When this book was recommended to me, I'll admit I heard the title, sighed, and thought, "Man, I'm not really feeling the High Fantasy vibe right now." My reluctance grew deeper when I heard is was Steampunk as well as High Fantasy. But it came highly recommended, and by two people whose literary opinions I respect, so I tried to put aside my momentary prejudices and tucked in.

I'm so glad I did.

This book was as far from the typical High Fantasy novel as you can get, and the Steampunk element was just that: an element, rather than a driving force. In truth, it reminded me of the surprise and delight I felt when I first read [b:Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|14201|Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell|Susanna Clarke|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1357027589s/14201.jpg|3921305], [a:Susanna Clarke|8842|Susanna Clarke|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1207159127p2/8842.jpg]'s singularly amazing novel, which was ostensibly about two magicians and the workings of magic in late 19th-century England, but was in fact so much more about the growth and struggles of men and women, with magic almost more a set dressing than a topic or plot device. The goblins and elves and magic in The Goblin Emperor are, while present and much discussed, utterly incidental to the real story, which is this: How does a decent man discover both that he IS decent, and that despite having no reasons to be, WANTS to be?

In this, the book also reminded me of the film The Others, with Nicole Kidman. That film was a turn-of-the-century ghost story, and yet despite the beautiful cinematography and costumes, it could have easily been filmed on a blank grey stage, because it relied utterly on the actors and their inner struggles, and had hardly a single noticeable special effect to distract the audience. This is The Goblin Emperor's strength, too; for all that the trappings of High Fantasy led me to expect sword fights and magic duels, this book could have taken place in modern New York or a near-future space station, or on a minimally-set stage. The setting was incidental, the characters were all.

Katherine Addison (or Sarah Monette to her friends, I'm sure) managed to write a fantasy novel about a young man's personal growth in a conservative culture, with hardly any of the expected tropes of the genre, and I loved it.