January 2020 Book Club: The Goblin Emperor

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean up to the point I read.


The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

I really tried to like this one, and I think I gave it a fair chance. I read ten chapters and over 100 pages, but it just did nothing for me. The court "intrigue" was completely boring, the characters were, for the most part, uninteresting. The book was filled with boring details of court etiquette. It was one of the slowest moving books I've ever read. The elves referring to themselves in the plural was odd, and at times annoying.

There are a whole heck of a lot of people who gave this book 4 and 5 stars, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. I'll give the author props for creating a world where elves and goblins mingle and even interbreed. This was the first book I've ever read like that, but unfortunately that was the most interesting thing I found about the book.

This was our book club book for January, and unfortunately I was so uninspired by it I can't even think of a single thing for our themed refreshments on Saturday night.