TITLE:  The Goblin Mirror

AUTHOR:  C.J. Cherryh

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DESCRIPTION:

" To the princes of Maggiar, over-mountain was a land they knew only from gran's stories; few people in their little kingdom had ever ventured so far from their valley. But now the wizard Karoly announced that he must make the journey there to seek advice from his witch-sister. For things hadn't been right in Maggiar this last season, not right at all... The princes Tamas and Bogdan were to go with Karoly, along with the huntsman Nikolai. Yuri, the youngest prince, chafed at being left behind. So when Tamas' dog chased after his master, Yuri followed. Soon the young prince had traveled far enough into the woods to wonder if he might not catch up with his brothers after all. His brothers had worries of their own. No sooner were they over-mountain, than their party was ambushed and scattered. The kingdoms they had come to find had all been ravaged. The goblins had declared war. Tamas, separated from the rest, fell in with Ela, a witch's apprentice. He found himself caught up in a battle of magic. For Ela held a shard broken off the goblin queen's mirror, a mere fragment that could wield a magic so strong and unpredictable that no other witch dared touch it. With this single sliver of magic, Ela planned to challenge the goblin queen herself... "

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REVIEW:

Not the best fantasy novel C.J. Cherryh has ever written, but still one of the best novels I've read in a while.  The writing is beautiful and atmospheric.  This novel has a Russian flavour making it a bit more exotic.  The characters (including the non-human ones) all have distinct personalities.  The plot is a bit simplistic but the wonderful writing makes up for it.  Not to mention Azdra'ik, the Goblin.  She could have written a whole novel about this guy.

by Katherine Addison

The first chapter was enough to tell me this one is for world building Fantasy fans, the kind who loved Lord of the Rings. We've got elves, political intrigue and an airship crash that results in a new emperor. I can see why reviews on this one are polarized, as it has some hard to pronounce names and other earmarks of old school Fantasy. Personally, I was hooked by the end of that first chapter. Bring on more!

Maia is half-elf half-goblin, a disregarded fourth son relegated to exile after his mother's death. He might have been forgotten forever, but an airship crash that kills his father and brothers leaves him as next in line to the throne. With his mixed blood and lack of training for court life, there is bound to be adjustment issues at the least.

The story is heavy on political intrigue, but very well done. Maia is a very likable character and I enjoyed watching him rise to the situation and find his strengths, overcoming an abusive childhood. I thought he struck a good balance, seeking advice on protocol from those he could trust and recognizing when courtiers were trying to bully or trick him into doing what they wanted.

The aspect of mystery was good too. Several characters are introduced who might have the sort of ambitions that might have resulted in sabotage of the royal entourage's airship. The story kept my attention and had me wondering which of the more slimy characters might have been behind it, or whether there could have been a conspiracy.

Some other likeable characters arise as well, though I found myself wondering who might have hidden motives, even among the apparent 'good guys'.

One thing that surprised me was the spiritual aspect of Maia's goblin heritage. I find it fascinating that stories about goblins that look into their society are increasingly Shamanic or spiritual in some way. It's an interesting trend.

I did find the book hard to put down in the later chapters, falling asleep late at night but determined to finish one more chapter. In the end the mystery was solved and the book came to a tidy end, but I'm hoping there will be more books in this world. Despite stumbling a little over convoluted names, I really enjoyed the read and may even look into some of the author's other books under her other pen name.

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!

Late to today's party and most of my really big favorites have already made an appearance in other folks' posts, so I figured I'll just list mine and showcase at the top of my post some of the books that haven't yet been highlighted by others.  By bingo category, with suspense and mysteries together in one block and an extra block for the children's books instead:

MYSTERIES / SUSPENSE

Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey series, especially the Wimsey & Vane subseries / quartet

Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes series
Agatha Christie: Poirot, Miss Marple and Tommy & Tuppence series, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Mousetrap, And Then There Were None, Crooked House, Towards Zero, The Sittaford Mystery
Patricia Wentworth: Miss Silver series
Ngaio Marsh: Roderick Alleyn series
Josephine Tey: Brat Farrar, The Daughter of Time, The Franchise Affair
John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man
Anthony Wynne: Murder of a Lady
Mavis Doriel Hay: The Santa Klaus Murder
Georgette Heyer: Envious Casca
Robert van Gulik: Judge Dee series
Georges Simenon: Maigret series
Graham Greene: The Third Man
John Mortimer: Rumpole series
Ruth Rendell: Inspector Wexford series
P.D. James: Inspector Dalgliesh series
Dennis Wheatley: Who Killed Robert Prentice?
Q. Patrick: File on Fenton and Farr
Mary Roberts Rinehart: Locked Doors
Rex Stout: Nero Wolfe series
Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley
Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep
Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon
Cornell Woolrich: Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black
James M. Cain: Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice
John Dudley Ball: In the Heat of the Night
Mario Puzo: The Godfather
Neil Simon, H.R.F. Keating: Murder by Death

SUPERNATURAL (FANTASY, SCIENCE FICTION), DYSTOPIA
William Shakespeare: The Tempest
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings
C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale
George Orwell: 1984
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Sheri S. Tepper: The True Game
Alfred Lord Tennyson: The Lady of Shalott

GOTHIC & HORROR
William Shakespeare: Macbeth
Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey
Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
Anne Brontë: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Daphne Du Maurier: Rebecca
Christina Rossetti: Goblin Market
Charles Dickens: Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, The Signalman
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Canterville Ghost
Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone
Theodor Storm: Der Schimmelreiter (The Dykemaster)
Edith Wharton: Ghost Stories
Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Mask of the Red Death
Bram Stoker: Dracula
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Henry James: The Turn of the Screw
Shirley Jackson: The Lottery, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Otfried Preußler: The Little Witch, The Little Ghost
Robert Arthur, et al.: The Three Investigators series
T.H. White: The Sword in the Stone
Wilhelm Hauff: Fairy Tales

As I'm slowly making my way through Penguin Little Black Classics, I come across authors that are completely new to me, like Christina Rossetti. In school we skipped the Victorian literary area altogether because our teacher didn't like Dickens. (So straight from the Romantics to the First World War we went).

Goblin Market, the poem that this collection is named after, is a warning tale about temptation. While the narrative style of the poem made it easily readable, I found the repetitive style was not really my cup of tea. Some of her other poems, I liked better, most notably Song. A lot of her poems are concerned with death, which made it a rather depressing collection.

~ Little Black Classics #53 ~