My Big Goblin Space Program

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Chris just wanted to be an astronaut and walk on the moon. A motorcycle accident ruled him out, or so he thought, which cost him both his legs. Not quite the usual truck-kun method of reincarnation, but close. A second chance as a good-will story gave him the chance to live his dreams… which of course goes wrong.

He awakes in a new world, blue-furred and much smaller than before. He’s now a Goblin King. Not the David Bowie in tight pants type, but a natural leader for goblin-kind. Still missing both his legs, he refuses to let that stop him. Goblins, if nothing else, are hardy creatures and enthusiastically industrious in their creations.

The world mechanics are fun, with any goblin he comes across instantly becoming part of his tribe and sharing knowledge. Being the lowest creatures on the totem pole has the world treating them like vermin, and they’re constantly stuck at level 1. They die easily but also reproduce just as quickly. I love the idea of how this works. They all sleep in a pile and the following day somewhere between one and four new fully-grown goblins appear.

The inventions are all ridiculous sounding “sticky pokey thing” – not sticky because it grips, but because it’s made of sticks… so lots of things end up “sticky” inventions.

Chris, now renamed King Apollo when he got the chance, is (pardon the pun) rocketing the goblins through hundreds of years of technological advancement in days as they move from throwing rocks to unpowered flight in a matter of weeks.

It’s mostly relaxed, with occasional hazards being thrown in from other creatures roaming the woods to vicious creatures picking them off at night. Well balanced between silliness, invention and action. Some larger, slow building tension exists in the form of humans encroaching on their land from other continents, and given they’re seen at best as vermin or at worst ingredients for elven marital potions, the tribe need to up their ability to fend off all potential enemies.

Narration by Jay Aaseng is good with no obvious errors like retakes or background noises that I noticed. For me, a little tinny though, like too much treble and not enough bass to give it depth, not a deal breaker by any means but I do prefer a bit more depth in my audio. He does mispronounce “gunwale” as “gun whale” instead of like “gunnel” a couple of times which always (and I admit somewhat irrationally) annoys me.

Overall, this was a fun ride. I like seeing the little guys, the underdogs getting their day, and goblins much like kobolds, are often the joke races in a lot of stories so it’s nice for them to have a win. The goblins are both morons and incredibly clever at the same time in that while they do often die in ridiculous or preventable ways, they also absorb knowledge and can rapidly come up with new iterations on ideas once given the seed.

Book two in the series drops in March and I have already pre-ordered it.

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