The Hero’s Tomb

Conrad Mason's The Hero's Tomb is a swashbuckling fantasy for 11 year olds about a half-goblin boy who has crossed an ocean with one big question about his dad.

What happens

Joseph steps off a smugglers' ship in Azurmouth with a borrowed coat, a pocket watch and a wooden spoon he's pinched from a magician (well, borrowed, he tells himself). The crew have spent the whole voyage telling him what happens to goblins in this city.

They weren't exaggerating. Azurmouth belongs to the League of the Light, whose white-coated soldiers call anyone who isn't human "demonspawn". Joseph keeps his collar up over his grey-pink skin and goes looking for the one crook who might have answers, a goblin called Jeb the Snitch.

He isn't on his own for long. His friend Tabitha and the rest of the Demon's Watch have come after him, smuggled into the city in barrels of salted herring (not a comfortable ride). There are troll twins, a fairy who lives on sugar lumps and a very jumpy magician, and they're all worried sick about Joseph.

Meanwhile the Duke of Garran is up to something. Short sections from his side of the story drop in between the chapters, and they're properly chilling. He has plans for Corin's Day, and an old rhyme about a long-dead hero walking again seems to be at the centre of them.

Joseph is brave in the way scared people are brave. He waves a cutlass he's terrified of actually using and bluffs his way through. There's plenty of fun alongside the danger too, like a ship's surgeon who's quite disappointed not to get to saw anyone's foot off.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The Duke hates anyone who isn't human and the book doesn't soften it. His famous red coat is dyed with troll blood, his study is hung with drawings of goblin skulls and dissected ears, and he calmly tells his ogre servant he'll be the first to die. If your reader is already happy with a really dark villain, the prejudice gives the adventure weight, and it's always clear whose side the story is on.

This isn't where Joseph's story starts, either. There are mentions of a battle and earlier adventures back in Port Fayt, which you pick up as you go.

What to read next

If your reader loves a hero who never fitted in where he grew up, try Beyond the Deepwoods next. Twig is raised by woodtrolls who aren't his real family, and he has to step off the safe forest path to find out who he is.