Rambly Response to Response to The Goblin Emperor
Jul. 20th, 2025 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiKatherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor was one of the books recced to me on DW recently, and I'm currently almost done with it. Let me start by saying that it was an excellent rec. It's everything I asked for, and it has completely served its purpose in diverting me from our real world; I have generally enjoyed reading it.
I don't especially warm to it as a novel, however, and I've been in an interesting and invigorating discussion of it withrocky41_7 on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
books. I ended up pretty much writing meta I'd planned to write in the comments over there, so I'll post it here too.
Context:rocky41_7 has been rereading the book with a newfound appreciation and feeling of now understanding why it is so beloved. Reasons why - and I agree all those things are there and are good - include a truly good/well-intentioned hero, realistic politics, realistic supporting characters, and breaking fantasy conventions. I find the book lacking in character development and plot/character arcs, however. Below (with a few, fairly minor spoilers), I explain why with some reference points to other stories, which may contain some very light spoilers.
My Reply to rocky41-7's reply to my reply to their post. ( Read more... )
I don't especially warm to it as a novel, however, and I've been in an interesting and invigorating discussion of it with
rocky41_7 on books. I ended up pretty much writing meta I'd planned to write in the comments over there, so I'll post it here too. Context:
rocky41_7 has been rereading the book with a newfound appreciation and feeling of now understanding why it is so beloved. Reasons why - and I agree all those things are there and are good - include a truly good/well-intentioned hero, realistic politics, realistic supporting characters, and breaking fantasy conventions. I find the book lacking in character development and plot/character arcs, however. Below (with a few, fairly minor spoilers), I explain why with some reference points to other stories, which may contain some very light spoilers.My Reply to rocky41-7's reply to my reply to their post. ( Read more... )
