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4.63 AVERAGE
4.63 AVERAGE
Sticks the landing to one of the best series I have or probably ever will read. Makes you experience the full range of Human emotions. My only gripe is that I don't have more to read from this world
adventurous
emotional
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
It is hard to assign a number to a book over a thousand pages long, there's simply too many different pieces to pin down. I took a sizable break between The Veiled Throne and Speaking Bones–I know Ken Liu suggested reading both back to back, but that's almost 700,000 words and a guy needs a break. Like any book this long, there were pieces I don't think needed to be there some trimming that would have definitely sped things along. That being said, I thought this was a very strong finish to one of my new favorite fantasy series. Though I think The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms still stand out as my favorites, this book did make me tear up at the end, and I need to give credit where credit is due.
adventurous
challenging
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
dark
reflective
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
What can I even say about this ending to this fantastic series? To say that it's gripping, heartbreaking, hopeful, tragic, thought-provoking, and bittersweet seems to fall short. Liu crafted a world with a deep history filled with people who feel alive. I could not have wished for a better ending. 5 stars, can't wait to revisit this one again sometime in the future, and I can't wait to see what he writes next.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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:
Complicated
Writing a review of a Ken Lui book is almost as daunting as deciding to pick up the thousand page plus tome in the first place. Anything I say feels trite or cliché. Still, it would be a crime to describe the final book of Ken Lui’s Dandelion Dynasty series as anything other than a masterwork. We can leave the fault of the cliché with anyone who has dared to apply the description to lesser works. He has crafted a world to rival timeless legends of King Arthur or Odysseus and set them in a Far-East fantasy world that feels as steeped in storied history as any real Chinese empire of eras past. Lui has artfully woven deeply detailed story lines of dozens of characters into a literary impressionist piece, each thread boldly standing alone but not able to be truly admired until you step back to view the whole. As each book in the series marches the reader further along the line of time, his unique approach to blending realistic ancient and modern technology into new sci-fi innovations and engineering marvels is further refined. I had heard that this book was never meant to be, that the third book had simply “gotten away from him” resulting in the need for the trilogy to expand to another volume. While this feels like describing a unicorn as too “horsey” for your taste or heaven as entirely too majestic, he might have been able to keep it to three books if he’d forgone chapters long descriptions of how to realistically create crude algorithmic code in a cork cylinder or how to distill one’s own urine into potable water using an animal bladder and heat from the sun. While perhaps blasphemous to other Lui fans, these criticism of his pages spent indulging his engineering background, make his strength of character development shine all the brighter. Lui created an incredibly diverse cast of characters, he created whole new religious and mythological backgrounds and worldviews that informed characters actions and shaped their lives in ways that felt both familiar and entirely foreign, blending these feelings so the reader felt the conflict of understanding the depths of pain, the weight of history, and the guiding principles of characters fighting for the preservation of their cultures and way of life. Lui’s greatest strength (which again, feels painfully reductive) is his empathy. So often we confuse compassion for empathy. Lui does not simply create characters that are his “darlings” and guide them through the plot like a connect-the-dots. He becomes them, he feels what they feel, melding ink and paper with flesh and bone so that their lives have the true breath of life. It feels so heavy handed and like some strange idolatry to write about his work. So I will close by saying that today this book and series are simply a great example of literary fiction and sci-fi/sci-fantasy. But, if we had a time machine to glimpse into the future, it would surprise few readers to learn that in one thousand years this series was treated much like the King Arthur stories, a universally recognized world and cast of characters so well-written and detailed as to spark hot debate as to their fictitious or historically accurate origins.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual violence