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abbysbookwor1d 's review for:
The Veiled Throne
by Ken Liu
I'm really torn about this one! It took me a little while to fully engage, but once I reached Part 3, I felt like Ken Liu was truly hitting his stride. That portion was spectacular! However, when Part 4 came around I found myself considering a DNF more than once.
The Veiled Throne is Book 3 of 4 in the Danelion Dynasty. This series was ordinary meant to be a trilogy, but the final book became too long and it was made into a Quartet. People will argue you need to read Speaking Bones to have a fully formed opinion and to that I say NO! Regardless of intent this is a book on its own, and I will judge it as such.
There is no denying that Ken Liu is an incredible author. The world he has created is vibrant, imaginative and so vivid in its rich details. The scope of this world truly is something incredible and feels unique. I also love the heavy influences of Chinese history, philosophy and mythology. You can feel the passion behind his writing and it really is a beautiful celebration of Chinese culture.
So what went wrong for me?? Especially considering how much I loved the first two books! This book's biggest issue is the pacing, and in my opinion it's simply way too long. I know I haven't read Speaking Bones yet but I have a gut feeling that books 3 & 4 could have been condensed down and been the trilogy it was always intended to be.
Ken Liu is known for his short stories. That's always been clear within his writing of this series, but in Books 1 & 2 I think he weaved those short stories and pov switches into the narrative beautifully. Whereas here it started to feel clunky and the parts of the story felt entirely separate from one another. Not only that but a lot of it felt unnecessary.
I love the philosophy throughout this series, it's been one of my favourite things about his writing but I feel like he really dragged his points out in this book. I found it very repetitive at times because he just kept meandering around and re-establishing the same philosophical points over and over again.
Another downfall for me was the character work. For the most part, I think his characters are great and complex, especially in the first two books. I don't know what happened in this book but some of his characters almost lost their complexity. It's like some characters are missing steps in their development. I feel like critical pieces of their growth are missing. It's frustrating because their motivations do make sense but they needed so much more time to evolve.
Additionally, the introduction of new characters fell flat for me. They came across as somewhat cartoonish, lacking the nuance and realism that made the earlier ones so compelling. It was a disappointing shift that took away from my overall enjoyment.
Now I have heard Speaking Bones is the best book in the series and I'm hoping I feel the same way but I can't deny that my excitement for this series has decreased.
The Veiled Throne is Book 3 of 4 in the Danelion Dynasty. This series was ordinary meant to be a trilogy, but the final book became too long and it was made into a Quartet. People will argue you need to read Speaking Bones to have a fully formed opinion and to that I say NO! Regardless of intent this is a book on its own, and I will judge it as such.
There is no denying that Ken Liu is an incredible author. The world he has created is vibrant, imaginative and so vivid in its rich details. The scope of this world truly is something incredible and feels unique. I also love the heavy influences of Chinese history, philosophy and mythology. You can feel the passion behind his writing and it really is a beautiful celebration of Chinese culture.
So what went wrong for me?? Especially considering how much I loved the first two books! This book's biggest issue is the pacing, and in my opinion it's simply way too long. I know I haven't read Speaking Bones yet but I have a gut feeling that books 3 & 4 could have been condensed down and been the trilogy it was always intended to be.
Ken Liu is known for his short stories. That's always been clear within his writing of this series, but in Books 1 & 2 I think he weaved those short stories and pov switches into the narrative beautifully. Whereas here it started to feel clunky and the parts of the story felt entirely separate from one another. Not only that but a lot of it felt unnecessary.
I love the philosophy throughout this series, it's been one of my favourite things about his writing but I feel like he really dragged his points out in this book. I found it very repetitive at times because he just kept meandering around and re-establishing the same philosophical points over and over again.
Another downfall for me was the character work. For the most part, I think his characters are great and complex, especially in the first two books. I don't know what happened in this book but some of his characters almost lost their complexity. It's like some characters are missing steps in their development. I feel like critical pieces of their growth are missing. It's frustrating because their motivations do make sense but they needed so much more time to evolve.
Additionally, the introduction of new characters fell flat for me. They came across as somewhat cartoonish, lacking the nuance and realism that made the earlier ones so compelling. It was a disappointing shift that took away from my overall enjoyment.
Now I have heard Speaking Bones is the best book in the series and I'm hoping I feel the same way but I can't deny that my excitement for this series has decreased.