Book Review: Nine Goblins – A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief by T. Kingfisher

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The Details

Media Type: Physical Book
Title: Nine Goblins
Author(s): T. Kingfisher
Publisher: TOR
Pages/Length: Hardcover; 150 pages
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Source: Library

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From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Nine Goblins, a novella of low fantasy and high mischief.

No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure. 

But goblins don’t go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece, despite a path filled with elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures…a human being.

The Review

Ah, what a delight this story was. Imagine a world where goblins are in the middle of a war over their home territory. Continuously pushed further and further off their own land, and unable to find a place to settle, they’ve had to turn to fighting for space to exist. Sound familiar at all? But unlike the goblins we’ve met in stories before, these goblins are impossibly lovable. Sure they complain a lot (mainly about things they actually like) and sure they can be a little gruff (mostly only on the outside). But what we find as readers is a group full of camaraderie and larger than life personalities.

I’ve been looking for a book to help me get out of my reading slump, and this novella worked wonders. I can see so much of Kingfisher’s later work here. A female main character who is fed up with how much work she always has to do, but pushes forward anyway. A band of characters who are sweet and misunderstood. A great evil that ends up being borderline absurd once you finally know what it is. Everything about this book just made my heart so happy, even when there there was darkness in the story.

I also really loved the dynamic between Sings With Trees and the goblin army. There’s a big message here about being your own person, even if others consider it to be weird. Even more than that is the idea that one should never allow biases to color their views of a whole group of people. Elves and goblins are supposed to be enemies. Sings and the goblin army smash that notion to smithereens, and celebrate on the wreckage. I adore them.

It should be noted that T. Kingfisher is one of my all time favorite writers, for many reasons. One of the biggest of those reasons though is Kingfisher’s ability to walk the line between the whimsical and the dark. In today’s world that is something I need more than ever, and if you’re okay with walking that line too you should absolutely pick up Nine Goblins.