Why is the Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu on my TBR?
The Dandelion Dynasty, by Ken Liu, is a completed series, with 4 books: The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, The Veiled Throne and Speaking Bones.
This is a fantasy story focusing on the establishment of a dynasty. And it all beings with uprising. A story of fight against an oppressor and a strong of friendship that breaks apart in front of different visions of the world.
I read the first two books a few years ago and what I found attractive is the author’s choice on the story telling; this feels more a historical retelling (following the proud traditions of Herodotus) rather than a pure fictional work; there is less focus on characters and their internal processes and more focus on actual events. Please note that I am not saying that the characters do not have depth and personalities - they have plenty of that! - but it is a different way of telling a major story compared to other epic fantasy series in which we get to spend time with the characters, their decision making, their uncertainties, their strengths. Here we experience less of that and more of hard facts that propel the story forward and I loved this differentiator!
This story is Asian inspired and focuses on engineers (and not wizards) as the heroes of the story. Ken Liu coined the world Silkpunk to describe “a technology aesthetic based on a science fictional elaboration of traditions of engineering in East Asia’s classical antiquity”.
As briefly pointed out before, his series is heavily influenced by his Asian heritage (in fact, it is inspired by the birth of China’s Han Dynasty) and there is nothing but beauty in it. Is it an original story? What is an original stories these days? We have retellings of myths and legends, and re-adaptations of tv shows and movies all the time. The advantage here is that few people in the West know much about Asian (and let’s face it, non-Western) history so there is a significant advantage in retelling these stories as they are less known! This is actually an interesting question and I wonder how I would react is an Italian author (or an author with Italian heritage) would tell me the fantasy version of the Roman Empire or of the Medici or of the Sforza. How would I take it? I don’t have a good answer for that; and at this point I would actually be interested to read about it. It all comes down to execution. And, to this point, Ken Liu clearly delivers a story that I enjoy!
Ken Liu is also an established author, having won Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy awards, with the Dandelion Dynasty specifically!
One more note on the production value of these books. The original books covers are interesting; the new book covers are nothing less than fantastic, from the design (and it is a design that continues cover to cover) from the colors and lettering.
Have you read the Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu? What are the reasons you recommend readers to dive into this world? If you did not have this series on your radar before, do you plan to read it now?
Comment down below - with a an engineer emoji!
