The Iron Teeth: A Goblin's Tale

Great novel. The pace is slow but extremely detailed. Here you will find no overpowered main characters: just a bunch of misfit outlaws that prey on the weak and survive in the forest. It is a world torn by war, where cities have been ravaged by magical creatures and yet no one does anything about it, since everyone is concerned with their own personal petty disputes. As you can imagine, this world where everyone cares only about themselves is a prosperous place for the banditry to thrive on the dreams of the young and failures of the elder. Quite sad, huh?

Not really for us. Since we see it all through the eyes of a goblin. A goblin that is not especially strong or smart, but one that is cunning as a fox. He only cares about pleasing his master and earning his next treat. All this human madness doesn't concern us, so let us forget it and accompany Blacknail in his discovery of freedom and shinies. 

When I saw this a long ass time ago in the “Latest Updates” section, the title and a glance at the summary had made me assume it would be yet another dumb, overblown story about a guy reincarnated as a goblin who then becomes OP. Aka, another Re:Monster fanfic. Instead, as claws8367 says, this really is like a real, decently written fantasy novel. It follows the typical evolution plot (and might be at risk of monster-evolution’s tendancy toward meteoric rises, and a resultant lack of actual struggle) but has far better characterization, strong worldbuilding, and an emphasis on rural life. It will be interesting to see how the author includes tropes like magic crystals (e.g. ones found in slimes), evolution, magic formations, magic and industry, etc.

Spoilerish Background So Far: A goblin from city sewers is kidnapped, trained as a slave, incidentally freed by bandits who were raiding a caravan. Taken under the wing by one of them, taught how to survive in the forest, evo’s into a hobgoblin which edges him from lovable scamp to slightly badass. The main char’s background is fed in relatively gradually; the characters are somewhat decently characterized (a couple of important characters don't have much of a background yet, but it's still early, and that might be a conscious choice); the writing is somewhat annoying in that it’s neither constantly third-person omniscient, nor constantly third-person limited, but it's ignorable and always serves a purpose; the world's history is basically like the invasion of America by Europe, but with magic and west-to-east.

Interesting and believable characters populating an interesting world. You never know what will happen next but you know the author will deliver humor, drama , plot and precious glimpses into his complicated world. 

The dark and realistic tone is perhaps not for everyone but  the author spices it up nicely with fantasy elements and a main character with an interesting point of view. 

Can't wait to see where the story goes. 

This is a proper book quality story were the main character starts off weak and must slowly build himself up to exellence. Don't worry though he isn't pitifully weak. Each character I have seen so far has depth and personallity. The characters and story have been built to be belivable as well as relatable. Overall a must read   

A progressive tale of a goblins rise to power and his survival, steady character development and slow progression of his power make it more fun to read. The world looks quite solid and well developed at least for now. There are quite a few characters with their own well developed traits and stories. Althrough him being a goblin and one of his races driving purposes are lust, so him lacking substancial female development saddens me a bit. All in all it is still a very good story, with steady and frequant releases and perfect grammar. Keep on rolling! :D

A great story, that is well written. Has a nice style and from the perspective of a weak goblin! Follow him through his trials of survival in a world that everything is bigger than himself!

I strongly recommend this story to anyone that loves true fantasy settings. From the perspective of said "monster"! The world is interesting (albeit you are in the dark alot of the time, since you are following a goblin with little to no knowledge of the world) and I will greedily see where this story will lead!

Good work author. Ill be following you on your website. Sadly, wont be able to be a patron. Since my economy is about to have me "evicted". :P

I have really enjoyed the story of Blacknail, It is much better then the usual rabble on this site, I like the character development and interaction between the cast. There are few spelling mistakes, however those are taken care of relatively quickly by the author and from helpful fans in the comment section.

SPOILER!

Since Blacknail became a Hob-Goblin, he has become much more territorial and cunning, by killing off the opposition and trying to curry favor with his fellow bandits, he seems to be trying to comply with his new instincts by rising higher in the bandit hierarchy by making ruthless political maneuvers. Personally I would enjoy a ruthless political Hob-Goblin or whatever future evolution's he makes further in the novel. I am not sure what ideas the author has for the novel, but from what I see developing with the bandit leader wanting to take control of the roads to gain money from traders. To do that she has to take out the other bandit groups. Whoever owns the once filled bandit and monster ridden jungle, I doubt the other kingdoms or powerful nobles are just going to let the bandits control this vast territory. Like I said before I am not sure what the author has in store for us, I'll just say, from what I have read so far, this story has plenty of potential, and whatever webs the author chooses to weave, I shall stay a faithful fan. 

The pacing is good, very little grammer mistakes,  is interesting and different whilst also being updated pretty reguarly. This is one of the best on this site especially if you’re getting bored of all the op main characters (not that i aint enjoyed my fairshare). The character actual develops… Unlike a lot of others that start of op and then just get even more brokenly op overtime. You actually sit and read a character slowly grow and i’m looking forward to seeing how far Blacknail can grow.

A legitimately high-quality story. Original, and fantastically done. After it gets a few more chapters under its belt and an editor to help clean up the small stuff, this is a certifiable gem that we can read for free on this site.

To the author, keep it up. You're killing it.

While i was hesitating a lot on weter to start reading because of a very inhuman MC, i decided to do so anyway and was pleasantly surprised. Most of the time i abhor stories with the MC being something that's smaller and uglier and weaker in a lot of ways compared to humans. Often halfway through such stories they can actually change into humans or end up looking a lot like humans, which is why i enjoy reading m again. 

This cowardly little goblin has an interesting story. Nothing very heroic, no insane OP skills or anything the like. Just a little smarter than most (hob)goblins. I also very much enjoy the conversations he has with the bandmembers or the coversations te band members have with each other. 

The style fits very well witth the story an di've got npthing to complain about on that side. Same for the grammar, i can't remember reading a grammar fault in the story.

the story isn't a very fast starter compared to a lot other stories here on royalroad but it's getting there. And now that he's involved thongs got interesting very fast.