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A review by sarahdm
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
5.0
If you are looking for a TRUE character driven book, this is it.
There really isn't a plot in Goblin Emperor. Things are happening like assassination attempts, political turmoil, a murder mystery. But all of these things are kind of just happening in the background. The real focus is truly "what would happen if an outsider became royalty." The author goes into intense detail about everything an emperor does, thinks, and feels. Even if you end up not liking the characters (impossible), the author's eye for detail really wowed me enough to keep going. And the characters are LOVELY. The main character as well as their allies are all likeable and great. Also, I really do enjoy the little peaks into the world building (do not expect an info dump or deep explanation of things in this one). It leaves so much to explore in other (hopefully) future books or (if its your thing) the nice amount of fan fiction waiting for you when you finish this book.
That being said, I don't think I truly fell in love with this book till around the chapter 25 mark, which might be too long of a journey for some people to push through. The main character is honestly, pretty lonely and miserable for most of the book, which more than once made me want to stop but I'm glad I pushed through it. Also the royal "we" and "thou" dialog is going to push a lot of folks away which is completely understandable. This book is 100% not for everyone.
If you are still interested I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook read by Kyle McCarley (was on Hoopla for me). The names of people and things in this book are absolute ridiculous, which is why there is a glossary in the back. I found it a lot easier to keep track of characters based on the voices the narrator chose to give them rather then their actual names.
Overall, if you are looking for a detailed character driven fantasy with light world building with a fandom to carry you through the post-book depression, The Goblin Emperor is your next read.
There really isn't a plot in Goblin Emperor. Things are happening like assassination attempts, political turmoil, a murder mystery. But all of these things are kind of just happening in the background. The real focus is truly "what would happen if an outsider became royalty." The author goes into intense detail about everything an emperor does, thinks, and feels. Even if you end up not liking the characters (impossible), the author's eye for detail really wowed me enough to keep going. And the characters are LOVELY. The main character as well as their allies are all likeable and great. Also, I really do enjoy the little peaks into the world building (do not expect an info dump or deep explanation of things in this one). It leaves so much to explore in other (hopefully) future books or (if its your thing) the nice amount of fan fiction waiting for you when you finish this book.
That being said, I don't think I truly fell in love with this book till around the chapter 25 mark, which might be too long of a journey for some people to push through. The main character is honestly, pretty lonely and miserable for most of the book, which more than once made me want to stop but I'm glad I pushed through it. Also the royal "we" and "thou" dialog is going to push a lot of folks away which is completely understandable. This book is 100% not for everyone.
If you are still interested I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook read by Kyle McCarley (was on Hoopla for me). The names of people and things in this book are absolute ridiculous, which is why there is a glossary in the back. I found it a lot easier to keep track of characters based on the voices the narrator chose to give them rather then their actual names.
Overall, if you are looking for a detailed character driven fantasy with light world building with a fandom to carry you through the post-book depression, The Goblin Emperor is your next read.