
The Goblin Emperor
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Narrated by:
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Kyle McCarley
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Maia, 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. Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment. Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favour with the naïve new emperor and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages and the spectre of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor.
©2021 Katherine Addison (P)2021 Penguin Audio and Rebellion PublishingCritic reviews
"Challenging, invigorating and unique." (Scott Lynch, bestselling author of The Lies of Locke Lamora)
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Such is the way of political machinations …
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Boring
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Actually I listened to it and that was unhelpful. The names of people and places were inevitably strings of gibberish so I had little idea who anyone was or if perhaps 'they' were actually a city or a building or a job title. A visual reading would probably have made that easier.
I found the plot rather thin. Everything interesting happens in the past (an airship crashes) or in the future (the Emperor has an arranged marriage) or offstage (the Emperor tasks an interesting character to unravel the mystery of the crash ... character vanishes from the text and returns several chapters later with the complete answer).
The Emperor is a Nice Guy. Oops sorry - in this book that is pretty much a plot spoiler.
If you like the idea of Goblin Emperor, do look for Victoria Goddard's book. For me, she wrote the book that this nice attempt wanted to be.
Just a little disappointed
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