A few years ago, I read a submission called 'The Grief of Stones' that was at once the second book in a trilogy called 'The Cemeteries of Amalo' and the third in a broader series, 'The Chronicles of Osreth'. I found it completely fascinating but I also often found myself confused. It was a mystery at heart, but set in a fantasy world and the worldbuilding of Katherine Addison was rich and deep and encompassed not just the physical world in play but also its histories, cultures and languages. Many times, I mistook titles for family names and struggled to grasp shifts in language formality. Clearly there was a lot I should have learned before diving in.

Much of that is right here in 'The Goblin Emperor', not part of that trilogy but absolutely the first in the broader series. It's less of a novel and more of a character study with very little plot across almost four-hundred and fifty pages but ridiculous amounts of development. It's utter immersion, impeccably detailed worldbuilding, all seen through the eyes of a single character, Maia, who has been living a quiet and dismal life in distant exile when he discovers that his father and three half-brothers have been killed in an airship accident and he's unexpectedly now the Emperor of all the Elflands.

Addison starts us out with reference material, starting with excerpts from an imaginary book, 'A Handbook for Travelers in the Elflands', apparently published by the Press of the Crooked Stair for the Royal Merchants Guild of Pencharn. I call all that out because it capably highlights the level of detail that she goes to here. Its contents are very useful but the rest doesn't matter whatsoever beyond deepening the worldbuilding. Then there's a sizeable glossary before we dive into chapter one and start into the story with news finding its way to Maia.

He's an anomaly in the Elflands because he's half goblin and he isn't remotely prepared to be the emperor, not just the man at the top of the chain but literally the law of the land. His will is gospel and any life would be forfeit should he simply will it. He's young too but mostly he's unprepared, a forgotten son who only finds the spotlight because 'The Wisdom of Choharo' crashed and took out the rest of the imperial lineage in one swell foop. He learns as we do what everything means. It's a dizzying barrage of ritual and etiquette and he struggles to keep up. Court intrigue is everywhere too, but he's isolated from it so it only bleeds in at points.

And there's no plot at all until page 116, when it suddenly kicks in hard. Witnesses, a word that has a different meaning in this world, not people who see things but government ministers and other official positions, report that 'The Wisdom of Choharo' didn't crash on its own. It was deliberately brought down by sabotage, through an incendiary device. Suddenly, this deep fantasy is a murder investigation, seized by the Lord Chancellor as a means to achieve political goals, but also quietly investigated by Thara Celehar, a Witness for the Dead put on the case by Maia himself, as he has no reason to trust Lord Chavar's intentions.

However, while this murder investigation continues throughout the novel and its results affect a great deal of what we read, it's kept in the background. We're not involved in the day-to-day work because Maia isn't; we must be content with reading the occasional report from Celehar. Instead, we focus on Maia's attempts to learn what being emperor means; survive assassination attempts and intrigue against his life; and establish a legacy through traditional means: marriage, policies and appointments.

Perhaps Addison's greatest success is the character of Maia. This book belongs to him just as much as the Elflands do and it must live or die on his merits. Fortunately, he's a thoroughly sympathetic character, an outcast who brings a very different perspective to the role because of that fact. He's willing to look beyond custom and tradition at what's right; addressing, as he does so, themes such as racism and misogyny. Like many fantasy worlds, this is utterly male-dominated and nobody but the emperor can do anything about it. Maia, who cared for his exiled goblin mother far more than his ruling elf father, might just be that difference.

After that, I'd call out the way that other characters grow because of him. To them, he's Serenity, their untouchable, unassailable, unquestionable leader, almost a god in his power and they treat him accordingly, but his sheer humanity eventually softens many of them and they thus become worthy characters in their own right. Others don't soften and fall away, now relics of a bygone era. And that's the final success, because through a single character, this becomes a story about time, how the Elflands evolve from one era to another. There are many stories left untold when the last page is turned but we can see what they'll be and how they'll turn out. Maia is a pivotal historical figure; we're just witnessing his beginning. We can see where he'll grow.

Like George R. R. Martin's fantasy worlds built on real European history, it seems like Addison has plumbed certain cultures to build her elvish world. In particular, I caught Japanese and Chinese as source cultures, their emperors ultimate rulers, too; whose reigns fit into carefully defined eras. It isn't difficult to see revethvaran as seppuku, for instance. However, I'm sure there are others that Addison trawled in here and there that I simply didn't notice at the time. This is immersion deep enough that it's hard to remember the real world while reading.

There are elements of steampunk in play; rarely but they're there, not just through use of airships but odd details like Dach'osmin Tativin's unicorn automaton. Of course, what plot exists serves as a mystery, the genre that the sequel trilogy explores as its primary focus. There's arguably an odd romance, given that Maia's wedding is an arranged one for political purposes but which becomes a more powerful thing because of his and her respective humanity. And, of course, there's so much in the way of intrigue that I won't even attempt a summary. Suffice it to say that not everybody is happy to see a half-goblin emperor and some people are willing to do something about it.

I absolutely adored this book, but I can also see why Addison shifted to mystery for its sequels. The groundwork is done. Maia becomes emperor at the beginning of the book, even if his inauguration takes time to put into place, and he's set by the end to be a great one. With that in place, she can step out of the palace and look at the smaller, less epic stories of the Elflands with his rule firmly in the background. She chose to do that through the supporting character of Thara Celehar, who I thoroughly appreciated here.

With this finally under my belt, I can now dive into the sequel trilogy as a whole, starting with 'The Witness for the Dead', then a fresh look at 'The Grief of Stones' and finally 'The Tomb of Dragons', which is a new release that came out in March. I'm very much looking forward to it. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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