Book Review: Goblin Quest, by Jim C. Hines

There are plenty of fantasy books that involve a party of adventurers who are either on a quest for treasure, or are on a mission to defeat some great evil which is invading their world.  This group of adventurers is typically multi-racial (human, dwarf, elf, halfling, etc), includes a wide range of character occupations (warrior, wizard, thief, cleric, monk, druid, etc), and more often than not contains both male and female members.  The focus of these stories is always around the adventurers themselves, their great companionship, and their ultimate victory in the end after encountering many hardships throughout the story, and sometimes, maybe losing one of their companions at some point during their quest.

  Some good examples of these stories are:

• The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Dragonlance Chronicles, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
• The Guardians of the Flame series, by Joel Rosenberg
• The Belgariad, by David Eddings
• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen R. Donaldson

I'm sure there are many others that fit this story pattern which I have not read or which I can't remember, and probably many more that I have probably never even heard of.  And, I'm sure that some of them are very good, some are bad, and others are just pale imitations of some other much better work.

Goblin Quest fits the pattern of this type of story, but is actually quite different, and I came across it entirely by accident.  I saw a recommendation for a book titled Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines.  The concept for this book was unlike anything I had seen before, and I read a sample chapter of it in an effort to feed my longing for the next Dresden Files book.  While researching the book further, I came across a blurb from Wil Wheaton (yes, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and host of the Tabletop web series on Geek & Sundry) about a book which he referred to as:  "Too f***ing cool for words!"  This got my attention in a big way.  I had never heard of this book before, but since I enjoyed the sample chapter of Libriomancer, I decided to read a sample chapter for Goblin Quest, after which I was immediately hooked.

The story focuses on a goblin named Jig who is pretty much the runt-of-the-litter.  He is small, weak, has bad eyesight, and is treated badly by his peers who never let him come on raiding parties with them.  Jig has a pet, which is a fire-spider named Smudge.  Fire-spiders become hot when agitated or afraid - hot enough to cause things that they are touching to burst into flame.

According to the blurb on the book, Jig ends up guiding a group of adventures who have captured him and as a result he "encounters every peril ever faced on a fantasy quest."  Naturally, the adventurers are on a quest for a very powerful magical artifact which they must recover at all costs.

The whole story is told from Jig's point of view.  As he spends time assisting the adventurers, he learns about himself and his race of fellow goblins, finding that the wider world is not what he imagined.  For example, he used to think that all it took to be an expert warrior was being in possession of a magical weapon.  During the course of his adventure, he ends up learning that most of what he has believed for his entire life is wrong.  He learns things about himself, his own people, and his fellow Goblins.  Eventually, he proves his value not only to himself, but to the party of adventurers.

Goblin Quest is a wonderfully entertaining story, filled with adventure, thrills, and humor, and the reader encounters many surprises along the way.  I could not see where the story was heading, and it was a pleasure to read.  As it it turns out, Smudge the fire-spider was familiar - he is the pet of the main character in the book Libriomancer.  It will be interesting to learn more about that crossover.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an original, funny, dungeon crawl adventure.

If you had read and enjoyed this book yourself, I'd be happy to hear from you - feel free to leave a comment on this blog.