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The Queen's Necklace - Teresa Edgerton
Jan. 7th, 2024 02:20 pmAfter rereading Goblin Moon and The Gnome's Engine, which I already had, I decided to try one of her other books. This one had a very pretty cover:
I really enjoyed it, with some caveats. It was pleasantly nostalgic and just - fun to dive into an 80s/90s-style epic fantasy that I've never read or even heard of, with maps and a 3-page character list in the front. And the worldbuilding is interesting and unusual. It felt rushed at the end, or maybe more like the plot that started out the book wasn't exactly the plot that ended the book, and a few threads got dropped along the way. I had a similar feeling to The Gnome's Engine where this may have been more than one book that ended up being compressed into one. But it was a very enjoyable read.
The book takes place in a world in which cruel, decadent Goblins ruled over Humans until an uprising and subsequent massacre of the Goblin ruling class. The modern world of the book's time period consists of a series of small kingdoms that share a carefully static culture designed on a quasi-religious framework to prevent empire-building from ever happening again. (This part is never really addressed except with occasional reference to a few of the details, such as the royal families of each kingdom being forbidden to marry each other. The Gnome's Engine duology also has a similar vague international utopia that never really explains how it works except just that people in this world do this. Anyway, in this case the currently ruling Humans have a horror of international conflict and empire-building due to having been slaves for most of their history.)
Each Human kingdom possesses one of a set of rare treasures from the previous Goblin empire, powerfully magical jewels whose manufacture is no longer understood. Each of them performs a vital service for the kingdom where it belongs - in one, it prevents the volcano around which the kingdom is built from erupting; another holds up the complex of mining tunnels that supports the kingdom's mining industry; another prevents ships from being dashed on the dangerous rocks surrounding their harbor, and so forth. The jewels are in sympathetic vibe with their kingdom, so if they are removed, as well as no longer preventing the Bad Stuff from happening, they tend to cause widespread disasters - floods, earthquakes, outbreaks of disease, and so forth.
Obviously someone is about to steal one.
( The not very spoilery stuff )
( The very spoilery stuff )
I really enjoyed it, with some caveats. It was pleasantly nostalgic and just - fun to dive into an 80s/90s-style epic fantasy that I've never read or even heard of, with maps and a 3-page character list in the front. And the worldbuilding is interesting and unusual. It felt rushed at the end, or maybe more like the plot that started out the book wasn't exactly the plot that ended the book, and a few threads got dropped along the way. I had a similar feeling to The Gnome's Engine where this may have been more than one book that ended up being compressed into one. But it was a very enjoyable read.
The book takes place in a world in which cruel, decadent Goblins ruled over Humans until an uprising and subsequent massacre of the Goblin ruling class. The modern world of the book's time period consists of a series of small kingdoms that share a carefully static culture designed on a quasi-religious framework to prevent empire-building from ever happening again. (This part is never really addressed except with occasional reference to a few of the details, such as the royal families of each kingdom being forbidden to marry each other. The Gnome's Engine duology also has a similar vague international utopia that never really explains how it works except just that people in this world do this. Anyway, in this case the currently ruling Humans have a horror of international conflict and empire-building due to having been slaves for most of their history.)
Each Human kingdom possesses one of a set of rare treasures from the previous Goblin empire, powerfully magical jewels whose manufacture is no longer understood. Each of them performs a vital service for the kingdom where it belongs - in one, it prevents the volcano around which the kingdom is built from erupting; another holds up the complex of mining tunnels that supports the kingdom's mining industry; another prevents ships from being dashed on the dangerous rocks surrounding their harbor, and so forth. The jewels are in sympathetic vibe with their kingdom, so if they are removed, as well as no longer preventing the Bad Stuff from happening, they tend to cause widespread disasters - floods, earthquakes, outbreaks of disease, and so forth.
Obviously someone is about to steal one.
( The not very spoilery stuff )
( The very spoilery stuff )