritualised society, and accidentally sets into motions events that change the functioning of their world and maybe also ensure universal income in the process. It's about splitting one's heart into two in that moment of leaving home in search of one's dreams, about feeling unwelcome where one once belonged but eternally a foreigner in the place where one has moved, and about learning to reconcile the two. It's about middle-aged people encouraged to take stock of the work they've done and imagine how much they could still do, and also learning to take rest and maybe a compliment. Ultimately, it's 900 pages of watching a bureaucrat trying his hardest to make the world a better place, which is a premise that shouldn't work but that ended up in a lovely book that is funny, thoughtful, deep and just unspeakably kind.
October 13, 2021
Yeah there are wizards and magic in this book but what really makes The Hands of the Emperor a fantasy is that it imagines a better, more just government emerging from an old one without bloodshed. It's like fantasy The West Wing except where the West Wing is whitewashing fan fiction about a real world war crime machine, The Hands of the Emperor is about a not real place so you the reader isn't complicit in any whitewashing when you enjoy it.
Also this book is about relationships that grow deeper and stronger through time. I really loved this book if that isn't clear.
Also this book is about relationships that grow deeper and stronger through time. I really loved this book if that isn't clear.
February 15, 2023
The first 20 percent of this book was fairly intriguing (though the first two chapters were so slow I put it down and didn't pick it back up for months). It has lots of little juicy bits that make it clear the author has created a world with a tangible sense of history. However, while the book greatly praises the work of bureaucrats, it seems to have little conception of political capital, which would exist even in an absolute monarchy ruled over by a magical god-king. Cliopher's remarkable ability to be the sole source of EVERY good idea put forth by the government, and his even more remarkable ability to see each and every one of his policies enacted, with little pushback, becomes increasingly tiresome. This utopian approach, which admittedly makes the book so cozy, strips Cliopher of anything resembling the skill each and every character spends paragraphs and pages harping on. Deceptively, given how frequently it is discussed, there is very little of diplomacy, negotiation, compromise, or political and social undercurrents to be found on the page, almost all of it occurring before the book opens or in the interstices of what is actually written. Problems arise (usually, someone insults Cliopher or his culture), and are as quickly resolved with a *long* repetitive speech. There are no retaliations by any of the characters who receive these set downs, making the latter 80 percent of the book read like the And Everybody Clapped meme on a loop. What started out as a fairly promising rumination on the growing relationships and friendships between five middle-aged and important men, soon became The Cliopher Show, where characters conveniently entered rooms at just the right moment to sing Cliopher's praises, and then faded away into the background again. I am still intrigued about the fate of the world, the true man behind the facade of the Son-of-stars (does he ever develop a relationship with his sister?), the wider world and it's different cultural traditions, and the magical scaffolding of the empire. However, I do not know if I am curious enough to pick up the next book for fear that it likewise fails to deliver on its premise.
October 5, 2023
4,5*
A thousand stars for the weapon-grade platonic yearning throughout. Several scenes absolutely destroyed me in the best way.
I loved the first half or 60 % of this book, then it started to get repetitive and the level of ignorance in Kip's family was a bit overdone because the same pattern was repeated over and over again and they were told what Kip did and how important he was several times, including by His Radiancy himself. Like, hello?? How stupid are you, exactly?
Nevertheless, it's a perfect book for comfort rereads and given the state of our world, it's nice to read about an individual really able to change the world, for the better.
A thousand stars for the weapon-grade platonic yearning throughout. Several scenes absolutely destroyed me in the best way.
I loved the first half or 60 % of this book, then it started to get repetitive and the level of ignorance in Kip's family was a bit overdone because the same pattern was repeated over and over again and they were told what Kip did and how important he was several times, including by His Radiancy himself. Like, hello?? How stupid are you, exactly?
Nevertheless, it's a perfect book for comfort rereads and given the state of our world, it's nice to read about an individual really able to change the world, for the better.
October 12, 2025
Oh my.
Despite the fact that I can see that this is not flawless, this is an unequivocal 5 stars for me.
I absolutely loved it. It has such heart, such compassion, such respect for people and the environment.
So yeah, it was long, but I would have loved to see it longer. Towards the end, some things were repetitive, but I didn't mind seeing it repeated. Perhaps Kip achieved a bit too much (we're going to have to put it down to weird time differences, because I don't see how he could have done all of that in a lifetime), but I adored the stories of his successes. I thought perhaps his Palace friends could have used a bit more page time and personality, but Kip was so magnificent, the Emperor was lovely and his family came through loud and clear. The Vangavaye-ve (I still have no clue how to pronounce that; helpfully, it is mentioned several times how it is pronounced in the wrong way) and its culture positively dripped off the pages.
And I just really loved Kip. His determination, his fire, his uncompromising honour, all wrapped up in an unassuming package.
If you want something fast-paced and action-packed, look elsewhere.
But if you want something immersive, with superb world-building, great heart and wonderful characters, take this! Come and take this. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could.
Despite the fact that I can see that this is not flawless, this is an unequivocal 5 stars for me.
I absolutely loved it. It has such heart, such compassion, such respect for people and the environment.
So yeah, it was long, but I would have loved to see it longer. Towards the end, some things were repetitive, but I didn't mind seeing it repeated. Perhaps Kip achieved a bit too much (we're going to have to put it down to weird time differences, because I don't see how he could have done all of that in a lifetime), but I adored the stories of his successes. I thought perhaps his Palace friends could have used a bit more page time and personality, but Kip was so magnificent, the Emperor was lovely and his family came through loud and clear. The Vangavaye-ve (I still have no clue how to pronounce that; helpfully, it is mentioned several times how it is pronounced in the wrong way) and its culture positively dripped off the pages.
And I just really loved Kip. His determination, his fire, his uncompromising honour, all wrapped up in an unassuming package.
If you want something fast-paced and action-packed, look elsewhere.
But if you want something immersive, with superb world-building, great heart and wonderful characters, take this! Come and take this. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could.
October 19, 2023
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I can’t entirely explain why my ultimate comfort read is a 900 page book about a highly ranked government official slowly enacting sweeping societal reforms (like universal basic income), except that maybe I want to live in this world? I mean, it is also a book about a bunch of middle aged men and their friendships and their FEELINGS, which is also somehow a rarity in fiction. I mean, this book is not perfect: the stuff about the protagonist’s family and friends not understanding his job gets a little repetitive. And I don’t know if there are any issues with the depictions of the protagonist's minority culture, which I think is based on the Pacific Islands (and since this is clearly another world, if that matters), though I am a minority in some respects and think she nails the insider/outsider stuff. But it makes me cackle and it makes me cry and I love all these dudes and their need to be hugged.
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2020/0...
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2020/1...
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2021/0...
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2022/1...
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2023/1...
I can’t entirely explain why my ultimate comfort read is a 900 page book about a highly ranked government official slowly enacting sweeping societal reforms (like universal basic income), except that maybe I want to live in this world? I mean, it is also a book about a bunch of middle aged men and their friendships and their FEELINGS, which is also somehow a rarity in fiction. I mean, this book is not perfect: the stuff about the protagonist’s family and friends not understanding his job gets a little repetitive. And I don’t know if there are any issues with the depictions of the protagonist's minority culture, which I think is based on the Pacific Islands (and since this is clearly another world, if that matters), though I am a minority in some respects and think she nails the insider/outsider stuff. But it makes me cackle and it makes me cry and I love all these dudes and their need to be hugged.
June 5, 2024
Lovely book, beautifully written about a revolution not usually talked about much in fantasy, a more peaceful progression to a different type of state and the people behind those changes.
I found the book to be very emotional in a good way. The deep insight into the characters is something that resonates a lot with me, and I love that this happens so slowly here. In a way, I've searched for a book like this for some years now, where building up the character and showing the changes they go through takes a lot of time. The pacing of the general events in the story is on the medium side, but for the main characters it's really slow.
I also enjoyed the short length of many of the chapters a lot, it makes the book, which is definitely on the longer side a lot more accessible.
I will continue reading the series and look forward to diving into the next book very much!
I found the book to be very emotional in a good way. The deep insight into the characters is something that resonates a lot with me, and I love that this happens so slowly here. In a way, I've searched for a book like this for some years now, where building up the character and showing the changes they go through takes a lot of time. The pacing of the general events in the story is on the medium side, but for the main characters it's really slow.
I also enjoyed the short length of many of the chapters a lot, it makes the book, which is definitely on the longer side a lot more accessible.
I will continue reading the series and look forward to diving into the next book very much!
March 28, 2022
it says everything that I reread this brick of a book 2 months after finishing it & that now having finished it for a second time all I want to do is reread it AGAIN!! I would live in this book if I could
March 31, 2024
Rolling around on my FLOOR, kicking & GIGGLING RN!! What a book. What a man. What an island. What a FOREHEAD TOUCH.
I do get the DNF'ers--this book is wordy, and the latter half has so much Kip-Reckoning that it does become repetitive. I still think it hits just right, because Kip (narrator, love of my life) cares so deeply and notices everything and everyone--he deserves it.
The character writing is so good it overshadowed the other books I've tried to read alongside it. For both Cliopher and Artorin to be so careful and subdued makes their outbursts of joy and fury, affection and pain so intense. (Artorin's broken pleading in the vacation house, "Can you not see me?" ... Cliopher’s explosive, "Do not interrupt me!" Ohhh. Both times, I sat up, gnawing my lip, so engrossed that someone could've thrown a chair at my head and I'd still have finished reading those scenes.) Some damn fine writing of some damn fine characters.
I feel lucky to have read it (and to be able to re-read it, and re-re-read it....)(thank you, Anna and Sophie, for this rec!! I would've never found it otherwise!! I owe you my life!!) I'm so glad there's like eight more books to read.
I do get the DNF'ers--this book is wordy, and the latter half has so much Kip-Reckoning that it does become repetitive. I still think it hits just right, because Kip (narrator, love of my life) cares so deeply and notices everything and everyone--he deserves it.
The character writing is so good it overshadowed the other books I've tried to read alongside it. For both Cliopher and Artorin to be so careful and subdued makes their outbursts of joy and fury, affection and pain so intense. (Artorin's broken pleading in the vacation house, "Can you not see me?" ... Cliopher’s explosive, "Do not interrupt me!" Ohhh. Both times, I sat up, gnawing my lip, so engrossed that someone could've thrown a chair at my head and I'd still have finished reading those scenes.) Some damn fine writing of some damn fine characters.
I feel lucky to have read it (and to be able to re-read it, and re-re-read it....)(thank you, Anna and Sophie, for this rec!! I would've never found it otherwise!! I owe you my life!!) I'm so glad there's like eight more books to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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