I saw a review for Goblin War on Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and thought the story sounded so cute, so I decided to start with the first book in the series. I’m really glad that I did. I love Jig. He is a great character.
So, Jig is a goblin. He isn’t a particularly good goblin. He is nearsighted, which makes him clumsy. He starts off the story doing the job that the children do. He isn’t trusted to do the job of adults. That is until a bully comes along and forces Jig to go on patrol with his group. He sends Jig out ahead as the rest get drunk.
Jig runs into a group of “Adventurers”. There’s a human prince, a human wizard (the brother of the prince), a dwarf and a elf that is a thief (I feel like I should add walk into a bar, to make this into a joke). Darnak, the dwarf convinces the prince that the goblin could be of some use. Barius, the prince is on a quest. He wants to prove himself. As the seventh son, he was never going to be king. His younger brother, Ryslind, the wizard, was at least a powerful wizard.
So Jig goes on this quest to help Barius. Jig proves himself pretty useful, as does the elf, Riana. Of course the wizard was very helpful with his magic. The dwarf, was also extremely helpful, as dwarves are very strong. This was supposed to be Barius’s quest, but yet it seems that all the others in the party are the useful ones. He was just along to take credit. Can you tell that I was not a fan?
He found it peculiar the way these adventurers thought anything they found was “rightfully” theirs. Why couldn’t they come out and admit they were stealing from the monsters? Nothing wrong with that. Goblins and hobgoblins did it all the time. True, it was mostly hobgoblins stealing from the goblins, but that was part of life. Why this nonsense about the rod really belonging to Barius? Did he think Straum should rush out and present the rod to him? Should the goblins have given over their meager treasure because it “rightfully” belonged to Barius?
No wonder the prince was so bitter and angry. All that treasure was rightfully his, and none of the current owners were considerate enough to realize it.
As I said, I loved Jig. He is not a likely hero, but yet he is one. Even though Jig is nearsighted, he is very observant (I think it comes from avoiding bullies his whole life). He notices things that many others don’t.
Wait a minute. Jig gave himself a mental shake. The one thing adventurers and goblins share is their ability to get into deeper trouble. Forget about what goblins would do. Forget about what an adventurer would do. I need to figure out what Jig should do.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Jig’s pet fire spider, Smudge. I really liked Smudge too. He is not a normal pet, but I thought him adorable. I’m not sure if I would feel the same about it if I came across him in real life, but in the story, he is cute.
This was a really fun start to a series. I’m excited to see what else will be in store for Jig.