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Fantasy. Fiction. HTML: 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...… (more)
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A funny, brisk adventure set in a war between displaced indigenes (goblins) and the humans and elves who have encroached in their territories. Some original ideas (the description of what causes wizardry is priceless) and an appealing cast of characters.
“[...] You would have a hard time
“You’re tall and impressive looking and you can put an arrow into a squirrel’s eye from a hundred paces,” said Nessilka.
“There’s that, yeah. We had charisma and numbers and mayhem. All you had were pigs and enthusiasm. It’s not your fault.”
She called up the goblin army in her mind’s eye, and had to laugh. Pigs and enthusiasm described it pretty well.
Nine goblins, in a war they never wanted to fight, find themselves on the other side of hole they never wanted to fall through, trying to solve the mystery of a dead town with the help of an overly
Compassionate, hilarious, and utterly satisfying.
Thoughts: This was a well done novella and a fun read. This story bounces between a troop of nine goblins and an elf who heals animals. The goblins have been at war with the humans and elves for a bit
The world-building is simple but very well done for such a short story. I absolutely loved all the characters here as well. None of the goblins or elves are quite what their stereotypes would have you expect which I believe is part of the point. There is an intriguing mystery that keeps the story very engaging as well.
This was pure fun to read and highly entertaining. Kingfisher's writing flows well and is engaging and she has you pulled into the story very quickly. All her characters are incredibly easy to relate to and this was a hard book to put down.
My Summary (5/5): Overall this was an excellent novella and a fun read. The world-building, plot, and characterization is incredibly well done for having such a short page space. I looked forward to continuing to read my way through all of Kingfisher's books.
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