For Claire Samson, the only way to survive Christmas this year is to escape it.
High-achieving Australian medical student Claire Samson has struggled to enjoy Christmas in recent years, but this is the first Christmas she will be all alone, with her parents overseas and her grandfather in a coma. Claire is desperate to quit med school, but medicine was Grandpa's dream for her, and her rural hometown desperately needs more doctors-doctors which could have changed her grandfather's prognosis.
Just when Claire thinks Christmas will be unbearable, a steam train straight out of Platform 9 3/4 appears . . . a train invisible to all but Claire. It's the Goblin Express, run by Christmas-hating elves and full of washed-up souls from hundreds of worlds who come aboard to escape the holidays. As it turns out, humans aren't the only species who can loathe their festive seasons.
Upon boarding, Claire befriends several of her fellow travelers, including a mysterious hooded figure who totally gives her Strider vibes and may or may not actually be a night elf. But when the Goblin Express comes under attack, Claire and her new group of mismatched friends must band together to save the train . . . and maybe even find a little bit of Christmas spirit in the process.
J. J. Fischer is an award-winning author whose book Calor won the 2023 Realm Award Book of the Year as well as the Realm Award for Best Fantasy. The second book, Lumen, was a 2024 Christy Award Finalist, while the third book, Memoria, was the winner of the 2025 Faith Hope Love Reader's Choice Award for Speculative. Her other books have won various accolades or been finalists in a number of award competitions. Christmas on the Goblin Express is a stand-alone short novel of approx. 55,000 words and a cozy Christmas romantasy adventure with laugh-out-loud comedic elements--think Stardust meets A Christmas Carol meets The Polar Express with a dash of the Hallmark Channel, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter.
