Ebook1,298 pages22 hours
The Veiled Throne
By Ken Liu
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this ebook
With the invasion of Dara complete, and the Wall of Storms breached, the world has opened to new possibilities for the gods and peoples of both empires as the sweeping saga of the award-winning Dandelion Dynasty continues in this third book of the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR).
Princess Théra, once known as Empress Üna of Dara, entrusted the throne to her younger brother in order to journey to Ukyu-Gondé to war with the Lyucu. She has crossed the fabled Wall of Storms with a fleet of advanced warships and ten thousand people. Beset by adversity, Théra and her most trusted companions attempt to overcome every challenge by doing the most interesting thing. But is not letting the past dictate the present always possible or even desirable?
In Dara, the Lyucu leadership as well as the surviving Dandelion Court bristle with rivalries as currents of power surge and ebb and perspectives spin and shift. Here, parents and children, teachers and students, Empress and Pékyu, all nurture the seeds of plans that will take years to bloom. Will tradition yield to new justifications for power?
Everywhere, the spirit of innovation dances like dandelion seeds on the wind, and the commoners, the forgotten, the ignored begin to engineer new solutions for a new age.
Ken Liu returns to the series that draws from a tradition of the great epics of our history from the Aeneid to the Romance on the Three Kingdoms and builds a new tale unsurpassed in its scope and ambition.
Princess Théra, once known as Empress Üna of Dara, entrusted the throne to her younger brother in order to journey to Ukyu-Gondé to war with the Lyucu. She has crossed the fabled Wall of Storms with a fleet of advanced warships and ten thousand people. Beset by adversity, Théra and her most trusted companions attempt to overcome every challenge by doing the most interesting thing. But is not letting the past dictate the present always possible or even desirable?
In Dara, the Lyucu leadership as well as the surviving Dandelion Court bristle with rivalries as currents of power surge and ebb and perspectives spin and shift. Here, parents and children, teachers and students, Empress and Pékyu, all nurture the seeds of plans that will take years to bloom. Will tradition yield to new justifications for power?
Everywhere, the spirit of innovation dances like dandelion seeds on the wind, and the commoners, the forgotten, the ignored begin to engineer new solutions for a new age.
Ken Liu returns to the series that draws from a tradition of the great epics of our history from the Aeneid to the Romance on the Three Kingdoms and builds a new tale unsurpassed in its scope and ambition.
Author
Ken Liu
Ken Liu is the author of the epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, as well as short story collections The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and other top genre awards around the world for his fiction. A programmer and lawyer, he speaks and consults on futurism, technology history, and sustainable storytelling. www.kenliu.name @kyliu99
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Reviews for The Veiled Throne
Rating: 3.740000008 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
25 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just finished the third book of Ken Liu's magnificent epic, the Dandelion Dynasty. No superlatives can do this series justice. Suspense, characters, steampunk techno that makes sense, philosophy, military tactics, romance, humor, public policy issues that resonate with our times, ... Full of surprises.
This series is superficially similar to, but way way WAY better than Game of Thrones. More imaginative, more hopeful, full of fabulous conflicts, deep schemes, a half dozen schools of philosophy, and suspenseful battle scenes, as well as fantastic steampunk technology with genuine rationales. As well as the occasional interlude where the gods chat away charmingly. The gods are cool. Rich in language and ideas. And many powerful women.
In Book 3 two great nations, with wildly disparate cultures, both warlike and ruthless, face each other. They have similar gods but by different names. The atrocities go back and forth, driven my arrogance, ignorant prejudice, fear and humiliation. A very few people try to find ways for the two peoples to live together peacefully.
Mmmm.... not going well. But there is still hope. I'll be onto Book Four now.
I adore his highly diverse short stories too, drawing on sci fi, true history , physics, folklore, ... I recommend the title stories of the collections The Paper Menagerie and The Hidden Girl. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5i really liked the first two books in this series. but this one read like a first draft - lots of imagination in play, but still in need of a whole lot of editing. it had a huge cast of characters, and it was full of digressions, each of which prompted still more digressions. too many meddles make a muddle. as a result, there was no momentum, it felt rather random, and it went nowhere. reading became a chore. sadly, in spite of my previous engagement, i think i'll stop reading this series now.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Everyone contends with just about everyone else in this installment, and there is a lot of cutting away from painful scenes, sometimes to scenes which will be just as painful but increasingly toward the end, to a major romp of a contest between two restaurants. Lots of betrayal and gadgets that work much better than prototypes should. I'll probably forget most everything before the next brick is baked. Or maybe not since it's dropping this June. Speaking Bones
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love the expansive world Ken Liu has created in Dara. I love the complex thinking each character goes through, justifying their motivations. I love that my opinions about these characters change over time, as they grow and change, and some of my early favorites are now overshadowed in light of their more recent mistakes. There's a lot to grapple with in this book, and a lot to laugh about. I particularly loved the cooking competition; it was just hilarious! I'm trying really hard to include no spoilers in this review, but this series is just so great! Can't wait for the final book to be out in the world, too.
Book preview
The Veiled Throne - Ken Liu
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