by Jim Hines

This is a collection of short stories written to accompany the Goblin Quest series (Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, Goblin War) to give fans a little extra something to add to that world. Hines has an amusing look at goblins from within their own point of view which seems to be a growing trend in Fantasy fiction.

It is particularly well done throughout the series, but one very notable thing about this collection is that it includes the story Goblin Hunter which tells the story about how Jig the goblin met Smudge the Fire Spider, easily the two most important characters through the series.

The last story in the collection is one that introduces the concept of the Libriomancer, which became another series for Hines. I expect I'll read that sometime soon. The story showed me a very interesting concept that I can't wait to see fully explored.

Best of all, Smudge comes along for these adventures as well!

You need to have read the first book in the series before embarking on this one, this just follows up on the first story and now Mops is determined to discover more about humanity's past and how it has got to where it is. She also has to deal with a lawyer, that might's exactly have humanity's best interest at heart and the fact that several people want her dead to keep their secrets, well, secret.

There's character development (one of my favourite is her AI!), people having to deal with leadership roles being thrust at them and fighting Librarians.  It's witty and fun and both myself and my husband read it.  Despite me reading it first that didn't stop my husband from reading funny pieces out to me.

“What’s the plan, Captain?”

 

 

“I haven’t worked out the details yet,” Mops admitted.

 

“Here’s the rough version. First, we get the Pufferfish fixed up. Then we go save the galaxy.”

“I concur!” Cate stood and stretched his wings. “I’m sorry. I only heard the last part of the conversation. Who are we attacking?”

“What else did you do?” Wolf’s head sank another centimeter. “I might have doodled a few pictures on his carapace . . .”