The Goblin Emporer by Katherine Addison (4 stars)

I came to this novel because it was cited as a prime example of a new genre I realized I like: bureaucracy porn! Basically the literary equivalent of the west wing: people doing complex things with competence with no details spared.

It's that. Definitely that. The world building is very good, although it's fairly limited to politics and court intrigue. The main character Maia is deftly built, if a little too good and moral so that he tends toward being boring. There's a strong racist tension throughout the whole novel: the king's son that was never supposed to inherit the throne is a goblin, and goblins are black/grey, while the ruling class are elves who are white. Prejudice and othering are everywhere at court.

The names and linguistics are brutally complicated. There's a glossary and really complicated explanation at the start, but it's too hard to switch back and forth on the kindle, so I just picked up what I could with context. I'm still super confused about plural and singular and which one is formal/informal and what the significance is, oh well.

I found myself enjoying the fish-out-of-water fast learning Maia has to do to survive at court (quite literally, his life is on the line), despite the action sequences being few and far between. 

Things really heat up with the assassination attempts, but also cool off and are resolved far too quickly. The murder investigation necessarily happens off the page since the emperor has a whole kingdom to run. 

I think the book suffered significantly from the single POV. The witness for the dead would have been very interesting to run in parallel and would have provided significantly more action and a different perspective on the kingdom. Apparently something like this is coming out in a separate novel soon.

4 stars.