Katherine Addison

Katherine Addison is the pen name of American author Sarah Monette, whose The Goblin Emperor — about a gentle half-goblin who unexpectedly becomes emperor — is one of the most beloved fantasy novels of the 2010s for its warmth, moral seriousness, and unconventional hero.

Katherine Addison is the pen name under which Sarah Monette — who publishes dark fantasy and horror fiction under her own name — writes more accessible fantasy. The Goblin Emperor (2014), published as Katherine Addison, is the novel that established this pen name: a standalone fantasy about Maia, the half-goblin, half-elf fourth son of the emperor, who unexpectedly inherits the throne after the deaths of his father and brothers in an airship accident.

The novel is unusual in secondary-world fantasy for several reasons. Its protagonist is gentle, empathetic, and deeply uncertain rather than aggressive and heroic. The political intrigue of the imperial court — which Maia must navigate without preparation — is rendered as a problem of ethics and communication rather than violence. Maia’s primary challenge is figuring out how to be good in a role that offers enormous power and that is surrounded by people who want to use him for their own purposes. He mostly succeeds through the radical strategy of actually trying to understand the people around him.

The Goblin Emperor was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, and has become a significant entry in what readers call “comfort fantasy” — fantasy that offers warmth, moral clarity, and the satisfaction of watching a genuinely good person navigate difficult circumstances. The Witness for the Dead (2021) and The Grief of Stones (2022) are set in the same world, following a different protagonist. The Goblin Emperor remains the essential starting point.