Cover Art for The Goblin Emperor by Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison
The Goblin Emperor ("TGE") is a novel that released on April 1, 2014 by Sarah Monette under her pseudonym, Katherine Addison (because publishers suck), and it is the first in the series, The Chronicles of Osreth, which currently contains TGE, The Cemeteries of Amalo (a completed trilogy of novellas), two short stories, and a stand-alone novella, The Orb of Cairado. There is a lot of cover art floating around for these books, but particularly TGE, which has seemingly been translated into seven languages, and has two different English releases (one for the US and one for the UK). This post will only be focusing on art for TGE, which includes (for the purposes of this post) 14 covers (yes, I know 7 + 2 = 9, but the Hungarian release didn't get new art, the Japanese release is two volumes with different art for both books, there's a second edition version of the US release, as well as a later special edition cover by Tom Canty, and there's also a plagiarized audiobook cover from Tantor Media). And it gets more complicated from there.
It's also good to remember that generally the publisher handles cover art and translation stuff, not the author (unless they're self-publishing). Authors can get more involved, it's just variable.
This is the first edition cover for the novel, from April 1, 2014, with art by Anna and Elena Balbusso Twins:
This is the second edition cover for US release of the novel. It was grayscaled or whatever on some later releases, but is most commonly known by the blue version. This version has no known artist:
(I think this is using stock image art, but have not been able to find the origin)
There are two copies of the English audiobook for this novel, for reasons officially unknown, but about which we can speculate involve the plagiarized cover art for one of them.
The US English audiobook was originally published in June 2014 by St. Martin's Press and Tantor Media Incorporated, and narrated by Kyle McCarley. This version used a counterfeit copy of the first edition US English TGE cover art, and was sold on physical CD and digital download via Audible, iOS, and Kobo, and distributed in libraries through Overdrive and Libby. The Balbusso Twins, the artists of the first edition book art, discovered the counterfeit on May 26th, 2021. It seems that at some point between the discovery and June 22nd, 2021, Macmillan Publishers, the parent company of St. Martin's Press, and/or Tor Books, had McCarley re-record the entire audiobook as a co-production of Macmillan Audio and Tor Books, with new pronunciations, timings, and copyright information, entirely excluding Tantor Media, and using the second edition US English book cover (2019), which was then released on June 22nd, 2021 on iOS, Audible, Kobo, and Overdrive. At some point near to this, the 2014 audiobook was de-listed from storefronts and otherwise made unpurchasable, though it is still available to a limited degree through Overdrive and Libby.
So now the cover art for the US English audiobook looks like this:
In 2019, a (new?) UK English edition of the novel was created, with art by James Jones:
(Jones also did all the UK covers for Cemeteries, as well as the currently upcoming cover for Orb)
This is also the cover art being used for the UK English audiobook release.
The cover was re-used and turned green for the special edition release by The Broken Binding in 2023:
In 2022/3, a special English edition of The Goblin Emperor was released, with art by Tom Canty (full art below, as well as the cover):
On June 30, 2016, the Japanese translation of the novel, エルフ皇帝の後継者, was released in two volumes, with art by 山田章博 | Yamada Akihiro, and design by 大野リサ | Lisa Ohno and published by 東京創元社:
On October 13, 2016, the German translation of the novel, Der Winterkaiser, was released, with art by Jorge Jacinto, and published by TOR:
On March 24, 2017, the Turkish translation of the novel, Goblin Kral, was released, with an unknown artist, and published by Ithaki Yayinlari:
On November 6th, 2018, the Spanish translation of the novel, El Emperador Goblin, was released, with art by Libertad Delgado, and published by LA ESPERA DE LOS LIBROS, S.L.:
Now back to the seemingly unfortunate part, concerning the Russian and Italian translations of the novel. The plagiarism thing with the initial audiobook art is known, the artists who made the original piece confirmed it, and the main English publisher seems to have handled it. This for the next two is somewhat speculative, with context that Monette was not all that active online until early-ish in 2025 (specifically on Blue Sky Social), before which she occasionally posted on Patreon (largely about her cats and horseback riding, occasionally on ARCs, new stories, stuff she was reading) and occasionally gave interviews, in a downturn from some years ago when she was far more active on LiveJournal and twitter. A number of years ago, back when her earlier series, The Doctrine of Labyrinths, was being translated into Chinese, Monette was in contact with the folks involved and very excited about it (at least based on old LiveJournal posts). Delgado also clearly heard from her in some form about the Spanish cover. Monette's thoughts on any other translation or covers for her works are unknown, and I have no evidence she knows about them or how much/at all she was involved in any of them. She does occasionally retweet/whatever promotional posts about her new works from Rebellion and Solaris, but they're always English releases (usually the UK releases). (It's honestly surprising to see how much she's posting now on Blue Sky, given she was so quiet across her socials for years before this, I think largely due to being busy and her health; and also it's not bad that she's active, and given the situation in the U.S., I understand why, but it's just easier to track what a person is doing when they post a handful of times or less every year than very, very frequently, all day). That doesn't mean she doesn't know/wasn't involved with any translations other than the Chinese version of DoL and the Spanish version of TGE, but there's just nothing that I'm aware of. If anyone has information that she knows/has spoken in any form about them, I would love to hear it! I was following her on Patreon around the time the Russian and Italian translations apparently came out, and I saw her make no comment about them. It's not abnormal for authors to have a distant connection to translations of their works other than just learning about them/maybe okaying them in some fashion (though some do keep a close eye on that and hype it up or collect all the copies).
On September 8th, 2023, the Russian translation of the novel, Император-гоблин, was released, artist unknown, and published by AST. After looking at the cover (it's the one on the left) and another similar cover being sold alongside this on Russian sites (the one on the right), I strongly believe the Russian translation cover is AI-generated:
The airship itself is blurry beyond the smoky haze around it, with odd smears on the balloon and equipment pieces that smear into each other. The background photograph/3D-model looking section doesn't make any sense if you stare at it, particularly the right section. Architecturally, the foreground building section where the humanoid figure is kneeling also makes no sense. The crown on the ground is goopy. The kneeling figure's right leg seems to be crushing into itself, and he seems to have two left hands. The figure, if he's meant to be Maia, looks nothing like Maia, and it generally speaks of someone who hasn't read the book and probably prompted something like: elves, royal succession, an airship crash, and a big city. The other artwork, seemingly by the same publisher, is more obviously AI-generated, with the usual goopy squishy art and a messy hand and face.
Monette has commented against AI-generated works before, and I doubt she was behind this if she knows at all about it. It's sad in a different way, because she may not know her works are being vandalized like this. Tor is hardly unfamiliar with AI-generated cover mishaps, but I have no idea if they're even aware of/involved in this.
On January 10th, 2025, the Italian translation of the novel, L'imperatore Goblin, was released, artist unknown, and published by Ne/oN. I'm not sure if this is AI-generated, but it is definitely stolen and at best slightly edited by someone else, using the Air Castles artwork of Franklin Booth from the January 12, 1922 cover art of Life Magazine, with an edited set of airships and a badly redrawn at least slightly goopy person in the foreground.
Given Monette's numerous past issues with publishers and specifically plagiarized covers for this novel, I doubt she would condone this if she knew. I also doubt she'd enjoy how this seemingly has nothing to do with her work (albeit to a lesser extent than the Russian one).
I don't think Monette knows about the Russian and Italian covers, and if she does know, I imagine she's fighting it, as she spent years fighting to get the rights to DoL back. But while I get that people are excited by cool visuals, please remember to check what stuff is from. Please credit artists, especially book cover artists. Because artists deserve to be credited, and also sometimes, you get messes like this.
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So the thing is, I do ship maia and csevet, but like, in a really stupid abstracted way... nothing ever happens, literally nothing, they're just Like That for fifty years and then at maia's elaborate imperial funeral one of his adult children dabs genteelly under their mourning veil, sniffs, and says 'hey so, what the fuck was the deal with csevet'
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have YOU ever been halfway through the goblin emperor and shouted 'WHO THE FUCK IS LANTHEVAL??!?!?' in utter despair? well despair no longer, for my decidedly mediocre canva skills and tumblr's annoying image compressing are here for YOU <3
NB: this is just meant to help comprehension while reading. don't use as replacement for excellent wiki or glossary in book. is uncomprehensive and ao3 user astardanced is not famed for the consistency of her grammar understanding
the goblin emperor is such a book. Opens with a mock academic text giving you a bunch of terms to remember. you’re line okay this is a fantasy novel with Terms. not uncommon. fantasy and sci fi novels like to flesh out their alien worlds by inventing whole slangs and made up words that work diagetically within context. and this book It’s seemingly got a whole grammar system and detailed worldbuilding which is cool and you’re prepared for the Terms. and then BAM fucking cold open the emperors dead and the main characters speak in archaic English okay wait what the fuck is an elf or goblin in this context actually and then as soon as all that percolates it proceeds to bludgeon you upside the fucking head with an entire grammar system made up around adding an entire formal pronoun to the English language. Fuck you . and so not only are you like Hey what’s a goblin you’re also being absolutely dumped with an onslaught of Terms that mean nothing to you AND all the characters are speaking in THE ROYAL WE the entire time AND no breaks baby the political intrigue starts NOW!! and this is done with such razor sharp precision that every moment a character slips into informal I/thou it is HUGELY noticeable and significant. By the end of the book you are GASPING when the informal I/thou gets whipped out. the book is literally forcing your attention and entrenching you in its world by making its world deliberately opaque. To understand the word of tge you have to be studying it as you read, to be paying attention and absorbing context and enjoying doing so. it won’t spoon feed you and that’s the point. Your understanding of it is so hard fought that it makes you feel pretty proud of yourself once you get the hang of it. As a result you feel that much more attached to its world; its world feels that much more lived in. A delightfully effective tactic and toolset I’m obsessed with it
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#diversity win??? #woahhh I forgot about him #this is how I found out. I hate it here #this is the end of the ethuveraz and a disgrace to his late serenity's memory #woaw #ENJOY BEING A BARIZHAN COLONY THOU ELVISH BASTARDS #prev: well no bc it's not like the great avar gaf about him either #who the fuck is archduke maia??? #aww he's only 18 :( #is he the one everyone says is crazy.....? #this is like a wonder tale talk about a comeback #this is a disaster #COOL #ok I guess #EMPRESS CHENELO AVENGED‼️ #dost thou think we can pray in the bariheise style now #I have never heard of this man before in my life
101,432 notes
😎 aveyyyyio
Edrehasivar better than me coz if I'd been in relegation my whole life in genteel poverty with some random and my whole family hated me or didn't gaf about me and I never got formally presented at court and everyone said I was mad or inbred I would have ascended to the throne and started killing everyone responsible
❤️ silmaroperas
op I see thine point but most of the people responsible are very much now dead. like that literally is how we got here
342 notes
Anonymous said:
Prince Idra is the rightful Emperor
⚰️ witnessforthedeadfandoms answered:
Oh so thou'rt massive on child cruelty and the death of child emperors??? that's what thou'rt saying?? thou wants Prince Idra to be a child emperor and then be murdered by a power hungry regent?? wowwwwwwww #problematic
903 notes
Anonymous said:
suspicious that the Emperor and his other sons ALL got taken out at once, leaving the throne clear for Archduke Maia, no?? Like it's.... Convenient. Wouldn't you say
⚰️ witnessforthedeadfandoms answered:
Not really no
#thou didst all jump like fleas to the next conspiracy I see 🙄
#so is this how the corazhas make decisions now or??? #anyway. CSETHIRO SWEEP
5439 notes
🤲🏻 honourofcsethio follow
tbh we think everyone saying that edrehasivar is going to be a disaster of an emperor is being really fatalistic... like YEAH he looks like a panic attack had a wish granted to be a real boy but we think he can do some real good :(
🕰️ likeclockwork
lol sorry but that skinny kid would have to bridge the istandaärtha to win my confidence
🕰️ likeclockwork
BY ANMURA
2109 notes
❗imperialcourtnews
🚨| As agreed by the Corazhas this morning, Dach'osmin Csethiro Ceredin is engaged to the Emperor Edrehasivar VII and will become Empress Csethiro, Ethuverazid Zhasan
#edit: please stop tagging this 'can Edrehasivar fight' someone's gonna construe it as a threat on the Emperor's life and things have been tense enough lately #second edit: WE GET IT, A LOT OF THEE HAD A CRUSH ON HER AT LEAST THOU DOST GET TO SEE HER ALL THE TIME NOW
10,546 notes
🎶 operasdaily follow
Opera of the Day: The Autumn Archduke is an old warhorse by Ebrezhanar. It concerns the sudden ascension to the throne of the Archduke Aizhevea (later Edrethelema III) after the tragic deaths of his father, older brother, and his sister's son in a fire at the imperial palace. It maps the early years of his reign, including how the incident partially inspired his designs for the new structure of the Untheileneise Court. It was popularly performed in Lohaiso ten years ago, but has not been significantly revived since this period.
👁️ akhalarnaseyeball
this happened to my buddy Edrehasivar Zhas
296 notes
🪻lazinessoftanvero
scream apparently in the flop coup they tried to send the emperor to be a votary of csethio??? this just in, 'get thee to a nunnery' is NOT just for noblewomen #equality
🪻lazinessoftanvero
reading through the whole report on the attempt now and losing my shit... skill issue of the highest level imagine thy coup fails because thy 14 year old prince and 18 year old emperor unionise against thee and thou cannot do shit because teenager 1 and teenager 2 are the two most powerful men in the court... biggest cringefail coup of all time
#say the prayer of compassion for the dead for chavar and sheveän's egos because they won't survive this
431 notes
😎 aveyyyyio
anyone else think the couriersdaily account is kinda being really excessively hype about eshevis tethimar getting killed in that assassination attempt. like... real, but also. diva... the attempt on the emperor's life......
#though I presume if they're shitposting the emperor is probably fine #given couriersdaily is almost certainly run by... Thou Knowest... #maybe it's like a diary for them #all the shit you can't say on the day job mer ai-- I mean couriersdaily?
389 notes
😎 aveyyyio reblogged couriersdaily
⚜️ odris84-blog follow
this is so fucking disrespectful... we don't know what we expected from baseborn couriers like thee but eshevis tethimar was a respected member of the tethimada whatever he ALLEGEDLY tried to do to the emperor. now he's in ulis's hands so thou shouldst really at least TRY to have some dignity and compassion
✉️ couriersdaily
#see???? #btw don't open the notes it's the archipelagar wars in there
10,431 notes
🫀 zhelsu-no34
Othala Celehar: h-
Me:
#prelate of ulis... a good one... looks good in the coat of office...
52 notes
🗣️ untheileneisecourtconfessions
went on a date with some random osmer and he admitted to having some tiny part in the tethimadeise conspiracy to try and impress me and idk if he was lying or not but he was pissing me off so I called the untheileneise guard on him and ate his dessert once they hauled him off lol
#plus I go to salons with the zhasan sometimes #and I think she would have snapped my head off my neck if she'd found out he said that and I did nothing
785 notes
🌽 orshansmazei reblogged amalomemes
#he comes into the sanctuary I work at and walks around in circles sometimes #he looks haggard too. poor thing 😭 #I know someone at the laundresses who is convinced he only has one coat
Recently managed to activate the most amazing infodump trap card.
I was driving through Vermont with a friend, and we pulled over at a tiny shop offering Maple Items. We were on the state highway, not the interstate, so "pulling over" meant "squeezing my tiny car into a parking bay the size of a broad highway shoulder."
As we got out of the car, an older woman emerged from behind the building where she had been pruning her roses. She introduced herself as Tammy.
Her shop offered the promised variety of Maple, but also a number of small antiques and a plethora of dog figurines, plaques, and clearly-hand-stitched garden flags.
A huge purple ribbon hung on the wall behind the register, along with many pictures of small dogs. This was no county fair ribbon. It was the size of my torso. The material had the soft sheen of actual silk.
As I placed my purchases on the counter, I asked, "Do you... Breed dogs?"
Yes. She does. She has bred Yorkies for the last 40 years. Her mother bred Yorkies before her. The purple ribbon was from her national championship winning Yorkie.
You may be expecting that the infodump was going to be about Yorkies.
It was not.
It was about 40 years of drama in the Yorkie breeding community. Where – you must understand – the judging at shows is often about who you're in with, not about the dogs. This is especially true when Tammy's opponents win anything.
And Tammy's mother! Well. Phyllis has been on the Yorkie scene since Yorkies were invented. Because of this, many women of equally venerable age hold deep grudges against Phyllis. The sort of grudges that result in episodes of Midsommar Murders.
This led to deep injustices against Phyllis on the part of judges and prevented her dogs from winning so often she retired from the scene. Judging is all about who you're friends with, after all.
After 20 years in hiding, Phyllis – the One True Queen of Yorkie Breeding – hatched a plot. She may have been out of the show circuit, but she was still breeding dogs. She entered an absolutely perfect bitch in the national competition, but sent her with a handler rather than go in person.
None of the usurpers knew who this dog belonged to, and in dog-breeding circles this Does Not Happen. This could have resulted in further injustices, but Phyllis was crafty. She knew this tournament was being judged by a man from the UK, who knew naught of the drama in the US Yorkie Empire.
With these advantages – and being the best dog there – Phyllis's bitch won the highest honor at the show.
Incensed by this insult to their ill-gotten supremacy, the other owners descended on the handler after the show, demanding to know for whom he was working.
"Phyllis," said he.
The name of the overthrown queen evoked horror in the usurpers.
"PHYLLIS!? She's still ALIVE!???"
Yes, Phyllis yet lived, and this bitch – the dog, not the woman – went on to mother Tammy's current dogs. One of whom, Lucy-Fur, is the reincarnation of Tammy's sister (also Lucy). This is certain for two reasons.
Firstly, Sister Lucy absolutely went straight to Hell upon her death, and Lucy-Fur the dog is positively as evil as Sister Lucy was.
Secondly, Sister Lucy always said when she died she wanted to come back as one of Phyllis's dogs because "mom treated the dogs better than us."
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There's this really obscure forgotten DC hero named the Heckler, who's basically buggs bunny as a superhero, not having any powers or physically strong, but just really good at pissing people off until they accidentally deal with themselves.
Now they're interesting, but the REAL star of the show is one of his villains, John Doe the Generic Man, who's this guy in a stark white suit with flat pink unshaded, untextured skin with no features or anything who talks like chatGPT and has black text over his face that explains what he's feeling at the moment. That guy is fucking fascinating.
