You’d think an army of zombie trolls and undead ogres would catch the nobility’s attention. You’d be wrong. The rulers of Halfsock are deeply in denial. Besides, they have taxes to avoid, neighbors to plunder, and relatives to backstab.
With war looming, a goblin latrine slave named Shelly resolves to save Castle Halfsock from itself. He must assume many roles: jester, detective, spy, and political fixer. But his most challenging—especially after a lifetime spent cleaning other people’s toilets—is as a confident goblin worthy of trust, friendship, and maybe even love.
Can the least powerful person in the realm overcome his insecurities to depose rulers, forge alliances, and fend off an undead horde?
Third up in our run through the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Finalists is Jester by Tim Carter, and it’s the strongest showing we’ve had yet. Jester is Before We Go Blog’s pick for this year’s finalist. You can read their review here. And you can see the finalist spreadsheet here.
It follows Shelly, a goblin latrine slave at Castle Halfsock who’d rather keep his head down than save anyone, but keeps getting pulled into exactly that anyway. A murder mystery kicks things off, an undead army closes in, and along the way Shelly picks up an unlikely circle of allies, including a mistress with her own agenda and a vampire he’s not sure he trusts yet. It’s a book that mines real weight out of slavery, racism, and classism while still managing to be, against all odds, extremely funny about it. Here’s what we thought.
Adawia
Goblins are good!
“The wizard had shit himself when he died. Humans often do this in their last moments, as if to remind you from beyond the grave that they can get away with anything.”
While the above quote refers to a goblin-slave/human-master relationship, its relevance in our real-life political climate resonates with me. Much of this glorious book resonates with me, mostly in the form of our reluctant hero’s attitude. While he really just wants to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, his higher instincts compel him to do (and be) better. His undying and underlying desire to uncover truths, and bring about justice has him almost constantly at risk of death, or a very serious beating. This, however, doesn’t stop him, just as heroics, for the sake of it, doesn’t compel him. It does create moral quandaries that are wonderfully explored by an author that obviously has a deft hand with such things.
Quite often with a really great book, there’s one or two features that stand out. I’m not sure there’s a standout feature with Jester, pretty much everything about it is extremely well done. The writing, the characters, the world, the dialogue, the pacing, and the flow, all come together perfectly to tell a story with grit, heart, and humour (plus an inordinate amount of sewerage). There’s nary a wasted word or situation, at no point is the story bogged down with unnecessary details and descriptions. This isn’t what makes Jester a brilliant book, but it certainly helps.
Stacey
I fully admit that at first I didn’t think this was going to be for me. It took a couple of chapters to get the rhythm of Carter’s writing and humour but once that happened, we were off to the races.
The characters really shine here and I couldn’t help rooting for our main character Shelly, a goblin latrine slave turned all around world saving hero. He doesn’t have an easy life and as war against the Skeleton Queen gets closer, he becomes something far more than he was. His voice in this story is full of self doubt, insecurity, and thankfully, a “just gotta do it” mindset. We see his struggles though and it just makes you love him. He is supported by a killer (haha) cast of side characters. I love Buckingham and his other friends and the underdog theme is played out well with their help. No one really thinks they can beat the undead hoard shuffling their gross way toward them but miracles do happen!
Shelly is a joy to read about, every time he says, “Shit.” It just made me laugh. SO understated yet you know he’s up to his arse in it!
One of my favourite parts to the story is all the planning for war and the strategy twists and turns the group comes up with. The execution is clever and incredible! It’s also vividly described and on the repulsive side which I also love!
Julia
Jester is a blast of an underdog story. Shelly starts out as a latrine slave, about as low as you can get in Castle Halfsock. In the trenches so to speak, if the trenches were made of sewage, shovel in hand and dignity nowhere in sight. And yet he’s the one who somehow ends up carrying the realm’s fate on his shoulders, without ever really meaning to.
That’s what makes him work so well. He isn’t chasing glory. He just keeps getting pulled deeper into things, and every time he could step back, he plants his feet instead, usually while still covered in something unmentionable.
There’s a lot packed in around that core idea without it ever feeling crowded. A murder mystery opens the story, because apparently Shelly’s life wasn’t complicated enough already, but it’s never the point of the book, just one more thing life throws at him while he’s busy trying to save himself and maybe everyone else.
He picks up new friends, including a vampire he’s deeply suspicious of at first, fair enough, and watching that suspicion melt into real trust is one of the quieter pleasures of the book. There’s a budding romance too, but it stays understated, never taking over the story, which suited me fine.
The friendships that build around him are the real heart of the book. Shelly is background noise to everyone in his world, but he’s front and center for us the whole time, and that gap is where the story gets its charm. His scenes with the other slaves add real weight without ever dragging the humor down. One moment that stuck with me is another slave asking him not to risk himself, since what he’s doing is genuinely dangerous. It’s a small beat, but it grounds the whole story in something real, right before the plot goes and asks even more of him anyway.
Comedy is a tricky thing to pull off since humor hits everyone differently, but this one landed for me, especially once it found its footing. The first third felt a little thin, like it hadn’t quite settled into itself yet. Once I started trusting the story to unfold at its own pace, it clicked, and from there it just kept getting better.
Shelly spends his days up to his elbows in the castle’s worst jobs, so of course he’s the one who ends up neck deep in cleaning up its biggest mess too.
Kerry
On the surface, Jester is a feelgood story of a reluctant, underdog hero, one that defies the odds and saves the day (and the kingdom) against a mighty army of the undead; underneath though, there is plenty of equivalence with the real world in the form of racism, sexism, classism, and slavery.
Our hero Shelly is a goblin slave whose life is shit, literally and figuratively. “For years, they heaped scatological indignities upon you,” as his days are spent scrubbing shitty nappy cauldrons as well as looking after the latrines plus the humans who own him are racist assholes who think enslavement, “simply reflected the natural order of things.”
Shelly, though mainly invisible to the majority around him, is not a stupid goblin by any means. When he sees what could be the demise of himself and those he cares about, he takes action which brings him into the orbit of the Duke’s mistress Betticia. Whilst she isn’t invisible, she certainly is ignored by Men with less intelligence. She (like many women in history) is a driving force behind the Duke but as she says to Shelly, “We cannot be seen to pursue it. So it is always, with slaves and women.” Her and Shelly make a formidable and intelligent team and their partnership was a pleasure to read. The supporting cast were all well written and fleshed out, even the ones who are only in a couple of chapters make their presence felt.
Carter’s use of dry wit and sarcasm with Shelly’s one-liners and quips being both sad and funny was brilliantly done, this is the type of comedy I really enjoy, an example being:
“A longing for it after years of scraping up the excrement of undeserving bastards blessed only with height, steel, and a dull-witted instinct to march in formation.”
I have read and reread Jester as well as the author’s heartfelt, emotionally charged novella Majordomo. Carter is an author I will be keeping an eye out for in the future.
Eva
The most unique thing about Jester is despite the story being set in a literal cesspool of shit, it manages to bring a warmth that is more akin to sunshine than manure.
Jester follows a goblin slave, Shelly, whose most palatable chore is boiling the soiled diapers of Halfsock castle’s children. Shelly begins as being resigned to his predicament, stolen from his home and beaten into submission doesn’t promote confidence or a yearning to rise up against one’s circumstance. After Shelly learns an undead army threatens his very existence, he decides to covertly work to put a more favorable Duke in power; a Duke who will meet this zombie army with strength and give Shelly the best chance at survival.
As Shelly navigates Halfsock’s grungy politics, he continues to discover how to use his perceived weaknesses as strengths. His first lesson is that of trust, both in himself and with the other people he meets who are aligned in his ultimate goals. You can’t help but root for him as he works through new experiences in friendship, courage, and love.
I found Shelly to be an extremely loveable character. He constantly toed the line of self-preservation and bravery, and I found that very relatable compared to the typical fearless heroes we see in many stories. Carter has woven in a distinct and humorous voice, and I found myself giggling at the imagery I was provided. One of the new feelings Shelly explored was that of love and desire and this was often presented in very goblin-like ways:
“The thought of it [Rose’s smile she would give when Shelly informed her of his success in his schemes] gave me a warm spot above my stomach. It differed from the heat I felt when Betticia Flowers twisted my ear. I wondered lazily if there was a way to get Rose to twist my ear as well.”
No shade to any human who likes a good ear twist, but this felt very aligned with goblin nature.
Jester is clearly a microcosm to our life here today on Earth, constantly dabbling in racism, sexism, and classism. While this mirror can often give a reader a sense of doom and gloom, Carter was able to provide rays of hope without being unbelievably aspirational. At the end of the day, Halfsock is a dirty, dim, and abysmal place to live, but it’s still home to many and worthy of care and nurturing.
Jester was a charming read, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a short but satisfactory story about an unlikely hero.
Maureen
It was a good book, one of the better ones in SPFBO 11, and that’s saying a lot, considering how many truly good books have crossed our readers this year.
The Plot: it seemed “stumblesome” at times. At the front of the book, our hero, goblin Shelly, is bemoaning his lot in life as a latrine slave when he stumbles into better circumstances, having caught the master of the house and his mistress together. Shelly is bewildered and stays that way for most of the book. It’s toward the end that he takes agency over his future.
Characters: our hero is a small goblin, one who has reason to be terrified of big people. His suspicion of them is understandable, even when, or especially when some of them treat him well. I would have loved to see more come of the mage Buckingham. Betticia the mistress also faces discrimination, but he is leery of her through the book, perhaps because her machinations tend to put him into uncomfortable roles. Generally, I think there are a lot of great characters who could have been fleshed out more fully.
Worldbuilding was just okay. We get the sense of a rickety old castle and a nearby village that’s perhaps seen better days, we are treated to a lengthy traipse through latrines and bogs, but this isn’t really offset with anything warm and fuzzy, there’s no sense of wholeness. The dukes of one kingdoms are nasty folk, unlikely to be helpful. The neighbouring kingdom is full of generally happy people, it’s just too black and white.
I wanted to like these characters more. I wanted to dig in and get a sense of who they are when making their own decisions, but I just didn’t get there. I suspect that a trilogy of these people would make them more endearing as we learn more about them, and I look forward to another couple of stories to see if the promise holds up.
Karen
This was a really fun read for me despite all the poo. There is always something happening with each chapter, which makes this story read really fast. I just kept getting pulled along by Shelly’s story and the situations he would find himself in. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up a book about a goblin latrine slave, but I found the political manoeuvring intriguing. I was invested in the characters and charmed by Shelly and his way of seeing the world. I was amused by the situations he found himself in and the little turns of phrase that the author used, and overall I found I couldn’t stop reading, which I would say is a strong indicator that I was pretty into this book.
I don’t tend to look for a large amount of description in a book, but I feel like I was relying on my imagination a bit more than I have with some of the other books to build Shelly’s world, but the ambiance was there. That is not really a negative for me, but I know some readers enjoy having a whole picture painted. I loved following a goblin hero through this story who just keeps getting beat down by life and big people. Seeing how he views his lot in life and the others around him was very interesting.
That’s our take on Jester! This is the best-received book we’ve reviewed so far in these Finals, near-unanimous enthusiasm for Shelly, the humor, and the way the book carries real social weight without losing its warmth. No DNFs, and the only real gripe across the board was wanting a bit more depth from the side characters and worldbuilding.
Our Score: 8.44/10
Our Official SPFBO Score: 8.5/10
Jester is one of the ten finalists in this year’s SPFBO. Here’s how our current standings look:
- A Light from the Nether by Molly Dowd Sullivan
- Carrion Saints by Hiyodori: 7.25
- Dogged by Michael R. Fletcher
- The Hallows by H. L. Tinsley
- The Honorable Con by Michele C. Shaw
- Jester by Tim Carter: 8.44
- No More Levels by Benjamin Barreth: 7
- Of Mages and Makers by Rel Carroll: 7.9
- To Touch a Silent Fury by R. A. Sandpiper
- Violence & Vigilance by David T. List
A huge thank you to Tim Carter for putting this book forward, and to all the other teams working through the Finals alongside us. Stay tuned as the scores come in for the rest. You can see the list of all the finalists and their scores here.
Our judges for Round Two are Adawia, EG, EVA, Kerry, Maureen, Max, Sara, Sherry, Stacey, Tianna, Yaniv, and Julia (me). If you’d like to learn more about us, including our likes and dislikes, you can read about them here.
Any queries should be directed at our editor, Jennie Ivins, via Bluesky, Instagram, or Threads.
