What I'm reading, special holiday edition
Jul. 4th, 2019 07:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readerjaneI've recently started Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor.
This is a rags-to-riches story where the mixed-race child of the emperor's fourth wife is suddenly elevated to power when his father and elder brothers are all killed in an airship crash.
I'm liking the twisty maneuverings. I do find the protagonist Maia a little too wise for his years and life experience. Eighteen is still eighteen, for all that he has the advantage of having been raised by a compassionate mother (unlike his brothers who grew up in extreme privilege), and having been ruthlessly schooled by a majordomo who resented being assigned to a remote outpost. But I enjoy watching Maia's courtiers startle when he treats them like people instead of lackeys.
I'm not sure how deeply this story will delve into race. It's obvious that no one, including Maia, wanted him in power. He has internalized his country's scorn for his foreign appearance. Even the book's title underscores it. It will be interesting to see whether that racism remains a pervasive part of the background, or if Addison will turn her focus on it at some point.
It took awhile to get used to the name Maia for a boy. Had I been editor, I would have recommended changing that, since it could throw the reader out of the story during that crucial first plunge. But in compensation, I'm getting the joy of an author who has really put thought into the construction of her fantasy-world language. To read, "Michen-theileian", and *know* it means "smaller audience chamber" because one has already started putting the linguistic pieces together is satisfying. Male names in this culture end in -a, -is, and -et, so Maia: male.
And it makes me realize how much I've missed this: the thing one gets in really good SFF, being dumped into a different world where one must hunt for the edge and corner pieces, and slowly assemble a puzzle by trial and error, hypothesis and instinct. It's delightful.
Looking forward to the rest of this book and its sequel.
This is a rags-to-riches story where the mixed-race child of the emperor's fourth wife is suddenly elevated to power when his father and elder brothers are all killed in an airship crash.
I'm liking the twisty maneuverings. I do find the protagonist Maia a little too wise for his years and life experience. Eighteen is still eighteen, for all that he has the advantage of having been raised by a compassionate mother (unlike his brothers who grew up in extreme privilege), and having been ruthlessly schooled by a majordomo who resented being assigned to a remote outpost. But I enjoy watching Maia's courtiers startle when he treats them like people instead of lackeys.
I'm not sure how deeply this story will delve into race. It's obvious that no one, including Maia, wanted him in power. He has internalized his country's scorn for his foreign appearance. Even the book's title underscores it. It will be interesting to see whether that racism remains a pervasive part of the background, or if Addison will turn her focus on it at some point.
It took awhile to get used to the name Maia for a boy. Had I been editor, I would have recommended changing that, since it could throw the reader out of the story during that crucial first plunge. But in compensation, I'm getting the joy of an author who has really put thought into the construction of her fantasy-world language. To read, "Michen-theileian", and *know* it means "smaller audience chamber" because one has already started putting the linguistic pieces together is satisfying. Male names in this culture end in -a, -is, and -et, so Maia: male.
And it makes me realize how much I've missed this: the thing one gets in really good SFF, being dumped into a different world where one must hunt for the edge and corner pieces, and slowly assemble a puzzle by trial and error, hypothesis and instinct. It's delightful.
Looking forward to the rest of this book and its sequel.
