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Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty


AncalagonTheBlack

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The Wall of Storms, Book II of The Dandelion Dynasty came out on October 4. I bought the book yesterday and hope to start this as soon as i finish my current read.Anyone else reading this?

Some interesting news: it was announced last week that the series will be adapted to film - http://variety.com/2016/film/news/grace-of-kings-movies-dmg-ken-liu-1201889095/

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14 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Some interesting news: it was announced last week that the series will be adapted to film - http://variety.com/2016/film/news/grace-of-kings-movies-dmg-ken-liu-1201889095/

Very interesting! A Chinese-inspired American fantasy novel written by a Chinese-American picked up by a Chinese film studio. I wonder whether they'll film it in Chinese or English. 

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Reading the first one right now, took me a while to get started but a couple of train journeys meant I had time to read it without distraction and I think I'm feeling kind of similar to Sperry and Calibandar.

It's okay but not great so far the dialogue can be pretty meh at times and there's been a fair share of exposition so far.

I'll stick it through for a bit more as things but become more tense but right now it just seems like Kuni and Mata are just breezing through every step and problem effortlessly.

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Having really enjoyed The Grace of Kings, I'm quite pleased to read positive reviews of The Wall of Storms. I've generally been avoiding unfinished series of late, but will probably make an exception for this one.

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  • 3 months later...

Topic resurrection!

I am about 50 pages into this so far, and I am really not feeling it. It's not quite I can't stand it why do people read this crap level yet, but it's getting there. The prose is way to purple.

 

Edit: Nope, sorry guys, I can;t read this crap. Subjectivity and all that, but if you swapped the Chinese names out with generic western ones and slapped a bad Darrel K Sweet cover on it this would fit in perfectly with all the shit from the 90s. And the prose makes my brain bleed with its awfulness.

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I read Grace of Kings when it came out. I got through the whole book but didn't enjoy it (funnily enough, like Talleyrand I had some long train journeys that resulted in me finishing it). Hated the plot, the characters were dull, and it wasn't particularly well written IMO. A shame.

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I really enjoyed both books, although I do have a qualm with the extent to which they track to Chinese history- so much so that in general, once you figure out who everyone's equivalents are, you can pretty much guess the story.  

It does strike me that while Liu does add a lot to that background (I like the style and worldbuilding), part of the reason the series works/is popular is because Westerners probably aren't familiar with the history being riffed off.  I mean I know that there are other writers (i.e. Guy Gavriel Kay) who have written fantasy novels with a very obvious historical inspiration, but I feel like this series tracks closer than most.  Maybe it's paradoxically because the characters "seem" original to someone unfamiliar with the history but are so closely based on historical people (or at least legendary accounts of them) and their fates are bound by the fates of those people.

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I recently finished the first book, not sure if I want to give the second a try. It's definitely a different style of writing, with a lot of  narration about the characters' backstories, sometimes right when they first show up in the story. The book pauses for a chapter to tell you about New Guy. And some characters seemed like complete fools. I laughed out loud at some parts (no spoilers). I suppose if you take the Trojan Horse idea (it worked because that was the first time it had been done) and decide that everyone is a touch naïve... but dumb characters make for awkward reading.

It might work well in a film or a mini-series, though. It's got some good themes, even if they were unsubtle as all get-out. And I liked how the gods were messing with each other's "toys" and only sometimes feeling bad about it and apologizing to each other.

The biggest problem was, while reading the book, I kept thinking, do I care enough to finish this? I did in the end, but it was close. It would be interesting to study the actual Chinese history that inspired the story, however. I'll add that to my reading list.  

On October 21, 2016 at 2:48 PM, Little Valkyrie said:

I kind of hated the first book by the end; my major question with the second is "Does it follow Chinese history as closely as the first one did" because if so it's steering straight into a bunch of do-not-want plots with some characters.

I admit, this almost makes me want to read it,  because now I'm curious. I'll probably angrily put it down in short order, though. :) 

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On 1/29/2017 at 2:54 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Yeah, pretty much. The prose and narration style is what really turned me off. Talk about telling and not showing. It reminded me very much of early 90s D&D fiction...in a bad way.

Philistines. I didn't like book 2 as much as book 1, but I enjoyed the first book a lot.

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