Shout out to Memory, who first drew my attention to the existance of this book on NetGalley. This is one of those books I would never have found on my own if someone hadn’t pointed it out to me. And that would have been a real shame, because The Goblin Emperor is amazing and lovely and I love it and OMG OMG I read it all in one day! It’s a pretty big book and actually not all that fast paced, but I adore court intrigue (especially in fantasy settings) so I was basically glued to my Kindle from start to finish. I actually had a hard time NOT rereading it right away. In fact, writing about it is making me want to read it again! Okay, calm down. So WHAT exactly is so great about The Goblin Emperor? LET ME TELL YOU: Court intrigue! Royalty having life pains in a way that doesn’t come off as entitled and/or annoying! Maia is technically the son of the emperor, but he was raised more like an unwanted third cousin. He knows a little about how to act in court, but nothing about the current politics, social climate, etc. NOR does he know anything about actually ruling a country. So he spends a lot of time learning about all those things while also dodging the people who want to use him and/or kill him, depending on how they think about half-goblin princes raised in the marsh. This could all be totally boring, but it’s NOT. I like stories about court intrigue anyway, but the story of The Goblin Emperor is also about Maia finding his way in his new world. And there is a mystery re:his family’s deaths! It all blends together into this fascinating story of family and leadership and making friends, with tension from assassins and terrible relatives mixed in. Fun! Maia, by the way, is a lovely protagonist. He’s an outsider to his own country/family, not only because he’s half-goblin while (mostly) everyone else is an elf, but also because he’s spend most of his life living away from people. Despite his terrible childhood, he’s kind, empathetic and not at all what people expected based on who his father was. (Sidenote: his father was a terrible person but a beloved emperor. Awkwaaaaaaard.) Update! I didn’t really talk about any characters besides Maia, BUT The Goblin Emperor is filled with lovely people (and also loathsome ones, no worries). It was just as much fun getting to know them as it was getting to know Maia, especially since they were all used to life in court under Maia’s father and so were unused to an Emperor like Maia. Y’know, one that wasn’t perpetually angry/grouchy/a total beast. There’s a good balance between the numbers of male and female characters, although the most interesting female characters don’t get their chance to shine until close to the end. Maia’s fiancee, however, is a headstrong astronomer who doesn’t understand Maia at first and so spends a lot of time being rude. However, she’s got so much depth that peeks out that I’m hoping she gets to be the narrator of the next book (if there is a next book) because I thought she was fascinating to read about. So anyway, we get that outsider perspective which makes learning about the world of The Goblin Emperor much more fun than it might have been otherwise. Despite the chunks of informative paragraphs, I never felt like it was handed to me in an “as you know” kind of way— maybe because Maia DOESN’T know about all that stuff. I learned about his new role alongside him; I felt very connected to him and his story, and I loved it. I also fell in love with the writing. It’s flowy and elegant, but not in an in-your-face kind of way. I simply MUST read everything else Katherine Addison‘s written! The focus is definitely on the characters and their world in the court, but there’s some great background elements that give that world more depth. For instance, though it’s technically a fantasy world (with elves and goblins and magic), there are steampunk machines like steam-powered bridges and airships. Also, elves and goblins tend to show up in European-centered fantasies, but the court in The Goblin Emperor read more Chinese/Japanese to me. Yay! The Goblin Emperor is a fantastic story with wonderful characters who live in a rich, intriguing fantasy/scifi world. I recommend getting your hands on it ASAP. Read: March 2, 2014