Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher

Nessilka had been in any number of battles, and she couldn't remember the first ten minutes of any of them.She had a theory that if you could remember the first ten minutes, you'd never, ever charge at anybody again, so parts of your brain blotted them out.The problem was that she couldn't imagine why her brain would want her to continue charging at people, and this then led her to the theory that parts of her brain worked for the Goblin High Command, which she didn't like at all.Regardless, it was ten minutes into the battle, and she couldn't remember what had just happened. There'd been a lot of yelling. Everyone yelled. No matter what species you were, elf, human, goblin, orc, random bystander, you yelled. There had been a lot of hitting things. Her shield was bent in four or five places, and her arms ached dreadfully.Algol went by at high speed, shield raised, with Mishkin and Mushkin practically stepping on his heels. Mishkin had gotten a sword from somewhere, and was waving it dangerously close to Algol's kidneys.She had no idea how the battle was going, but she didn't seem to be dead, so from her perspective, everything was really going rather well.Unfortunately, Sergeant Nessilka had just seen a problem.The problem stood on a little rise, just enough to lift him out of the battle proper. He looked human, and he wasn't wearing armor, or carrying any weapons.He was doing something with his hands, and there was a blueness in the air around him--not really a blue light, per se, but the world around him was turning shades of blue, like something behind a pane of cobalt glass. That wasn't right. That was magic, that was.A bolt of blueness streaked out from his open mouth, and hit a knot of goblins, who fell down.Aw, hell, Nessilka thought. It's a wizard...

This is a copy of the review I did in my Google Docs.

Nine Goblins by T.Kingfisher

Rating : 4.5/5
Genre : Low Fantasy
Trigger Warnings : Killing, War, Grotesque Descriptions of Dead Bodies, Grotesque Decriptions in General, because.. goblins

Summary from Goodreads :

When a party of goblin warriors find themselves trapped behind enemy lines, it'll take more than whining ( and a bemused Elven veterinarian ) to get them home again.

Nine Goblins is a novella of low......very low......fantasy. Spoilers Ahead!

Quick Thoughts:

This was unbelievable, to be exact, but in a good way. The portrayal of the fantastical creatures were amusing, and I loved every minute of it. It was too bad I had to read a PDF, because if I had a physical copy, I would've read it in two hours or less. The writer's humor is amazing, and the writing style was very easy to get into. This was done for a quest for BHH's ( Book Hugger Haven [Discord Server] ) Book Dungeon Quest, “ Read another participant's comfort book,” and can I just say, I know exactly why this was Ezri's ( hi if you're reading this! ) comfort read. It had this kind of comfortable feeling to it ( despite the war and the descriptions of the dead bodies and stuff, of course ).

Plot:

The plot was fine, I'd rate it a 3.5 goblins out of 5, though. I felt like there was so much potential in it, but I liked it, I indeed liked it. The starting parts were quite slow at first, but I quickly got into it. I really liked the fact that the chapters were divided from the goblins, and then, to Sing-To-Trees' part, then their worlds collided.

Writing Style :

Definitely 5 goblins out of 5. I fell in love with T.Kingfisher ( Ursula Vernon )'s writing, it's just humorous in a way I can't describe. I am definitely checking out more of her work, heard there was some horror too, so I can't wait to see how the writing will work there.

World-Building :

Since this is low fantasy, there's not really advanced laws and such, but I feel like it's pretty good.I would give it a 4 elves out of 5. I absolutely love the way the goblins are described. So, this book focuses on goblins, trolls, humans and wizards. There were not many rules per se, but there were certain ways of which each species lived and their behaviors were interesting to compare.

Characters :

SINGS-TO-TREES! I loved his name, and I loved that his name matched the fact that he loved nature, animals specifically. And, I absolutely loved his description on goblins and trolls as well. I feel like the Nine Goblins were also pretty decent as well, they didn't want to murder if it wasn't necessary, or if the person wasn't doing anything, refer to the wizard scene. 4.5 ceridian out of 5 ceridian.

I feel like I relate with Murray a lot as well for some reason. Everything seems to think I am this person who they trust just because I know how to do weird stuff they don't know and it actually worked. LOL. Eh, but not the ‘genius' part.

ength and Pace :

It was a fast-paced read in my opinion. It had only around 100ish page, so if you want some quick humor, surely go for it.( But, look at the trigger warnings first, though. )

I underestimated this book, I feel. It was much better than I thought it would be. To summarise my review, I freaking loved it! 5 teddy bears out of 5 for the pace!

To compliment this book by “Goblin Ways”, I'd say “Feels like rat squeezins' doesn't it? ”

Fun fairy tale

I always love the author's twists on traditional characters and this is no exception. I giggled out loud too for the elf veterinarian and tough goblin warband with a teddy bear and kitten. War scenes involved, so not for the younger fans.