The Orb of Cairado

by Katherine Addison

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 85
Series: The Goblin Emperor
Rating:

Synopsis:

Set in the world of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee The Goblin Emperor, The Orb of Cairado offers an unlikely hero in historian Ulcetha Zhorvena.

Five years ago, Ulcetha was studying at the University of Cairado, working his way toward becoming a scholar first-class in the Department of History. Then a prize artifact disappeared and Ulcetha, deftly framed, was kicked out. Now he works for a crooked importer, using his knowledge of elven history to write provenances for the fake artifacts Salathgarad sells.

When the airship Wisdom of Choharo explodes, killing the emperor and three of his four sons, it takes with it Ulcetha’s best friend, Mara Lilana. But Mara leaves behind a puzzle—the one thing Ulcetha can’t resist. And the puzzle leads Ulcetha back to the Department of History…and maybe the chance to clear his name.

The Orb of Cairado is another addition to the world Katherine Addison began in The Goblin Emperor, set at around the same time as that book, though the events overlap very little — a character dies “off-screen” in the same accident that kills Maia’s father, which precipitates the events of this book… but mostly it’s about Ulcetha, his disgrace, and this work to solve the mystery and finally dig himself back out of the disgrace.

Like the books focusing on Thara Celehar, this novella gives us another different angle of the world, this one a scholar’s angle. We see a bit of that in Celehar’s interactions with scholars in The Grief of Stones, but it’s not his world. It’s always fascinating to see more of this world because there’s clearly so much of it to explore, and Addison’s been careful to mind that people like Ulcetha don’t speak like the Emperor must, that different classes have their own troubles, preoccupations, etc.

The storyline itself is also fun, since it involves exploration of ancient ruins, a formerly respectable scholar sneaking around like a thief (for the greater good), and of course, treasure. In the space of the novella I didn’t get terribly attached to Ulcetha per se; I wouldn’t object to reading more about him, but I was more interested in the expansion of the world.

Rating: 4/5