The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

[loneraven]

I just finished The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. (Who is - to save y'all my strained thought processes - the same person as Sarah Monette! She's the same person who wrote Mélusine, the tortured terrifying idfic of my inner teenager's heart!) But The Goblin Emperor is not like that at all. Well, it's a secondary world fantasy of elves and -

Comments

[daegaer]

I've also just finished it and am full of joy! Elves! Goblins! FANTASY COMMUNISTS!! (Higgins' books have a plethora of fantasy communists, if you like such characters, but as the setting is a fantasy AU mash-up of late imperial/revolutionary/Stalinist-era Russia the characters' viewpoints are not similar to Maia's).

I'd read people saying that nothing happened in the book, to which I say, er, what now? I was relieved to find they were incorrect, and loved reading about what did happen, and the good people and things Maia found (as well as the unpleasant people he could actually easily recognise, yet still had to endure because that's just life sometimes).

[loneraven]

Yaaay! Yay, I'm so happy you liked it too! And, you know, I have a lot of feelings about things happening, or otherwise, in this book. Because things do happen! But then there are other things that aren't so exciting, that also happen - like finding people new jobs, and assuring other people they are still trusted, and looking after scared children, and conducting public inquiries. And maybe that's not super-fantasy-exciting or whatever, but it's so important and I love so much that the novel deals with it.

[jamethiel_bane]

I too love this book! Sometimes people can be kind, and the family you choose can be better than some of the family you're born with. Also, people treating you badly doesn't mean that you deserved it, or that you're a bad person or that you have to treat others that way, or that nobody will treat you well in future.

It's just unrelentingly decent. And sometimes I need decency and not grim-dark nihlism.

[loneraven]

ME TOO FRIEND. Such a lovely book, and so valuable.

[biascut]

Do you know, I've come around to completely the opposite view on Gentleman Jole. Cordelia seems SO detached and cool in it that I actually find it quite a dark book. Nothing about her relationship with Miles or her plans for her daughters struck me as any kind of serious consideration of motherhood, in the way that Barrayar is. I kind of feel like her love for Aral was the only intense emotion she had left, and the best she can summon for Miles or her grandchildren or Jole is kind of a pleased general interest.

Also I am confused that you've only just read The Goblin Emperor, as I read it about two years ago and I would have sworn it was a recommendation from you! I loved it too - I thought some of the linguistic invention was a bit too much (I don't like books with glossaries) but I loved the syntax, and the careful and awkward delineation of degrees of familiarity and status and Maia got used to his role.

[loneraven]

That is a very interesting reading of Gentleman Jole! And I can totally see it - there is such, I don't know, lack in that book. I wanted to like it, and I just... didn't.

Hee, you're actually not the first person to say they thought I'd recommended it to them earlier! I am also not keen on books with glossaries - my writer-brain says catty things about failure of adequate exposition - but I do love authors who take so much time with their worldbuilding. I think it really shines.

[shadowfireflame]

Reading it now! But the author is actually Sarah Monette?!?! Awesome! I didn't know that! I also enjoyed the Iskryne books she wrote with Elizabeth Bear, but haven't read Melusine (yet?--you liked it? Is it similar to the Goblin Emperor?).

[loneraven]

I like Melusine a lot! It is basically my tortured id in book form. But do be warned, it is not at all like The Goblin Emperor. (Other than being a, y’know, secondary world fantasy novel with lots of people with interesting names.) It’s much, much darker and in particular if you have triggers or other concerns relating to psychosis or graphic sexual violence, I would advise strongly against it. But given that, it’s as moreish as popcorn and I do like it.

[shadowfireflame]

Cool! Thanks for this--I may check it out after I finish the Goblin Emperor!