The Goblin Emperor has been on my TBR since it was first published in 2014 so I was excited to see it re-released in audiobook format. Despite high praise from friends, I struggled to get into the story and get past racially charged comments like "unkempt as a half-witted ragpicker's child" that make light of slavery or implying that people fake disabilities to get access to financial or political power. I don't think fiction owes its audience mirrored political ideology, but I would hope that these linguistic and ideological decisions wouldn't be made lightly as they seem to have been here. I also personally found the narrator's voice offputting and slightly haughtier than the MC's personality reads to me, but I imagine other listeners would enjoy the production. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of this audiobook.

Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for a copy of this audiobook! I really enjoyed it. When I first downloaded it and saw that it was 16 hours I was a little daunted. I knew nothing about it and that’s a large time commitment if it’s not something I’m interested in. Fortunately for me I really enjoyed it.
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The book opens with Maia, an 18-year-old exiled prince, learning that his father, the Emperor, and all his half-brothers have died in an airship accident. This leaves him to inherit his father’s throne. Maia was exiled with his mother and held under virtual house arrest once his father tired of his wife and son. Maia grew up with little to no education. Then once his mother died when he was 8 little to no love or affection either. Maia is totally unprepared to rule and is immediately out of his element. The book follows the first few months of his reign and all the intrigue and scandal that come along with the court.
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The narrator was good but I think I would not recommend the audiobook book. The names, places, and titles of this fairy/goblin world are very hard to follow. I was looking through the ebook and there’s a comprehensive “Listing of Persons, Places, Things, and Gods” that would have helped immensely in following the story.
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There’s a stand-alone sequel called The Witness for the Dead that was released 6/22. It follows one of the characters from the first book but doesn’t continue Maia’s story. I’m looking forward to that and fingers crossed a follow-up (or 10) to Maia’s story. ! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

The Goblin Emperor is about Maia, a half-Goblin, half-Elf son of the Emperor who inherits his father's throne after a successful assassination via blown-up airship. While trying to determine the culprits, Maia learns how to be the new Emperor.

This book is nice in the way that conflict avoidance is nice. After reading other fantasy books that examine and peel apart imperialism, empire, and nobility, this falls so short. There are interesting concepts introduced throughout, but much like in Angel of the Crows, none of it gets the layering necessary to make it compelling. This is not really a spoiler, but the group who assassinated the Emperor were not into the idea of hierarchies and believed people to be equal. It's presented as this appalling, silly idea. Since the book actively avoids the crimes and sins of emperor and empire, sure, having a flattened ruling structure does seem silly, as the only sin of the previous Emperor seems to be that he was a shitty dad to his half-Elf, half-Goblin son. But given the studied mechanics of political powers, the structure of government in The Goblin Emperor exists in a bubble all its own. If that's what Addison was going for, she succeeded, but it doesn't work as far as a compelling narrative goes. It's a childish, 101 understanding of the mechanics of royalty.

Aside from skin color and some vague allusions to Goblin culture being trade-based, there are no differences between Elves and Goblins. Addison doesn't do anything with Maia being biracial per the rules of the world, and I cannot decide if that is better or worse than attempting the representation. Given, however, there are no discernable differences between the two factions, perhaps it shouldn't matter. But it matters, except it doesn't seem to, at least, not as far as the plot goes (more on that later). The world-building plays as an exercise in inventing terms without contextualizing why things might require specific terms. The con-langing functions only at the noun level without anything reaching out to other facets of society and culture. Probably because there isn't any discernable culture.

The world is painfully, cis-heteronormative and patriarchal. Women cannot inherit positions of power, queer relationships aren't coded into law (as some of it would fix the previous problem), and sex workers are second-class citizens. It's incredibly "safe" as far as fantasy worlds go. As mentioned earlier, this book literally does nothing to examine the world it builds. All we get is the perspective of Maia as Emperor with the same kind of bumbling and introspection as an intern starting a new job. Maia, having been abused and cast aside by his family, should have some kind of perspective, but instead, it's all about how he doesn't understand the rules of his new world with no interiority around trying to examine how those rules work. It's as if he is an equal to them, except for when he briefly remembers his childhood.

In addition, the choices between depiction and summary did not work for me. Some of the letters would have worked much better as scenes, and the scenes that did show up in page simply did not move the plot. Maia does no growth from beginning to the end. He seems to be the same character, seeking a place to belong, but it falls so flat. It seems to me that Addison understood "court of manners" books as books where "nothing happens." That's patently untrue, but this book seems to go out of its way for nothing to happen. There is no sense of stakes. It could have been structured like a murder mystery since the Emperor and his sons died, but no. It's more about Maia and the day-the-day of court life. Slice-of-life minus the daily dramas.

With how much hype this book has gotten, I expected something incredible. Unfortunately, I am deeply disappointed.

The Goblin Emperor audiobook is a joy. I found the narration very well done and easy to listen to. The pacing of this book is well suited for audio with the action being a bit slow but a lot of detail about the inner emotions and thoughts of our main character. Listening to Maia’s thoughts made me feel closer to the story and more sympathetic and connected to him overall.

Maia’s story reads almost like a historical fiction. It’s full of court intrigue and social commentary and while it is set in a high fantasy world, the themes are all pulled from our world. Maia struggles to navigate his new role as emperor and learn the complex inner workings of what it actually means to rule without turning into his father. This feels like a very accessible fantasy story even for non-readers of the genre. The Goblin Emperor is a quiet character driven story that peeks behind the curtain of day to day life in an impossible world.

The narration is lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

5 stars

This is a wonderful book! Maia, the exiled teen son of the emperor, unexpectedly succeeds to the throne when his father & all his brothers die in an accident. Maia faces intrigue, lack of education, having no friends at court, & the sudden responsibility of ruling an empire. This is a really touching story, & Maia gets a wonderful character arc. Good world building, well developed characters, clean prose, humorous moments, suspense, & detailed settings make this a lovely story.

[What I liked:]

•Maia is a wonderful MC. He struggles with fear, anger, loneliness, & mistreatment. He’s not perfect, but he works hard to find peace, treat people well, not give way to desires for vengeance, & make the most of his situation. I really enjoyed watching his character growth, I could really identify with many of his struggles (homesickness, grief, loneliness, anger, teenage awkwardness), & I admire him.

•There are so many well rounded characters! The dudes on the council, Kala & Beshaloss, Maia’s nephew & nieces, Celehar, & more.

•The world building is satisfyingly detailed without becoming overwhelming. I especially enjoyed the details about the religious & political landscape. There are some creative bits (for example, some priests act as “witnesses for the dead”, & can interview dead people to find out about their last moments to assist in investigations). And I enjoyed the descriptions of clothing, food, climate, etc.

•The interpersonal challenges & ethical choices Maia faces made great narrative conflicts. The dangers threatening Maia aren’t just external, they’re tied to emotional trauma & self doubts & relationship conflicts. That gives the action & suspense an emotional depth & personal cost at stake that enrich the whole story.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•The one queer (side) character in the whole book has a horrifically tragic backstory of star crossed love, self condemnation, & guilt. It’s not a major element of the plot, but I’m not a fan of depressing & doomed gay love stories as a trope :/

CW: physical assault, child abuse & neglect, racism, sexism, murder, homophobia, infidelity

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

I've had this book on my TBR for a long time but it never made it anywhere near the top because the summary just didn't grab me. I'm so grateful I was able to listen to the audio book of this though because I was so so wrong. While it is not an action packed plot, it is definitely not boring in anyway.

This book is for those who love political intrigue and well crafted worlds. While there is ostensibly the plot of figuring out who killed Maia's father and brothers, the majority of the book is the day to day workings of Maia's court and Maia himself figuring out how to be emperor. It can be a little slow at times but it is never boring.

It was also great listening to the audio book because I would have had a very very hard time figuring out how to pronounce the names of all of these characters and places.

I highly recommend listening to this audiobook. The narrator, Kyle McCarley, is fabulous. Not only does his voice just sound regal, he does a good job with the side characters and navigating Maia's inner thoughts and feelings.

I’ve been on a fantasy kick recently, so I was excited to give The Goblin Emperor a try. It follows the sweet sweet, long-isolated Maia, fourth son of the former Emperor as he takes the throne. Maia was by far the best part of this book.

Because of the promising fantasy premise—half-goblin ascending to the throne of a nation of elves—I waited patiently for the book to hit its stride. Unfortunately, instead of diving into the racial politics and hinted assassination plots, it remains mired in the tedious day-to-day minutia of all that Maia needs to learn. The world-building barely extends past the walls of the palace. The voice actor for the audiobook (Kyle McCarley) also chose a voice more pretentious than suitable for the fledgling emperor.

I am grateful to both the publisher and NetGalley for providing an Audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Goblin emperor has taken the place of my absolute favourite book of 2021. This book was pure pleasure to read. It had all of my favourite tropes, amazing character growth and a main character so precious that you want to protect them with your life.
Maia is the forgotten half goblin son of the emperor who is so far back in line to the throne that absolutely no one expects him to sit on the throne. But an unexpected tragedy involving an aircraft carrying the emperor and all his sons sees Maia becoming the emperor and nobody is particularly happy about it.
Forced into exile and made to grow up with a cruel guardian for his ‘inferior’ ancestry, Maia could absolutely have misused the supreme power he suddenly gains to make everyone pay for their cruelty but every single time, he tries and tries the hardest to do the right and that was just, such a beautiful, heartbreaking as well as heartwarming thing to experience through the lush writing of Katherine Addison. It reminded me of this quote by Toni Morrison which says ‘I just think goodness is more interesting. Evil is constant. You can think of different ways to murder people, but you can do that at age five. But you have to be an adult to consciously, deliberately be good – and that's complicated.’
But it’s not just Maia that would keep you hooked to this book. There is plenty of court and political intrigues to keep you entertained till the end.
This book basically had every single trope I adore which are found family, underdog trope and the coming of age trope. All of them were splendidly incorporated into the story and I was left with all the warm fuzzy feels I crave in my books and more.
If cinnamon roll characters , found family and underdog tropes are your jam, then please please pleaseeeeee pick up this precious precious book and thank me later.

This book was a true joy to read. I can't believe it's actually been out in the world for six whole years and I didn't know about it until now.

This is a political fantasy novel where absolutely nothing outlandish happens. Things occasionally get a little crazy but everything is dealt with so calmly and with so much rationality that it's actually a breath of fresh air from other fiction (and real life, too).

I adored our Goblin Emperor, Maia, and his retinue. I appreciated each side character and the depth Addison had all of them. This novel is over 500 pages, but I got to the end and was genuinely saddened that I couldn't just flip the page and keep reading.

Imagine my glee, then, when I learned that Addison has written another book in this world, following another character I loved. You can bet your ass I'm picking that up the second it's available!

Would 100% recommend the audiobook for a good time.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Tor Books for the ALC in return for my honest review.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I’m a fan of fantasy books, and I appreciate a good fantasy politics, but this one had way too much politics and etiquette in the beginning, it was hard to move on. Also, the narrator really sounded like a goblin, that listening to him voice-out characters was really challenging.
This had other great reviews, but maybe the physical book would be better.

I listened to a new Macmillan Audio production for this book, narrated by Kyle McCarley and I really enjoyed it. The narrator was very pleasant to listen to and the story itself was very political, which is something I like to see in the books I read. This surely isn't a book for those who seek pages filled with action.

Aside from the main character being a goblin, I didn't find this book to be very original. However, it doesn't mean it isn't a great book. It is a well written, political fantasy with lots of emphasis on court mannerism and a wonderful main character.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an early audio recording!

I'm 10 chapters in and can slog no further.

This is an incredibly slow moving book that starts off with nothing but politicking and etiquette and NOTHING HAPPENING.

I greatly appreciate the narrator as their voice is fantastic and they bring as much life and energy to it as they can. It just not interesting enough to capture my attention.

4.5 stars

This is an interesting one to review because on the one hand I have a couple of real issues with the book. On the other hand I mostly adored reading it. So.

The Goblin Emperor is kind of like if Jane Austen wrote a fantasy novel about a half-goblin young man who unexpectedly becomes emperor and must figure out how to grapple with court politics, etiquette, and assassination plots. It's a fantasy of politics and manners. Now you might be thinking "that sounds painfully dull", in which case this is probably is not the book for you. However, if you're thinking "Jane Austenesque fantasy?! Yes please!" then you should definitely give this book a try. Personally, I loved all those elements of it and fell in love with Maia (the main character) as a character. This was charming and cozy and something I would probably read again. Stylistically, this was very reminiscent of the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

That said, I have to address a couple of things. First, this book can come across as inadvertently racist. And look, I think the author probably had good intentions. Plus this was published back in 2014 so I don't think sensitivity readers were really a thing. But the entire premise of the book....basically Maia is the outcast of his family because his mother was a goblin. Goblins are described as being ugly with black skin and orange eyes. As a mixed race person, Maia has grey skin and grey eyes, but is now emperor of the elves who are all super white. Oh, and some of the full-goblins Maia interacts with speak with a dialect akin to immigrants learning english as a second language. I think the intent here was to show how Maia is actually this great person and goblins have a lot to offer personally and culturally, but....yeah this was not the best way to do that. And Maia internally berates himself as being a "hobgoblin" who's ugly and stupid. Yikes. Additionally, there is a queer side character who is depicted as sympathetic, but Maia likes him despite his "unnatural" love. This is mentioned briefly, but still not great. For me all of this doesn't invalidate how much I enjoyed the storytelling as a whole, but I think it's important to recognize.

The last thing that a lot of people have said, and it's true, is the naming conventions make it really hard to follow who's who. There's an enormous cast of characters and all of them have lengthy, unfamiliar names leaving me mostly guessing at their identities through context clues because I just couldn't keep them all straight and stopped trying to. Like "oh, I think he's talking to his fiancee now" or, "oh right this one is his sister-in-law." And that is going to really bother some readers. Overall though, I had a really good time reading this book and the new audiobook is fantastic! I received an audio review copy via NetGalley (and also owned a physical copy purchased myself) all opinions are my own.

ARC provided by NetGalley for an Honest Review
This was a tough book for me to make it through. This type of fantasy fiction is not necessarily my genre of choice so take it as you will. There was just soooooo much politics and little action. This is definitely a mood type read where high fantasy and goblin politics have to be something you care to learn about otherwise it may not resonate the same way, I think the timing for this book also changes my perception. Had I read this during its original release I probably would have loved it like many seem to before me, so again take it with a grain of salt. I also read via audio, which was done really well and the narration is probably the only thing that kept me from falling asleep. I found it hard to stay focused and at times it became very confusing with the vast amount of characters. Oddly enough I also feel like the “goblins” could easily be replaced with humans because I didn’t find much if anything that made them fantastical and goblin like (appearance aside). Heck they even come in different shades and colors like us, who knew?!!?. They have airships, brothels, a pretty typical hierarchy, illegitimate children and more. Nothing much that I found that made them being goblins so great or different from other similar genre reads about humans or sometimes even elves. Honestly though I think it was all the politics that got me. From the start the MC is thrust into the role of emperor after the deaths of his father and brothers. Only he’s not nor has he ever been considered a heir to the throne. He’s never been trained, taught or even been to the castle before and so each moment is him learning the ropes, something I unfortunately struggled with. It just felt monotonous and very dry at times. Heck the most exciting part to me was an (view spoiler) and even that lacked excitement and was over in a breeze. The MC is a fair and just ruler unlike his father and previous kings but aside from that and his bringing about potential change to the kingdom and his people I’m not sure what I’m supposed to take from the book.

The Goblin Emperor
(The Goblin Emperor #1)
Katherine Addison
Maia’s mother was a goblin princess forced to marry the emperor of the Elflands; it was a political marriage. Maia, the fourth son of the emperor was considered an abomination, an atrocity. As a young child Maia, half-goblin, was banished from the kingdom. He had no friends, was never trained to live at court. He bares the scars of mistreatment at the hands of his guardian. When his father the emperor and his brothers were assassinated, it was his duty to become the new Emperor. He is unprepared for the duties fostered on him. There are those surrounding him eager to give advice and to gain his favor. There are also those wishing to overthrow him. The naive young man has no friends and is unsure who to trust.
This tale is like a breath of fresh air. I found myself listening carefully and relistening to certain sections. It is told from the point of view of the new emperor. My heart went out to Maia; his life was fraught with cruelty and misery, perhaps that was what made him such an innocent and gentlehearted person. Throughout this book the royal ‘we’ is used. The writing style worked well; I felt as if I was at court. The genre for this book is fantasy. As you can imagine there is a plethora of court politics. There is a glossary in the back of the hard copy of this book.

hi-lights

👍 Wholesome
😱 Dense writing
👍 Beautiful prose
👍 Political drama
👍 Morally good lead
👍 Themes of abuse and discrimination

The Goblin Emperor is what would happen if at the end of Return of the King, Frodo was crowned king of Gondor instead of Aragorn. As an outcast of the court, Maia never wanted to be emperor. After an airship crash that kills his father and brothers, he has no other choice.

This book is insanely dense ( thick with formal court communication and long names) however, the audiobook is highly recommended for the curious folks out there who don't usually read flowery, dense prose. I don't know if I could have read this without it. As most reviewers point out, the use of the royal "We" through the book can be...a lot. Names and locations are VERY similar and sometimes you just need to ignore the politics because it can be hard keeping characters straight.

All that said, this is a really interesting book. On the surface, it's about an outsider who becomes king. What this really comes down to is a hopeful, warm story about a young man looking for friends and people to care for him. It's a book about how if you are your best self and act out of empathy, it will draw others to you and inspire loyalty. I've never read a dense political fantasy where there is no ruthlessness from the main character, or that character gets punished for being too weak.

Rather, in The Golbin Emperor, Maia is very much allowed to be sensitive and kind. Several moments warmed my heart. Several more surprised me. The Goblin Emperor is such a quiet, understated book I actually listened to it on audio while I was pulling weeds. It was very relaxing.

I would probably not recommend this book to folks off the cuff, but i very much enjoyed it.

This book was very well written and had vivid characters. Unfortunately, I could never get really into it. Possibly, this is because I listened to the audio version, although the narrator was excellent. It may be that I was not in the right frame of mind for the listen, although the book was lovely.

I DNF this book, but to be fair, fantasy isn’t really my jam. I could tell the author was creating a strong world for her characters, and so if you like fantasy, you should give it a try. I found that it was hard to keep up with the characters in the audio format.

Katherine Addison's novel, "The Goblin Emperor" is not your typical fantasy story. This is not cut and slash with fierce monumental battles every other chapter. Rather, it's a battle of imperial courtyard manners, which, as told by Ms. Addison, is just as fierce as a land battle.

I thought this was a wonderful story and highly recommend it. Excellent character development particularly of Maia, the protagonist who appears to be suffering from a host of adverse childhood events that appear to result in a serious case of PTSD, whihc does not appear to stand in his way of ruling justly.

I thought the narrator was excellent and used his voice for different characters. I increased the speed of the narration to 1.75 and that did not distort the narration.

Thanks to Net Galley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC.

The narrator, Kyle McCarley, had a wonderful voice, especially with the very difficult sounding names of people and places. He made the story more magical and evoked the personalities of very different individuals. This is mostly a story of coming of age, political intrigue, and the meaning of friendship.

The story starts with Maia, the half-goblin, half-elven fourth son of the Emperor of the Elves, who was raised in isolation from the time of his mother’s death at age eight. A court courier arrives with a letter saying Maia’s father and three half brothers had died in a crash and Maia was next in line of succession; at 18 Maia was to be the next Emperor.

When he arrives at court, he doesn’t know anyone, doesn’t know the history or politics of his country, and is totally unprepared for what is expected of him. But he does know the etiquette, which was beaten into him by his guardian, and Maia has a good heart. Being half goblin is a disadvantage, his father only married Maia’s mother for political reasons and only bedded his mother on the marriage night, never expecting to have a child.

I loved that this book was so different from others in its genre; that Maia was so totally likeable, that he formed unlikely friendships, and surprised the people around him by his unexpected kindness. Also, that he was able to relate to many of the women and staff because of his upbringing. He wasn’t well educated, had no social skills, and had very low expectations placed on him.

The thing I didn’t like was the confusing names; so many sounded the same or so similar I had a hard time placing them, but soon recognized the major characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this audiobook; this is my honest review.