Review Detail

The Goblin's Puzzle

Middle Grade Fiction 197

Never enough fantasy

January 20, 2016 (Updated: June 03, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

A slave boy with no name is sent with the merchant's son to a neighboring kingdom, but when the son is killed by another slave, the boy has to decide what to do. He has always tried to be a good slave, so when another traveler, Nikola, offers to take the boy along to the silver mines to pick up cargo, he has a hard time saying no. Luckily, Nikola has a strong box that contains Mennofar, a goblin whom the boy releases because it seems to be the right thing to do. Mennofar lets the boy know that he had a narrow escape, since Nikola was going to sell him into slavery. The two work out a deal; goblins can grant requests only under duress, so the boy asks to have a truthful answer to one yes or no question every day. In the mean time, the daughter of a sage, "Plain" (and later "Just") Alice is kidnapped by a dragon, but given to an ogre when the dragon Ludwig realizes she is not his intended target. Ludwig then captures Princess Alice. The boy manages to get roped into rescuing the two by Just Alice's father, Oswald, and he and Mennofar brave many obstacles in order to get them released. The boy also tries to figure out the mystery of why he is a slave, but it is difficult to ask the goblin the right questions in order to get answers that make sense. The group discovers a sinister plot to overthrow the kingdom when Duke Geoffrey plans to force Princess Alice to marry him. Can they figure out how to stop him?

Good Points

Readers who enjoy Lloyd Alexander, J.R.R. Tolkien, Patricia Wrede and Tamora Pierce can never get enough vaguely medieval fantasy books, with castles, kitchen maids, dragons, ogres and sorcerers! This was a breezy adventure tale that allows readers to slip into a fantasy world and enjoy the travels of the characters.

The characters, while fairly typical, all have amusing twists on their personalities, making this just fresh enough to entice readers who have methodically worked their way through every fantasy book they can find, and the ensemble cast will appeal to both boys and girls.

It's extremely difficult to find fantasy books of this type with diverse characters, and I appreciated that even the cover of this showed our main character with the darker skin described in the book. The mystery of his birth and his eventual discovery of his true background will have readers rooting for him. There may be some backlash the he was a nameless slave, and it certainly would have been more clever to make the spunky princess the character of color, but I think the issue is handled in a manner consistent with other medieval fantasies.