I don’t mean that most fantasy books are shallow except for the Few Chosen (though I’ve been quite disappointed with the YA strain of the genre for a time). But if someone thinks that fantasy is only about adventures and fight, then they should read more books like ‘The Goblin Emperor’ by Katherine Addison.
I read her fantasy crime novel, ‘The Witness for the Dead’, over year ago, and since that time I knew I’d like to read more books set in the vividly original universe of the Elflands. That’s how I picked ‘The Goblin Emperor’, the story of the neglect youngest son of the emperor. Unexpectedly, Maia becomes Emperor after his father and brothers have been killed, and he becomes the first half-goblin emperor at that, in the land where elvish culture and values are dominant. Maia, having been brought up in seclusion by his cruel, embittered cousin, doesn’t know much neither about the intricacies of the court nor about the goblin part of his heritage. Yet, he has to choose friends and avoid enemies.
We’ve seen such a story many times – an unexpected ruler, a childhood of neglect, a newcomer to the place which is as alien to the reader as to them… But it works in ‘The Goblin Emperor’ because this book adds something to the well-known tropes. It adds meticulous worldbuilding and complicate relations. It makes the protagonist surrounded by the society, not by randoms thinking and speaking like people from our times. Some readers were irritated because Maia was addressed constantly as ‘Your Serenity’ in the novel. I wasn’t. It’s a book about a very different world with different rules. It’s pretty obvious that certain aspects should be much more official.
The author is also aware that in this universe, people don’t know yet what we know, and we can’t expect them to know it offhand. Most elves in the novel are classist and xenophobic, and both elvish and goblin cultures are pretty sexist in the rigid, Victorian-like way. Maia isn’t like those people. He respects the palace servants, he is interested in what’s going on among ordinary people, he makes friends with his half-sister and doesn’t force her to marry, agreeing that she should pursue her scientific interests. He also tries to genuinely befriend his fiancée, and he doesn’t treat an opera singer introduced to him as a sexual trophy. Maia’s empathy contracts his late father’s cruelty and the court’s indifference, but it isn’t unrealistic. He is kind though he didn’t known kindness; he avoids hurting others the way he was hurt.
Another important social aspect of the novel is that Maia is a stranger in the world centered around elves. There is a lot of coding in the book: Elves are slender and white, goblins are tall, well-built, and literally black. People of mixed heritage often have more or less grey skin. Is it ‘tell me about race without telling me about race’? I think it’s hard to interpret it in a different way. There are many times in the novel when Maia strives to reconnect with his goblin heritage. But there are also times when he feels ugly and clumsy because of his looks. And because of his skin’s colour. Now, it’s important to remember that writing about racism isn’t the same as praising racism. And the trope is there. Maia internalizes what he’s been told his entire life about goblins and mixed people, and showing this isn’t wrong. It would be wrong to pretend that the problem doesn’t exist in the novel’s universe, but Katherine Addison doesn’t do that.
As you see, it isn’t your typical fantasy story despite some very common tropes. It isn’t your typical YA fantasy or heroic fantasy. Neither lessons from the book are easy and moralistic nor the plot is so dense that there is no time to stop and just enjoy the setting. That’s why I like it, and that’s why I’m going to visit the Elflands again.
Left Hand of Fiction 