/r/Fantasy Discussion Group discussion

This is where we can discuss the book full of spoilers! Come share your thoughts and reactions to The Goblin Emperor. Thanks!

Ok I just finished the book and I'm pretty disappointed. It started out great and while hard to understand at first, I can Cheeseneise with the best of them now. But I think this suffers from the same problem our last book, City of Stairs, did. Namely, huge, detailed worlds with rich histories and characters all stuffed into a airport novel length book. Aside from the two easily foiled coup attempts, nothing happened aside from a lot of worldbuilding that I liked and politics that I had no interest in. I like politics in fantasy, quite a bit actually. But I felt like Maia, thrust into a situation I had no clue about. Except I didn't feel any immediate pressing need to figure it out. I did, but the end result wasn't that great.

I feel the same way. I liked the set up of the book with some minor gripes, but the overall plot felt so shallow in the end. The first coup was almost comical and the second one just as ridiculous. The worst part I felt was that Maia did very little to stop either and while that might be realistic, it left me wanting as a reader. I felt like for painting Maia as a rule ignorant of court politics, his adversaries did so little to exploit that. I mean really? They kidnapped him from his room in the middle of the night to sign an abdication decree? Just kill him at that point or use the better political advantage to force him to without all the drama. Overall, I wouldn't say it's a bad book but I really felt like it didn't live up to the potential.

I actually would have liked this book much more if I knew it was just the first book in a planned series. I'm actually really interested in whether Maia can hold on to his ideals over time in a position that's so easily corruptible. But as a standalone, it's just ok.

Came in with low expectations and somehow the book fell low beneath them. The Goblin Emperor is the least entertaining book I've read all year. Unlike the others here I didn't find the beginning very interesting, but I agree that it only got worse as it went on. Even though I didn't find the plot intriguing, I found Maia to be a very identifiable character, the prose well done, and the world building complex.

I think the comic artist at XKCD said it perfectly:

http://xkcd.com/483/

The plot is shallow at best and drowns in long and complicated names. I have never been good at remembering names and in this book you have so many different names, titles and apparently a special form of grammar for different ways of talking, all of which is barely described.

The book was OK, but felt more like the beginning few chapters of a larger book then a completed story.

I did not enjoy this book at all. It was boring and brought nothing new to the fantasy genre.

I finished the book last night. It was a very classic story with the small twist of being goblins. However well written some of it was, overall I was bored through a great deal of it.

After reading these comments I'm so glad I decided to abandon this book at just 15% in, which is something I usually find unthinkable.

So, doesn't seem like anyone enjoyed it too much.

For me, it was getting past remembering everyone's name and title. For a long time there, I never knew who was being referred to.

I thought Min Vechen would turn out to be a "bad guy", the one responsible for killing the previous emperor. She had connections to the Clockworkers Guild, and the bomb was timed with a clock. No dice. I hoped we as the readers would have a more active role in trying to figure out who was behind the treachery. Turned out, all the traitors were the obvious guys that everyone suspected from the outset. That was ultimately dissatisfying.

I read the book about a week ago, and was impressed by the whole "world in motion" narrative, far more than the fantasy setting.

You could easily replace the elvish and goblin lands with Austro-hungarian and Ottoman empires, set it as historical fiction and it would still be a great story.


I heard that Brandon Sanderson did something like this in "Alloy of Law" in respect to world building, though I haven't read it yet. And the whiffs of magic that we heard of in the story were a great addition (similar to how the Gentlemen Bastards trilogy was handled).

All in all, a novel addition to fantasy, one that I'd like to see more in the future.

Tom wrote:

"I thought Min Vechen would turn out to be a "bad guy", the one responsible for killing the previous emperor. She had connections to the Clockworkers Guild, and the bomb was timed with a clock. No dice. I hoped we as the readers would have a more active role in trying to figure out who was behind the treachery. Turned out, all the traitors were the obvious guys that everyone suspected from the outset. That was ultimately dissatisfying."

This bothered me so much. Overall I appreciated the effort Addison put into attempting to build a world but every plot was just so...obvious. I mean I thought for a long time that Csevet would end up betraying Maia because I didn't think it could possibly be so obvious about the others but no.

I think the best part about the book was perhaps portraying how difficult it must be to be thrown into ruling a kingdom until it becomes all Cupcakes and Frosting and Maia emerges as the Most Wondrous Emperor that could ever be.

I'm actually surprised by the negativity towards the book. I found the characters to be fun, the story a bit more lighthearted than usual fantasy (goblins?) and while I agree that the ending felt a bit weak and the language was overused, the overall package was an enjoyable read for me.

I enjoyed this book. It was well-written, light fantasy. After a string of disappointing "book 2s" from several fantastic "book 1s" ("Tower Lord", "The Shadow Throne" and "Crimson Campaign"), it was a pleasure to read a stand-alone, self contained story with a protagonist that I really liked.

I'd forgotten how nice a simple, well-told tale can be - no impending end of the world, no unleashing of the ultimate darkness, no gratuitous violence or profanity...yeah, just a *nice* enjoyable read.

I also enjoyed this book although it did suffer from some minor issues. For me, the amount and similarity between names made it difficult at times to follow. As another person said, I wish this book was the first book in a series instead of a standalone.

Video review: http://youtu.be/E6pRZCiFYUQ

Written review: http://commontouchoffantasy.com/book-...

I admired Addison's use of language and creating a main character that I cared about and saw progression in that character. Starting out so insecure when he first goes to court and seeing his transformation throughout the book is the best part of the book. I enjoyed the theme of loneliness that characters of power and prominence might experience.

The plot was very unexciting and sterile. There were no surprises in this book. A novel about political intrigue being so predictable is really disappointing. The world building was nothing more than substituting strange words for common regality. I wanted more strange customs, like the death sentence gathering. That was the most imaginative part of the entire book.

I also thought that Addison wrote herself into a corner by making it so that the Emperor could not get close to anyone. If his relationships with the Empress to be, his guards, and his secretary were more familial, it would of invoked more emotion from me as a reader. Even reading about a courtship with the Empress to be would have been a lot of fun.

I gave it a 3/5, on the higher end of 3. It could of been a great book but just fell flat but it is a comfy read and I'll check out her work in the future.

I didn't like it at first but enjoyed it once the world was established and it wasn't 90% about names and court etiquette. While the plot didn't exactly build to much I liked seeing Maia at least develop a bit. Not my favourite book of all time but I'm not too disappointed either.

Thoroughly disappointed with this book. Read the second half in the last two days because the month is coming to an end, but was not impressed. As many have said before, very boring, overuse of names and titles, and a mediocre climax at best. I have bought Tigana and hope that next months read is better.

A very strange book where nothing actually happens. Reminds me of those horrible drama films that everyone seems to love where the entire story is that one character gets diagnosed with cancer or something and has to deal with it and the story ends without ever really having a point. That is this book.

The only conflict is the trying to kill him and trying to figure out who was responsible for blowing up the airship that starts the story. It could have been written more like a crime story where we are attempting to learn who was responsible but the whole conflict being kicked off as a poorly timed accident kind of made that impossible.

The book has far too many names to remember and it is one of those situations where it would have been nice to have a physical copy rather than an E-book so that when something is brought up after not having been referred to for 300 pages I could have just read the list at the end of the book to remember what it was.

@Rodney: Why can't you read the list at the end of your eBook the same as with a physical book? Are you using a Kindle?

Simon wrote: "@Rodney: Why can't you read the list at the end of your eBook the same as with a physical book? Are you using a Kindle?"

It screws up the furthest page read, and it's hard to jump back and forth. When the list is at the beginning you can bookmark it then jump back to your furthest page, I have no idea how it would work in this case. I didn't even know it existed my book started on the first page of the story so I didn't see it on the table of contents.

I hate to say this, but I think I am going to DNF this one. I'm 75% way through and ultimately just don't care enough about anything to the point where it feels like a chore to read on.

Lisa: For what it's worth, I felt the same way, except I finished the book anyway, just in case there was something stupendous in the ending—but there wasn't.

I read this book a few months ago, before the book club. Totally agree with Lisa and Simon. I never finished it, so glad to hear that I didn't miss much.

It's unfortunate as I had heard many great things about it, but am also kinda glad to see it's not just me. Also, I do feel a bit better hearing that there is nothing stupendous in the ending that I'll be missing out on.

I didn't mind this book. Although I did struggle to get into it at the start. Once I worked out that is was not an adventure / quest but a political story, I enjoyed it much more. The context I gave it was - if the Padishah Emperor in Dune was assassinated and instead of being raised by Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho, Paul was exiled and raised by one of the Harkonnens, then thrust into the role of Emperor, he would be a lot less self assured too - just like Maia. I really liked the ending. The parallels between Maia coming into his own and the changes he was bringing to the world were so positive. The place sounded like it could do with a good shake up. For me it finished on such a sense of potential. As others have said it would be good to see more.