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frasersimons 's review for:
Speaking Bones
by Ken Liu
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
It really does feel like the previous book and this one are just one book, which makes me really glad I waited until I had my hands on both to give them a go. As far as maximalist fantasy works go, this is one of the very, very few successful ones. Sanderson’s longer works just read like very long YA novels, not literary endeavours. Whereas this particular duology in the quadilogy feels like a more accessible actually maximalist effort.
Thematically especially complex, the diaspora of the former two books ruminate on what it means to be a conquered people vs aggressive, expansionist, militaristic culture. As the two are forced to cohabitate post war, ideas around self expression and self determination feed into the larger, macro plot beats that would probably, in most other novels, make up the entirety of a fantasy epic.
Within them, though, is the much needed (and often lacking) specificity of a people breathing life into the world building. A substantial section of the first book is ostensibly a cook off between two competing chefs/cuisines/ethics/restaurants. The simple idea kicking off an examination of nearly every facet of the peoples examined throughout, but also serving as a kind of foreshadowing for what is to come in this book, here.
Probably the only reason I wouldn’t particularly classify this as literary fantasy is because it is specifically written to be commercial and accessible, as well as have some of the trappings of genre fiction—even if they are mostly there to be subverted. Fantastic stuff.
Thematically especially complex, the diaspora of the former two books ruminate on what it means to be a conquered people vs aggressive, expansionist, militaristic culture. As the two are forced to cohabitate post war, ideas around self expression and self determination feed into the larger, macro plot beats that would probably, in most other novels, make up the entirety of a fantasy epic.
Within them, though, is the much needed (and often lacking) specificity of a people breathing life into the world building. A substantial section of the first book is ostensibly a cook off between two competing chefs/cuisines/ethics/restaurants. The simple idea kicking off an examination of nearly every facet of the peoples examined throughout, but also serving as a kind of foreshadowing for what is to come in this book, here.
Probably the only reason I wouldn’t particularly classify this as literary fantasy is because it is specifically written to be commercial and accessible, as well as have some of the trappings of genre fiction—even if they are mostly there to be subverted. Fantastic stuff.