The Grace of Kings

The Grace of Kings: The Dandelion Dynasty Audible – Unabridged ridged
Author: Ken Liu ID: B00V3S0490

Two men rebel together against tyranny – and then become rivals – in this first sweeping book of an epic fantasy series from Ken Liu, recipient of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards. Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, and shapeshifting gods. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they both find themselves the leaders of separate factions – two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice. Fans of intrigue, intimate plots, and action will find a new series to embrace in the Dandelion Dynasty.
Done.
Audible Audio EditionListening Length: 21 hours and 37 minutesProgram Type: AudiobookVersion: UnabridgedPublisher: Simon & Schuster AudioAudible.com Release Date: April 7, 2015Whispersync for Voice: ReadyLanguage: EnglishID: B00V3S0490 Best Sellers Rank: #382 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Fantasy > Epic #498 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Fiction & Literature > Action & Adventure #618 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Fantasy
When I heard Ken Liu talk about this book, I was enraptured. He discussed the Chinese epics he grew up with, and how they are thematically different than Western epics. He talked about how he was determined to set this story in a world that was not fantasy-china, or fantasy-europe, but rather something else all together. And he laughed at himself for writing bits about tax-collection. The tax-collection was interesting! The evolution of leadership was interesting! The development of characters was interesting! Even the tragic conclusion was deftly handled. I was a little skeptical it would be possible to move easily from tight little short stories to the dozens of people and plots you need to move a story this size, but Liu handles it gracefully, and without his prose ever getting flabby. Keep your editor, Ken! Don’t turn into Weber.

As much as the structure is grounded in a literary tradition different than mine, I brought a lot of my own culture and bias to it. In the prophetic woman embroidering, I saw the Greek Fates. In the growth of strength into monstrous flaws, I saw the outline of Greek tragedy. In the super-heroic character, I read Achilles, and in his wily, silver-tongued trickster companion, I read Odysseus, who even had a wife in waiting. None of that affected how the story played out, except that I appreciated the twists that did not go the way I expected.

The world-building is spectacular. I chortled out loud more than once. Battlekites! Smokebending! Campfire food that is not stew! Philosophy, art, dance, war machines, and trickery. So. Much. Trickery. Trust no one. Especially don’t trust beggars, old ladies, or crows. Anyone who might be a god in disguise. You should also be a little skeptical about your future self, your right-hand person, and your lovers.
I’m not a huge fan of fantasy, but maybe the moniker Fantasy Grouch is a slight exaggeration. I’ll admit that a large portion of my novel-reading diet consists of science fiction but I do occasionally snack on a fantasy novel now and then. Bottom line – I cannot speak with any authority on the merits of The Grace of Kings in comparison to other works of the genre. I am certain there will be plenty of other reviews that will cover this ground.

What business does the Fantasy Grouch have reviewing a Han Dynasty inspired fantasy? Ken Liu, ladies and gentleman. Ken Liu. Ever since reading “The Paper Menagerie”, in a 2011 issue of the magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, I have watched for his byline and have read everything I could get my hands on. Even when the news came that Mr. Liu’s first novel was going to be an epic fantasy, I was undeterred by this revelation and pre-ordered it on immediately.

I know very little of the Han Dynasty, other than it had it’s fair share of violence, like every other period of human history, it seems. So don’t be surprised with all the battles, court intrigues, failed alliances and betrayed friendships. But it’s not all blood and guts, not by a long shot, even though much of the book is about that inevitable disagreement and clash of ideas that so often requires violence as a means to resolution. The descriptions of the geography and fauna of the islands of Dara are pleasant diversions. Indeed, I found myself occasionally wishing that there was a travel package available. Another aspect of the book I found interesting were the intricate rules governing relations with family and friends, even down to the proper sitting position in a given social interaction.
Drawing upon ancient Han Chinese mythology, with echoes of Japanese, Islamic Arab, and Polynesian mythology thrown in too, Ken Liu breathes fresh air into the genre of epic fantasy in his debut novel “The Grace Of Kings: Book One of the Dandelion Dynasty”. It is fresh air because it displays much of the same gritty realism found in such notable fantasy works as Robert Jackson Bennett’s “City of Stairs” and Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians” novels. Conjuring a fantastical world that seems far more realistic and natural than, for example, Benjamin Percy’s “The Dead Lands”, simply because Liu’s exquisite, quite poetic, prose, describes in realistic detail, the islands of Dara – both its wilderness and urban landscapes – that echo the early 22nd Century Bangkok depicted in Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Windup Girl” or the near future rural United States in William Gibson’s “The Peripheral”. In plain English, the islands – including their fauna and flora as well as their human inhabitants – are rendered realistically to a far greater degree than what I have read from virtually all of the recently published near future works of dystopian speculative fiction, and for this reason alone, anyone thinking of writing speculative fiction in the future will have to pay close attention to what Liu has done here – and most likely will continue doing – in his “Dandelion Dynasty” saga. Much of Liu’s language in this novel is evocative of the exquisite, almost lyrical, prose found in Bacigalupi’s award-winning debut novel, without being derivative at all, creating for his readers, characters, setting and plot worthy of those in the “Arabian Nights” tales or in such memorable works of early Chinese fiction as the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.
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