Introducing The Socially Distant Tor.com Read-Along, starting with Katherine Addison’s incredible novel, The Goblin Emperor! We’ll be reading this novel over the course of the next six weeks, and you can follow along with us on Twitter using the hashtag #TorDotReads.
Many communities across the globe are taking steps to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, including social distancing and self-isolation. And many of us are understandably worried, trying to stay afloat in a tide of anxiety and competing information. We thought it might be helpful if we all had a small distraction—a way to be together without, you know, being together.
Thus, the Socially Distant Read-Along, which we hope will be the start of a tradition here at the site. Call it Tor.com’s Chonky Boi Book Club, call it a Torantine (okay, maybe only our writer Leah calls it Torantine), call it How We Read Now—we hope it will give you a sense of togetherness and be a bright spot in an anxious time.
For this first outing, we will be reading The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison! Not only is it a rich, standalone novel, with one of the most compelling main characters we’ve ever met in a book: Maia, half-Goblin, banished, untrained in the ways of the Court, is forced to take the throne when his father the Emperor Varenechibel IV dies in a mysterious accident. How can he possibly learn to lead people who hate him? But that’s just PLOT, the real reason we’ve chosen The Goblin Emperor is because it’s a lovely, warm, comforting read, and we figure we can all use a little comfort right now.
Here’s the plan: If you already have a copy, great! If you need a copy, you can order one from a local indie bookshop that is still making deliveries (here’s a handy spreadsheet of indie stores!)—and in the meantime, the first four chapters are available here.
We’ll all meet on Twitter on Wednesday, March 25th, under the hashtag #TorDotReads, to discuss Chapters 1-4: News Comes to Edonomee, The Radiance of Cairado, The Alcethmeret, and The Funeral at the Ulimeire. From there we’ll read about six chapters each week, and check in once a week for the next six weeks to discuss peoples’ progress, talk plot, hash out Addison’s knotty naming conventions, and gush about the cuddliness of Maia.
I just started reading this! I’m very excited I get to read along with others and discuss.
OK, for the first time EVER I kind of wish I could do something on Twitter. Not enough to get me on Twitter, I’m afraid. But I had to comment because when I was coming up with a list of books to re-read as comfort reading in this strange time, The Goblin Emperor was one of the first books I thought of. Along with A Civil Campaign, Remnant Population, Od Magic and The Pandora Principle. And beyond SFF: Elinor Lipman’s The Family Man, Lissa Evans’ Crooked Heart, Jill Paton Walsh’s A Presumption of Death (for feminists who love the Peter Wimsey mysteries), and Mathangi Subramanian’s A People’s History of Heaven (new last year, but I’m ready to read it again and have my hope revived). Deeply humane books with humor, empathy and happy endings. Hmm. I do read and love plenty of books written by men, as well as not-particularly-comforting books by women, but I observe that all of my top comfort reads are written by women!
Read this a couple months ago and loved it. Worth the read if you are into palace intrigue.
Yay!!! I finally got around to reading TGE a few months ago, and have read it multiple times since. A group read will be great!
Any chance to discuss here, also? I read Twitter but haven’t joined.
What a wonderful idea!! I love this book. Unreservedly and unabashedly.
The audiobook is very good; the reader does an excellent job.
@7 It’s great but I have no damn clue how to spell half the book. I’m going to have to google all the words before posting.
Got a copy with the Hugo voting packet years ago and last year picked up a paperback reprint. Really loved this book.
Just got this one in the mail – I’m in!
I’m with the others above … Twitter is not my medium. That isn’t a reason to use something else, though–this book club can be for Twitterers. I should maybe look online for one that uses voice chat, or some other medium I find less irritating.
I’m another who counts this book as a favorite yet is not a Twitter user.
@Saavik, thanks for sharing your list of titles. I’m off to investigate a couple.
Don’t forget to check your library’s ebook collections if you need a copy! Meets social distancing standards! ;)
Add me to the list of non-Twitterers who would have liked to be in on this; I was very impressed by the book and would love to reread it in concert. I hope other discussions will use the blog, like the current ones on Le Guin and Narnia and the concluded Vorkosiverse reread.
Hey, suggestion to Tor: if you do start another book club, why not use a Hugo nominee as your subject? All us homebound Worldcon members will be reading the ones we missed so we can vote knowledgeably. How about How to Lose the Timewar?
For the ultimate comfort read, a warm, friendly, and above all, *kind* book, the e-book of _Mindtouch_ by M.C.A. Hogarth is currently free! I’d love to talk about that one, too, & look forward to _Goblin Emperor_ discussions.