The Queen of Vorn (Unpublished) (Part 3 - Overview)
Welcome back, everyone, to our ongoing review of The Queen of Vorn.
In this part, we’ll be concluding our overview of the book’s overall qualities, focusing on a content warning (or, rather, how the more unpleasant elements of the story are executed) and a discussion of the counterproductive execution of themes. Please see the previous parts if you’d like to see the rest of the overview. If you’re here for the deep dive into the imbalance of Showing versus Telling, that starts on August 8th.
Thank you all for joining me for this series. Let’s get to it.
STATS
Title: The Queen of Vorn
Series: The Homecoming Triology (Book 1)
Author(s): Charlotte Goodwin
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
First Printing: May 2025
Publisher: Self-published to Amazon
Rating: 2/10
SPOILER WARNING
Mild, unmarked spoilers for the entirety of The Queen of Vorn will be provided throughout this review. The first paragraph of any given section will be kept spoiler-free. Any heavy spoilers for this book will be confined to clearly labelled sections.
EDITIONS
This review will specifically focus upon the original release of The Queen of Vorn. It was drafted prior to the unpublishing of the book and only updated to the extent necessary to provide a record of said events, and thus, it applies specifically to the original release.
I do intend to do a comparative review if and when this book is re-released, which will serve as both a critique of the re-release version and an analysis of the changes made.
CONTENT WARNING
Genocide
The inciting incident of this story, the reason the Zargons decided “it’s time to interfere again”, is that Queen Lila has launched a campaign of genocide against the goblins. We are treated to multiple chapters of graphic violence in which goblins are butchered. Queen Lila routinely dehumanizes the goblins, and this campaign of slaughter is motivated by her personal vendetta against them..
Genocide is a controversial and triggering topic linked to a great deal of trauma. Its inclusion should be handled with care. While the majority of readers will have neither personal experience nor generational ties to genocide, it is ingrained into Western society that this is an inherently evil thing. If there is anything that belongs in a Content Warning by mere virtue of existing in a story, it would be this.
This book has genocide. You have been warned.
…
That being said, this is the worst-executed depiction of genocide I have ever been exposed to in any form of media. It oscillates between boring and what I sincerely hope was unintentional parody. The harder Goodwin tries to shock and dismay the audience, the less engaging and/or more ridiculous it gets.
In a way, the handling of genocide in this book reminds me of the carnage in the anime Blue Gender. That story was so desperate to hammer in the threat the giant bug monsters posed to humanity that, before the end of Episode 2, it broke its own lore just to have scenes of bugs killing people. It’s as if the creators thought no one would take the show seriously unless someone died a bloody death every couple of episodes, and so they kept making up excuses for shocking gore. Things got so absurd that, by the end of Episode 6, a scene of a small girl being trampled by a giant beetle was funny rather than horrifying. The creators were begging me to be invested in this obvious cannon fodder, and that backfired.
Goodwin doesn’t properly show the goblin genocide until Chapter 12 … and it’s a farce before she can even finish the chapter. The genocide is mentioned as Queen Lila’s goal before that point, but it’s not explored. We don’t get any goblin POVs, or even any goblin characters. Then, in Chapter 12, Goodwin slams us into the POV of Grinthy, shows us Grinthy escaping the destruction of her village, and builds up to a moment where Grinthy watches her husband and children get decapitated. Prior to the decapitation, I was wondering why any of this was relevant to the story being told; once the decapitation started, I was laughing at how desperate Goodwin was to be taken seriously, rather than being horrified by the butchery.
I have more to say on the handling of genocide when we get to Themes. For now, just know that what’s on the page here is overwrought nonsense that lacks the punch that such subject matter should deliver.
Violence & Gore
The worst of the violence and gore is tied up with the genocide, but enough surfaces in other scenes to be worth discussing separately.
The fight scenes within this book can be graphic. There are vivid descriptions of bloody injuries, smashed skulls, and all other manner of violent unpleasantness.
As mentioned up above with the genocide, it feels like Goodwin is forcing this element to make the book seem grittier and more serious than her prose or the general storytelling would earn on its own. The desperation backfires. Still, I will give her credit for being more consistent and effective about this than Yarros has been in The Empyrean. I may have laughed at some of the brutality Goodwin forced into this book, but that’s better than my eyes glazing over every time.
Animal Death (Heavy Spoilers)
If you are a horse person, you may not like what you find in this book.
About a third of the way through the book, Emma and Tom acquire horses, which they name Harry and Bob. While these horses get next to no characterization and are only really used for a subplot about Tom feeling inadequate because he can’t ride, they are still with Emma and Tom through the story. In the climax, however, Emma and Tom (and their allies) are forced to ride their horses nearly to death during a weeks-along pursuit, first by human soldiers and then by a goblin horde. This culminates in them abandoning the horses to be devoured by the goblins (despite us being explicitly told earlier in the story that goblins don’t like horse flesh). We aren’t shown their deaths, but said deaths are confirmed via magical means.
This is hardly animal cruelty. The heroes make every effort to avoid abandoning the horses. Still, I could see how this event could bother some readers. It is certainly played as an emotionally heavy moment (as heavy as this book ever gets, at least).
THEME
I don't feel like The Queen of Vorn has any intentional themes. Even the atheist soapboxing is such a blip that I don’t think Goodwin was trying to preach to the audience, merely push herself deeper into the narrative. With that said, I think there are two ideas that were unwittingly folded into the text that knock this story’s morality clean off its axis, thereby inflicting severe damage to the narrative.
Extermination, not Genocide
The goblins genocide is presented as the sole motivating factor behind opposing Queen Lila. It’s what inspires the Zargons to break their Prime Directive and send Emma and Tom to Dunia in the first place. (Try not to think too hard about the fact that they’ll intervene in this genocide but not any past or present genocides on Earth, especially as we continue this section.) The principle being pushed here, which is explicitly stated by Emma (via narrative voice) in Chapter 29, is:
“All creatures had their place and a right to exist.”
Here’s the problem: every time we are actually shown the goblins, we are beaten over the head with how they themselves neither embody or really even care about this message.
You see, the only lives that goblins see any inherent value in are their own, followed by those of spouses and children. They feel little or no emotional impact from the deaths of any other goblins, and other sapient races are just food to them. They will abandon or outright murder one another to save themselves or just to get their way in the most petty of disagreements. They don’t mind humans killing them in principle, seeing it as tit-for-tat for the goblins raiding humans settlements.
This isn't a conclusion drawn from chapters of Emma or Tom encountering goblin antagonists. It's not coming from Lila’s desire of revenge upon the goblins for horrors she endured in her past. This is what Goodwin decides to Show us through Grinthy, the only goblin POV in the book.
The problems start as early as Chapter 12. While Grinthy is horrified by the grotesque state of her neighbor’s corpses in the aftermath, this is her initial thought when the humans attack:
Goblins ran ahead, and she overtook them. There was no point in helping them, it would only speed her own demise. She could only hope that the ones the humans caught slowed them down. As she ran, she prayed Errag and her children were far away.
Our one goblin POV defaults to thinking about her neighbors as sacrifices to keep the humans busy. When she then thinks to hide in a wine cellar, she doesn’t make any effort to save them, merely hiding with the wine merchant (who is already down there) and getting drunk (which is rather counterproductive, given that her plan is to find her husband and children as soon as the sounds of battle fade).
Things get worse in Chapter 16. Grinty is prepared to leave a child behind to be shot by archers until the child screams, triggering her PTSD from her children dying. When she doubles back to save the child, and said child is immediately shot, she is not overwhelmed by the horror of another child in her care dying; she promptly concludes, “Helping people isn’t worth it after all.” In the next scene, she murders another goblin because he tries to get her to help defend refugees instead of smuggling herself to safety.
Maybe Good wanted to paint this as Grinthy giving up on altruism out of desperation, as a good person being twisted into a villain by the atrocities of others, but it doesn’t pan out. Grinty comes across as an inherently selfish person who dabbles in altruism when it benefits her own feelings. Again, this is our only goblin POV. We have no reason to believe that she’s different from any other goblin in this regard.
In at least half of her remaining chapters after that, Grinthy either murders at least one goblin for challenging her authority or else hangs back from danger to allow other goblins to die on her behalf. There’s also a chapter where she goes out of her way to murder humans who weren’t hostile towards her instead of making a stealthy escape. The only other time she helps a goblin is to keep someone with knowledge that’s useful to her from drowning. Grinthy’s entire identity becomes a constant grasp for power, with only a vague notion of an idea that she’ll somehow turn around and take vengeance on the massive human armies that is wiping out the best the goblins can throw in their way.
What Goodwin Shows us is that goblins are not the innocent victims. They are treacherous, violent, and self-serving people who assess the value of others purely in terms of what benefits them. They also accept that humans doing the same to them is the natural order of things. They are as close to the archetypal Evil Race as one can get without explicit confirmation of a supernatural evil driving them. The vermin races of Redwall have more nuance than this.
Oh, and speaking of vermin: Goodwin’s self-insert outright compares goblins to rats.
Let’s view that principle from Chapter 29 again, shall we? This time, I’m going to show you the sentences that immediately precede it.
She had no love for goblins, what little she’d seen of them made her despise them. But she hated rats back on Earth, and she’d never have wished to wipe them out. All creatures had their place and a right to exist.
By the reckoning of Goodwin’s self-insert, goblins are comparable to vermin, not humans. And since the comparison is to vermin, that redefines the principle. Sure, rats have a right to exist … but if they become an infestation that threatens human life, their deaths are accepted as a natural and good act.
As established as early as Chapter 3 - Queen Lila’s first POV chapter, which is supposed to introduce her as a villain - the infestation is already a threat to human life. The following is a speech to kick off the genocide. It is spoken by Lila’s son, but he is parroting her views. Pay attention to both what he says and how enthusiastically everyone agrees with it.
Joth raised a gauntleted hand, his magic amplifying his voice. ‘Soldiers of Hosta!’ he bellowed, his voice crisp and clear. ‘Today is a momentous day. Today is the day we launch our campaign against the goblins, those vile creatures who plague our northern neighbours in Ratica,’ a cheer rang out from the battalion on the left flank, ‘our allies in Mediss,’ another cheer erupted from a battalion on the right flank, ‘and those cowards in Eropt.’ The whole army launched into a chorus of jeers at his jibe at their absent neighbour.
‘Eropt may not have joined us, but with our brave allies in Vacso,’ swords were drummed against shields in amongst a group of solders near the rear, and ‘Mulber’, spears were raised and more cheers followed, ‘and of course our own soldiers of Vorn,’ the biggest eruption of support yet spilled out from the mass of soldiers in the middle, ‘the goblins don’t stand a chance.’
Lila looked on at her son with a degree of pride. At least she’d managed to train him to make a decent speech. Good. He’s learned how to rile them up. But words alone don’t win wars.
‘For years, they have pillaged the human lands,’ he continued, ‘taken our cattle, burned our villages, murdered our people. For years, the brave soldiers of the north have fought back, but like the rats they are, goblins run, they hide, and they evade us. But no longer. Today, we march and rid the north of the goblins once and for all. Today, we begin our campaign to rid Dunia of every man, woman, and child of this vile race. Today, we take the fight to them!’
The whole army raised their swords and bellowed with calls of hurrahs and jubilation. Hilts everywhere were thumped on shields; the clattering racket boomed across the plains.
The first time I read this, I took for granted that this was fueled by nothing but grudges, ignorance, and prejudice. After reading this book, I see nothing but evidence in favor of this speech. The genocide genuinely seems like a last-resort measure of a desperate people.
Ms. Goodwin, why did you go out of your way to make the people committing genocide sympathetic? Genocide Bad is a hard concept to mess up. Why did you have to go so far to dehumanize the victims of genocide before having YOUR PROTAGONIST apply one of the same analogies that the Nazis used on Jewish populations?
Opposing Evil is Bad (Heavy Spoilers)
This idea doesn’t blossom until the closing paragraphs of the book.
As mentioned above, the Zargons have a form of Prime Directive. The only justification for sending Emma and Tom are sent to stop Lila is that Emma is originally from Dunia. They conclude that returning her undoes the original intervention of saving her from Lila as a child. (Goodwin lampshades that this doesn’t make sense without actually correcting the issue.)
Then, as the story is ending, Goodwin decides to drop this bombshell.
‘It seems there are some Zargons who are quite keen on the concept of interference.’ She paused and stared out of the large glass window at the front of the control room, at the view of their planet below. ‘There are some who want to conduct experiments.’
Zark gasped.
Darkle slowly turned and looked Zark in the eye. ‘I hope as much as you do that Specimen Lila is unsuccessful in her campaign to commit genocide, but we must not interfere more.’
Zark returned her captain’s stare.
‘I mean it, Zark; to be honest, it is perhaps preferable if Specimens Tom and Emma fail, as it will prove interference doesn’t give the results we want.’
So … in other words … this race that believes themselves superior to humanity and all other races decided one time to ignore their Prime Directive … and suddenly, they are chomping at the bit to start meddling with the affairs of others. We are being explicitly told that this could be worse than the genocide of the goblins.
I’m sure Goodwin’s intention here is to set up a dark twist in the series, with the Zargons becoming the antagonists either later in this trilogy or in The Offspring Trilogy, but after going out of her way to dehumanize the victims of genocide, this really just seem like she’s arguing that opposing evil actions just causes more problems than it solves.
Knocked Off Its Axis
If Goodwin wanted to tell a story that explored how a genocide of a group of people could be triggered by their brutal behavior towards others, she could have told this story. If she wanted to tell a story about considering the dangers of intervening in any conflict, she could told that story. If she wanted to tell a story that both, she could have done that.
The reason that what she’s done here is a problem is that stopping the genocide of the goblins is the sole driving force behind the narrative. It is the reason we are meant to think that Queen Lila is evil and Emma is justified in causing massive political upheaval and getting many people killed to retake the throne. There is nothing else to keep us, Emma, or Tom invested in this quest. So when Goodwin goes out of her way to obliterate the idea that goblins are victims and further sets up that saving them could bring about a far worse calamity, it just makes the whole story seem pointless.
Why should we be invested in the rest of the series when the cause that protagonists are fighting for is actively being undermined at every turn?
END OF THE OVERVIEW
If I had to sum up the flaws of The Queen of Vorn in one word, that word would be ‘half-baked’.
There are elements here are are functional. There are elements that aren’t functional, but if you squint at them, you can see how much they could have made for a great story if Goodwin put in the effort. There are elements that simply wouldn’t be an issue in a better-written book.
However, so much of this book is unpolished. So much is undermined by terrible execution. Then there are the themes, which, at best, were something Goodwin took for granted with zero thought of how the story she was telling would synergize with them.
This book needed more time to cook. I sincerely hope that, now that Goodwin has unpublished it, she makes the most of that time. She could absolutely salvage this story in a rewrite.
BREAKDOWN
On August 8th, we will begin the chapter-by-chapter breakdown with Part 4, which will cover Chapters 1 through 12. This will take us from the beginning of the story to the end of the first chapter that actually depicts the genocide.
From the very start, the imbalance of Show versus Tell undermines this narrative. This book effectively has multiple false starts because Goodwin chooses to hard reset events from chapter to chapter rather than Showing us how events flow one into another. It’s so bad that, by the time the genocide arrived, I was already checked out and couldn’t get invested in the POV character (and this was before I realized how monstrous said POV is).
I hope you’ll join me for this next stage.
WORLD TOUR
August 1st will see us diving into Chapters 21 through 28 of Onyx Storm. This section sees the first of the four cycles of power fantasy that comprise the rainbow dragon hunt … and it really should have been the third or fourth. Yarros decided to use Planet of Hats worldbuilding for all the islands visited in this book, building each island’s identity around a single god from the pantheon she made for this book. For some reason, though, she then decided to make the first island visited the island of Flat Earth Atheists whose entire identity is being the antithesis of the islands she hasn’t shown us yet.
Before we get there, though, July 29th will see the premiere of Chapter 5 of “The Unbottled Idol”. Now that Mohsen and Inquisitor Kowsari know they’re looking for an ifrit, they infiltrate Consul Shapiev’s house to search for the ifrit’s binding ring. Unfortunately, they aren’t the only ones with that idea.
Whatever you’re here for, thank you for stopping by. Please remember to subscribe for the newsletter if you’d like weekly e-mails with the latest posts. Take care, everyone, and have a great weekend.
