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4.63 AVERAGE
4.63 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-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
inspiring
reflective
fast-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
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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
It should say something that I am not a reader of epic fantasy but I still read this entire 4-book series. Mostly because I like Ken Liu’s short stories. He’s the only writer with the skills to tell a story that could make me cry.
While there’s a grand story here, it feels intimate and personal. It’s also nice to read a fantasy story that is eastern culture influenced. Some of the plot points might feel familiar, but this is very much it’s own thing. The downside: it’s super long and goes into a LOT tangents and world-building details. But I assume that comes with the territory when reading massive doorstop sized fantasy books. Overall, i enjoyed the journey.
While there’s a grand story here, it feels intimate and personal. It’s also nice to read a fantasy story that is eastern culture influenced. Some of the plot points might feel familiar, but this is very much it’s own thing. The downside: it’s super long and goes into a LOT tangents and world-building details. But I assume that comes with the territory when reading massive doorstop sized fantasy books. Overall, i enjoyed the journey.
One of, if not the best series I've ever read. So intricate and well thought out, extremely dynamic characters, perfect balance of oppression/strife/adversity and hope/redemption/growth. Tons of parallels between our current (and past) issues as a country and world that were hard to read about, but also helpful to think through from another perspective. I feel like my brain just ran a marathon but jeez, that was so good.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
Awesome conclusion to one of my favorite fantasy series of recent years!
As stated by Ken Liu in the author’s note, The Veiled Throne and Speaking Bones are two part of one narrative. At about 2000 pages, to say that it’s a very detailed fantasy epic still feel inadequate. It started where The Wall of Storms ended and followed old and new characters for approximately 12 years.
The Veiled Throne was painstakingly slow to read, since it’s technically only the first half of a story. There were several arcs of stories following both people in Dara and Ukyu-Gonde. It did not feel cohesive until the end but you learn a lot about a lot of things?? It’s not boring though, just slow. My favorite arc was the masterchef-slash-engineering-battle-extraordinaire.
In Speaking Bones, plans were starting to bore fruit. Things are way more fast-paced than the previous books, and more exciting things were FINALLY happening. The battles are battling, the poltics are politicking, the engineers are engineering. They invented things I thought I would never see in a fantasy world here. I will say the conclusions were very satisfying to me personally. There were no unresolved/unexplained thread.
The Wall of Storms is still my favorite book in the series though. I personally like the characters of the previous generation better.
I highly highly recommend this series if you’re into fantasy and scifi and ridiculously detailed worldbuilding and if you have the patience of a saint.
The Veiled Throne was painstakingly slow to read, since it’s technically only the first half of a story. There were several arcs of stories following both people in Dara and Ukyu-Gonde. It did not feel cohesive until the end but you learn a lot about a lot of things?? It’s not boring though, just slow. My favorite arc was the masterchef-slash-engineering-battle-extraordinaire.
In Speaking Bones, plans were starting to bore fruit. Things are way more fast-paced than the previous books, and more exciting things were FINALLY happening. The battles are battling, the poltics are politicking, the engineers are engineering. They invented things I thought I would never see in a fantasy world here. I will say the conclusions were very satisfying to me personally. There were no unresolved/unexplained thread.
The Wall of Storms is still my favorite book in the series though. I personally like the characters of the previous generation better.
I highly highly recommend this series if you’re into fantasy and scifi and ridiculously detailed worldbuilding and if you have the patience of a saint.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes