The Goblin Emperor

Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor subverts the conventions of epic fantasy, establishing itself as a “fantasy of manners” by prioritizing courtly intrigue and bureaucratic challenges over quests and magic. This subgenre of fantasy first emerged in the 1980s with the work of authors who folded high fantasy with the novel of manners, made popular by writers like Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion), Henry James (The Portrait of a Lady, Washington Square) and Edith Wharton (The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth). The novel of manners is concerned with the exploration of a highly restrictive society through its culture, customs, and manners. Addison hews closely to this notion in the way that she frames Maia’s immersion into the politics of his realm, which is constricted by procedure and protocol at every level. The narrative itself is introduced by front matter that includes fictional entries about the realm’s language, etiquette, and hierarchy, which establish the world’s complexity before the narrative even opens, foregrounding it as essential to understanding and bringing social custom into prominence in the narrative.