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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
High brow epic fantasies do not need to be boring, but unfortunately the entire middle portion of this book was. The beginning was interesting though, and then it got better again near the end. I just think this book would have really benefited from some major cuts.
Also the "brotherly" friendship between Kuni Garu and Mata Zyndu , which is at the center of the entire plot, is entirely unconvincing. They have absolutely zero chemistry past the author constantly telling us they call each other brother. The novel continued to have problems with stilted, flat portrayals of relationships, but not all were like this. Some characters did have chemistry sometimes.
Also, for a book that seems to want to present itself as feminist, its depiction of women is just okay. There were some standout female characters, but other portrayals felt a bit misogynistic. Princess Kikomi's story in particular fell flat for me. She was introduced as a POV character only for her entire story to serve as just causing a conflict between two men (a conflict that was mediocrely handled and fell flat itself in my opinion, and then didn't matter because one of them died and the other only reflected on the conflict briefly and moved on ) before it unceremoniously ended. Which, really, my bigger issue with her plot is less to do with misogyny and more to do with how unfulfilling and pointless it felt. I honestly don't see what the novel gained from including that plot at all. I think it could've been entirely cut from the novel and it wouldn't be missed. The only important thing it does is kill a character, which could've easily been done in a way that didn't waste the reader's time and emotional investment.
Overall, this book still had quite a lot of good in it, and had some good bones, but it just got bogged down by itself.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An unjust emperor, two men chosen by fate, civil war, intervention from the gods…all stuff you’ve heard before, right? But Liu creates a great world here, one populated by dozens of characters (I was so happy for the dramatis personae at the front). It’s culturally distinct, one where thought is taken as to the various nation-states.
Other interesting things: the prose and the construction of the novel. The mode of the writing is like a chronicle or something: it’s heavy on narration and description, light on dialogue. The chapters read like short stories that add up to a greater whole.
The sweep of it is also fantastic. It reads like something on the scale of Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire (I don’t make these comparisons lightly!).
Just a great read. Well worth the time. And I’ve still got 3 books to go!
Other interesting things: the prose and the construction of the novel. The mode of the writing is like a chronicle or something: it’s heavy on narration and description, light on dialogue. The chapters read like short stories that add up to a greater whole.
The sweep of it is also fantastic. It reads like something on the scale of Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire (I don’t make these comparisons lightly!).
Just a great read. Well worth the time. And I’ve still got 3 books to go!
This was a strange one. The story-telling style was so foreign as to be downright alien at times. None of the familiar trappings of Western fiction are here. The Narrative progression frequently made no sense to my mind. This is not going to be an "easy" read, even if you enjoy it.
The author's self-proclaimed "Silk Punk" aesthetic isn't just a gimmick. It makes the world more distinctive without feeling cheesy or contrived. The book has a very practical and well-rounded extent of fantasy technology involved that supports the story without subverting it.
The treatment of women was all over the place. It stopped to digress about empowering women multiple times while having only three female speaking roles, two of which are not introduced until the last quarter of the book. It pointed out the hypocrisy of gender roles and stereo types, while ultimately showing that people can best get ahead by conforming to and excelling at those same traditional values. There was an infuriating amount of mixed messaging and contradictions around this and it came up as a topic often enough that it was clearly meant to be a central theme.
There were a staggering number of characters to remember, some of whom would appear again with no re-introduction after multiple chapters and years of in-book time having passed with no mention. There were also an absurd number of geographical locations, countries, gods and other diegetic elements with pseudo-chinese names that one was meant to remember. Between this and the overall confusing layout of the book there was no small amount of confusion involved with reading through.
Overall I did get enjoyment and insight of of this book, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to others. If another dandelion dynasty title appears, I'll likely not even put it on my list.
The author's self-proclaimed "Silk Punk" aesthetic isn't just a gimmick. It makes the world more distinctive without feeling cheesy or contrived. The book has a very practical and well-rounded extent of fantasy technology involved that supports the story without subverting it.
The treatment of women was all over the place. It stopped to digress about empowering women multiple times while having only three female speaking roles, two of which are not introduced until the last quarter of the book. It pointed out the hypocrisy of gender roles and stereo types, while ultimately showing that people can best get ahead by conforming to and excelling at those same traditional values. There was an infuriating amount of mixed messaging and contradictions around this and it came up as a topic often enough that it was clearly meant to be a central theme.
There were a staggering number of characters to remember, some of whom would appear again with no re-introduction after multiple chapters and years of in-book time having passed with no mention. There were also an absurd number of geographical locations, countries, gods and other diegetic elements with pseudo-chinese names that one was meant to remember. Between this and the overall confusing layout of the book there was no small amount of confusion involved with reading through.
Overall I did get enjoyment and insight of of this book, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to others. If another dandelion dynasty title appears, I'll likely not even put it on my list.