The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1) in Beyond Reality

Mar 20, 2014 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, queer-characters

Maia is the overlooked and unwanted half-goblin son of the Emperor of the Elves. Then his father and older brothers die in a dirigible explosion. In the space of a single day, Maia is catapulted from a shabby genteel life in the backwater to head of an Imperial Court he has only ever visited once before. Maia tries to be a good emperor, but his upbringing didn't prepare him for any part of his new life.

I really, really liked this, both the world that Addison has created and Maia himself. I only ...more

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Jan 01, 2021 Carrie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: goblins, fantasy

The last book I started in 2020 and the first I finish in 2021.

Maia a half goblin and has lived most of his life basically in exile from the Untheileneise Court, living under guardian care after the death of his mother. He has no friends, no contact with his father the Emperor, who has never cared for him at all. The story opens with him receiving word that the airship that his father and all his brothers were on has crashed and all have died. Now it is he who is next in line.

He knows nothing of ...more

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Nov 21, 2014 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

I put this down twice in the first chapter, put off by the thees and thous. Only the fact that so many of my friends had recommended it so highly kept me reading, and I'm glad I trust them so much. I'm easily put off by grimdark and the sort of grandiose heroism that I (perhaps unfairly) expect to encounter when I open a book of high fantasy. This was in fact a lovely character study, and a deeper meditation on stagnation of power. Maia, the eponymous Goblin Emperor, is a good character to hang ...more

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Aug 12, 2015 Matt rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

In terms of enjoyment alone, this books might deserve but three stars for me. It gets an extra star from the sheer quality of the writing and execution of the story. Despite the exotic fantasy setting, Mrs Monette writes of normal life with all the grace of Jane Austin, creating a keep you up way past your bedtime page turner of ordinary conversations, domestic politics, and a young man's emotional struggles when under stress. I found the level of craftsmanship to be exceptional, and I can only In terms of enjoyment alone, this books might deserve but three stars for me. It gets an extra star from the sheer quality of the writing and execution of the story. Despite the exotic fantasy setting, Mrs Monette writes of normal life with all the grace of Jane Austin, creating a keep you up way past your bedtime page turner of ordinary conversations, domestic politics, and a young man's emotional struggles when under stress. I found the level of craftsmanship to be exceptional, and I can only hope and pray that the author's health and inspiration recover so that we can get new stories within the world she has created.

One other area that I liked is that despite the works obvious modern political references, the writer managed to stay her own person and chart her own path with her own reasoning, rather than being a mouthpiece for one group or the others uniform partisan beliefs. I'm thinking that hyper-partisans of all sorts are going to be uncomfortable with parts of this story. And I think that once again, the insight of Rod Serling - that speculative fiction is often a more appropriate vehicle for exploring sensitive subject matter than a straight forward approach - is proven sound. In particular, exploring ethnic tension between a race of dark skinned and white skinned elves with no obvious connection or analogy to any particular human ethnic groups, means that the two fantasy groups can stand in for any two different peoples that find the need to share the world they are living in, and can comment on that problem without inflaming the sensitivities of any real groups. If these were humans borrowing real world ethnic traits, I think it would be too easy to miss what was being said, amidst concern over stereotyping, cultural appropriation, and whether or any of this really represented the true sources of the conflict fairly and appropriately.

The story loses a star for me (yes, it really is THAT good), because at some level it is all far too easy. I don't mind that the story of an 18 year old man is at some level a young adult story, but a story for young adults doesn't mean the story of the young man's hardships needs to be largely over by the time the story begins. Despite the difficulties that Maia is presented with, they compare not at all with the hardships he endured prior to the story and yet not only does Maia come out of those hardships largely unscathed in mind and soul, bearing only a superficial bodily scar, but he immediately finds hyper-competent and trustworthy people to entrust his life to.

Despite every evidence of bureaucratic corruption and inefficiency, when Maia needs something to happen to further his security on the throne then it happens with delightful efficiency. He is dependent completely on his personal secretary from the moment he arrives in the capital, a man he falls in with entirely by accident, and yet that man proves to be utterly incorruptible and superhumanly insightful and competent. From the moment Maia receives Csevet, he really stops struggling because whenever he is inadequate, he can just have Csevet do it for him. And this man Csevet who moments ago had no great station and no base of power, working for an outcast boy emperor that no one likes and half the court believes is a cretin or insane, can nonetheless just get it done and is obeyed. Likewise Maia's heir, his eventual Prime Minister, his eventual empress, his grandfather, and the man who becomes effectively his spy master all just sort of show up without a lot of interviewing and prove each as capable as the Batman and as incorruptible as a saint, continually knocking over obstacles for him rather than raising any of their own. Even with the various plots on his life, this is just too romantic of a picture not only of government, but life generally for me to take it fully seriously. Maia never really struggles to build a power base - it just happens. His plans never crumble because of the weakness of his allies. The betrayal of others never really touch him, and only strengthen his position. Part of me would have rather read the more believable story of Maia having to secure the throne with only the advice of Setheris - the man who both hates and needs him. ...more

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Dec 05, 2016 Tani rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, female-author, five-stars, favorites, sff-2016, sff-explorer-2016, sff-award-2016, 2016-novels

Edit on re-read October 2018: I haven't been tracking it, but I just re-read this for the third or fourth time, and it is just as charming and lovely as it was the first time. I don't really re-read anymore, but this is my one exception. If pressed for a favorite book, this one would be it.

I think that it's entirely impossible for me to talk about this book objectively. I went into with high expectations, and all of my expectations were met. Within a single chapter, I was completely head over h Edit on re-read October 2018: I haven't been tracking it, but I just re-read this for the third or fourth time, and it is just as charming and lovely as it was the first time. I don't really re-read anymore, but this is my one exception. If pressed for a favorite book, this one would be it.

I think that it's entirely impossible for me to talk about this book objectively. I went into with high expectations, and all of my expectations were met. Within a single chapter, I was completely head over heels in love with Maia, the main character. My love for him never dwindled throughout the course of the book. I could barely put the book down because I just wanted to see more of what was going to happen to Maia, and even more importantly, how he was going to respond to it. This book really brought out the crazy fangirl in me, I can't deny it.

So, that said. What's to love? Maia, of course! Maia is probably the absolute nicest character that I have read about all year. Which sounds like damning people with faint praise, I guess, but it was absolutely amazing to read about someone who not only has good intentions, but who almost always follows up on those good intentions. Maia has plenty of reason for hate and bitterness, but he never lets it rule him. Instead, he thinks of the other people, the ones that get involved against their will, and that get hurt in the process. Maia is always the one to try to protect those people, even over protecting himself. I just can't express how much I love him for that.

I also really enjoyed the supporting cast. All of the characters are so purely themselves that it was refreshing to read about. Maia's fiance was a particular joy for me to read about, and if I have one complaint, it's that she wasn't in it enough. At all. Likewise, I wanted more of Maia's nohecharai, his edocharai, his nieces and nephew, his cousin...Everyone! There were so many wonderful characters in here other than Maia that I can't even list them all.

Finally, past my love for the characters of this book, I really loved the messages there. Forgiveness is a big one, as is change vs. stagnation. I loved the way that both of these themes were woven throughout the book, seamlessly enough that you could either pause and think about them in depth, or you could just let them flow throughout the story.

In short, I can barely be coherent about this book. I think it will probably be my favorite of 2016, and I regret only that I took so long to read it. ...more

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Jul 21, 2020 Kerry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 10-out-of-10, 2020

This is such a wonderful book, all about breaking the cycle of abuse and being a decent person, even when people weren't or aren't decent to you.

I love Maia so much. He is amazing and I hope we'll see more of him, especially as he gets to know the people he has come to realise are his friends, even if of different kinds of what he thought the word meant. I especially would love to see the relationship that develops between him and his empress-to-be.

The people around him are wonderful too (well, ...more

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Feb 05, 2019 Christine rated it liked it

True rating is 3 1/2 to 4 stars; I've downgraded my rating due to the incredible difficulty keeping track f characters with very complex names (and multiple secondary names with various honorifics). If the author had put a list of characters at the beginning, perhaps listing them by grouping or race, it would have helped. There is an index of names at the back, but most of the names I tried to look up, are not there
I did enjoy the book and otherwise recommend it ...more

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Mar 18, 2020 Natalie rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

This book is dense and tough to get through with the long chapters and long names of places and people in the story. There is some action to carry the book through but most of the events in the book are conversations and protocol.
The story is about Maia who is the fourth, and unliked, son of the emperor. The emperor is killed in an explosion, along with his other 3 sons so Maia is made emperor. He must navigate the difficult court systems with little training and experience. He has the help of f ...more

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