Customer Reviews

Goblin Hero

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Mr. Hines has a wonderfully wicked sense of humour and imagination. His goblins are disgusting, cowardly, gross, deceitful, murderous...and utterly delightful!

Once again, Jig, the reluctant hero and supposed dragonslayer of the first adventure in the series, was unwillingly thrust into another dangerous quest that was almost guaranteed to get him killed. Pressed into the adventure by his jealous chief and surrounded by companions who would be only too happy to see him dead, Jig had to not only battle against pixie-beguiled ogres and the murderous pixies themselves, he also had to watch his back every moment to avoid being killed by his own kind.

Poor Jig! He was not cut out to be a hero, but, despite that, he managed to hold his own against his enemies. I only wish the story had focused more on him and less on Veka, the goblin who wanted desperately to be a wizard and outshine Jig as a Hero. Nevertheless, the story was delightful, fun and had a lot of laugh-out-loud moments.

Jig the Goblin is no warrior. Jig is still the scrawny, half-blind runt he was before he survived his adventure with Straum the dragon. But he had emerged from the dragon's lair with one potent gift: the ability to heal various injuries. Given the nature of a goblin, Jig is kept busy healing others because - to put it bluntly - goblins are stupid. The new goblin chief, Kralk, is under the mistaken impression that Jig wants her position as leader. After all, songs have been written about Jig's battles with wizards, a necromancer, a dragon, and such. But all Jig wants is for everyone to forget he survived those things. Those stupid songs are making it hard for him to keep his head down.

When the ogres come to the goblin's lair and request the help of Jig Dragonslayer, Kralk sends a couple of others with Jig. Braf is a goblin warrior. Grell is an elderly goblin who just wants a break from nursery duty. Of course, Jig realizes that both Braf and Grell have orders from Kralk to kill him once he finishes helping the ogres, but Jig would deal with that later. Following the group at a distance is Veka, a fat goblin female who loves magic and wants to become a Hero. With Veka is Slash, a hobgoblin.

Pixies and their young queen have been exiled from their world and are striving to build a hive in this new world. Their queen is everything to the pixies and all they care about is eliminating every possible threat to her safety. The ogres would eventually be defeated, causing the pixies to turn their attentions to wiping out the goblins. Jig has no choice but to somehow beat the invading pixies and anything their fairy magic throws at his small, pitiful group. Jig's biggest problem is that the pixies have brought a little bubble of their world into this one and the god that Jig follows cannot aid whenever Jig enters that bubble-world. So Jig is pretty much on his own. However, unlike most other goblins or hobgoblins, Jig uses his small brain to overcome or evade whatever is trying to kill him at the time. Hopefully that intelligence - or sneakiness or whatever you want to call it - can help him live through the assassins and pixies that are headed his way.

**** FOUR STARS! Jig the Goblin is one of the most reluctant heroes I have ever seen. Having no height or muscle means that Jig has had no choice but to use his head to figure out ways to live through each day. If Jig ever learns who wrote the stupid song about his adventures, Jig would find a way to make the goblin sorry. That song has made it impossible for Jig blend into the background and be forgotten.

Author Jim C. Hines has another winner on his hands with this (second) adventure of Jig's. Almost all readers will be able to connect with Jig's character somehow. Jig may be a goblin runt, but he deals with many of the same problems we (humans) do in our lives: bullies, peer pressure, etc. This time around, Jig is not only trying to keep himself alive, but also to protect all the goblins in the lair. The author seems to be slowly changing the way Jig thinks so that Jig actually considers how his actions could help or harm others. This is definitely NOT how a goblin should think. Yet maybe, just maybe, Jig and his god can change that. I, for one, have become thoroughly ensnared by this goblin runt and am eager to begin the third story of the trilogy. ****

Favorite Quote: Goblins are a grubby, selfish, violent race, but they have their moments.

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Title: Goblin Hero
Author: Jim C. Hines
Pages: 343

Hail Jig Dragonslayer!

I anxiously anticipated reading the next installment of Jig's adventures. Hines does not disappoint with this sequel.

We return to Jig and his fellow Goblins a year after his great quest. He has now been immortalized in song, has become a healer thanks to the powers of Jig's god Tymalous Shadowstar, and has a groupie, Veka, a fellow Goblin determined to learn magic from Jig so that she can become a wizard.

Trouble comes to the Goblin Lair when Walland Wallandson, an Ogre, comes looking for Jig, or more specifically, for Jig's assistance. A mysterious and powerful form of magic has taken over the lower regions of the mountain and is eliminating the Ogre's one by one. The Ogre's that are not killed, their minds are being taken over so that they kill their fellow Ogres. Reluctantly but by the urging of Shadowstar and the insistence and threats of the other Goblins including Kralk, the Goblin Chief, Jig agrees to help Walland.

As for Veka, she refused to go with Jig, at first. Jealous of Jig's celebrity, and angry at his unwillingness to share his knowledge of magic, Veka strikes out on her own. She manages to hoodwink a Hobgoblin into helping her. She is determined that she will use her magic to destroy whatever it is that is causing all the trouble, and show Jig for what he is. Nothing but a coward.

What is the mysterious source of magic? Pixies. Much more difficult to deal with than one would think, for both Jig and Veka.

I'm usually leary about sequels, especially sequels to novels I love. Too often they follow too much of the same pattern. Hines avoids falling into that trap by adding the adventures of Veka, giving us two characters whose quests, both physical and emotional, become intricately woven in this novel.

Sure, there are some questions that beg to be answered, such as: if the Goblins have been raiding Straum's lair all this time, why is it now that the lizard-fish are so difficult to get past. And if there was anything disappointing, it is that I would have thought Jig would be hungrier. But these are minor points, and easily ignorable.

Hines is fabulous at giving the Goblin world and Jig's character greater depth in this novel. Once again Jig grows, as reluctant at it as he is, and proves that there is more to Jig's heroism beyond mere survival. Whether Jig wants to admit it or not.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy, who wants to read fantasy that has all the elements of sword and sorcery, and yet would like to read it from the most unlikely of heros.

I anxiously await the third installment, Goblin Hero.

Hail Jig Dragonslayer!