goblin emperor

[dragonlady7]

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argh i have been trying to get the time to write up a proper reaction post to it for like a week now but i have not had the time and i’ll have to return the book to the library soon.

I had to read it twice, the first time just– my normal way of reading to get through, I can’t slow down it’s just not how I do, but there were a few scenes that were definitely marred by me being like “ok I have no idea who that character is so this would be really really Meaningful right now if I had any idea whomst the fuck is speaking”, so then I sat down with a piece of notepaper and cross-referenced with the glossary in the back and figured out who everyone was, exactly as I did not have the patience to do with War and Peace which is why I didn’t finish that book, and actually mostly I could read the book without referring to the glossary after I wrote the names down on the bookmark, it’s just that people have first and last names and the titles are confusing if you don’t understand that there are formal Mr and Mrs-style titles for different levels of people so that weird name you’ve seen before is actually just the word “Mister” and it’s not often apparent why there’s a difference but I mean

*jazz hands* worldbuilding

(I endorse this)

but of course what’s really phenomenal about the book, which nobody had explained to me going in, is that it’s the story of how the protagonist, a badly abused young man with a deeply ingrained internal sense of morality, holds up under suddenly becoming the Emperor of a nation, both in the large things– no one takes him seriously– and in the small things– the Emperor is expected to begin conversations but he spent his childhood and adolescence being beaten for speaking too much– and it’s beautifully and often-indirectly described in a myriad of tiny details as well as the large sweeping events. Definitely pings all my deep-seated unreliable-narrator kinks efficiently (!!! the scene where he tells off his cousin’s wife, and the bodyguard he thinks hates him is making small noises behind him and he thinks the man disapproves and it’s really the sound of the guard’s soul leaving his body at the thought that anyone would harm this child who he very! clearly! cares for! and who doesn’t understand that. !!! I cried, reading it.) 

So, wholehearted rec, but no time to make like, a deep response to it, alas, which I’d love to. Some other time, perhaps; I’ll doubtless return to this book sometime in the future.

It was a lovely consolation for it still being winter to read a book set in winter, at least; more atmospheric, anyway.

If you haven’t read it, protip: the glossary and list of characters is in the back, make yourself a little bookmark with the forms of address on it, and if you get confused write down the characters’ first and last names, because sometimes they’re referred to suddenly as the other one and you just have to keep up. It’s clearly part of the story but it’d probably flow better if you just went into it prepared for that.

Someone saw me reading and taking notes and was like what are you doing and i would not bother with that and I looked up and was like the more fool you.
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Comments

[oracne]

I love this book. I need to read it again.

[dragonlady7]

It's so good. I wish it was a series. I want to know what happens to literally everyone. I want a book from Csevet's POV. I want all the books.

I don't, however, want to write fic about it, so I guess there's that as a data point.

[shadaras]

yesssss

This is why it's a comfort read for me, even though it begins hard it's so kind and good and soft.

but yeah the names and titles are a lot, I remember them because I grew up on epic fantasy and so it's just like... sort of normal... but that doesn't mean it's easy.

[conuly]

There's gonna be a second one, but with a different viewpoint character.

[dragonlady7]

Yes! I found an excerpt someone posted in a Discord server about it-- it's like, a noir mystery book with Celehar as the Talks To Dead People detective. I'm very excited.

[conuly]

He's definitely a fave! And maybe the author will fix the guards situation that's been bugging me too. I'd like to throw "two pairs of guards on duty at all times, literally, all the time" in the same pile as "Hogwarts is the only English wizarding school, and there's only two more in all of Europe" but... it's much more prominently the focus of the book than the number of schools in the wizarding world is.

[dragonlady7]

The only thing I can think is that they do sleep on watch at night. they just have to. otherwise it simply can't work.

there's always an element of "well he just didn't notice this simple thing that made it really work" when you have a close POV narrator, especially one like Maia who hyper-focuses on some details and TOTALLY MISSES others, but it does sort of seem like... a little too much to handwave that way.

I dunno-- if Celehar is off having Noir Detective Adventures, we're probably not going to see much of Maia etc. at all, so there's not likely to be more insights into palace life.

[conuly]

Or maybe they sleep during the day and do their training at night...?

It really doesn't work without a third set, you're right. I mean, logistically, just doesn't work.

[dragonlady7]

Well, if they do it watch-and-watch, where they're 8 on, 8 off, 8 on, 8 off, until eternity, there's literally no time for them to ever do any training or practice, all they would get to do is eat and sleep.
so they have to do like... 12 on, 12 off. and so during that 12 off, they have to do all sleeping and all training. and that wouldn't leave time for very much sleep. UNLESS they were already getting a bunch of sleep while they were on guard. Surely the maza have learned, like, restful meditation, i could buy it. It seems not to be supported by the text, but that could just be Maia's impression-- like, Beshelar was sitting there in a chair all creepy watching him sleep, but he'd been stirring a while before Beshelar spoke so dude could absolutely have been snoozing in that chair waiting for him to wake up. And he does say, we eat while you're asleep-- so that's clearly got to be only semi-on-duty time for whoever isn't actually inside the bedroom, at least.

but yeah really they just need to have a third set of nohecharei. you can't have 24/7/365 alert coverage with 2.

[conuly]

They really need four, but they could handwave that with "We can't round up a fourth pair".

[dragonlady7]

I mean, I can get behind the fantasy world steampunk universe where they haven't invented weekends or the 40-hour work-week yet, and so these people would be expected to have no personal lives and dedicate themselves monk-like to their vocation of watching the Emperor sleep or shit or whatever. But.
168 hours in a week divided by 2 is 84, which means each pair of nohecharei has an 84-hour workweek. That's not... you're not getting optimal performance at any point and someone is going to die. Divided by 3, that's 56 hours of work in a week, and I get that's a lot but it's better than a 19th century factory, and when you figure they've got no commute and get free meals and I bet somebody does their laundry, it's nearly humane, except if somebody gets sick or whacked, which like, that's gotta be an occupational hazard.
But divided by 4, that's 42 hours, which is, like, basically union hours if you ignore sick leave or vacations. That's just too nice for a fantasy steampunk world and remember these guys are supposed to be on the hook for suicide if they fuck up, so that's a lot to ask for.

I just think sleep-deprived and never-works-out are not good qualities in your fanatically-devoted bodyguards and there should be labor standards in place to make sure that doesn't happen. I'm absolutely fanficcing that, LOL.

[conuly]

It's not a 42 hour workweek, though, because even back then people knew that guards and all had to train (and sometimes do medicine on the side I guess?)

So they're on duty as guards 6 hours, on duty training another 6, sleeping 8-ish hours, and they have 4 hours to eat and run errands and do whatever-all else. And then if one of them gets sick or something they have backup.

[dragonlady7]

Oh, fair enough, fair enough, they'd have to do more work than just being on duty, especially with Kiru being a freelance doctor and all.
I can't *imagine* how they're supposed to be effective, as written, unless they really are expecting to sleep while he sleeps. That's just got to be it. I don't know.
*shakes the author* WHEN DO THEY DO THEIR CARDIO

[conuly]

And really, this is assuming that nobody has considered that they'd be better at their job if they had lives, which means ideally they're only doing their 4-shift guard work half the week and the other half they're just doing training and having a break. Buuuuuut, as you said, their world hasn't woken up to the fact that a rested worker is a productive worker yet.

I bet they'd have more candidates, too, if they were all "You can do your studies AND be a guard, hey!"

[dragonlady7]

See this is why my original fic is set in a solarpunk utopia with universal healthcare and work-life balance considerations. There is the typical problem where people are granted more leave time on paper than they really have time to take, however, in skilled positions anyway, but the novel addresses that issue, or will if I can get the plot to cooperate.

[dragonlady7]

I bet they'd have more candidates, too, if they were all "You can do your studies AND be a guard, hey!"

IDK, the "mandatory suicide in case of failure whether you were present or not" might still cut down on candidates and also make them less likely to want to do it as a part-time kind of deal.

[conuly]

True.

[dragonlady7]

It's a not-insignificant thing to keep in mind when discussing staffing-- think of how much time off you're really going to want if your coworkers' fuckups could literally mean you have to commit ritual suicide? You're gonna want to know your coworkers real well and be on the clock a lot.

But also, like, you're gonna want to be well-rested to make sure you don't fuck it up. it's a balance.

[conuly]

Of course, prior to the events of the book we're told that the job is mostly ceremonial now and, therefore, the odds of dying or having to kill yourself seem slim.

[dragonlady7]

This is true, but imagine it from the point of view of now potential recruits who have had to deal with, on the maza side, the reckoning over Dazhis, and on the guard side, all the dramatic tales of Beshelar's blood spattering all over the Emperor's clothing. (Helped by him surviving, of course, to be Intimidating about it.) Maybe more of them would want to-- but probably not people who only sort of casually want to!

[conuly]

Yeah, this is not a good time for recruitment.