Book Review: The Goblin Emperor

[osprey_archer]

I just finished Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, and to my relief, after bombing out on my first try, I did quite enjoy it this time around. I think the important thing is to read the first few chapters all in one gulp to get situated, because when I tried to do it the other way I gave up in a welter of “Who are all these people and why do all of their names have fifteen vowels?”

The worldbuilding in this book is beautifully intricate (I am continually frustrated by the fact that publishers don’t include maps in Monette’s books), and the politics are interesting, but at the same time, at least for me, The Goblin Emperor lacked the idtastic pull of Monette’s earlier books. The beautiful suffering quotient has gone way, way down, and I feel rather wistful about that.

I also was rather disappointed by the lack of emotional heft in the betrayals; there are two major ones in the book, but in both cases they’re betrayals orchestrated by people that Maia doesn’t know well and already has reason to dislike.

(Okay, and they’re helped by one of Maia’s bodyguards. One of the second-tier bodyguards, who figure very lightly in the narrative till the betrayal, and to whom he is not nearly as attached as the first-tier bodyguards.)

Perhaps, though, I’m just disappointed that my prediction turned out to be wrong: I figured that Maia’s personal secretary Csevet would betray him. Who is Csevet, after all? The courier who brought word that Maia had unexpectedly become emperor. He could be in the pay of anyone! He might have all sorts of devious agendas! But he doesn’t; he doesn’t have any personal agenda at all, in fact. Maia lucked into the perfect secretary.

I wasn’t expecting Politburo-worthy intrigue, but I wanted something with a little more teeth.



Having complained that the book was not the book I wanted it to be, I must say that for what it is, it’s quite charming. The world-building is really quite impressive, to the point that I was rather sorry that we, with Maia, were so hemmed in by the rules of imperial grandeur: I would have liked the chance to get out and explore.

Comments

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

The thing which really rubbed me the wrong way about DoL (directly related to the idfiction aspect, I guess; Monette's id is a lot more into rape and rape-as-whump than mine) is that basically how explicit sex was was inversely correlated to both consensuality and homosexuality. Consensual gay sex? Fade to black. (Consensual gay kinky sex that actually went well? "Not relevant" to Felix's emotional arc and therefore cut entirely). Felix being raped by men? Most explicit sex in the books. (I was also bothered by the combo of endless Felix whump + the way he was set up to be unsympathetic for not getting over his trauma faster in a way that heterosexual Mildmay wasn't).

It sounds like those aspects of Monette's interests are less likely to come up here, but I guess I generally came away from DoL feeling really uncomfortable about the subtext re: homosexuality, and it makes me a bit suspicious of her as an author, especially in combination with Companion to Wolves, one of the most infuriating books I've ever read.

(I didn't have a problem with the female characters in DoL as such, but with the semi-exception of Mehitabel, I feel like Monette is only interested in writing female characters until male characters show up, although this is more irritatingly obvious in some of her short fiction. As I said, I'm conflicted because I like her stylistically and often enjoy her worldbuilding, and DoL was certainly compulsive reading, but the social undertones tend to bother me.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

No one has any sex at all in The Goblin Emperor, so that dynamic doesn't come up. It's still idficcy, but in a much gentler "everyone likes you and accepts you! Except these few bad people, but whatevs, it's not like you cared about them" kind of way.

(I thought Felix was unsympathetic not because he recovered slowly, but because he dealt with his trauma by being cruel to everyone. But I suppose the fact that he reacts to trauma by becoming petty and cruel while Mildmay reacts by becoming strangely compassionate is, in itself, an unfortunate dynamic...)

I agree that Monette is generally only interested in writing female characters until male characters show up. The Goblin Emperor also solidified my feeling that there's really only one type of female character she really approves of, the sensible no-nonsense bluestocking type (I guess Mehitabel isn't really a bluestocking, but she knows enough to be a governess, at least). She has no patience at all for women who are silly or emotional or too femme (and she tends to collapse these three categories together).