I picked this up for the first time in early 2019, or so Goodreads tells me. I do remember it was a recommendation from Sandhya, and Goodreads also reminds me of my takeaway:
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Onerous world building, everyone’s title and name and office building and race is another similar sounding name…
Let the reader’s mind fly back to mid-2018, specifically July 25, 2018. I am interviewing for a new job, because my current job has ceased to exist and I’ve been shuffled onto a team I do not care to join. The interview is fine, it’s been a bit rocky, but we’ve reached the last bit, where we chat personal interest. My answer is always the same: I’m a reader! But then I get…a follow up? What do I like reading? I’ve read nine (9) books that year, but I can’t remember the name of a single book I’ve ever read in my entire life other than Pride and Prejudice. So I flounder and say that I’m into afrofuturism, betting that this senior banking executive will himself panic and not ask any follow up questions.
Of course not, he’s a fan, I mistake The Fifth Season for The Fifth Element, he politely gives me a recommendation for Binti, which I proceed to checkout from the NYPL while walking home and read that afternoon/evening before sending my thank you email.
Which is all to say, when I read this in February 2019 I was only newly into my reading re-journey, and I think I hadn’t yet built up my stamina or appreciation, so to speak, for books like this.
There’s plot in this book–Maia, the very unwanted half-goblin fourth son, is suddenly elevated to Elven Emperor when his full-elven father and three older brothers perish in a airship accident. Sequestered in an isolated estate for the past ten years with an emotionally and physically abusive second cousin, he’s very rapidly thrust into courtly intrigue, trying to catch up with a LOT of backstory and context that he doesn’t know because he was never presented at court. Half of his staff are still loyal to his late father, the other half are trying to get him up to speed, and everyone is trying to go about their day like nothing is any different.
While last time I gave up a few chapters in, this time I was hooked and didn’t go to sleep when I had only a few chapters left. Yes, it’s still true that everyone’s names and titles are the same and tend to blend in. There’s an incredibly long in-universe prologue written by the Order of the Whatever explaining the history of the naming conventions and the types of linguistic formalities, and it’s followed by a small reference list of words. I skipped all of it–there’s no way you can familiarize yourself with everything before diving in. That must be the point, right, for the reader learn everyone’s names and the courtly ways alongside Maia?
This is fantasy, but it’s markedly NOT romance. Yes, Maia picks an empress, but he does so via committee and there’s no third arc spoiler where one of the bodyguards/opera singers/other female characters who display a modicum of kindness to him turns out to be his True Love. He has to make difficult decisions, because out of nowhere big things will happen (which feels…realistic? Most of the time, issues aren’t heavily choreographed and foreshadowed for the sake of narrative tension?) and he has to deal with it as the Supreme Emperor (Serenity, as styled here).
Throughout, Maia struggles with being an 18-/19-year old who went from cruel, punishing loneliness to…apathetic, ritualistic loneliness? He is forced to always speak in the formal first (the royal we) and told off for trying to befriend his honor guard. The only people who touch him are his men in waiting. He’s never even given a chance to be alone, which means that he cannot meditate, the one goblin practice that he learnt from his beloved, late mother. It says something that the most tense character in the entire book isn’t any of the disgruntled officials/fanatical secessionists/murderous claimants to the throne, but the seemingly friendly son of a courtly family, who keeps inviting Maia to hang out and get dinner. Maia is aware of his shortcomings in social gatherings, which means he’s smart enough to know that Nervis is probably not inviting him for his scintillating wit. But he’s so desperate for someone, anyone of his age to socialize with, that he continues to go, even having a rare outburst in response to a kind word of caution from his secretary.
The tl;dr review: There’s a sequel, written more recently, and I’m quite excited to give it a shout!
