Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Who-dunnit and who are these people?

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

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Bingo 10: Questions One main question of the Thara Celehar novellas is “who dunnit?’ as well as ‘why’, and that’s true of The Grief of Stones too, but also, there’s a bit of a twist about 2/3 of the way through which also adds “what will {x} do now?” Being a Witness for the Dead, someone who can see the final thoughts or images of someone who has died, it makes sense that Celehar would be involved in solving murders, as he is here, but […]

Murder at the Opera and maybe a few other places too

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

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The Witness for the Dead almost feels like The Goblin Emperor was written more as a prequel, and not as something of a branch off sequel. The character Thara Celehar is not a major presence in the initial novel, but he’s got a full personality and sense of self and history in the follow-up novella. My only real complaint is that it feels kind of like you need to have recently read the first novel or have a pretty good memory of some of the […]

I had to start this book over again four times before I could get into it, but it was worth it in the end.

The Witness for the Dead (The Goblin Emperor, #2) by Katherine Addison

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You’ve really got to give this one a minute. Similarly to the way I felt about Addison’s first novel (under this penname at least) The Goblin Emperor, the names and the naming system and the worldbuilding are A LOT. Unlike with The Goblin Emperor, there is no glossary, and we are not joining a world as the fish out of water along with the main character like we were with Maia in the previous book. Our main character here, Thara Celehar, a Witness for the […]

The Right Kind of Fantasy for Now

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

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The Goblin Emperor was exactly what I needed. First, I bought it recently when one of my local bookstores opened back up (in a limited socially distanced capacity), and it turned out to be the right kind of fantasy, still serious and interesting but ultimately hopeful. I was worried at first because the opening pages present the grammar and forms of address used by the characters, and a 300-ish entry long dictionary of characters and place names that’s actually hard to use is you don’t […]

I’m pretty sure it’s not you, book, it’s me

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

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3.5 stars Official description: The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir. Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father […]

A quiet fantasy that speaks to the heart (#AwardWinner)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

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One of the truly loveliest fantasies I read this year was The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. This one came highly recommended to me on a facebook group where I asked for non-grimdark, political intrigue fantasy. The recommender really hit the mark, and I recommend it to any lover of fantasy! It’s steampunk but not in-your-face about it, bittersweet but not everything-is-s*** like grimdark, and it’s also an award winner! It won the 2015 Locus Award (and was also nominated for the 2014 Nebula and the […]



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