Customer Reviews

GoblinQuest (Five Star Science Fiction/Fantasy)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jig the goblin in very low on the pecking order in the goblin tunnels. But one day Jig runs afoul of a group of adventurers. The group is led by a prince with too many older brothers. He wants to prove himself. So with his wizard brother, a dwarf protector, and a young elf thief, they have come to the tunnels to search for the legendary Rod of Creation. It is said to be deep in the mountain, beyond the terrible Necromancer, and guarded by an ancient dragon. Jig is impressed into service as a guide.

Jig knows little of the tunnels outside the goblin territory but leads them anyway. Along the way Jig begins to question goblin ways. He sees how the adventurers work together in crisis although they fight most of the rest of the time. He sees the value of good equipment and proper training. All a far cry from the goblin standard of rushing headlong into battle and almost certain death. Jig also learns about religion. But mostly he just tries to survive the various rants and furies from the adventurers. But Jig has untapped depths that help the party advance when hope seems lost. Dragons, necromancers, and endless treachery must be overcome if Jig can get out of this alive.

This is a wonderful little story and Jig is a very interesting character. Seeing a traditional quest fantasy from the eyes of a goblin was very refreshing. You will see many parallels with THE HOBBIT (there is even a reference to Frodo at one point). I am eagerly awaiting the sequel which will be out May 2007. Jig's actions and solutions are original and fresh. The writing is smooth and well-paced. Although billed as a comedy it is really light fantasy. Check it out.

Jig is a goblin with little social status. He has been assigned to the lowliest muck duty far longer than others his age, and he can't help but feel shame. He also can't help that he is a clumsy, near-sighted runt, and his cousin Porak and his buddies never let him forget it. Only in his fantasies is Jig a brave and respected warrior, and he longs for the chance to prove himself.

Finally Jig is given the opportunity to guard the mountain tunnels from intruders, which is a scary proposition since so many of the tunnel guards wind up dead. He resolves to do what needs to be done in order to stay alive. Imagine his surprise when he is accosted by a party of treasure hunters made up of two humans, a dwarf, and an elf who are searching for the Rod of Creation thought to be guarded by a dragon named Straum.

Jig is forced to join them for the hunt-or die. "Jig knew what a real hero would do. A hero would scream something defiant, wrestle Darnak's club away and use it against the dwarf and the human. A hero might even slay them both before making his escape. Of course, Jig knew all the goblin songs, so he knew what happened to goblin heroes.... He had not desire to be a hero. He only wanted to go home, curl up with a hot bowl of lizard-egg soup, and feed dead cockroaches to Smudge" (p. 25).

The prospect of making such a journey successfully with his captors doesn't look good to Jig. He doesn't even know where Straum's lair is, but instead of mounting what would be a suicide attack, Jig reluctantly agrees to help the adventurers find their way around the tunnels. What follows is a series of action-filled, entertaining, and often funny adventures as they battle hobgoblins, worms, a necromancer, and various other foes.

This book will appeal to both adults and young adults. Teens will very much enjoy Jig's quest and his attempt to define himself in a world that doesn't necessarily value his skills. Adults will also enjoy the humor and the upending of various aspects of the fantasy/quest genre. Prepare to be entertained throughout and completely satisfied with Jig's journey by the time you reach the end. ~Lori L. Lake, reviewer for Midwest Book Review and author of the "Gun" series

I loved this book, it is one of my favorites now and I know I will want to revisit it often. I also bought the other two books in the series. Each book is stand alone great. I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair and yet there is also a lesson to be learned in the book. Great read.

Jig is a goblin. He lives with the rest of the goblins in a magic mountain. He is the runt and gets bullied often. A large mean goblin, Porak, forces him to go with his company while they check out the tunnels. They stop to drink and play craps while Jig is forced to wander off further in the tunnels. He comes upon a group of adventurers. Prince Barius, a warrior, Prince Ryslind, a mage, Darnak, a dwarf and a captured young elf girl. She is a thief who was caught by Darnak and is being forced to accompany the trio on their quest.

Jig is the only one left after the goblins encounter the adventurers and he is forced to lead the party deeper into the mountain. They are in search of the Rod of Creation. Jig knows what a goblin is and does, he is a coward and he runs. Unfortunately that is not possible for our hero. So his great idea is to lead the party into all of the most dangerous places he knows. The only thing is that he only knows the goblin tunnels.

As you can imagine the journey is a hoot and the adventures are swift and deadly. From one death trap to another, Jig has already decided that death is his destination. But as they travel Jig learns things not the least is that Darnak serves a God who helps him, by healing injuries due to battle. Jig thinks that might come in handy if he can find a God who won't mind a goblin worshiper. There must be at least one God who needs a servant.

I found the adventure wonderful, exciting, and delicious. I look forward to the other two books in the series. GOBLIN HERO and GOBLIN WAR if they are as good as GOBLIN QUEST, I will dive in and devour each of them just as I did this one. Great Reading.

This book follows Jig, a stereotypical goblin in every way, except he's smart and wise. It throws in some goblin songs and God-sagas, not as many as Tolkien, but the homage is there. The setting/tone is a nice simple dungeon crawl without profanity or rude words. This is a type of book you could read to a seven-year old and they'd love it.

Personally, I wanted a little more. Jig is developed well as a wimpy disgusting goblin with pet fire-spider, but the other parts of the party of adventurers are stereotypical with little dimension. The faithful dwarf retainer, mapmaker and cleric. The arrogant royal mage who traded too much for power. The thief-girl (happens to be an elf), and finally the stuck-up and egotistical prince (party leader). I did think having the mage double as an archer was a nice touch. It clearly distinguishes the story as original dungeon crawling compared with normal D&D source material, unless they've let mages get ultra-bow proficient in 4th edition.

This book held my interest as Jig scared himself from one situation to the next. The tone was semi-serious rather than comical, though some observations are witty.

Overall the Jig-gy majority is enjoyable, and other parts meh-ish. I'm not really a fan of listening to other people talk about their D&D characters, and when the author concentrated less on the goblin and more on the adventurers or adventure, that's the vibe I got.

A fun story, but not something I'd re-read. If you like light fantasy adventure, you'll like this. Personally, I did not find it as good as Xanth; the side-characters are tedious rather than funny.

This book was great. From beginning to end I loved it. From Jig cutting off Rianna finger to him worshipping a forgotten god. I have the complete series and was hoping for more. It has everything a good fantasy book needs. I would recommend this book to anyone whether they like fantasy or not.

Poor little Jig is the runt of his goblin tribe, nearsighted, and picked on by just about everyone. However, when he is captured by an adventuring party, his life turns from bad to worse. The crazy adventurers are searching for the legendary Rod of Creation, and they will kill anyone who gets in their way...what the heck, they'll just kill everyone. Jig quickly realizes that his life is in the hands of madmen, and he will need to do whatever it takes just to stay alive.

As a confirmed fan of your traditional sword and sorcerer, elf and dwarf type fantasy, I really enjoy this look at adventurers from a different angle. The warrior leader of the band is a slave to his honor, but a homicidal maniac who loves killing. The wizard is insane, and just as homicidal as the warrior. The elf is an orphan who knows nothing about being an elf. And the dwarf...OK, he's exactly what you would expect.

Overall, I found this to be a fun and very interesting book. I liked the story, and really liked the very interesting characters who populated it (especially the Necromancer). If you are a fan of fantasy literature, then you will enjoy this wacky, off-beat addition to the genre. I highly recommend it!

[By the way, the three-level dungeon seemed to be based on the AD&D module Reverse Dungeon, by John D. Rateliff and Bruce R. Cordell.]

I love a good fantasy. Even as a child the core of my reading library revolved almost solely around fairy tales and fantasy stories about knights and dragons, princesses and frogs, hobbits and rings... you get the picture. Because I write a lot of fantasy myself, I took a break from reading fantasy for awhile to keep my own mind running fresh, but two weeks ago I felt the fantasy itch.

It'd been awhile since I'd read a good fantasy book, so I headed out to the local Borders and started perusing the fantasy/science fiction section. I wanted to read something goblinny, since I'm working diligently on Jack in the Green, the sequel to The Goblin Market, so when I saw Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines on the shelf, I thought, hey... why not?

The writing in Goblin Quest is simple, but quirky, following the perspective of a nearsighted Goblin runt named Jig, as he's unwittingly drawn into a quest with a band of upland adventurers. Jumping onto the traditional fantasy criteria, we meet a prince, a mage, a dwarf and an elven thief, who quest for the Rod of Creation.

Hidden inside a mountain created by magic about a history lesson and a half ago, the adventurers must not only face an evil necromancer, but a trapped and hidden dragon named Straum, who they believe holds the Rod of Creation in his treasure horde.

Throughout the adventure, Jig connects himself to a lost god who is so desperate for new followers, he'll even take a goblin under his wing. Along with his new found religious affiliation, Jig discovers that the cowardice and backstabbery that has kept the goblins on the lower half of the totem pole for centuries can be overcome, though convincing his fellow goblins to abandon their lifelong traditions won't be easy.

Jig not only finds his own courage, but he forms an unlikely friendship with the kidnapped elven thief, Riana, as the two of them are dragged through caves and tunnels in search of a magical rod neither of them care to find.

When I first started reading Goblin Quest, I thought the simplicity and occasional slip from past into present tense would turn me off, making it difficult to finish, but there was just something about Jig the goblin that made me want to keep reading. I wanted this nearsighted little runt of a goblin with zero ambition at the start of the story to triumph and find not only his courage, but a way to leave a powerful mark on the world.

Overall, I give Goblin Quest 3 out of 5 stars, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a quick and (almost) painless fantasy adventure through the eyes of an unlikely hero. I am definitely interested in continuing to follow Jig on his journey to greatness in the follow-up sequels, Goblin Hero and Goblin War.

This is the first book in the Jig the Goblin trilogy by Jim C. Hines. This was a humorous and entertaining classic dungeon crawl adventure.

Jig the goblin is the runt of the goblin community. When he accidentally gets tangled up on a quest with two humans, a dwarve, and an elf he finds himself having to be more courageous than ever...which is something a goblin never is. Jig will face off against a necromancer and a dragon and become the worshiper of a forgotten god, and all he wanted to do was get off of muck duty for a day...

This was a very amusing and humorous book. This book is very much a classic dungeon crawling adventure; with a lot of irony and dark humor thrown in. You got all your stereotypical characters: an elven thief, a human mage, and dwarven warrior. You got all your stereotypical villans: an evil dragon and an evil necromancer. But, all the characters and situations have some rather comical twists thrown into them. So, even though they are stereotypical (which is part of their charm) they are also rather quirky.

This was a great classic adventure novel; you don't see too many of those around these days. There weren't any huge surprises but this was an easy and amusing read. If you are into adventure quests with some satire you would like this...think Piers Anthony, Terry Prattchet, stuff like that.

There were a couple things that could have been better in this book. The book takes a bit to get going. The characters were amusing but I was never really drawn into actually caring about them. The plot was also somewhat engaging, but never really had me on the edge of my seat and never really grabbed me and made the book hard to put down. The writing style is very straight-forward and easy to read, but nothing phenomenal.

This book was very complete. The main points of the adventure were solved and the book was well wrapped up.

Overall this was a fun and amusing read. I look forward to reading the next book in the series "Goblin Hero". Hines is definitely an author to keep an eye on; especially if you enjoy humor in you classic fantasy.

I was delighted by Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines. I couldn't imagine liking a goblin, but Jig is a very likable character, without giving up all of his goblin-ness. The story kept my attention the whole way through. Despite interruptions, I could always start where I left off without having to go back a few pages to get back into it.

Though the quest plot is pretty straight forward, Hines gave Jig and company enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. I was never able to predict what was coming next. Despite the twists and turns nothing seemed contrived. At about page 275 I was certain I knew where to find the rod of creation. I was wrong, but where it actually was, was much more satisfying.

The only negative thing I can think of in this book is that the human characters are one sided. There was a bit of background about them that explained them a little, but we never saw any depth. Darnak, the dwarf, was given much depth. The elfin girl fit in between Darnak and the humans.

This all works OK though, because this is Jig's story, not a human one. While it would have been nice to have more character depth for all the characters, what is there reflects Jig's interaction with those characters and he tried to have as little interaction with the humans as possible. He had the most interaction with Darnak. Riana, the elfin girl, was usually very guarded with him

To my surprise, I also found that this story had me thinking about the nature of God and man's (and goblin's and others') relation to and faith in God and God's relationship with all of his creatures. This was totally unexpected. This is not a pretentious story. The "magic," from a god and otherwise, is an integral part of the story and doesn't insist on the reader thinking beyond the story. But it's there if you want to think about it.

I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants a light and fun story to read. It was particularly relaxing to me after reading several "literary" stories in a row.

A prince, a wizard, a dwarf cleric and an elven thief go into a cave...this sounds like a bizarre version of the man-goes-into-a-bar joke, and it is because the whole story is told from the point of view of the goblin they catch to guide them through the tunnels. (LOL)

Jig is a runty, near-sighted goblin who got grabbed up to go on patrol only because the patrol leader had a grudge against him. He falls into the hands of the adventurers and practically has a heart attack when he learns they are looking for the Rod of Creation. (ROTFLMAO)

This is more than a clever parody of Tolkien's THE HOBBIT. The book resembles a game of Dungeons and Dragons with Himes as Dungeon Master. It's a lot of fun and you don't even have to roll any dice!