This is a flawed book. It's also a strange one. Most of the things one might praise are also the causes of its flaws.
The world-building is interesting and well-thought out. Indeed, I get the impression the author put a lot of thought into the names and language in the book, but the myriad similar sounding names made me often confused as to who this or that character or place were. There are airships, which is an interesting detail, but I'm left wondering: how are they powered? Is it steam driven? If so, do they have trains? The world also has some kind of magic, but again, we're left to guess at most of the details. Of course, this is the first book in a series, so I imagine that some of these details are being held back for books two, three and so on.
The book is a pretty gentle read. I mean, it's theoretically about a member of an oppressed group becoming emperor of a powerful state and suffering under all the stress and intrigues that come with the job. But, there's not much suggestion that any of the (infrequent) hints at racism has much effect on the main character. Honestly, there isn't much in the way of peril. For a book about a half-caste character, it's surprisingly black and white. Either a character will hate and betray Maia, or they will warm to him and become someone he can trust implicitly. There's none of the ambiguity, shades of grey, double-dealing that you get in, for example, game of thrones. This isn't necessarily a criticism: it makes for a much gentler, easier read, if one that's a bit lacking in spice.
The writing is fine, barring a handful of awkward torturous sentences that maybe needed another round of editing.
As well as a lot of similar sounding names, many of the characters are fairly one-dimensional. In fairness, there's quite a few characters, but it would have been nice to see a little more of something or other from one or two more.
In summary, The Goblin Emperor is a gentle, low-stakes book, that is perhaps just lacking a bit of edge, a bit of spice, some colour.
