Seeking fun stories about goblins

September 14, 2021 2:52 AM

I love T. Kingfisher's novella Nine Goblins, the all-goblin Critical Role one-shot, and Pocketss' goblin comics. Please recommend more goblin-centric media! Books, stories, comics, and videos all welcome. The sillier the better.
posted by neushoorn to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

I'll get in first with The Goblin Emperor. Not silly, but a good book.

On a much more fun note, a lot of late Pratchett deals with goblins. Snuff is a good place to start.

From a webcomics POV there's also Goblins.
posted by Hartster at 3:25 AM on September 14, 2021 [7 favorites]

There's Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War by Jim C. Hines. I've only read the first one, and I liked it quite a bit.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 5:06 AM on September 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

I don't know if you're into tabletop RPGs, but Goblin Quest might be right up your alley. Here's an example of someone playing the game, recommended by its creator: "Actual Play of Goblin Quest where fire is used to solve every available problem and some things that aren’t problems".
posted by ourobouros at 5:15 AM on September 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh please read The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. It's really the best story ever written featuring goblins because the author really understands them.

From the foreword of my copy of the book:

"It's very different from the lazy-minded stories that call some characters good and others bad although they all behave exactly the same way; the Goods win the battles and the Bads lose, besides being ugly. MacDonald's goblins are ugly only because they behave badly. Treated unjustly, instead of standing up for their rights they went underground to sulk vengefully down in the dark, and so they got all twisted, with weird feet and no toes... This is a great story, and I love it all, but I love the goblins best." - Ursula Le Guin
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 5:42 AM on September 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

Yeah came here to say Princess and the Goblin, it is literally the first fantasy book for children ever written and you must read it.
posted by brook horse at 6:25 AM on September 14, 2021

Thirding The Princess and the Goblin. It's a great book and it has an important place in the history of fantasy literature. It deserves to be more widely read.

The sequel, on the other hand, is terrible. So I wouldn't bother with that.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:46 AM on September 14, 2021

Just here to say pocketss is the BEST I love those goblins and the tension over whether Tirra will make it to Girls' Night is killing me...
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:55 AM on September 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

There’s a book by Mary Gentle called ‘Grunts!’ that is excellent and very funny but is also *extremely violent and inappropriate in many ways*.
posted by bq at 8:24 AM on September 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

Some silly goblins are recurring minor characters in Dana Simpson's Phoebe and Her Unicorn comics. (YA, fart jokes, unicorns, good fun.) I think they appear in other collections too but they're certainly in Volume 3, Unicorn Vs. Goblins.
posted by miles per flower at 8:26 AM on September 14, 2021

Several the books about Zita the Spacegirl and Mighty Jack feature goblins prominently.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:39 AM on September 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

Seconding SNUFF and THE GOBLIN EMPEROR
posted by mareliz at 8:40 AM on September 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Seconding The Goblin Emperor. If trolls are close enough, CM Waggonner; if orcs, AK Larkwood.
posted by jeather at 11:45 AM on September 14, 2021

Technically Orc Stain is about orcs, but they're very goblin-y. It's a very interesting and very weird comic and the art is amazing.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:47 PM on September 14, 2021

Seconding Jim C. Hines' 'Jig the Goblin' series, and Mary Gentle's 'Grunts!'

'Grunts!' is great fun.

Not strictly goblin, but A. Lee Martinez' 'In the Company of Ogres' is silly fun.

Pratchett's 'Snuff' is a lot more serious/ sad.
posted by porpoise at 7:01 PM on September 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Dianna Sanchez's YA books have goblins as side characters, generally light-hearted tone but with awareness of "goblins as a lower race."
posted by away for regrooving at 7:05 PM on September 14, 2021

Neither of these is silly, but here you go...

The Rainbow Goblins by Ul de Rico. Gorgeous illustrations.

Nekrogoblikon. A tale of love and vengeance.
posted by table of malcontents at 2:56 PM on September 16, 2021

I quite like Fairy Tales Slashed by Megan Derr, which is a collection of short stories. Two stories center around a half-goblin and his full human brother, as they look for acceptance in their world. The rest wander around various fairy tale tropes, but make everything gayer.
Charmed and Dangerous has the short story Magically Delicious by Nicole Kimberling about when your goblin sweetheart gets sick.
It's been awhile since I read it, but I like the Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle, where humans and goblins interacting doesn't go quite as expected. And I don't remember it as well, but the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, starting with Moon Called, has goblins as well as werewolves, witches, and fey.
And the Fables graphic novels have goblin armies in them -- I don't remember them doing much interesting with them, but did note their presence in both Fairest Vol. 1 and Jack of Fables Vol. 7.
posted by blueberry monster at 5:55 PM on September 17, 2021