Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

17 reviews

aloy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Animal death, Death, and Suicide

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Misogyny, Infidelity, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Drug use, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Slavery, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Minor: Infertility, Cannibalism, Excrement, and Colonisation

There is lots of talk of forcing women into sexual slavery. Eye injuries.

kendal_reads's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, War, Murder, Colonisation, and Death

macliffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A really good book overall. I felt immersed in the world and very attached to some of the characters. The reason I marked it down was just because sometimes the world building was just a little too vast for me. The were so many locations and they’d get conquered by this person or that person so it was really hard to keep track of (I didn’t have access to a map which did not help. I would suggest reading the physical book of this and not listening to it on audio like I did just so it’s easier to keep things straight). I couldn’t tell a lot of the side characters apart from each other. I had other little nitpicks which bumped it down to a 3.5 for me, but I did always enjoy it overall. It did a great job of immersing me every time I picked it up again and I always wanted to keep reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Misogyny, Torture, Infertility, Sexism, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, War, Murder, Gore, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual content and Child abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, and Pregnancy

nquinlan's review

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Suicide, Violence, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Torture, Animal death, Sexual violence, Rape, and Infidelity

Minor: Trafficking, Infertility, and Death of parent

sabrinz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I really enjoyed this book - even if it took me ages to finish. It was more circumstances that kept me from reading more than me not wanting to.
For everyone wanting to read this, this book is best suited when you have time to read for longer periods of time. If you read it chapter by chapter with even some days between chapters, you might lose some of the connections that are woven in the different chapters and that tie the different characters together.

It's a brilliant book about friendship and how things are perceived, but also how you go about doing things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, War, and Violence

mandkips's review

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Suicide and Murder

Minor: Animal death, Grief, and Infidelity

catapocalypse's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I wish I'd rated and reviewed after my first reading, for the sake of seeing how differently I may feel after this one. I feel as if I enjoyed it even more this time around.

This first entry in the Dandelion Dynasty is like a prologue for the rest of the series, in that it focuses on the events that first unify Dara and deals with the generation prior to the central characters of the rest of the books. I don't consider this a weakness; it's an adventurous read as we follow the mighty warrior Mata Zyndu and the cunning gangster-turned-government official-turned-rebel Kuni Garu, and the rise and fall and rebirth of empire. It's an epic fantasy and silkpunk treatment of events in Chinese history leading to the rise of the Han Dynasty, and it's a whole lot of fun.

There's valid criticism about the women and lack thereof in much of the book, which is essentially what prevents it from a full 5 stars for me. I love Gin Mazoti, like Risana and Mira a lot (but they could have had more "screen time!"), but something about Jia is still off, for me. I'm not entirely sure how to articulate it; maybe it's that she becomes too reactive after starting out so strong and proactive?

I look forward to rereading the next installment, and then finishing the series. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, War, and Suicide

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and Grief

msrichardsreads89's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

5.0

This was so unique from any other fantasy I've read. The writing style is different in that it zooms in and out, and the world building was very well done. The prose is elegant but not flowery, and Liu is a master of gut punching lines. It is a very slow burn yet intricate plot that touched on a lot of big themes. The character development wasn't done in the traditional way, but it worked for me. This is definitely not a beginner fantasy novel. Despite the low magic and sections of info dumping, I absolutely loved this. The middle dragged for me, but the last half of the book made it all worth it. Everything felt purposeful, and I am interested to see where the series goes!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Child abuse, Body horror, and Death

cerilouisereads's review

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Toxic friendship