The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison
May. 13th, 2025 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThe front of this book has a mini essay on pronunciation and several pages listing all the names of characters.
I needed this.
I spent so much time referring back to this.
The names being so unfamiliar to me added to the effect of being dropped in to a strange culture or two at the deep end, so that's nice, that's part of what the character has going on, that's a thing one could reasonably desire to induce the reader to feel.
But I hated it. I couldn't keep the names straight. I still don't have as many characters in my head as there were in the names list. I had to go back and look up so many people because they'd been away for a page and I forgot again.
Is that a me problem? Technically yes! So yeah, every author has a perfect right to use whatever naming and language they please, that's fine, that is a tool they can deploy if they want.
... I would rather more characters were called Bob. Or started with more letters of the alphabet.
Like sure they've explained up front that the K vs C spelling means such and so in this society, neat, interesting, adds meaning. Interesting to notice in regular English too. But like.
I lost track of the names and that's a me problem but didn't make me like the book more.
Aside from that... I am unsure by the end of the book what the actual effect of the fantasy elements is. I mean, it makes it so the reader doesn't know what is possible and what is not, which is where the protagonist is at, so fair enough. But also the elf and goblin stuff. It's white people and black people. They're not pink and brown just white and black. Aaaaand... I am uncertain what the defamiliarisation and reinscription with fantasy tropes really does for the story?
I kind of want to poke it with a stick.
So we've got a racist society with fantasy words applied. And a mixed race protagonist. Okays.
We've also got a thoroughly and deliberately ignorant protagonist, and a layer about people the society refuses to educate, which seems to be all women and a lot of men. Interesting.
I just...
The book had a lot going on but I'm not sure how much it did with it?
It has layers of interesting and also it had a plot with like court intrigue and murder and so forth.
I remain unsure how well those came together.
I feel like by the end of the book the protagonist is just about realising they're going to have a lot to unpack from all these events for, like, forever?
Like the confusion is just about resolving into a set of conflicts.
Which is a very reasonable effect.
Maybe rereading will make more of an impact then?
I think I only slightly like this pretty well written book.
But I put that next to my tendency to read franchise stuff forever - all things are Doctor Who all my life, and most things are Pathfinder for years now - and I think this effect of being landed in a world and having to figure it out amidst great confusion is exactly my least favourite thing about reading new stuff.
I think people who want a world plunked on them from a height and to have to figure it all out from clues are going to like this a lot better than I do.
I needed this.
I spent so much time referring back to this.
The names being so unfamiliar to me added to the effect of being dropped in to a strange culture or two at the deep end, so that's nice, that's part of what the character has going on, that's a thing one could reasonably desire to induce the reader to feel.
But I hated it. I couldn't keep the names straight. I still don't have as many characters in my head as there were in the names list. I had to go back and look up so many people because they'd been away for a page and I forgot again.
Is that a me problem? Technically yes! So yeah, every author has a perfect right to use whatever naming and language they please, that's fine, that is a tool they can deploy if they want.
... I would rather more characters were called Bob. Or started with more letters of the alphabet.
Like sure they've explained up front that the K vs C spelling means such and so in this society, neat, interesting, adds meaning. Interesting to notice in regular English too. But like.
I lost track of the names and that's a me problem but didn't make me like the book more.
Aside from that... I am unsure by the end of the book what the actual effect of the fantasy elements is. I mean, it makes it so the reader doesn't know what is possible and what is not, which is where the protagonist is at, so fair enough. But also the elf and goblin stuff. It's white people and black people. They're not pink and brown just white and black. Aaaaand... I am uncertain what the defamiliarisation and reinscription with fantasy tropes really does for the story?
I kind of want to poke it with a stick.
So we've got a racist society with fantasy words applied. And a mixed race protagonist. Okays.
We've also got a thoroughly and deliberately ignorant protagonist, and a layer about people the society refuses to educate, which seems to be all women and a lot of men. Interesting.
I just...
The book had a lot going on but I'm not sure how much it did with it?
It has layers of interesting and also it had a plot with like court intrigue and murder and so forth.
I remain unsure how well those came together.
I feel like by the end of the book the protagonist is just about realising they're going to have a lot to unpack from all these events for, like, forever?
Like the confusion is just about resolving into a set of conflicts.
Which is a very reasonable effect.
Maybe rereading will make more of an impact then?
I think I only slightly like this pretty well written book.
But I put that next to my tendency to read franchise stuff forever - all things are Doctor Who all my life, and most things are Pathfinder for years now - and I think this effect of being landed in a world and having to figure it out amidst great confusion is exactly my least favourite thing about reading new stuff.
I think people who want a world plunked on them from a height and to have to figure it all out from clues are going to like this a lot better than I do.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-14 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-14 06:05 pm (UTC)I read this a few years ago, since it's one of my friend's favourite book. I liked it well enough, but it really was a lot of work.
Although I think my main pet peeve was 'you' for formal and 'thee' for informal, which runs counter to EVERYTHING. *g*