TITLE: The Goblin Emperor
AUTHOR: Sarah Monette as Katherine Addison
GENRE: Fantasy
PUBLISHED: 01/04/2014
RATING: ★★★★★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: Mobilism
Review: Sarah Monette is probably most well-known for her Doctrine of Labyrinths quartet, featuring the gay wizard Felix Harrogate and his criminal brother Mildmay, and the series of intrigue-laden plots the two become embroiled in. (I recommend those to your attention heartily, by the way, as the series is excellent).
Now, under the pen name Katherine Addison, she's turned her hand to a very different kind of fantasy without losing any of her incredible skill at world-building. Full disclosure: I'm a world-building addict, and I will not hesitate to give a book two stars because its world was unbelievable or not well thought out, no matter how fantastic the plots or characters. Well, that wasn't a problem here. Monette has thought of everything, and it's enough to make an addict like myself weep with joy; the politics; the geography; the fashion; the language; the religion; and then she does it all over again for the neighbouring goblin kingdom.
Because despite the title, the book is not actually set in the goblin kingdom. Maia, the main character, becomes Emperor of the elves when his father and older brothers all perish in a airship accident (steampunk fans will enjoy themselves, but those who do not like steampunk, like myself, won't be overwhelmed by the science mixed in with the magic, so don't worry) but almost no one is happy about it. Maia, you see, is half-goblin. And that’s where a great deal of the problems he faces stem from.
I won’t go into the issues Maia has to deal with, but I have to say that this is not your traditional fantasy. Far from being a country farm boy, Maia is at least superficially prepared for court; he’s not completely clueless. The plot itself doesn’t behave the way fantasy fans will expect it to; there’s no big bad enemy, and no war for Maia to fight. That doesn’t at all mean things don’t happen, or that it isn’t extremely exciting at times, but the ‘battle’ Maia faces is one without swords. In that, it’s far more realistic, despite the elves and the goblins, then almost any fantasy novel you’d care to name. This is a book about politics and social justice and negotiating the unbelievably complicated sea of government, but I repeat: it’s not slow. The beautiful writing is a pleasure to read all by itself -
The mooring mast of the Untheileneise Court was a jeweled spire in the sunlight.
Instead of combs and tashin sticks, his hair was caught in an elaborate silver webbing with tiny diamonds at every node, and a veil over it so fine it almost wasn’t there.
– but it’s the characters and plots (yes, plots plural) that kept me hooked until the very last page. Monette works wonders with even the most minor characters, and often manages to convey a wealth of information with just a few short lines. Such as this moment featuring one of the female characters of the book, and probably my favourite bit of dialogue in the whole thing (you really need the full context to understand just how wonderful a moment this is, but I daren’t spoil you, so,) -
They stared at each other; then she dropped a curtsy and said, “No, we need not encumber you. We wished merely to see for ourself that you are unharmed. Good night, Serenity.” She took two strides, then turned back to say, sharp and sudden, a sword sliding out of a scabbard, “We would have gutted him, if he were not already dead.”
I want to make a point of Monette and her exploration of certain themes and issues. In the Doctrine books, she touches on the issues of incest, rape and consent (and not just in a sexual context); here, she manages to subvert the trope wherein fantasy as a genre is hopelessly sexist. Besides once again finding a place for homosexuality in her story (kudos to her; representation matters, oh yes it does) and examining numerous political ideologies (including the effectiveness and worthiness of the traditional fantasy monarchy), she writes a patriarchal society while still managing to have several fully three-dimensional female characters of all calibres. I want to highlight this, because so many fantasy novels (and science fiction ones) have vanishingly few female characters when they have any at all – and rarely are they more than a love interest or a death meant to push the main, straight-white-male character on with his quest. The argument is that most fantasy takes place in quasi-Medieval European settings, and ‘women weren’t around then’. Any real historian will tell you that’s rubbish, and it’s wonderful to see Monette taking this to heart and proving that there’s no reason you can’t have a ‘traditional’ fantasy setting and still have wonderful female characters.
But then it was over, at which point I mourned the fact that this will probably be a stand-alone, and not the start of a long and excellent series.
Oh well. I’ll just have to go back and reread all Monette’s other novels, and hope it won’t be too long until her next!
