This book is a soft DNF. On a day when I couldn’t find an audiobook that fit this one did. This is an extremely long audiobook over 20 hours, and I did listen to approximately three. This story is about the offspring of a king, who has no chance of ever sitting on the throne and has been in isolation on the outskirts of the kingdom. They receive news that their father and all the older brothers have died which means they are now the monarch. All of that was very interesting and kept my attention. However, in listening to this audiobook the number of times they repeat the word “serenity” is annoying. I gather that this is a greeting both in welcoming and in leaving kind of like aloha, but it’s just odd. I can’t tell if this is a mistake, or purposeful. It is done so often it could almost become a drinking game. I was at the stage of the story when the main character is told they must take a wife to keep their nephews and younger siblings from killing them to take over the throne, that I stopped the audiobook and never went back. I was thoroughly enjoying this book, that I will probably read it in print because the story was good, but the narration was annoying.

thanks to netgalley, macmillian audio, and tor books for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for a review!

I've wanted to read <i>The Goblin Emperor</i> for ages and was really pleased to be approved for the audiobook. Depending on your personal reading preferences, I can certainly imagine it could be a toss up between whether the audiobook or physical copy are best. There are a lot of characters discussed in conversation (rather than introduced through more active scenes) and it could be easy to get lost in the sea of unfamiliar names. I found Kyle McCarley's narration to be a fantastic grounding tether to the world. His rendition of the main characters is easy to connect with and that's a lovely experience especially in a story predominantly about connection. My one minor gripe with the narration is fault of neither author or narrator but more a cautionary point, again depending on your own preferences - the main character's honorific is "Serenity" and it is repeated almost constantly.

Okay, anyways! Let's talk about the story. The titular character in <i>The Goblin Emperor</i> is Maia who has suddenly become emperor after the death of his father and several brothers. Completely cast aside from his family and the court, Maia was raised in total exile such that this sudden change in position is unexpected and incredibly overwhelming. <i>The Goblin Emperor</i> is about Maia's experience as he navigates court intrigue while also processing his own internal feelings of yearning for connection. This emotional focus is the incredible strength of Addison's story. Maia is easy to love and his story is quietly heartbreaking in a lot of ways such that the moments of triumph and joy feel hard-won and exciting to witness as a reader.

The world of <i>The Goblin Emperor</i> is imaginative, but I found the story to be actually very focused and narrowed in on the court dynamics. I wish there had been more opportunities to see that world building beyond the dialogue interplay of courtiers. We certainly get striking impressions of what the world is like by seeing what values are reflected in pageantry and customs of the court, but it left me wanting for more even as I understand that it just wasn't really the focus.

tl;dr - <i>The Goblin Emperor</i> is a lovely fantastical story of court intrigue depicting the main character's experience of learning both how to be the emperor in a strange world and how to connect with others after a life of isolation.

The plot revolves around political intrigue, alliances, and the mysterious Goblin King. Addison weaves a tale filled with twists and turns, keeping listeners on the edge of their seats. The narrative explores themes of power, loyalty, and the consequences of choices, creating a rich and thought-provoking tapestry that unfolds gradually.
The audiobook's flow is seamless, with a balanced mix of action, dialogue, and introspection. The transitions between scenes are well-executed, maintaining a dynamic pace that sustains interest from start to finish. The careful attention to detail in both the writing and narration ensures that every moment serves a purpose, contributing to the overall narrative cohesion.
The pacing and tone contribute to the overall atmospheric quality of the audiobook, creating an engaging auditory experience. The audiobook transports listeners to a realm where magic and politics intertwine, and the Goblin King's enigmatic presence looms large. The world-building is intricate, providing a backdrop that enhances the story's depth and complexity.

I really like this book for a lot of reasons. First, it is a fantasy that does not devolve into all out war or sex scenes bordering on porn. I love that it shows that a fantasy, regardless of the magic or lack thereof, can be about what it means to be a kind and decent person despite your upbringing. It is usually people that have everything they could possibly want who have the worst, entitled, rude, selfish outlooks on life. Those of us, like Maia, who've been badly treated and haven't had enough food or clothing or shelter are the ones who understand cruelty. Maia is a kind, intelligent, generous and fair ruler. I really want to continue to see what the empire looks like when he is done.

I read the book when it came out so much so that when the audio of it came out, I had to give it a try. It was a wonderful transition from page to audio. Well done!

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘The Goblin Emperor’ by Katherine Addison. The audiobook is narrated by Kyle McCarley. My apologies for the late feedback.

As I already owned the ebook, I was able to better follow the story by combining reading with listening. In addition, the ebook opens with a Listing of Persons, Places, Things, and Gods. Given the novel’s large number of characters I appreciated having this available.

This is the opening book in Katherine Addison’s Goblin Emperor series and was originally published in 2014. It tells the story of the Archduke Maia Drazhar, the youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor, Varenechibel the Fourth. He has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigues that suffuses it.

When his father and his three half-brothers die in an airship crash, Maia learns that he is the only surviving rightful heir. Completely unschooled in court politics, Maia has no friends or advisors - only sycophants seeking to curry favour with the naïve new emperor. When it becomes clear that the crash of the Wisdom of Choharo was no accident, there is the added threat that whoever assassinated Maia’s father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

With respect to the audiobook, voice actor Kyle McCarley is an award winning narrator. While this was my first experience of his work, I found his voice rich and very easy to listen to.

I enjoyed this epic fantasy and was impressed with Katherine Addison’s world building. The steampunk elements were welcome and Maia proved such an appealing lead. I plan on continuing with the others in the Goblin Emperor series.

This book was great, although I think I would have benefited from reading it physically rather than trough audio strictly due to the sheer number of names characters. Since the naming conventions of the nobility was unfamiliar, I did at times get find myself confused as to who was being referred to and had to go back to re-listen.

That aside, the book itself was quite enjoyable, it was political but more so focused on Maia overcoming his insecurities and the treachery of his court to become a great leader.

What I enjoyed about this book the most is that Maia actively chose to be a fair and good ruler. It was refreshing to hear him acknowledge his immediate instincts but curb his emotions to become a great leader despite his upbringing.

Overall an enjoyable read.

4/5 Stars

This was a decent fantasy book with an interesting world and intriguing plot. However, there was a lot of set up for the world, and there was so much information that it felt like info dump after info dump, and it definitely dragged the story down and made it less exciting. I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author,

I’m a big fan of palace intrigue in fantasy, but even for me this was a bit heavy handed on the fantasy politics and a bit light on the adventure.

The bones of the story here are good, and the world building (while not exactly to my personal taste) is thoughtfully done and well detailed.

For me what the story was missing was the sense of adventure and a true “mission” for the characters. It’s clever and at times intriguing, but it just didn’t feel epic enough in scale and purpose. And while I liked the characters and thought they were well-drawn, they don’t inspire well enough to balance out the lack of sweeping action in the story.

Audiobook readers: I liked the narrator and felt the book translated well to the medium. Though because it’s long and slow moving, I found my mind wandering a bit.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. It was such a great story. I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

I highly enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook. Kept me listening.

I had to DNF this one. I didn’t enjoy even the beginning. I typically like the mystical, but this one just couldn’t catch my attention.

Interesting book, not fully what I was expecting but still quite enjoyable. I expected much more political intrigue, but overall this is just a story of an outcast coming into his own. Main character was well-drawn but overall I just wanted a bit more.

I really enjoyed this quirky little book. Addison does a great job making this story different. Plus the audiobook narrator does a fantastic job as well and the collaboration fits so well. The writing style was unique. Addison used a standard third-person limited format, so you get a good amount of Maia's thoughts and feelings; however, the focus of this book is really on the dialogue, which again made the audiobook stand out even more. Unlike other books that would have lots of paragraphs on feelings and description, this book reads like a movie script. I say this in a good way. Very happy to have read this classic fantasy.
Review to come on YouTube.

This was a great read and I really enjoyed the narration. The world building was wonderful but I would have loved a little more background on the elves versus goblins. Don't miss out on this wonderful new book!!

I enjoyed the narrator and the story. I think it would be a good book for classroom discussions on duties and responsibilities (including those that we don't necessarily want), politics and manipulation to achieve end goals, how others are treated and what that says about people. There are so many things in this book that the main character handles with grace, but frustration because he is thrust into a position that he is not only lacking the training for, but not ever expecting to do.

So, I really enjoyed the audiobook because the narrator did a wonderful job pronouncing the foreign words (Elfish/Goblin?) names and places. It was pleasant to listen to, melodic, even. But I kept forgetting who all the characters were, and often had to look up information in the glossary in the ebook copy.

As far as world building, I though it was very cute how the elf/goblin ears expressed/revealed their thoughts or emotions. I wanted a lot more on what made elves and goblins different. I thought it was interesting to have a goblin protagonist in a fantasy novel, because goblins in most fictions are portrayed as inferior, ugly, and evil. It made sense that Maia being half-goblin elf would be the one to bridge the divide between cultures, but I didn't see how that actually happened, except that he eventually won the hearts of his people, both the elves and the goblins. I didn't see how he exactly changed the world and what in the world specifically needed to be changed. I understand how he became a better ruler than his father and previous emperors, how building a literal bridge realized the metaphorical bridge. But the larger problems of an imperial dictatorship and systemic racism weren't the focus of this story.

Instead, it seemed to me somewhat of a fairy tale, about a lonely boy whose father neglected and abandoned him and his mother, exiling them, and after the boy's mother died, leaving the boy to be raised by an abusive guardian. A boy who became the emperor after his father and older brothers were all assassinated, who learned how to survive through his wits, despite being uneducated, and by following the dictates of his heart rather than the dictates of politics and tradition. And after being so lonely and unloved for most of his childhood, he finds love and acceptance, a place he can call home and true friends, who appreciate him as a person despite the color of his skin. And I did feel for him.

As far as the plot, well, the assassination attempts on him were such failures and so botched, I can't believe the conspirators were so shortsighted. It seems they were so obsessed and blinded by their selfish desires that they didn't think their plans through. Not to mention, the villains were all one-dimensional.

But in the end, the minor characters, insufficient world-building and character development, didn't matter much in how I liked the book. I cared about Maia's happiness more than the conspiracies. I loved how his inner circle, particularly his primary bodyguards and secretary, cared for him and loved him back.

I had high hopes for this one — but overall, I felt underwhelmed at the conclusion of the book. I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley. First off, the world building was immaculate. There was so much detail, culture, and I loved the creativity behind the entire set up. It felt very relevant to today's climate in politics with race and gender being a very prominent topic in many discussions across the globe. The audiobook was well done, and I liked listening to the narrator; and I was truly invested in the first 50% of the story. But then, we didn't really have a climax... there was no story. Our main character has power thrust upon him and then he sort of struggles, but not really because even though he is young, totally unprepared, and not the right race to be emperor, he manages to do well. Overall, the story itself seemed very easy; the murder of the emperor felt important in the first few chapters but then falls to the wayside and the investigation is essentially carried out by a character who is missing through most of the novel.
I might be a bit over-enthusiastic about noting the story felt like there wasn't one; so rephrasing that comment - it was more in the vein with there was no tension, no dramatic flare that had me waiting for more. Books usually have me staying up late to read another chapter, or in this case sitting in the driveway waiting for the chapter to be over before going inside - but I never felt that way. There wasn't a moment where I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen so it was more of a pleasant alternative to staticky radio on my commute. I would have loved to be more involved in the investigation of the emperor's death ... I would have preferred that the storyline have us following the investigator rather than the underprepared yet always seeming to find the diplomatic way of being grand without much effort protagonist.
I do highly recommend this read for the world building though, Katherine Addison does a truly incredible job at that.

I apparently missed the download window on this one as an ARC but ended up purchasing the audiobook for myself. My sincere apologies in that respect.

First, a few quibbles: while the audiobook is very good, and I enjoyed the narrator -- there are a few cross-fade recording errors that were distracting. Basically it cross fades the audio, overlapping with itself (perhaps in a second take) for seemingly no reason a few different times. (At least twice, and this was not an audioplayer error, I tried again just to be sure). The other quibble is that this is not an easy book to listen to on audio without the full dictionary/character name list/what have you at the very end of the book. This, I am told, exists in the physical copy, but in the audio version, I'm doubly lost. Moreso than our intrepid protagonist, Maia, is.

That said, it took me a moment to warm to this book. Like honey poured into hot tea, it is solidified for a moment before it finally melted in and hit everything just right. It's a book that does a wonderous amount of things, including make me enjoy a good old fashioned elf fantasy, something I haven't done in a very long while. It's part high steampunk fantasy, part murder mystery, and part court intrigue. It's also incredibly cozy and the protagonist is delightfully warm and genuinely good. There's a lot happening all at once, and it's overwhelming, but at the same time the story is unhurried. I truly enjoyed this book, but I also know that it will doubtlessly caused mixed reactions to the maze of names and titles, the pacing, the immediacy of the plot, and so on. But I'm going to pick up the next book in the same world, because I very much enjoyed this one.

I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison was first released in 2014. I had not heard of it until The Witness For The Dead was announced to be released in 2021.

This book took me a while to get into. I didn’t feel as though the world and the characters were fleshed out enough for me to really care about what was going on. Obviously the book title gives away that the new emperor is half goblin, but I don’t feel like the discord between the elves and goblins is really investigated in this story. You are told about their dislike for each other, but you don’t really know why and you don’t really see it.

Also the mystery part of the plot, which I thought would be the most important, really wasn’t. The book is more about Maia, our goblin emperor, finding his footing in a position he never thought he would be in. I did enjoy this!! It just wasn’t what I was expecting going into it.

I wish we had learned more about the different magics and the world as a whole. I think we may get this from the sequel.

I loved this book. It's all court intrigue, but the intrigue is interesting the world is interesting, and the characters are interesting and more importantly modeling what kindness and integrity can do. The world is so rich, and I immediately wanted more stories of Maia and his people.