Sunday, April 15, 2012

Lecture Anglaise : Goblin War by Jim C. Hines

Participation au Défi lire en anglais : I read in english.  
Reviewed for the "I read in english" challenge

This book is the third from the "Goblin series" by Jim C. Hines. My dear French readers, please note that the 2 first are available in French (and paper), as well as his three "Princess" books.

With John Scalzi, C.J.Cherryh (C.J. Cherryh) and Jacqueline Carey, Jim is one of the few traditionally published authors whose blog I follow regularly, and I suggest you do the same. Going the wide range from Totally Silly, to Personal, to militant, I must say that what transpires from Jim's blog really is a great man.

But you're not there to find out about an (albeit great) man, but about a book...


The Jig the Goblin series is about ... you bet ! Jig the Goblin ! If you don't know him, let me introduce to the most anti-hero of all the anti-heroes ! Cowardly, treacherous, disloyal, Jig is everything a goblin should be, except he's got even less muscle and speed that his brethren. What he lacks in muscle, he compensates with cunning and  accurate understanding of his limits. And disloyalty reaches its limits when it comes to Smudge the fire-spider, Jig's only "friend" and sometimes weapon.

In the first book, Jig had to help adventurers kill a dragon, in the second he got rid of pixies, but this third adventure reaches a new scale with some EPIC Fantasy !! Not anymore constrained to the dark recesses of the cavern, Jig needs to go and help one of the Forgotten Gods against His old love Isa the Winter Winds Goddess. Armies of mounted wolves, orcs, kobolds against humans and elves, treacheries and godly interventions... Jig doesn't manage of course to flee far of this all.

Humor aplenty, adventure, a great cast of characters, I really liked this book (as the two before in the series).

Only problem : Sold by the publisher, WITH DRMS ! EWWWW !

Still,despite this heavy burden, 4 clear stars for me.

Oh, and if you'd like to test the waters, you can also try Jim's two self-published short story collections :
Goblin Tales  where you discover Jig's world, The Kitemaster : unrelated but still good stories.

And if after that you STILL aren't sure about it... you'd better ask a goblin... 

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