Maia, the youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.
Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favour with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the spectre of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as …
Maia, the youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.
Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favour with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the spectre of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor.
the usual fantasy-racism and sexism with a bit of homomisia sprinkled in. the author should just have written the novel in 19th century europe, the fantasy aspect is rarely used at all.
the book seems to want me to have sympathy with an absolutist ruler. 🙄 and what's up with all these different names, and sometimes more than one name for one person? feels like there were a hundred or so names used. oof! and then there are perfectly translatable concepts that are left in some kind of elven language, and sometimes the characters speak really old english? why?!?
at least the story itself is somewhat interesting and has potential, but i'm not gonna read the next books.
A slow-moving fantasy about an ostracized son of an emperor who suddenly finds himself an emperor. The story focuses on court politics, tensions between the emperor - who is clearly above everyone else in the society - and the rest of the society.
... and I mean above. Emperor Maia is kind, decent, thoughtful, listening ruler who tries to make friends everywhere and, in the end, probably succeeds. His background as a half-blood (the former emperor being an elf and Maia's mother a goblin) makes him a bit uncertain, his lack of education a bit socially awkward, but those things also allow him to break through conventions on how the ruling class should behave.
I thoroughly enjoyed the slow moving court politics, Maia's awakening into power and others' awakening into their emperor. Somewhere there's a nagging feeling that Maia is too good - the biggest mistakes he makes are on …
A slow-moving fantasy about an ostracized son of an emperor who suddenly finds himself an emperor. The story focuses on court politics, tensions between the emperor - who is clearly above everyone else in the society - and the rest of the society.
... and I mean above. Emperor Maia is kind, decent, thoughtful, listening ruler who tries to make friends everywhere and, in the end, probably succeeds. His background as a half-blood (the former emperor being an elf and Maia's mother a goblin) makes him a bit uncertain, his lack of education a bit socially awkward, but those things also allow him to break through conventions on how the ruling class should behave.
I thoroughly enjoyed the slow moving court politics, Maia's awakening into power and others' awakening into their emperor. Somewhere there's a nagging feeling that Maia is too good - the biggest mistakes he makes are on the level of apologizing from his subjects. One thing I didn't enjoy is the barrage of invented words - even though you get an idea of them as you read (and there's a description of some of those at the end of the book - nice to notice after you've read the book - they seem to be there just to give an idea of a foreign world without any real meaning.
Even though the book leaves an opening for sequels, I almost hope that doesn't happen; it would either be too much of a good emperor parade, or it would require changing the character of Maia. There are aspects to the story that practically shouts for more thorough handling, though, so maybe something set into the same world - say, in the neighboring goblin empire - would be nice.
That is actually something that is, in my opinion, missing from the book. Even though Maia's goblin heritage is mentioned, repeatedly, the structure of the society is left kind of unclear. Goblins seem to be very much in the working class - but on the other hand, neighboring Avar empire is goblin-led and the former emperor had a goblin as a wife. The situation spells both internal and external conflict, but the best we get is the fact that Maia considers himself ugly because of his goblin-like features.
Another thing that annoys me is the heavy-handed reference to socialist movement in the flyer factory. Maybe it's just me, but depicting the workers as atheist heathens who want to bring down the ruling class by means of conspiratorial murders doesn't really fit the tone of the rest of the book.